The story goes that the King of Chu liked slender waists, so many at his court dared not eat in order to get thin.
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The king is often left unnamed: the one 卞和 offered his jade to, the one 晏子 answered with 橘生淮南则为橘, the one 毛遂 talked into an alliance. In poetry he is the king, 楚怀王 or 楚襄王, who met the goddess of 巫山 in a dream.