Chen Duansheng (1751-1796), was a Chinese poet and

tanci Tanci is a narrative form of song in China that alternates between verse and prose.Wang, Lingzhen, p53 The literal name "plucking rhymes" refers to the singing of verse portions to a ''pipa''.Hu, Siao-chen, p539 A ''tanci'' is usually seven words ...

novelist.

Biography

Chen Duansheng was born in

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

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, China. Both her father Chen Yudun and her uncle Chen Yuwan were

scholar-officials The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and governmen ...

. Chen Duansheng's grandfather supported education for Chen Duansheng and her two sisters. At age 23 Chen Duansheng married Fan Tan, and they had a daughter and a son. Fan Tan was later exiled for allegedly asking a substitute to take the imperial examination for him. She died in 1796.

Writing

Chen Duansheng began writing at the age of 17. Because her grandfather did not respect the tanci genre, she had to write in secret. Chen Duansheng wrote 16 volumes with four chapters each of her magnum opus ''Zai sheng Yuan'' by 1770. After her mother died, Chen Duansheng did not write again until 1784 when she completed one more four chapter volume. After her death, Liang Desheng picked up the work and completed three more volumes of ''Zai sheng Yuan'', resulting in a twenty volume work.

References

Sources

* Sung, Marina H. The Narrative Art of Tsai-sheng-yüan: A Feminist Vision in Traditional Confucian Society. San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center Publications, 1994. * Wu, Qingyun. Female Rule in Chinese and English Literary Utopias. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1995. Chapter 3 analyzes Zaisheng yuan and compares it with Lady Florence Dixie's Gloriana; or, The Revolution of 1900. {{DEFAULTSORT:Duansheng Chen 1751 births 1796 deaths 18th-century Chinese poets 18th-century Chinese novelists Chinese women poets Qing dynasty poets writers from Hangzhou