Xue Tao and Yu Xuanji:
Female Poets of the Tang Dynasty
China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and it has been a patriarchal society ever since several millennia B.C.E. In the agricultural system of the Tang dynasty, at least, men held power over women. The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China and a very successful one, too. It lasted for just under three hundred years, from 618 to 907 A.D. In the Tang Dynasty, the famous silk route, an interlinking trade route, extended out all the way to Europe and Africa. It expanded farther north, south, and especially west. The silk route stretched as far west as the Mediterranean Sea and was tremendously successful. The route flourished with business and trade. Powerful men were needed to do the tough labor needed to make silk and run the flourishing and developing nation.
Women were needed solely to stay at home cooking, cleaning, and caring for the family. Loyal and obedient wives almost never left the house. Men were allowed to go out, get educated and somehow bring food to the table, while women were left at home uneducated, and dependent upon the men in their lives. Only naughty women, who were not so fortunate, actually had to leave their houses to somehow make a living. Some of these rebellious women would then go on to become courtesans, desperately trying to get the attention of successful and highly ranked men. In order to obtain even the slightest attention, they would have to impress the men, whether it meant dancing or singing. Another way to get their attention was through writing and poetry. The women learned to read and write in Traditional Chinese, in a world where women were almost always illiterate. They had to always stay on top of everything, knowing what was actually going on around them and in the news, to impress whomever they could. These women didn’t have a man in their lives to help define them, they didn’t have a successful son, father, or husband, so they were on their own to find one. Some of the women who learned Chinese turned out to be prodigies and just as smart as the men, although they were generally looked down upon.
Female poets of the Tang dynasty were never given the credit they truly deserved, but their works of art were beautiful and elegant, and they endure. The poems highlighted suffering, the hurt and pain received from not being respected and treated poorly. Poems with happier tones always had nature incorporated into them, like bamboo and mountains, river, water, and sky. These poems and the writers’ potentials were all obscured and blocked by their gender. The poems weren’t respected until hundreds, if not thousands of years later, when they started to be accepted. The poets and their poems are remembered because of how they let their unique lifestyles lead them, and because how they chose to live their lives to the fullest without allowing the patriarchal system to define them.
Xue Tao is one of the most famous women of the Tang Dynasty, who did not let the patriarchal system get in her way, but used it to her advantage. Xue Tao was born in 768 A.D. to an impoverished family. Her father tragically died before she was at a marriageable age, so she was on her own to find her way through life. She grew up to be an entertainer and then she went on to become a government hostess. At her job as a government hostess, she met very important men and was able to impress them with her poetic talents and beauty. She was able to impress a military governor, Wei Gao, who helped her with her writing and helped her gain the title of collaborator. Her reputation of intelligence and wit quickly spread. Most of the poems she wrote at this time were about her relationships with different people, both happy and sad. These poems were almost as popular as other poems by fellow male poets but most of her poems were unfortunately lost. Back then, not many people lived to an old age. Any small, almost harmless (in today’s standards) disease could kill a person, if not a whole village. Luckily, Xue Tao got the opportunity to live a long and successful life. It wasn’t until 831 A.D., when she was 63, that she died, probably just from old age. Only about a hundred poems of hers were saved throughout the intervening hundreds of years and these are known and respected today.
Just thirteen years later, in 844 A.D., another prodigy was born, this time, named Yu Xuanji. Yu’s life took more detours than Xue Tao’s and she also faced more challenges; however, they both had to overcome the same sexist profiling. Yu Xuanji also had to become a courtesan and learn Traditional Chinese. Yu had a strong passion for poetry and paid very close attention to detail. She married Li Yi as a concubine, or lesser wife. Li Yi was an official and paid little attention to Yu. Yu Xuanji was not content with her role as a concubine and ended up flirting with other men. Later, emotionally weak and all alone, Yu Xuanji left Li Yi’s side. She then went to join some Taoist nuns up in the mountains. She lived with them for a while, focusing on the spiritual and intellectual aspect of life, before returning to civilization again. Starting anew, Yu Xuanji was able to put her past behind her and focus on the future. However, Yu was soon accused of murdering someone and then summarily executed. Yu was accused of the murder and had to suffer from the consequences, but some historians believe that she was falsely accused. Throughout her life as a courtesan, concubine, and a nun, she had ample time to write about her sorrows and observations in her many great poems, but with no dominant male figure in her life, not many people respected her poems and only a mere forty-nine were saved.
The Wesleyan University Press published a book named The Clouds Float North, The Complete Poems of Yu Xuanji, while the Princeton University Press published Brocade River Poems, Selected works of the Tang Dynasty Courtesan Xue Tao. There were lots of great poems in the collection of poems from both poets including poems about love, poems about nature, and even poems about partings. One of my favorite poems was written by Xue Tao, which had a very long title, and a very meaningful message.
Visiting the South Pavilion at Chongzhen Temple Where the Civil Service Exam Results are Posted
By Xue Tao
Cloudy mountains fill my gaze-
I think they enjoy the spring
Under skillful fingers
Great calligraphy is born
I wish my woman’s clothing
Didn’t obscure my poems
Raising my head in vain
Admiring the names on the honor scroll.
The piece tells how superiority based upon gender hurts Xue Tao and her poetry. It demonstrates how the patriarchal society affects the respect that she should be receiving for her poetry. It seems as though she is all right with it, but her choice of words seems to imply that it really is crushing her within. In almost all of her poems, there is a reverence for nature and a reference to a season, both of which help her set the scene of the poem. Whether it is spring or fall, or winter or summer, seasons seemed extremely important to the poet. Her clothing and her gender are hiding her true potential, and aren’t allowing her skills to shine though. Her gender discredited her and prevented her name from getting onto the honor scroll.
Yu Xuanji and Xue Tao were rather independent as women of the Tang Dynasty, but they did depend on men. As courtesans, they spent their time trying to get their attention. Getting their attention wasn’t a simple task. They had to exchange many poems and letters. Yu Xuanji especially seemed to like to write about her loved ones. She wrote about many of her male companions, however, a select few of them are rather depressing. Their lives were clearly far from perfect, they had many regrets, and their gender barrier only made life more difficult and challenging. Some of these regrets were portrayed in their poetry, like in this poem, which expresses her sorrows:
To Thank the Scholar Li for the Gift of a Bamboo Mat
By Yu Xuanji
This precious mat, newly spread out
In the Halcyon Pavilion
Makes me think of the deep,
Clear water that makes our local river
Only a fan made of clouds
Could match your priceless gift
I turn towards my silver bed
Regretting the early autumn.
Yu makes a reference to sky and water in this poem. Writing about nature and the seasons adds to her description and imagery. The beauties of nature help paint a picture in the reader’s mind. We can see the local river’s clear water in the autumn environment, with leaves changing colors and eventually falling. Yu cherishes the precious mat that was given to her by a scholar whom she probably liked. The mat could not have been priceless, but to her, it was, and she treasured it as if it were. The priceless mat helps tell us how much it means to her and that she adored it. Although Yu was a strong woman who clearly defied the patriarchal system, she was still just like every other person who wants a partner in their lives.
Saying Goodbye II
By Yu Xuanji
Softly the water chases itself,
knowing it’s hard to be settled and certain
clouds arrive without any plan
and we wish we could call them back
a desolate spring breeze,
the Yangtze stretches out in the twilight
and a mandarin duck, swimming alone –
its flock already gone.
Like the water, both poets, Xue Tao and Yu Xuanji, did not have a place to settle their whole lives and they didn’t have anything to be certain about. And just like the clouds, many opportunities and chances came and went in a blink of the eye. The duck was alone like the poets, and didn’t have a family to be with. Similarly, both the duck and the poets were left to survive on their own, with virtually no assistance. However, unlike the duck, the poets were eager to find new people to be around and with. During the Tang Dynasty of China, these poets were true heroes on the inside, defying their social stereotypes by doing as they wished and putting their feelings and thoughts on paper.