Women writers have long been neglected by scholars studying Chinese poetry from past dynasties. This was quite an unfair treatment, as the fair sex, throughout the centuries, made a huge contribution to Chinese literature, especially in the poetic field. Imperial concubines, courtesans, revolutionaries, hermits, painters, grandmothers, widows and young lovers - they all found their own way of writing, developing new forms of - expression–and sometimes indictment -- in a genre traditionally defined and dominated by men.

Its 1641 a woman in her early 20s stands at the door of one of the most prominent literary figures of the country, Qian Qianyi. She asks for an appointment with the master. Disguised in men's clothes and introducing herself as a young man, like Portia in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, she reads some of her poetry to Qian, showing through her verse a talent which leaves 60-year-old Qian impressed and seduced by the excellence of such a young poet.

Not before that moment -- when she is admired as a writer -- does she lift the edge of her clothes, intentionally revealing her bound feet -- and her identity as a woman. Qian soon asks her hand in marriage, making her a legendary figure in the field of literature.

That story of Liu Shi, a distinguished courtesan and poet - painter, is symbolic of the condition of women writers in past China and the constraints imposed upon female talent in a society where men traditionally dominated the literary field. 

This situation engendered a feeling of bitterness among many women, who were highly educated and felt limited in their ambition to contribute to the literary world. "Unlike many people think, Chinese women from aristocratic families were as educated as their brothers,"explained Kang - I Sun Chang, compiler and editor of an anthology of women's poetry and professor of Chinese literature at Yale University.

"Take the example of Bao Linghui, who lived in the fifth century. She was the sister of the renowned poet Bao Zhao, and was highly educated too. Women were not discriminated. They were the ones who would stay home and educate their children while men would serve. They would even help their husbands to pass the imperial examination"

Courtesans having relationships with scholars and writers were often highly educated as well and had access in an environment of knowledge and creation that enhanced their own talent. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), "literati naturally developed relationships with women that reflected, if not true equality, at least compatibility and mutual respect," Kang explained.

"Literati and courtesans exchanged poems, traveled together, shared political and moral commitments, and formed true friendship. Thus, although the courtesans often ended up becoming merely the concubines of the literati, their function and position resembled those of the modern wife. Such relationships evolved because the scholar's legal wives, acquired through arranged marriages, usually had limited access to the emotional and intellectual lives of their husbands, thus preventing men of that age from associating romantic love with their formal wives."
　　　
'I Resent These Gauze Robes of Mine'

In some cases, the traditional boundary between men and women would therefore tend to fade: in the private sphere, at least. In the outer world, they were still victims of social conventions that forced them to remain in obscurity. Women, whatever their status, were not allowed to sit in on the examination, which was based, among other things, on the knowledge of literary classics and the ability to compose poetry using set poetic forms. No wonder many of them rejected the constraints weighting on women's creation and literary status.

"I resent these gauze robes of mine which conceal poems' lines, I raise my head, envying the names on the roster of successful candidates," wrote Yu Xuanji, one of the most famous women poets of the Tang Dynasty in the seventh century and one of the first to complain about this segregation. Ten centuries later, women – and some men who took the defense of female creation - still complained female writers did not get the same recognition as their male counterparts. At that time, many men did not take the imperial examination either, which made the women's situation more equal. This does not mean, however, they were fully recognized as authors.

"As for ladies in the inner quarters, they must discipline themselves according to womanly virtue, deportment, word, and looks, as well as cultivating their stillness, quietude, chastity, and serenity. They are not supposed to befriend paper, ink, writing brush, and ink slab,"deplored male critic Zhao Shiyong (early 17th century) in a preface to an anthology.

"Even when extraordinary feats were performed by women [...] these authoresses were not properly recognized, not to mention other […] The works of the occasional women poets are lost or scattered for lack of compilation, although they cannot be said to have completely vanished."

'They Have Country Villages on Their Pillow'

How to explain women's determination and persistence in writing poetry, trying to get recognition in a sphere where they were not fully recognized and accepted? According to Chang, women became poets for the same reasons - external reasons at least - that men did. The place of honor accorded to poetry among literary genres is one of the few constants in the long and varied Chinese literary tradition, whereas fiction was generally seen as a commercial venture. An upper class writer - man or woman - had to write verse to claim respectability.

As for the internal and personal reasons that led women to write poetry, they were as diverse as the lives of these authors. Some critics tried to determine the essence of women’s poetry, and related it to the secluded and idle lifestyle many of them had.

"Not burdened with the hustle and bustle of business and travel, with nothing but green moss and fragrant trees around her dwelling and no other work than tying curtains and burning incense, a woman is in touch with peace and elegance," explained 16th century male critic Zhong Xing. "Men must travel to all the corners of the earth in order to know the world. But women never have to do that. They have country villages right on their pillows and mountains passes in their dreams, all because they are so pure […] Alas! How far do men, with their skillfulness, fall behind women!"

By praising the idleness and purity of women as a source of creativity, Zhong contributes to confine women's poetry into a genre dealing merely with the expression of delicate inner feelings -- such as love or melancholy, and the expression of nature's beauty.  

However, women poets came from all walks of life, and each wrote with her own aspiration and style. Some of them even introduced new poetic forms in an art defined by strict codes and conventions. Chinese poetry is an art of regularity. Writers composed using set poetic forms which determined - among others - how many characters there were in each line.

Li Qingzhao, born in the 11th century, ranked among the finest ci poets and eventually developed a school of her own. Ci poetry - a kind of song lyric - fell into two schools, that of the delicate restraint and that of the heroic abandon. Li's verses, although they were from the former school, introduced modifications which led to the creation of a variant, known as the Yi'an style. Li is now regarded as leader of the school of delicate restraint.
　　　
'I've Come alone, Riding the Winds'

Female poets were hermits, concubines, revolutionaries, matrons, painters, historians, courtesans, disappointed lovers and honored grandmothers; hence, the incredible diversity of their art.

Cai Yan, daughter of an eminent statesman, was captured in 192 by a raiding party of barbarian mercenaries and described in verse her life among the nomads.  Cheng Changwen, in the ninth century, was put in jail without a trial after killing the local ruffian who attacked her. From her cell, she composed "Writing my feelings to the Regional Inspector While in Prison." Ten centuries later, Qiu Jin, poet, essayist, feminist and revolutionary martyr, was to express her will to reform women's image and status -- as well as her political convictions in the following verse:

             "Don't say women are dull and not heroic.
　　　 I've come east alone, riding the winds
　　　 for a thousand leagues.
　　　 My poetic imagination ranges far and wide,
　　　 As freely as a sailboat on an open sea."

Undoubtedly, Chinese women poets were far from being "dull." Their contribution to Chinese poetry, which was long neglected, is now coming to light, fulfilling the wish of 16th century male critic Tian Yiheng:

"As women are in a different situation from male scholars, all their writings, even a single word or a single line, ought to be put in the record […] Their merits being so great, how can one say that they are only of small supplementary benefit?" 
 
Note:
All poems and critics in this article were selected from Women Writers of Traditional China - An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism, by Kang - I Chang and Haun Saussy. First published by Stanford University Press in 1999, the anthology brings together representative selections from the work of some 130 poets from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) to the early 20th century.  It puts before the reader evidence of the poetic talent that flourished among women in pre modern China. The anthology also contains an extended section of criticism about women’s poetry, by male and female critics. The heated arguments show that women's poetry had been a focus of social discussion in the 18th century.

Source: Women of China