Between 1656 and 1668, Li Yu published three distinct short story collections and ten chuanqi dramas. Patronage supported his household and publishing venture, and he even made a show of the great lengths he traveled to court patrons, yet he was likewise unapologetic about his efforts to promote and circulate his fiction and drama commercially. He published a sequel and reprinted selected stories to make new editions. Four of his chuanqi dramas were adapted from previously published short stories. He advertised the upcoming release of these stage versions alongside the story titles in the table of contents of his short story collections. Huang qiu feng is one of these stage adaptations. With a twist on conventional romantic drama, it plays out reversed gender roles, and as this study will show, dramatizes the circulation of texts. The romantic attentions of its effeminate hero are in such high demand that he is forced into sequestration to save himself for a future wife, and maintain his sworn companionship with the city’s most celebrated courtesan poet. The plot unfolds around the competition between these two women, one a literary professional, and the other the educated daughter of an elite family. In the absence of face-to-face spoken communication, each woman defends and advances her position by writing and circulating texts. The elite daughter touts her purity in a poem meant for the exclusive consumption of her intended, and the professional strikes back with fraud and impersonation, publicizing false claims in her rival’s name to tarnish her reputation in the public eye. Relating the mechanics of gender inversion to the concurrent circulation of texts, this article shows how Huang qiu feng stages a battle over quality that mimics contemporary debates around literary culture, finally proposing a harmonious union between elitist exclusivity and commercial success.