Stories of Three Talented Ancient Chinese Women 三位古代才女的故事

Shangguan Wan'er

上官婉儿

力 彑

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Shangguan was famous for being given an important position by the only female emperor, Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Despite Shangguan's grandfather, Shangguan Yi, being killed for offending Wu, she was highly praised by the female emperor for her literary talent. She served as a key secretary to Wu and was called "a female prime minister" at the time.

Shangguang changed court poetry so that it used more meaningful expressions than empty praise, and further developed her style based on her grandfather's poems.

Quan Tang Shi, or Complete Tang Poems records her 32 poems.

夂 小

上官婉儿，因被中国唯一的唐朝（公元618-907年）女皇帝武则天（618-907）重用而出名。

虽然上官婉儿的祖父上官仪因冒犯武则天被其处死，武则天仍高度欣赏她的文学天赋。她是武则天的主要助手，有“巾帼宰相”之名。

上官婉儿改变了宫廷诗的风格，从空洞的赞美转为更有意义的内容，在继承其祖父诗歌的基础上进一步发展成自己独具一格的诗。

《全唐诗》收录了她32首作品。

Su Hui

苏惠

力 彑

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Su Hui, from the Qian Qin (351-394) was famously known for a handkerchief she made. The textile was embroidered with 841 characters that could form 7,958 poems.

This kind of puzzle-like poem is called hui wen shi, which makes use of the word order of Chinese language marked by a monosyllabic morpheme.

Named Xuan Ji Tu, the handkerchief was originally made by Su to send to her husband, Dou Tao. Su married to Dou at age 16 and the couple was separated due to Dou’s exile. Su waited for her husband to come back and would not divorce him, yet Dou had an affair with another woman.

Sad and angry, Su created the poems on a handkerchief in red, yellow, blue, white, black and purple silk thread and sent to her husband. Dou was deeply moved by the poems and felt guilty for his behavior. He broke up with the mistress and reunited with Su.

夂 小