Li Qingzhao is an Outstanding Female
2 min readLi Qingzhao（1084s-1155？）was born of a famous literary man’s family in Jinan ，Shandong Province.
In her childhood，she had received a good education and read extensively in ancient Chinese history and literature.Her husband Zhao Mingcheng was a brilliant Imperial University student who was deeply interested in classical scholarship and especially in epigraphy and archaeology.
There is an interesting anecdote about their marriage.
When Zhao Mingcheng was still a youngster, he had a dream one day while taking a nap. On waking up, he remembered only three of the lines in a book he had been reading in his dream:”Words will fall into place; hair grows profuse without a cap; stalemate shall be truncated.”Full of curiosity he told his father about it. The latter was overjoyed, saying,”It seems to me that you will soon have a talented woman for wife.”He then began to give his explanation.”Words falling into place is the process of composing a poem;a no cap person who has long hair is a woman; and’ stalemate’ truncated makes the word’ mate’. Doesn’t that mean you are going to be a talented woman’s mate?”Common interest and aspirations brought about a perfect marriage. Since they cherished the same ideals and were utterly devoted to each other, they were always seen together, sightseeing, composing poetry and exchanging ideas on the appreciation of literary works. On the other hand, they led a frugal life, and whatever money they could spare they spent on books, scrolls of art and curios, and made a systematic study of them.
In 1103, her husband began his official career; from 1108 the couple lived in Shandong province. From 1121, he spent much time traveling around the province; his periodic absences may have provided the occasion for some of Li’s love poems.
Throughout their married life, the couple collected antiquities; this, combined with the political upheavals of the time, explains the relative poverty in which they lived.
In 1126, the Song dynasty capital, Kaifeng, fell to the Jin people from the north; Shandong province was in their path and considerable fighting took place there. In the fighting, the home of Li and Zhao was burnt. In 1127, the emperors were captured by the Jin; the Han loyalists named a new emperor, and the entire court，plus all those who served the court，movedslowly to the south，to establish a new-“Southern Song”court in Hangzhou.During this period Zhao died，and Li was left to try to save their collection.
Li Qingzhao finally arrived at Hangzhou，to spend the rest of her life and to publish her husband’s work，Records on metal and stone（Jin shi lu），a 30-volume collection of inscriptions that Zhao had copied over the years.She continued to write poetry；we know that she was writing for the court in the 1140s.
