Personal Library -- Ci Poems by Li Qingzhao

Author: Li Qingzhao (Southern Song Dynasty) on Astronomy
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: As one of the few renowned women in history, Li Qingzhao was highly praised by generations for her extraordinary talent and demeanor. The famous poet Chao Buzhi of her time once predicted that her future achievements in writing lyrics would be extraordinary. Later generations praised her lyrics, believing that she not only surpassed women but also rivaled men in skill. Today, when people mention Li Qingzhao, they honor her as one of the greatest female lyricists of the Song Dynasty, and also one of the greatest female lyricists in the history of Chinese literature.
From a young age, Li Qingzhao demonstrated exceptional literary insight and artistic talent. During her teenage years, she wielded the brush to compose poetry, unfurling scrolls to recite verses, with a mind as refined as brocade and words as exquisite as embroidery. She copied Wang Xianzhi’s calligraphy and mastered a delicate small-regular script. She deeply admired the gold-and-green landscape paintings of Li Sixin and the water-and-ink painting styles of both Li Sixun and Wang Xinghe, often practicing calligraphy and painting feathers and flowers. She was also proficient in music and excelled in playing the qin. Her father often sighed to her mother: "If my Qing had been a man, entering the imperial academy would have been as easy as taking things from a bag!"
Li Qingzhao was a writer who excelled in poetry, lyrics, and prose, with her greatest achievements in lyrics. Her early lyrics often focused on love, longing, and leisurely life, while her later lyrics incorporated the sorrow of home and country and the reflections of her own life, shifting in tone to melancholy and style. Despite being a woman confined to the inner quarters, Li Qingzhao possessed the bold spirit of a man wielding a spear to compose poetry, with a noble and lofty demeanor. She once wrote the poem "At the Battle of Wujiang":
"To live, be a hero; to die, be a ghostly lion. To this day, I think of Xiang Yu—how could he have crossed the river east?"
Her heroic and resolute style remains vividly present even when read today.