"On Reading a Poem by Huang Yuanjie of Jiaxing"
王端淑 Wang Duanshu (1621 - ca. 1706)
Flowered bamboo composed in shades of ink,
Elegant silk preserves your splendid composition.
The bold strokes of your moon make me think of Huang Tingjian.
Your unfurling clouds are like Wang Xizhi's brushwork.
The sound of your hands clapping reaches me amidst the loneliness of fall waters.
The empty echo is picked up far away.
Your inborn nature is highly unusual.
Your subtle fragrance stands out on the page.
[trans. Ellen Widmer]
These last couple of women are rather tightly interwoven; this poem is in reference to 黃媛介 Huang Yuanjie. We've really hit all the women Doroth Ko talks about in Teachers - perhaps not in name, but certainly in spirit.
Duanshu's father considered her "a better student than any of his eight sons"; she made an actual career out of her writing, and she has been described as "an honorary man" (363). She married one Ding Shengzhao, spent much of her life in either Shaoxing or in/around Beijing, though after the fall of the Ming, she lived in Hangzhou & made the acquaintance of a number of celebrated figures.
Her best known collection was published somewhere between 1651 and 1655; her husband wrote the preface to the collection, entitled Yinghong ji (Red chantings). Stylistically, she covered a number of forms and types of poems. A number of men financed the printing - this is a bit different than the family published collections that dominate the editions of women's poetry books, though her husband was in on it (ibid.).
In perhaps a more wide ranging and durable contribution to women's writings, she edited Mingyuan shiwei (The longitudinal canon of poetry by women of note), from which a huge portion of the poetry previously discussed is taken (364). Thank god for the Chinese love of poetry anthologies - I can only imagine what we'd have if, say, the Romans or Greeks had taken such an interest in collecting writings in such a way (as opposed to grammarians saving a line here or there).
Here we have a women who represents a number of ideas that get batted around when discussing women, writing, and their place in society (well, more specifically elite women): the use of poetry to build and/or maintain relationships with other women (and men), serious erudition (it's a not uncommon refrain among fathers of talented women that would that their brilliant daughters been born a man! Surely she would have passed the examinations with no problem!), wide and varied interests - not just being published, but editing as well, plus calligraphy and painting (naturally).
Her themes trend more towards the shift you see in the eighteenth century, from Ming dynasty love and passion to more ... moralistic? attitudes. Not the word I'm looking for, but Susan Mann discusses the shift from 情-as-passion in the Ming to 情-as-companionate-and-more-restrained in the Qing in terms of marriage, love, and poetry in her Precious Records (on women's writing in the 18th century). Loyalty is a big theme.
[363-366]
Flowered bamboo composed in shades of ink,
Elegant silk preserves your splendid composition.
The bold strokes of your moon make me think of Huang Tingjian.
Your unfurling clouds are like Wang Xizhi's brushwork.
The sound of your hands clapping reaches me amidst the loneliness of fall waters.
The empty echo is picked up far away.
Your inborn nature is highly unusual.
Your subtle fragrance stands out on the page.
[trans. Ellen Widmer]
These last couple of women are rather tightly interwoven; this poem is in reference to 黃媛介 Huang Yuanjie. We've really hit all the women Doroth Ko talks about in Teachers - perhaps not in name, but certainly in spirit.
Duanshu's father considered her "a better student than any of his eight sons"; she made an actual career out of her writing, and she has been described as "an honorary man" (363). She married one Ding Shengzhao, spent much of her life in either Shaoxing or in/around Beijing, though after the fall of the Ming, she lived in Hangzhou & made the acquaintance of a number of celebrated figures.
Her best known collection was published somewhere between 1651 and 1655; her husband wrote the preface to the collection, entitled Yinghong ji (Red chantings). Stylistically, she covered a number of forms and types of poems. A number of men financed the printing - this is a bit different than the family published collections that dominate the editions of women's poetry books, though her husband was in on it (ibid.).
In perhaps a more wide ranging and durable contribution to women's writings, she edited Mingyuan shiwei (The longitudinal canon of poetry by women of note), from which a huge portion of the poetry previously discussed is taken (364). Thank god for the Chinese love of poetry anthologies - I can only imagine what we'd have if, say, the Romans or Greeks had taken such an interest in collecting writings in such a way (as opposed to grammarians saving a line here or there).
Here we have a women who represents a number of ideas that get batted around when discussing women, writing, and their place in society (well, more specifically elite women): the use of poetry to build and/or maintain relationships with other women (and men), serious erudition (it's a not uncommon refrain among fathers of talented women that would that their brilliant daughters been born a man! Surely she would have passed the examinations with no problem!), wide and varied interests - not just being published, but editing as well, plus calligraphy and painting (naturally).
Her themes trend more towards the shift you see in the eighteenth century, from Ming dynasty love and passion to more ... moralistic? attitudes. Not the word I'm looking for, but Susan Mann discusses the shift from 情-as-passion in the Ming to 情-as-companionate-and-more-restrained in the Qing in terms of marriage, love, and poetry in her Precious Records (on women's writing in the 18th century). Loyalty is a big theme.
[363-366]