Operas and storytellers often invoke 'the seventh day of the seventh month at the Hall of Eternal Life' to write about emperors and love.
Tips
history
From 长恨歌 by 白居易 (Bai Juyi, Tang dynasty): '七月七日长生殿，夜半无人私语时……在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝.' Xuanzong and Yang Guifei secretly pledge eternal love on the Qixi (Double-Seventh) festival night. Kong Shangren's Qing-dynasty play 长生殿 dramatizes the same scene.
culture
七月七日 = Qixi Festival (七夕), the night Cowherd and Weaving Maid meet in the sky, China's 'Valentine's Day.' Bai Juyi layers the royal tragedy onto that folk backdrop.
