Literary Origins
The film features the theme of a beautiful woman who brings woe to two men. This theme is borrowed from a famous poem written by the Han Dynasty poet Li Yannian (李延年):
| Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese |
|---|---|
|
北方有佳人，絕世而獨立。 |
北方有佳人，绝世而独立。 |
| Pinyin transcription | English translation |
|
Běifāng yǒu jiārén, juéshì ér dúlì. |
In the north there is a beauty; surpassing the world, she stands alone. |
(See also external site with characters in images: simp. trad.)
Read more about this topic: House Of Flying Daggers
Famous quotes containing the words literary and/or origins:
“The further our civilization advances upon its present lines so much the cheaper sort of thing does “fame” become, especially of the literary sort. This species of “fame” a waggish acquaintance says can be manufactured to order, and sometimes is so manufactured.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)