During the first half of the 19th century, the Manchu nobleman Wen Kang wrote a novel in the Beijing dialect entitled The Gallant Maids, which achieved wide popularity at the time. This novel recounts the story of a love affair between He Yufeng, an errant swordswoman, and the scholar An Ji. Ever since this story of how the heroine carried on a tender romance with the hero and battled despots to protect the weak and downtrodden was first performed on stage, it has been warmly received by Chinese audiences and has become a standard item in the repertoire of traditional Chinese operas.

The opera's title, Sister Thirteen, originates in the fact that He Yufeng lived under this assumed name when she stalked the man who slew her father, in order to avenge his death. The second character in her name, "Yu" (jade), can be read as a combination of the two characters "shi" (ten) and "san" (three), which when taken together mean "thirteen" in Chinese.