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Old Crossword - In doing an old prize crossword I was defeated by:

Leonardo's Painted Lady - love poem that's big in China? (2,3)

Before I ask my question about this, would anyone care to solve the clue - and in doing so perhaps answer my question by parsing it better than was done on 225?

I think the answer is LI SAO. (Mona) LiSA + O, giving a famous Chinese poem by Qu Yuan. I don’t know what 225 said

Leonardo’s painted lady is LISA (as in Mona Lisa) + O (love) which gives LI SAO, an old Chinese poem…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Sao

I can only assume that “big” here means well known (in China if not necessarily.elsewhere)

Here’s the puzzle for anyone interested…

https://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/12/20/guardian-prize-26442-by-shed/

It seems like an odd choice but Shed drops into the comments to note that he couldn’t clue LASSO (which is a more obvious choice given the crossers) because that had been used in a Guardian puzzle a few days earlier

Thanks Jono, for the link. What a bizarre reason. I haven’t studied the solution carefully, but could he not have gone with PAGES/GUSTO or GISMO or PIPES/PESTO? Too obscure imho, unless there’s a Nina I’ve missed

Thank you all for your coments.

Li Sao is the answer to the clue. My question however remains: what in the clue signals that the Mona of Mona Lisa is to be omitted?

DavidW, isn't the lady, the painted lady, just Lisa, with Mona being a title, like Madam, Mrs etc?

Thank you Malone. I suppose that is the explanation, but it does seem rather thin.

Thanks, DavidW. Yes, I too think that is pretty lame, but it'd be just enough to make the clue work.