Brocade River Poems: Selected Works of the Tang Dynasty Courtesan

by Xue Tao, Jeanne Larsen (Translator)

Xue Tao (A.D. 768-831) was well known as a poet in an age when all men of learning were poets--and almost all women were illiterate. As an entertainer and official government hostess, she met, and impressed, many of the most talented and powerful figures of her day. As a maker of beautiful paper and a Taoist churchwoman, she maintained a life of independence and aesthetic sensibility. As a writer, she crrated a body of work that is by turns deeply moving, amusing, and thought-provoking. Drawing knowledgeably on a rich literary tradition, she created images that here live again for the contemporary reader of English. This bilingual edition contains about two-thirds of Xue Tao's extant poems. The translations are based on accurate readings of the originals and extensive research in both Chinese and Japanese materials. The notes at the end of the book explain allusions and place the poems in the context of medieval Chinese culture and its great literary heritage, while the opening essay introduces Xue Tao's work and describes her unusual life history.

Genres: Poetry, China, Classics, Asia, Asian Literature

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1987

About the author

Xue Tao (simplified Chinese: 薛涛; traditional Chinese: 薛濤; pinyin: Xuē Tāo; Wade–Giles: Hsüeh T'ao, 768–831), courtesy name Hongdu (洪度/宏度) was a well-known female Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty, ranked with two other of the most famous women poets of Tang poetry, Yu Xuanji and Li Ye (李冶).Xue Tao was the daughter of a minor government official in Chang'an, which was the Chinese capital during the Tang Dynasty. Her father, Xue Yun (薛郧) was transferred to Chengdu, when she was still little, or possibly before her birth. Her father died while she was young, but it's possible that she had some literary education from him; her adult career also offered her the opportunity to learn from practicing poets.

Since the girl's mother did not return to Chang'an, it is possible that they were too poor to do so. Xue was registered with the guild of courtesans and entertainers in Chengdu and in time became well known for her wit and her poetic talent.

Her poetry attracted the attention of Wei Gao, the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan) and she was made his official hostess. In this position she met poets like Yuan Zhen, to whom she was said to have become close; at the very least, this story indicates the charisma of both figures. Certainly, she exchanged poems with Yuan and many other well-known writers of the day, and continued as hostess after Wei's death.

In later years, Xue was able to live independently in a site outside the city associated with the great poet of an earlier generation, Du Fu. Some sources record that she supported herself as a maker of artisanal paper used for writing poems. A contemporary wrote that she took on the garments of a Daoist adept, signaling a relatively autonomous status within Tang society.

Some 450 poems by Xue were gathered in The Brocade River Collection that survived until the 14th century. About 100 of her poems are known nowadays, which is more than of any other Tang dynasty woman. They range widely in tone and topic, giving evidence of a lively intelligence and more than passing acquaintance with the great tradition of earlier Chinese poetry.

Hsueh T'ao, a Venusian crater is named after her.

Reviews

[Raven]

"You want to pick one:/
it seems to open/
jade-bright, cool.

Idly, stroke/
the crimson chamber: what place/
is its like?"

"I wonder when love's longings/
stir us most--

when flowers bloom,/
or when flowers fall?"

"A Han era ballad describes a love letter written on white silk and hidden inside a fish."

"The breaking off of a willow branch to be presented to a departing friend is a standard motif in Tang poetry because of the homophony of 'willow' and 'to stay' (or 'to cause to stay')."

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming collection of poems, well worth savoring. I particularly like how Jeanne Larsen puts Xue Tao's work into the proper context both of Xue Tao's specific history, and the time period in which she was writing. The opening essay is excellent, and combined with the notes on each poem at the end of the book are insightful, and make it feel almost like Jeanne Larsen is reading the poems alongside you.

[Manuel Del Río Rodríguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a passion for Classical Chinese poetry, and ideally the pre-Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368) pieces, as in its aftermath, Chinese verse tends to become a bit too neoclassical and derivative. The little book we’re talking about today is a selection and translation of the poems of Xue Tao (768-831), arguably the most famous Tang dynasty female poet. Before going into the work, a little bit of background is in order.

The Tang dynasty (618-907) is one of the great periods of Chinese history, characterized by peace, economic prosperity, military expansion and cultural flourishing. Poetry, which had always been prestigious and an expected skill for aristocrats, become refined in new and formally demanding meters, as well as becoming a prerequisite for passing the civil service examinations that guaranteed (relatively) meritocratic access to officialdom, so it also acquired pragmatic incentives that contributed to the Tang being, arguably, a golden age for verse, a time when the greatest minds were striving to create the greatest verse. Now, poetry was pretty ubiquitous in the period through all social strata, but the one that has been preserved and canonized was usually the work of the scholar-officials, all of them men, most of them (aspiring, or actual) bureaucrats. On the sidelines, you also had some significant poetry being written by monks, hermits and women.

As poetry was mostly a public affair, either social act (for entertaining the Emperor, courtiers or scholar-official peers and friends) or part of the training to become a mandarin, Tang women, who were supposed to remain subject to the private sphere under traditional Confucian values, weren’t in the best of places to become producers. Basically, the few Tang female poets we have fall into one of three boxes: they were either very high-placed aristocrats, members of the imperial family or close servants of these; Daoist priestesses, or courtesans. The latter (Xue Tao was one of these) were entertainers of the pleasure quarters, somewhat like Classical Greek hetairae, which were expected to entertain scholar-officials with their artistic skills and romantic banter. Among these skills was a certain proficiency in composing verse.

So back to Xue Tao: she is the most well-known of Tang female poets (some critics would argue, though, that not necessarily the best), and mostly led a rather successful life as a state-paid entertainer in the western city of Chengdu (modern Sichuan) during the middle years of the Tang. From there she managed to maintain relations and poetry exchanges with some of the great poets of the day, like Yuan Chen, Bai Juyi, Du Mu and Liu Yuxi. Of her work, about 100 poems survive, most of them in the jueju, or quatrain, form, the predominant theme being the romantic. In spite of this, Xue Tao is a complex and sophisticated writer, and these poems are peppered with the complex wordplay and literary allusions that are only to be expected in Classical poetry.

This translation by Jeanne Larsen is very readable, and comes with a decent set of notes explaining allusions and the cultural background that is needed to understand a lot of the poems. I have encountered some translations of Xue Tao’s verse elsewhere and found a bit turgid and unengaging in English, but Larsen’s actually read like poetry. We can give an example to conclude the review and whet any reader’s appetite:

Pearl Parted from the Palm

White as the moon,

round, bright,

translucent to the core.

Its brilliance seems reflected

from the crystal lunar keep.

Just one fleck:

now it’s defiled

and no longer spends the nights

held within his

palm.

[Nuri · Rating 3 out of 5]

"... I wonder when love's
longings
stir us most —

when flowers bloom
or when flowers fall!"

(Gazing At Spring, I)

[Matt Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compressed and straightforward as they are, these poems have as much beauty, simplicity, subtle sadness, and intriguing ambiguity as all of my favorites.

[Ernesaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leí "Diez Adioses"

[kevin zhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

do not let this moonlit haze know the sorrow of two towns.
- China's paramount yearner

the most virtuosic translations of Chinese poetry i've ever seen.

[Pier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love you foot notes and annotations <3

[elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Xue Tao’s ‘Brocade River Poems’ showcase her refined lyrical style marked by clarity, emotional restraint and precise imagery.

She weaves natural motifs - moonlight, river currents, seasonal shifts - into subtle reflections on longing, solitude and impermanence. Her diction is elegant yet unadorned allowing small details to carry emotional weight. Xue Tao often blends regulated-verse techniques with a distinctly feminine voice, using tonal balance, parallelism and gentle shifts in perspective to heighten nuance.

The poems’ woven brocade-like texture arises from her skilful layering of image and feeling, creating a poised intimate lyricism that sets her work apart within Tang poetry.

[Scipio Africanus · Rating 2 out of 5]

horribly oversimplified translation. lacking the deep movements of the heart that makes poetry from this dynasty so fulfilling, and simply giving you a literal translation in the most basic English wording.