Zhu Shuzhen (; 1135 – 1180) was a Chinese

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

who lived during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. She married an official with whom she had a bad marriage. She either had an affair or committed suicide. After her death, her parents burned poetry that she had written. There is no firm evidence of Zhu's existence. Her poems were first collected by a twelfth-century official named Wei Duanli, who stated that he happened to hear them in inns in the area of Hangzhou. Although Wei cites a biography by one Wang Tanzuo of Hangzhou, which is not extant, the research of Huang Yanli has established that most of the detailed traditions regarding Zhu first surfaced in the writing of Ming anthologists.

Poetry

Copies of her poetry had already been circulating and 339

shi Shi or SHI may refer to: Language * ''Shi'', a Japanese title commonly used as a pronoun * ''Shi'', proposed gender-neutral pronoun * Shi (kana), a kana in Japanese syllabaries * Shi language * ''Shī'', transliteration of Chinese Radical 44 * ...

and 33 ci, written by her could be reconstituted. Her poems dealt with love's sorrows and her collection is called ''Heartbreaking Verse''. Since she adopted a few lines from Li Qingzhao's work, it's clear that Zhu Shuzhen was familiar with at least some of her work.

References

"Chapter 4 Soong" from Center for Chinese Studies Faculty, Hawaii, last accessed June 4, 2007 (Internet Archive copy)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhu, Shuzhen Song dynasty poets Chinese women poets 1130s births 1180 deaths 12th-century Chinese women writers Poets from Zhejiang 12th-century Chinese poets