Qigu was a beautiful, hardworking, and capable young woman living by the Qi River in the State of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period.
Spring arrived, the snow on Taihang Mountain melted, and countless babbling mountain streams poured clear water into the Qi River. Along the riverbanks, sturdy mulberry trees sprouted tender new buds. After a spring rain, the lush green leaves swayed in the wind, signaling that the silkworm-raising season had begun!
After days of feeding silkworms, collecting cocoons, and reeling silk, Qi Gu carried a basket of raw silk, waded into the Qi River, and bent over to wash it in the flowing water.
By the Qi River, where mulberry leaves were tender and silkworms grew plump, the silk they spun was pure and lustrous. Each season when new silk arrived, merchants from Zhaoge would ride horses and drive donkeys, wading through the river that only reached their horses' knees, to buy the silk and transport it back to the city for weaving.
“Ha, ha!” A young merchant drove his carriage to a halt nearby, watching Qigu rinse the silk.
Qi Gu was drying silk on a bamboo rack by the door when the young man, carrying several bolts of fine linen from his cart, approached her with a smile and said, "Beautiful sister, I'd like to trade one bolt of cloth for one skein of your silk."
Qi Gu thought to herself, "A bolt of fine linen can be traded for five skeins of silk—what is this man thinking?" So she said, "One bolt of cloth for one skein of silk? You're losing out badly!" The young merchant replied, "I have fifty bolts of linen on my cart. I'll trade half for your silk and keep the other half as a betrothal gift. I want to marry you, the most beautiful girl along the Qi River."
Qi Gu initially refused, but the young man waded across the water every morning to see her. Qi Gu's heart softened, and she said, "It's not that simple—wait until the autumn harvest is done and the wild geese fly south, then come for me."
Each autumn, as the wind swept across the Qi River, Qigu would stand atop the riverbank every morning at dawn, gazing toward the gate on the far shore, waiting for her beloved to return.
The leaves had turned yellow, but the man never arrived.
Leaves drifted to the ground, then blew onto the river; the wild geese had all flown away, but the person had not yet arrived.
Until a frosty, solemn morning, the young merchant finally arrived. He said to Qigu, "My business has kept me too busy, delaying our appointment. Please don't take offense."
He was so consumed by business that he missed his own wedding—his heart was fixed on profit, not on Qi Gu. Sadly, Qi Gu failed to notice this.
Three years later, her fickle husband claimed he was going to Zheng to trade, and never returned. Heartbroken Qigu sat in her carriage, crossing the river back to her hometown. Gazing at the surging Qi River, she sang a mournful song: "That man, with his grinning face, came carrying cloth to trade for silk—not truly for silk, but to plot with me... I thought we'd grow old together, but old age only brings me resentment..."
"Baobu Maosi" later came to refer to a man's approach to a woman, as well as barter trade activities.
Source: *Book of Songs*, "Odes of Wei", "Meng"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "抱布贸丝" came to describe a man's approach to a woman, as well as barter trade activities.