Li Ch'ing-chao 李清照(tzu, I-an易安, 1084 -c. 1151) is China’s greatest woman poet. Born in Li- Ch’eng歷城 (modern Chi-nan in Shantung), she came from a distinguished literary family. Her father , Li Ko-fei李格非, was a noted prose writer and a member of Su Shih’s* literary coterie; her mother, also a poet, was a granddaughter of the illustrious Grand Councilor Wang Kung-ch'en 王拱辰(1012-1085). Nurtured in such a milieu and naturally gifted, she was recognized as a promising poet while still in her teens. At sixteen she wrote two verses in response to a poem written by her father’s friend, Chang Wen-ch’ien 張文潛.
In 1101, Li Ch'ing-chao was married to Chao Ming-ch’eng 趙明誠 (1081-1129), a student at the Han-lin Academy and son of a powerful politician who opposed the conservative faction to which her own father belonged. Their union was happy , since they shared the same literary taste and a passion for painting and calligraphy. Having lived through the transition from the Northern Sung to the Southern, a period when China was torn by internal political strife and beset by foreign invasions, Li Ch’ing-chao endured personal tribulation. When her husband's official career was interrupted by the power struggle in the capital, the two lived in semi-retirement in Ch’ing-chou青州 (Shantung), devoting themselves to research and art collecting. They also catalogued rubbings from ancient bronze vessels and stone monuments; the result of their collaboration, Chin-shih lu金石錄 (A Catalogue of Bronze and Stone Inscriptions) in thirty chüan has unfortunately been lost There remains only Li Ch'ing-chao's postscript , written after her husband's death.
Li Ch’ing-chao’s personal tragedy coincided with the fall of the Northern Sung. In 1127 , when the Jurchen sacked the capital Pien-liang (modern K’ai-feng) , Li Ch’ing-chao was in Ch’ing-chou alone, her husband having gone to Nanking to attend his mother's funeral. When Ch'ing-chou was thrown into turmoil, Li Ch’ing-chao fled with only a few belongings. After months of arduous travels she was reunited with her husband, who had by then become the mayor of Nanking. But her peace and security were short-lived. In 1129 her husband died while en route to a new post, and after that Li Ch’ing-chao drifted from place to place. In 1131 she finally settled in Lin-an 臨安(modern Hangchow). There she is said to have married a minor military official, Chang Ju-chou 張汝舟, divorcing him soon thereafter because of his malfeasance and his mistreatment of her. Not much is known about her life after that, except what can be inferred from a few somber poems making references to old age. She is mentioned in the Sung-shih 宋史only in Li Ko-fei’s biography, as his talented daughter known for her versification.
Despite the dearth of biographical data on Li Ch’ing-chao, her life can be reconstructed fron1 her works, which demonstrate that she possessed great erudition and a versatile talent. Her early poetry, full of vitality and elegant diction, paints vignettes of her carefree days as a woman of high society who enjoyed the freedom to participate in drinking parties and poetry contests and who was fond of playing on the swing and of boating. But the poems written after her husband's death portray her as grief-stricken, “too lazy to comb her hair,” mourning the loss of her homeland and her beloved, managing to “forget the past only when drunk.”
Despite her meticulous observance of the metrical rules of the tz’u* genre, Li Ch’ing chao was able to depict in everyday language and without affectation her true state of mind and the nuances of her feelings. Her sensitivity to music and cadence, her gift for fresh imagery, and her awareness of the sensuous beauty of nature give her tz’u an inimitable quality.
Unfortunately, the greater part of her works has been lost. The little that has survived is scattered in various collections. To date, five essays, eighteen shih* poems, and seventy-eight tz’u have been attributed to her
Li Ch'ing-chao’s poetry has been called narrow in scope, because it deals mainly with her personal experiences. Such criticism overlooks the depth of her emotional intensity, which more than compensates for the lack of breadth in subject matter. Her impeccable craftsmanship and her liberating spirit place her among the best of tz’u masters.
104第二學期 (1)