The name is said to come from dancers sent to the Tang court by a southern kingdom, their hair piled high and hung with gold and jewels so that they looked like
菩萨 (bodhisattvas). One of the oldest ci patterns, it is cited before the poem's own title: 《
菩萨蛮·
书江西造口壁》 by
辛弃疾, with
青山遮不住，
毕竟东流去 'the green hills cannot hold it back; in the end it flows east', and 《
菩萨蛮·
黄鹤楼》 (1927) by
毛泽东.
