'In those days if a man wanted to enter one of the famous brothels, he had
to improvise a couplet of classical poetry based on a line supplied by the
bouncer at the gate, and they wouldn't let him in until he had successfully
completed the couplet.'
Xinran, China Witness, p.170.
(Does this mean that if he failed, he took his money to a less cultured
brothel? Xinran doesn't say.)
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