While it is true that human perception plays a significant role in poetry, when the gap between two works is as vast as this, there is no real suspense regarding which is superior.
Even Chancellor Wang, who had come to bolster the First Prince and facilitate his cheating, dared not openly declare a verdict after seeing the chasm in quality between the two poems.
He was acutely aware that this "Prelude to Water Melody" would not only circulate throughout Zhou Country but would spread to other nations and become a timeless masterpiece for generations to come. If he were to deliberately disparage it, he would not only invite the scorn of every scholar in the land right now, but he would also likely be nailed to the pillar of shame by future generations.
Chapter 37