The greatest female writer of « singing poems »
Li Qingzhao is rightly considered China’s best poet. Like our Greek poet Sappho, she owes her glory to a limited number of texts which reveal to us the course of her life by sharing her presence with us in the world. Across the centuries, her “singing poems” ( ‘Ci’ in Chinese) make us hear the singular voice of « a musician of silence ».
Li Qingzhao is today an icon of youth and grace. However, it deserves much better than this flattering image. Most of what we know about her comes from her work: on the one hand, her poems, which outline her intimate biography; on the other hand, the afterword that she wrote for her husband’s treatise on epigraphy, in which she evokes several episodes of their life together.
But who is miss Li ?
Born in 1084, Li Qingzhao is from Jinan, Shandong Province: “My parents and grandparents were from Qilu; humble by virtue of their status, but illustrious and elite people ». It is true that hier father, Li Gefei, who stood out for his intelligence, had obtained the post of administrator of the Imperial Academy of Bianliang ( Kaifeng now), the capital of the Song Empire, before becoming Minister of Rites.
Renowned writer, author among others of a masterful work on the gardens of Luoyang, he belonged to the circle of Su Dongpo, one of the “Immortals” of Chinese poetry.
Her mother, also known for her poems, was the granddaughter of Wang Gongchen, who received first in the imperial exams, had become Emperor Renzong’s preferred advisor.
Raised in this milieu of scholars and high officials, despite prejudices, the young girl received the most careful education: poetry and calligraphy of course, but also history, music and song.
In 1101 she married Zhao Mingcheng, a young man himself from an excellent family. His father, Zhao Tingzhi, Minister of Personnel, appointed Grand Chancellor the same year, was one of the leaders of the reform party. 22 year-old Mingcheng was studying at the Imperial Academy. He was already a fan of epigraphy: “Since my childhood I liked the inscriptions on metal or on stone of the old dynasties, following the example of the famous scholars to broaden my horizon”.
This well-matched couple first enjoyed two decades of happiness, sharing the love of gardens and nature between poetry and erudition. « Defu », as Li Qingzhao calls him, was dazzled by his wife’s talent. It is said that during his first visit as a civil servant, he received a lovely poem from her.
Funny feminist story
Stung in his pride, he locked himself in his study to try to overcome her. He submitted his production to judgment of a friend who found that indeed his poems contained two remarkable lines: “With the autumn wind which inflates the curtain, I am even thinner than a branch of a chrysanthemum”.
Now these were the last lines of Qingzhao’s poem, which Defu had slipped among his own!
Qingzhao, on the other hand, shared her husband’s taste for antiques and works of art, and she gladly collaborated on the epigraphic catalog he had undertaken to compile: “With each new acquisition we examined the book of a critical eye, and we took care of restoring it and replacing the binding. In the case of a painting or an old vase, we spent the evening looking for the defects of the work by scrutinizing it from every angle ».
An anecdote appearing in the afterword of this catalog lets us imagine the complicity that unite the two spouses: “Sometimes after supper, quietly seated in the Return Room, we would put the water to heat and, pointing to the books stacked on the shelves, we would play to guess which line of which page of which volume of a given work was found such and such a passage. Whoever gave the correct answer had the privilege of supporting the opposing camp, including the honour to drink his cup of tea first. He raised his cup and laughed so loudly that more than once it was on our clothes without us spilling the tea to drink a single sip. In those moments we felt the happiness of living and growing old on this earth! ».
But there is no rose without thorns. The couple couldn’t ignore the daily grind, and his duties forced Mingcheng into long absences, which saddened Qingzhao. Moreover, they were far from living in opulence, and their common passion cost them many sacrifices. “No question of good food or embroidered clothes! It was necessary to do without pearls and emeralds … « .
The couple especially had to face the political discords and the misfortune which struck the empire. The Song era was a time of fierce clashes between the conservatives, sponsored by Sima Guang, and reform advocates, led by Wang Anshi. Zhao Tingzhi, Mingcheng’s father, was one of these. After coming to power, he ruthlessly ousted the opposite camp. Li Gefei was dismissed despite the ties forged between the two families. Zhao Tingzhi remained deaf to the prayers that his daughter-in-law addressed to him in a poem of which only this fragment remains:
“Under the burning hand of authority The disappointed heart freezes; And how much more the heart of a girl, For the love of her father”. Li Gefei was granted amnesty four years later, while Zhao Tingzhi in turn experienced disgrace.
End of North Song dynasty
These quarrels must have seemed ridiculous when in 1125 the Jurchens swept over China from Manchuria. The besieged Bianliang fell in January 1127.
Emperor Huizong, who had just abdicated in favor of his son, was captured and deported along with part of the court. From then on all of China up to the Yangtze River fell into the hands of the invaders, while Gaozong, the new emperor, established his court in Hangzhou.
Li Qingzhao and her husband did not escape the turmoil. Forced into exodus, they tried in vain to save their collections. Their house in Qingzhou was set on fire “along with the works of art that were piled up in a dozen rooms.”
The objects that they had moved barely little: a large part was to disappear little destroyed during the sack of Hongzhou; a rebel general seized two-thirds of the remainder; a burglar stole most of what still remained … “I only have a few odd tomes left of a handful of incomplete books ».
A very strong character
It seems that Li Qingzhao took the loss of their works of art with philosophy: “I realize that things all have the same fate: they come and go, passing from hand to hand before disappearing,”
She did not recover from the death of her sick husband during these tragic events. After two years of wandering, she settled in Hangzhou in 1131, where the court now resided.
In 1134 she joined her brother in Zhejiang … Little is known about the rest of her life, and we do not even know the exact date of his death. But as his verses eloquently testify, the loneliness and melancholy of old age were now his lot of his work only a handful of varied prose remain, and a fairly small number of poems.
Master at work
In the first category we find, in addition to a letter of thanks, a small Treatise on the game of horses, then very in vogue, and which she was particularly fond of ; an Essay on lyrical poetry, Inquiry about Cí ; and the afterword to Catalog of inscriptions on bronze and stone that we have already mentioned on several occasions. In the second we have about twenty regular poems ; a vast prose poem The game of little horses, a few fragments and of course the « cí » poems which made him famous.
Reading Li Qingzhao makes us discover a personality of an astonishing potential. First of all, a leading woman who did not hesitate to make her opinions known, and, if necessary, to defend them with tenacity. In her essay on « Ci » poems, she thus attacks eminent authors like Su Shi or Ouyang Xiu, reproaching them for their lack of musicality, and even Wang Anshi, the great reformer, some of whose verses she considers ridiculous !
In politics she shows a fierce patriotism, relying on the lessons of history to censor the present. In the Poems submitted to Lord Han and Lord Hu, she lavishes her advice on
mistrust of the ministers sent to negotiate with the occupier: “But my letter is written in a blood oath: The enemy is tiger or wolf by temperament ».
Her love of the native land is expressed in these verses in a poignant way: “Ah, shed blood and tears in the mountains and rivers to wet a handful of earth in Qingzhou!”
On the other hand, Li Qingzhao shows herself to be an accomplished artist. Her sensitivity, refined by her education and by the daily attendance of beauty, allows her to express herself with sovereign simplicity. We are thus amazed at the accuracy of his portraits of flowers and his evocations of nature: “The gold of the sunset melts into the evening clouds, ». The overtures of his lyrical poems are similarly sober. It only takes a few verses to share his feelings and his presence with the world: “The Milky Way travels the sky. On earth the curtains are drawn. The cold has seized the mat of the pillow Where the halo of my tears widens ».
But all this would ultimately remain little without the beauty of her writing. This poet was an accomplished musician, who played, sang and composed with equal happiness. This gift is reflected in the musicality of her verses, which earned him the admiration of his contemporaries and the tributes of posterity.
It is not known where Li Qingzhao was buried. Perhaps a stele will come to tell us one day.
In the meantime, two celestial objects now bear his name, one on Mercury and the other on Venus.
