New Poetry from the Turquoise Pond: Women Poets in Eighth and Ninth Century China

Abstract

The Yaochi xinyong ji (Anthology of New Poetry from the Turquoise Pond; hereafter Yaochi ji) compiled by Cai Xingfeng in the ninth-century is the only anthology of women’s poetry from the Tang era. Supported by relevant Dunhuang manuscripts, Tang-Song anthologies of poetry, and other early sources, this article for the first time reconstructs the Yaochi ji, originally containing 115 poems by twenty-three female poets, to 100 poems with names of all twenty-three authors, who were active roughly around the mid-eighth to mid-ninth centuries. The socio-historical and religio-cultural context during this period provided certain favorable conditions for these writing women. Unlike the mainly aristocratic background of earlier female poets, the Yaochi ji poets came from a variety of social strata. They exchanged poems among female relatives and friends, representing the possible emergence of a women’s culture, and their works are distinguished by the rich variety of their subject matter, themes, genres, and styles. As the earliest extant anthology of Chinese women, the Yaochi ji represents a significant new stage in the development and accomplishment of Chinese women’s literature and culture.

Keywords:

• Yaochi xinyong ji
• Chinese writing women
• Tang dynasty
• poetry
• Dunhuang manuscripts

Notes on Contributor

Jinhua JIA is Chair Professor of Yangzhou University & Professor of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She is the author of a number of books and articles, most recently Gender, Power, and Talent: Daoist Priestesses in Tang China (Columbia University Press, 2018).

Notes

1 Wang Yaochen 王堯臣 (1003–1058) et al., eds., Chongwen zongmu 崇文總目 (Yueyatang congshu 粵雅堂叢書), 5.13a; Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修, Xin Tangshu 新唐書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975), 60.1624; Chao Gongwu 晁公武, Junzhai dushuzhi jiaozheng 郡齋讀書志校證, ed. Sun Meng 孫猛 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1990), 20.1069; You Mao 尤袤 (1127–1194), Suichutang shumu 遂初堂書目 (Haishan xianguan congshu 海山仙館叢書 edition), 49a; and Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (1104–1162), Tongzhi erzhi lüe 通志二十略 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1995), 8.1780.

2 Both the catalogue of Songshi 宋史 compiled by Tuotuo 脫脫 (1314–1355) et al. in the Yuan dynasty and the Jiguge Maoshi cangshumu 汲古閣毛氏藏書目 compiled in the Ming dynasty record this anthology, but in ways suggesting that they copied from previous catalogues. See Xu Jun 徐俊, ed., Yaochi xinyong ji, in Fu Xuancong 傅璇琮, Chen Shangjun 陳尚君, and Xu Jun, eds., Tangren xuan Tangshi xinbian (zengdingben) 唐人選唐詩新編 (增訂本) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2014), 886–87.

3 Rong Xinjiang and Xu Jun, “Xinjian E cang Dunhuang Tangshi xieben sanzhong kaozheng ji jiaolu” 新見俄藏敦煌唐詩寫本三種考證及校錄, Tang yanjiu 5 (1999): 59–80; Rong Xinjiang and Xu Jun, “Tang Cai Xingfeng bian Yaochi xinyong chongyan” 唐蔡省風編瑤池新詠重研 (hereafter cited as “Yaochi xinyong”), in Tang yanjiu 7 (2001): 125–44.

4 Xu Jun, Dunhuang shiji canjuan jikao (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2001), 672–85; and Xu Jun, Yaochi xinyong ji, 883–912.

5 Wang Ka 王卡, “Tangdai Daojiao nüguan shige de guibao: Dunhuang ben Yaochi xinyong ji jiaoduji” 唐代道教女冠詩歌的瑰寶: 敦煌本瑤池新詠集校讀記, Zhongguo Daojiao yanjiu 4 (2002): 10–13.

6 Eluosi kexueyuan Dongfang yanjiu suo Shengbidebao fensuo 俄羅斯科學院東方硏究所聖彼得堡分所, Eluosi Kexue chubanshe Dongfang wenxue bu 俄羅斯科學出版社東方文學部, and Shanghai guji chubanshe, eds., Eluosi kexueyuan Dongfang yanjiu suo Shengbidebao fensuo suocang Dunhuang wenxian 俄羅斯科學院東方硏究所聖彼得堡分所藏敦煌文獻 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1992), Дx. 3861, 3872, 3874, 6654, 6722, 11050.

7 Wei Zhuang, Youxuan ji, in Tangren xuan Tangshi xinbian, 3.868–F71; and Chen Yingxing, Yinchuang zalu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), 60–61.

8 See Chen Shangjun, “Tangren bianxuan shige zongji xulu” 唐人編選詩歌總集敘錄, Tangdai wenxue congkao 唐代文學叢考 (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1997), 195; and Rong and Xu, “Yaochi xinyong,” 139–40.

9 Wang Sanqing 王三慶, “Yetan Cai Xingfeng Yaochi xinyong” 也談蔡省風瑤池新詠, Beijing daxue Zhongguo guwenxian yanjiu zhongxin jikan 7 (2008): 408–30.

10 Chen Shangjun, “Tang nüshiren zhenbian” 唐女詩人甄辨, Wenxian 2 (2010): 10–25.

11 Jinhua Jia, “Yaochi ji and Three Daoist Priestess-Poets in Tang China,” Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China 13.2 (2011): 205–43.

12 Jinhua Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent: The Journey of Daoist Priestesses in Tang China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 133–63.

13 Chao Gongwu, Junzhai dushuzhi jiaozheng, 20.1069.

14 The fragmented couplet titled “Xizeng” 戲贈 (Presented playfully) attributed to Cui Xuan 崔萱 in the Yinchuang zalu (30.852–53) is attributed to Cui Zhongrong in a complete poem in the Youxuan ji (3.871). According to the Youxuan ji, this poem’s author should be Cui Zhongrong. Since the Yinchuang zalu does not attribute this poem to Cui Zhongrong, the total number of possible Yaochi ji works remains one hundred.

15 Ji Yougong, Tangshi jishi (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1987), 78.1123–79.1136.

16 Peng Dingqiu 彭定求 (1645–1719) et al, eds., Quan Tangshi 全唐詩 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960), 799.8985–805.9061. According to the Quan Tangshi gaoben 全唐詩稿本 compiled by Qian Qianyi 錢謙益 (1582–1664) and Ji Zhenyi 季振宜 (b. 1630), which was the draft version for the compilation of the Quan Tangshi, the sources for the Quan Tangshi were mainly the Zhongxing jianqi ji 中興間氣集 (for Li Jilan’s poems), Caidiao ji, Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華, Wanshou Tangren jueju 萬首唐人絕句, Yuefu shiji 樂府詩集, Tangshi jishi, and Xue Tao shiji 薛濤詩集. See Qian Qianyi and Ji Zhenyi, Quan Tangshi gaoben, 71 vols. (Taipei: Lianjing chuban gongsi, 1979), 71:37–259. Among these sources, Caidiao ji, Wenyuan yinghua, Wanshou Tangren jueju, and Yuefu shiji possibly copied relevant works from the Yaochi ji.

17 Chen Shangjun, ed., Quan Tangshi bubian (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1992), 1558–92.

18 For the life experiences and extant poems of these poets, see the relevant entries in Fu Xuancong, ed., Tang caizi zhuan jiaojian 唐才子傳校箋 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987–1995); Zhou Zuzhuan 周祖譔, ed., Zhongguo wenxuejia dacidian: Tang Wudai juan 中國文學家大辭典：唐五代卷 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1992). I took part in writing some of these entries. See also Jia, “Yaochi ji,” 211–14.

19 Denis C. Twitchett, “Introduction,” in Twitchett, ed., The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 4.

20 See mainly Edward Schafer, The Divine Woman: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in Tang Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973); Paul W. Kroll, “Po Chü-i's ‘Song of Lasting Regret’: A New Translation,” T’ang Studies 8–9 (1990–1991): 97–104; Xiang Shuyun 向淑雲, Tangdai hunyinfa yu hunyin shitai 唐代婚姻法與婚姻實態 (Taipei: Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan, 1991); Kristofer M. Schipper, The Taoist Body, trans. Karen C. Duval (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992); Suzanne Cahill, Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993); Stephen Owen, “What Did Liuzhi Hear? The ‘Yan Terrace Poems’ and the Culture of Romance,” T’ang Studies 13 (1995): 81–118; Norman H. Rothschild, Wu Zhao: China’s Only Woman Emperor (New York: Pearson Longman, 2008); Chen Gaohua 陳高華 and Tong Shaosu 童芍素, eds., Zhongguo funü tongshi: Sui Tang Wudai juan 中國婦女通史: 隋唐五代卷 (Hangzhou: Hangzhou chubanshe, 2010); Rebecca Doran, Transgressive Typologies: Constructions of Gender and Power in Early Tang China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017); Jinhua Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 6–12.

21 See Jia, “Yaochi ji,” 228–29; Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 149–51.

22 See Song Shenxi 宋申錫, “Da Tang neixueshi Guangping Song shi muzhiming bingxu” 大唐內學士廣平宋氏墓誌銘並序, in Zhao Liguang 趙力光 and Wang Qingwei 王慶衛, “Xinjian Tangdai neixueshi shanggong Song Ruozhao muzhi kaoshi” 新見唐代內學士尚宮宋若昭墓誌考釋, Kaogu yu wenwu 2014.5: 102–8; Gao Shiyu 高世瑜, Tangdai funü 唐代婦女 (Xi’an: Sanqin chubanshe, 1988), 103–4; and Jia Jinhua, “Song Ruolun” 宋若倫, “Song Ruoxun” 宋若荀, “Song Ruozhao” 宋若昭, “Song Ruoxian” 宋若憲, and “Song Ruoxin” 宋若莘, in Zhou Zuzhuan, ed. Zhongguo wenxuejia da cidian, 398–400.

23 In addition to extant poems, there is one essay by Bao Junhui included in Dong Gao 董誥 (1740–1818) et al., eds., Quan Tangwen 全唐文 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 945.3a/b. For discussions on Bao Junhui, see mainly Jia Jinhua, “Bao Junhui,” in Zhongguo wenxuejia da cidian, 779; and Kang-i Sun Chang and Haun Saussy, eds., Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 54–56.

24 See Jia, “Yaochi ji,” 216–41; Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 140–63.

25 See Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 1–17.

26 The Jianjie lu 鑑戒錄 records Zhang Yaotiao’s fame as a poet in Sichuan, and it sounds like she was a courtesan. The Quan Tangshi does place her among courtesans. See He Guangyuan 何光遠, Jianjie lu (SKQS), 13a/b; and Quan Tangshi, 802.9029–30. Xue Tao, who has eighty-nine extant poems, the largest corpus among Tang female poets, has been extensively studied. See mainly Chen Wenhua 陳文華, Tang nüshiren ji sanzhong 唐女詩人集三種 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1984), preface, 5–11; Angela J. Palandri, “Hsüeh T’ao,” in William H. Nienhauser, Jr., ed., The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Taipei: SMC, 1986), 438–39; Wu Qiming 吳啟明, “Xue Tao,” in Fu Xuancong, et.al. eds., Tang caizizhuan jiaojian, 5 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987–1995), 3:6.102–13; Chang and Saussy, Women Writers, 59–66; Wilt Idema and Beata Grant, The Red Brush: Writing Women in Imperial China (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2004), 182–89.

27 Liu Chongyuan 劉崇遠 (fl. tenth century), Yuquan zi (SKQS), 1.11b; also cited in Li Fang 李昉 (925–996) et al., eds., Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961), 271.2133; Qian Yi 錢易, Nanbu xinshu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2002), 4.53; see also Chen Yingxing, Yinchuang zalu, 30.848; Ji Yougong, Tangshi jishi, 78.1121–22.

28 Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, 172.5205.

29 Chen Yingxing, Yinchuang zalu, 31.861.

30 Meng Qi, Benshi shi (Beijing: Gudian wenxue chubanshe, 1957), 6–7.

31 See Chen Yingxing, Yinchuang zalu, 30.852; Ji Yougong, Tangshi jishi, 79.1134.

32 Chang and Saussy, Women Writers, 82–83.

33 In recent decades, there have been numerous degree theses or published works concerning Tang female poets’ works. Here I present my own discussion of the Yaochi ji poetry which is different from previous interpretations, and all translations are mine.

34 For a detailed study of Li Jilan’s extant works, see Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 140–41.

35 My previous research has examined the love poems of these two Daoist priestess-poets; see Jia, “Yaochi ji,” 216–32, 238–41; Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 140–54, 158–61.

36 Quan Tangshi, 801.9009.

37 Song Yu 宋玉 (fl. 4th century BCE), “Gaotang fu” 高唐賦, in Wenxuan 文選, ed. Xiao Tong 蕭統 (501–531; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 19.1b–6b.

38 See Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 152–53.

39 See Cahill, Transcendence and Divine Passion, 190–212; Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 11.

40 Quan Tangshi, 801.9016.

41 Quan Tangshi, 801.9013–14.

42 Wang Pu 王溥 (922–982), Tang huiyao 唐會要 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1955), 33.618–19; Quan Tangshi, 4.47.

43 Quan Tangshi, 7.68–69.

44 See Jia, “Yaochi ji,” 216–33.

45 See Liu Ning 劉寧, “Shixi Tangdai changjishi yu nüguanshi de chayi” 試析唐代娼妓詩與女冠詩的差異, Zhongguo dianji yu wenhua 2003.4: 49–57; and Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 192.

46 Youxuan ji, 3.876–77; Yinchuang zalu, 31.863; Quan Tangshi, 797.8997.

47 Youxuan ji, 3.872; Yinchuang zalu, 30.848; Quan Tangshi, 799.8988.

48 Youxuan ji, 3.877; Quan Tangshi, 801.9014.

49 Fan Yue 范曄 (398–445), Hou Han shu 後漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju), 83.2765–68.

50 Yaochi ji, 906–7; Yinchuang zalu, 30.844; Quan Tangshi, 805.9060–61.

51 Yaochi ji, 905; Youxuan ji, 3.869; Yinchuang zalu, 30.843–44; Quan Tangshi, 805.9060–61.

52 Quan Tangshi, 801.9011.

53 Youxuan ji, 3.873; Yinchuang zalu, 30.851; Quan Tangshi, 802.9025.

54 Yinchuang zalu, 30.852; Quan Tangshi, 799.8989.

55 Youxuan ji, 3.873; Yinchuang zalu, 30.852; Quan Tangshi, 799.8989.

56 Yaochi ji, 910; Youxuan ji, 3.870; Yinchuang zalu, 30.845; Quan Tangshi, 799.8986.

57 Quan Tangshi, 128.1306–7.

58 Chen Wenhua, ed. Tang nüshiren ji, 134–37; Quan Tangshi, 804.9055–56.

59 Suzanne Cahill, “Material Culture and the Dao: Textiles, Boats, and Zithers in the Poetry of Yu Xuanji (844–868),” Taoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual, ed. Livia Kohn and Harold D. Roth (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002), 104.

60 Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 162–63.

61 In Lu Qinli’s 逯欽立 Xian Qin Han Wei Jin Nanbeichao shi 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 2131–32, two poems exchanged with courtesans are attributed to Liu Lingxian 劉令嫻, the wife of the official Xu Fei 徐悱, but one is also attributed to Xu Fei in one version of the Yutai xinyong 玉台新詠. Mu Kehong 穆克宏 has asserted that this poem is neither by Liu nor by her husband; see Mu, ed., Yutai xinyong jianzhu 玉台新詠箋注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 6.258.

62 Chen Wenhua, Tang nüshiren ji, 134–37; Quan Tangshi, 804.9055–56, 801.9021. Suzanne Cahill has translated this poem in her “Material Culture and the Dao,” 119–22.

63 Chen Wenhua, Tang nüshiren ji, 96–98, 121; Quan Tangshi, 804.9047–48, 9052.

64 Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-century China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 14.

65 Maureen Robertson, “Voicing the Feminine: Constructions of the Gendered Subject in Lyric Poetry of Medieval and Late Imperial China,” Late Imperial China 13.1 (1992): 68–79.

66 See mainly Denis Twitchett, “Chinese Social History from the Seventh to the Tenth Centuries: The Tunhuang Documents and Their Implications,” in Past & Present 35 (1966): 28–53, esp. 51–52; Kenneth Chen, The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973), 288–89; and Hao Chunwen 郝春文, “Zailun Beichao zhi Sui, Tang, Wudai, Songchu de nüren jieshe” 再論北朝至隋唐五代宋初的女人結社, Dunhuang yanjiu 6 (2006): 103–8.

67 Quan Tangshi, 801.9016.

68 Yinchuang zalu, 30.859; Quan Tangshi, 801.9010.

69 Youxuan ji, 3.874; Yinchuang zalu, 30.853–54; Quan Tangshi, 801.9013.

70 Yinchuang zalu, 30.849; Quan Tangshi, 801.9009.

71 Yinchuang zalu, 30.849, 856, 31.862; Quan Tangshi, 801.9009, 801.9012–13, 799.8997.

72 Yaochi ji, 902, 907; Youxuan ji, 3.874; Yinchuang zalu, 30.850, 852, 855, 862–63; Quan Tangshi, 799.8990, 805.9059, 799.8997, 801.9012.

73 Yaochi ji, 908; Youxuan ji, 3.870; Yinchuang zalu, 30.845, 846, 849; Yinchuang zalu, 30.855; Quan Tangshi, 801.9015, 799.8985–86, 799.8989, 801.9009, 801.9010, 801.9012.

74 Youxuan ji, 3.875; Yinchuang zalu, 30.847, 856, 857, 859; Quan Tangshi, 7.69, 801.9060, 801.9012, 801.9016.

75 Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent, 152–53.

76 Youxuan ji, 3.872; Yinchuang zalu, 30.847; Quan Tangshi, 7.69.

77 Youxuan ji, 3.876; Yinchuang zalu, 31.861; Quan Tangshi, 799.8996–97.

78 Quan Tangshi, 128.1299–302.