Women Poets and Authors in Late Imperial China

Abstract

One of the most exciting developments in the study of Chinese literature in late twentieth century has been the rediscovery of an extremely rich and diverse tradition of women’s writing of the imperial period (221 bce–1911 ce). Only recently has the enormous literary output of women writers of the Ming and Qing periods (1368–1911) been rediscovered. That women’s writing in traditional China has needed to be rediscovered is caused by two problems. The first lies in its controversial nature: although women found a great venue in writing, poetry especially, to communicate their inner feelings and thoughts, publishing and leaving their writings to later generations did violate the Confucian gender demarcation that confined their voices to within the domestic domain. The second reflected their marginalization by late Qing reformists and the New Culture Movement. Proponents of both views stubbornly adhered to a rigid scheme of historical evolution, and designated late imperial women as oppressed or silenced, thus neglecting and/or suppressing women’s writing. The late imperial period alone left more than four thousand collections of women’s literary works. Together they provide us with moving insights into the lives and feelings of a surprisingly diverse group of women living in Confucian China, a society that perhaps more than any other is known for its patriarchal tradition. Many of these writings are of considerable literary quality. These poets include imperial ladies, gentry women, courtesans, Buddhist and Daoist nuns, as well as commoners such as farm wives. Some women wrote out of isolation and despair, finding in words a mastery that otherwise eluded them. Others were recruited into poetry by family members, friends, or sympathetic male advocates. Some dwelt on intimate family matters and cast their poems as addresses to husbands and sons at large in the wide world of men’s affairs. Each woman had her own reasons for writing poetry and her own ways of appropriating, and often changing, the conventions of both men’s and women’s verse. The primary purpose of this article is to put before the English-speaking reader evidence of the poetic talent that flourished, against all odds, among women in premodern China. It is also designed to spur reflection among specialists in Chinese poetry, inspiring new perspectives on both the Chinese poetic tradition and the canon of female poets within that tradition. The history of women writers in late Imperial China both connects with and departs from the established patterns for women’s writing in the West, thus complementing current discussions of “feminine writing.” This article looks into this grand matter in four sections, namely: General Overviews, Primary Sources on Women Authors, Studies of Women Authors, and Studies on Women and Gender as Historical Background. This bibliographical entry tries to provide in-depth perspectives into the study of late imperial Chinese women poets and authors through recent scholarship.