Women writers of traditional China: an anthology of poetry and criticism

1836 Pages·1999·5.51 MB·English

by  Kang-i Sun Chang

Women Writers of Traditional China : An
title:
Anthology of Poetry and Criticism
author: Chang, Kang-i Sun
publisher: Stanford University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0804732310
print isbn13: 9780804732314
ebook isbn13: 9780585367613
language: English
Chinese poetry--Women authors--History
and criticism, Chinese poetry--Women
subject
authors--Translations into English, Women
and literature--China.
publication date: 1999
lcc: PL2278.W65 1999eb
ddc: 895.1/10809287
Chinese poetry--Women authors--History
and criticism, Chinese poetry--Women
subject:
authors--Translations into English, Women
and literature--China.
Page iii
Women Writers of Traditional China
An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism
Edited by
Kang-i Sun Chang and Haun Saussy
Charles Kwong,
Associate Editor
Anthony C. Yu and Yu-kung Kao,
Consulting Editors
Page iv
Stanford University Press, Stanford, California
© 1999 by the Board of Trustees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University
Printed in the United States of America
data appear at the end of the book
CIP
Page v
To Hsiao-lan Ch'en and F. W. Mote,
ideal match of "talented woman and learned man,"
and perfect embodiment of the finest in Chinese culture
Kang-i Sun Chang
And to the memory of Lola Norwood Haun
and Mary Quaintance,
talented women whose lives were cut short
Haun Saussy
Page vii
PREFACE
For its editors at least, this book is a memorial of the joys and trials of
collaboration. Kang-i Sun Chang drew up the original table of
contents with the help of the consulting editors, Kao Yu-Kung and
Anthony C. Yu, and submitted it to a group of volunteer translators,
who responded with suggestions for improving the selection and even
resolved some long-standing scholarly confusions. Almost all
contributors were able to honor the whole of their original
commitment to provide both translations and notes on the selections.
Associate editor Charles Kwong and Haun Saussy commented on the
first drafts of the translations, annotation, and biographical notes,
which were returned to the contributors for revision. The resulting
second drafts were then combined into a continuous manuscript by
Saussy. In the process redundancies were removed, cross-references
inserted, footnotes verified, and a measure of consistency across
chapters striven for.
In the long process of assembling this book, we have incurred many
obligations. We wish to express our thanks, first of all, to the many
contributors who turned their work in on time and patiently endured
the process of editing and rewriting, and to Charles Kwong, the
associate editor, for his generous help and breadth of knowledge.
Consulting editors Kao Yu-kung and Anthony C. Yu have given
precious advice. Chang Ch'ung-ho generously contributed her
graceful calligraphy. Ellen F. Smith, on behalf of Stanford University
Press, spared no efforts to improve the manuscript with her learning,
taste, queries, and inventiveness. We thank Professor Shi Zhicun of
Shanghai for inspiration, and Ellen Graham of Yale University Press
for support in the initial stages of the project. We also recognize our
debts to the staffs of the East Asian library collections of Yale, UCLA,
and Stanford; to Stanford's Center for East Asian Studies; to the Wu
Foundation for conference and planning funds; to Professor Yü Ying-
shih, Monica Yü, and Dr. Ching-shing Huang for
Page viii
their aid in gaining support from the Wu Foundation; to Sharon
Sanderson for her help in coordinating the work; to Mary Ellen
Friends for her assistance with correspondence and preparation of
source material; to Chi-hung Yim, Huang Yibing, Edna Tow, James
Shou-cheng Yao, and Eileen Chow for help with library research; to
Richard Vinograd for art-historical expertise; to Ann Waltner for her
many valuable suggestions; and to many friends and colleagues for
guidance that they may not have known they were giving.
Our greatest debt, however, is to those women and men who, over the
centuries, worked to preserve the traces of a form of writing that had
no utility, no career value, and little prestige. Whatever deficiencies
the present volume has should not be allowed to obscure their
generosity to us all.
K.S.C.
H.S.
Page ix
CONTENTS
Contributors xvii
Editorial Conventions xix
Abbreviations xxiii
Maps xxvi
Introduction:Genealogy and Titles of the Female Poet 1
Part One 15
Poetry
From Ancient Times to the Six Dynasties (222589) 17
Ban jieyu 17
Cai Yan 22
Zuo Fen 30
Bao Linghui 35
Found Voices in Yuefu Poetry 38
Tang (618907) and Five Dynasties (90760) 46
Wu Zetian 46
Shangguan Wan'er 49
Other Court Women of the Tang: Xu Hui and Bao 52
Junhui
Li Ye 56
Xue Tao 59
Yu Xuanji 66
Other Courtesan-Poets of the Tang: Sheng 76
Xiaocong, Zhao Luanluan, and Xu Yueying
Zhang Yaotiao 79