Wu Zao (; 1799–1862) was a Chinese poet. She was also known as Wu Pinxiang
()
and Yucenzi ().
Background and career
The daughter of a merchant, she was born in the town of Renhe (now
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 ...
) in
Zhejiang
)
, translit_lang1_type2 =
, translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese)
, image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg
, image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains
, image_map = Zhejiang i ...
province. She married a merchant
[ named Huang. Her contemporaries were wont to point out that her husband and father had "never even glanced at a book".
She was famous as a lyrics ( ci) writer, in which she was considered one of the best of the ]Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
. She also wrote poetry in the sanqu
''Sanqu'' () is a fixed-rhythm form of Classical Chinese poetry or "literary song".Crump (1990), 125 Specifically ''sanqu'' is a subtype of the '' qu'' formal type of poetry. ''Sanqu'' was a notable Chinese poetic form, possibly beginning in th ...
form. She was said to be a good player of the qin, a stringed instrument.zaju
''Zaju'' was a form of Chinese opera which provided entertainment through a synthesis of recitations of prose and poetry, dance, singing, and mime, with a certain emphasis on comedy (or, happy endings). Although with diverse and earlier roots, ''z ...
) ''Yinjiu du Sao'' (Reading the "Li Sao" While Drinking),[ also known as ''Qiaoying'' (The Fake Image). Two collections of her works were published: ''Hualian ci'' (Flower curtain lyrics) and ''Xiangnan xuebei ci'' (Lyrics from South of the Fragrance and North of the Snows). She became a student of the poet Chen Wenshu.
She was one of a number of early nineteenth-century women poets who wrote about the novel ]Dream of the Red Chamber
''Dream of the Red Chamber'' or ''The Story of the Stone'' is an 18th-century Chinese novel authored by Cao Xueqin, considered to be one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It is known for its psychological scope and it ...
.
Wu converted to Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
later in life.
Translations
Several of her works have been translated into English, notably by Anthony Yu.[''Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism,'' edited by Kang-i Sun Chang and Haun Saussy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999, pp. 602–616.]
References
External links
Some of her poems can be found on th
Ming Qing Women Writers
database.
1799 births
1862 deaths
Qing dynasty poets
Chinese women poets
Chinese Buddhists
Writers from Hangzhou
Poets from Zhejiang
19th-century Chinese poets
19th-century Chinese women writers
{{China-poet-stub