Li Qingzhao Collection

Author: Yang He-lin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-05-01
Features: Li Qingzhao (1084－c. 1151) was a female lyric poet of the Southern Song Dynasty. Known as the "Resident of Yi An," she was from Zhangqiu, Qizhou (now part of Shandong Province). Her father, Li Ge-fei, was a renowned scholar of the time, and her husband, Zhao Ming-cheng, was an expert in epigraphy and paleography. In her early life, she lived a prosperous life and worked with Zhao Ming-cheng in collecting and organizing calligraphy, painting, and cultural relics. When the Jin army occupied the Central Plains, she fled south and was left in hardship after her husband's death. Her poems from the early period mostly depict her leisurely life, while those from the later period often lament her personal misfortunes, with a melancholic tone, sometimes revealing her longing for the Central Plains. In terms of form, she skillfully used the white description technique, a new path, and her language was elegant and refined. She emphasized the importance of musicality in poetry, advocated for classical elegance and sentiment, and proposed the theory that "ci poetry is a separate genre," opposing the practice of writing poems in the style of prose. She was also skilled in poetry, though few of her works survive. Some of her poems reflect on historical events with passionate and moving words, differing from her lyrical style. She left behind works such as the "Collected Works of the Resident of Yi An" and "Ci Poetry of the Resident of Yi An," which are now lost. Later generations compiled her poems in the "Collected Ci Poetry of Shuyu," while modern scholars have published the "Collected Works of Li Qingzhao with Annotations."