Li Qingzhao
Li Qingzhao
1084 - CIRCA 1151
Poet
A Literary Life. Known as Yianjushi (The Lay Buddhist of Easy Peace), Li Qingzhao was born to talented parents in Licheng (Jinan), Shandong Province. Her father, Li Ge, was a scholar and prose writer, and her mother, the daughter of a noble family, also had literary abilities. Li Qingzhao married the son of a government minister, Zhao Mingcheng, a minor official who was also an antiquarian, a book collector, and a writer of epigrams. They had a happy and literary life together until the Jurchen invasion of 1129. During their escape Li’s husband died, and most of her six volumes of poems were destroyed. Only fifty lyrics are extant.
Lyrics. Li Qingzhao was good at painting and calligraphy, but her greatest achievement was in lyric writing. She is considered one of the foremost lyric poets, the successor to Su Shi (1037-1101) and the predecessor of Xin Qiji (1140-1207). Li’s gift for language enabled her to depict subtle, complex feelings with ruthless honesty. Lyrics such as “Drunk under Flower Shadows,” “Spring in Wuling,” and “Each Sound Slowly” have been highly acclaimed by generations of readers.
Sources
Lucy Chao Ho, “More Gracile than Yellow Flowers”: The Life and Works of Li Qingzhao (Hong Kong: Mayfair Press, 1968).
Wang Guangqian, Li Qingzhao he tadi zuopin (Taipei, Taiwan: Dafang wenhua shiye gongsi, 1986).