Li Qingzhao

Li Qingzhao (1084 - c. 1155) was a Chinese poet of the Song dynasty, regarded as one of the greatest figures in the history of Chinese literature. She wrote in Classical Chinese and is remembered above all for her ci poems, lyrics meant to be sung to a set melody, which allowed a more personal and emotional voice than the shi form, with its stricter rules and public themes.

She was born in Qi Prefecture, in what is now Shandong province, into a family of scholars and officials. Her father belonged to a literary circle led by Su Shi, and the household had a large library that gave her a thorough education from childhood. She was already known in cultivated circles before she married Zhao Mingcheng in 1101. The couple shared a love of poetry, calligraphy and the collecting of bronze and stone inscriptions from the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The war with the Jurchen transformed her life. After the fall of Kaifeng in 1127 she fled south, lost much of the collection, and after her husband's death in 1129 she was left alone and without support. A second marriage, soon after, ended in divorce, and she faced criticism in a society that disapproved of such a step. Her poetry grew darker from then on, with longing for the lost homeland, grief for her husband and sorrow for a devastated country filling many of her lines.

Around a hundred of her ci poems and a few shi survive, along with the afterword she wrote for the catalogue of inscriptions she had worked on with her husband. She is admired as a master of a subtle, concise style, and tradition has made her a symbol of Chinese women's poetry. Her name lives on in a crater on Venus and another on Mercury, and in music and film inspired by her life.