Tang Dynasty Women's Lives and Poetry: A Special Issue from the Center for Chinese Poetry Studies, Nanjing University

Author: Xu Youfu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: This book explores the various aspects and inner worlds of women from different social strata in the Tang Dynasty, including empresses, princesses, court ladies, courtesans, and working women. The discussion focuses on themes such as palace grievances, courtyard grievances, the social reflections of princesses' marriages to foreign dynasties, and the spiritual outlook of working women. The book aims to investigate the close relationship between the lives of Tang Dynasty women and the flourishing of Tang poetry. For instance, the significant influence of figures like Wu Zetian and Shangguan Wan'er on Tang poetic forms and styles, the historical accounts of powerful princesses providing platforms for poetic creation and recommending some poets to enter politics, the phenomenon of female Taoist priests interacting closely with scholars giving rise to female poets, and the crucial role of Tang courtesans in disseminating Tang poetry—all of these demonstrate this point. The book also discusses the inheritance and development of women's images in Tang poetry from both ideological content and artistic form perspectives. The primary research methods employed in this book are the mutual verification of poetry and history, as well as comparative studies.