Idema, p. 249. "Nie hai hua is obviously a roman à clef. It is built on two main story lines, one concerning the activities of Chinese revolutionaries, the other being the love affair between the bureaucrat and diplomat Jin Wenqing and the courtesan Fu Caiyun. Jin is modelled upon Hong Jun, 1840-1893, a successful[...]"
Li, Peter, p. 163. "Jin Wenqing is Hong Jun (1840–93) in real life, and a zhuang- yuan of 1868. Fu Caiyun, the prominent female character of the novel, is modelled after the famous courtesan, Sai Jinhua (1874–1936), whose fame became especially widespread[...]"
