Women Poets of China

by Kenneth Rexroth (Editor), Ling Chung (Photographer)

“The poetry proves again that stereotypes mislead. Chinese verse is supposedly cool and distant, detached and dispassionate. The opposite seems true; poets are exalted or downcast, drunk with wine or, in the case of women, frankly sensuous....Nothing stands still in this the wind blows the trees, the lake water ripples and the ever-present road runs in and out of the hills.” ― America This book (originally published in 1972 by The Seabury Press as The Orchid Boat ) is the first representative collection of the poetry of Chinese women to appear in English. Unlike Japan with its long tradition of women writers, poetry by women did not become fashionable in China until the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911), although poems from earlier centuries that do in fact survive will quickly dispel any stereotyped views. Included here are samplings from the legendary earliest poetry of courtesans, palace women, and Tao priestesses to works by contemporary Chinese women living in both the East and West. Appendixes include notes on the poems, an introductory essay on Chinese women and literature, a table of historical periods, and a bibliography.

Genres: Poetry, China, History, Chinese Literature, Asia, 20th Century, Classics

150 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist.

He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.

Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic themes and forms.

Rexroth died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6, 1982. He had spent his final years translating Japanese and Chinese women poets, as well as promoting the work of female poets in America and overseas.

Reviews

[Maite Iracheta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the oldest poems go back as far as the 2nd Century B.C. Charged with beautiful images, many of the poems are highly erotic. Compared with the role of what we know now as western women 2000 years ago, these Chinese poets were amazing; I've spent all morning in awe and joy reading this jewel.

[sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The vibes are impeccable

[nucu · Rating 4 out of 5]

really lovely reading for spring :-)

[Justin Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be clear, this was an excellent and worthwhile project. I would love to know more about female, Chinese poets. I guess now I know a bit more, but it isn't much.

Perhaps the problem is in the selection? Rexroth and Ling seem to have chosen sexy poems, or heart-rending poems, or 'revolutionary' poems, three types of poem that I'm particularly uninterested in. That said, even I can recognize that some of the pieces here are excellent, once put in context. Ts'ai Yen's poems describing life as an exile in Mongolia, the pleasure of returning to China and the pain of having to leave her sons behind moved even my stone heart. Yu Hsuan-Chi's poem about the wish for knowledge and the knowledge of being excluded is very well done:

On a visit to ch'ung chen taoist temple I see in the south hall the list of successful candidates in the imperial examinations

Cloud capped peaks fill the eyes
In the Spring sunshine.
Their names are written in beautiful characters
And posted in order of merit.
How I hate this silk dress
That conceals a poet.
I life my head and read their names
In powerless envy.

And if anyone can find anything else anywhere by or about 'Wu Tsao' (= Wu Zao), let me know.

Is it the translations? They're pretty lifeless, even when they're good; just prose in short lines. Presumably these poets deserve better. Is it cold historical facts? Poetry takes a lot of education, then access to publishing institutions, then promotion, then acceptance by critics, then acceptance by later critics, and so on. Perhaps Chinese poetry just shut women out, and this is really the best available? The revolution doesn't seem to have helped, if the twentieth century writers here are any example.

I'm guessing there are lots of problems with this anthology, and these are just a few of them. In the unlikely event that someone with pull is reading this, how about a better book with the same mission?

[June García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preciosa y ardiente selección. Un libro perfecto para acercarse a la poesía china, incluye poemas con miles de años de diferencia. Demasiada emoción y belleza, harto paisaje hermoso y también harto dolor de la guerra. Pero por sobre todo, llenísimo de deseo, a destajo, me quemé con tanto fuego. Increíble.
"Dicen que incluso las
Montañas más distantes acabarán
Encontrándose, pero yo estoy
Inquieta y atemorizada y no puedo
Calmar mi ardiente corazón."

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decided to give this four stars because I didn't love it as much as previous translations from the Chinese by Rexroth. But I was tempted to give it five stars just for the coverage: From so ancient they can only give an approximate era to poems written in what was then the present day. (For those of you who've been to Madison, see p.113 "Dusk On The Veranda By Lake Mendota, Summer 1968" by Chung Ling, the co-editor of this book. Although I prefer her poem on the following pages, "The Fall of Moon Lady, before the landing of Apollo X.")

Picked this up for $2 at the Mechanics Institute Library, and as far as I am concerned, the book would be worth that price for the single page of Appendix 3, the table of Chinese Historical Periods. But besides the poetry, it also has a wonderful essay in Appendix 2, "Chinese Women and Literature -- A Brief Survey," and extensive notes on the poets and the poems in Appendix 1. All in all, a great book.

Quite a number of the poems are entitled "to the tune of" along with the name of some famous Chinese song. No doubt these would be more fun to read if I knew the songs, I guess that could be fun to try to track down (YouTube, perhaps?). Of course, these are all English translations, so I'd have to learn the Chinese originals before I could imagine them as lyrics to the songs. A retirement project?

[Carl Denton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straight bangers in this one

[Bree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trigger warning for discussions of suicide, domestic abuse, coercive marriage, and other such traumas

This is an absolutely exceptional and comprehensive anthology! Rexroth and Ling Chung have clearly put much thought and passion into this project. The anthology contains work from a very diverse range of women across Chinese history, from sex workers to courtesans to revolutionaries to noble women to daoist nuns to scholars.

I've seen a handful of criticisms claiming that the overall scope of the selections seems to lack cohesiveness due to the wide range of styles and subjects covered in the various poems, but I couldn't disagree more. In fact, what truly struck me about this work is that, in spite of the vast diversity and the various types of experiences found in the anthology, there were several very clear recurring themes to be found in these selections. The most salient of these themes was the lack of agency and the isolation that many women felt due to restrictive gender norms and compulsory, traditional womanhood; as well as the ways in which these women sought freedom and went against the grain in so many different ways, exercising what autonomy and power they did have in order to carve out a space of their own in the world.

Take for instance, Lady Ho's mournful, wistful piece, "A Song of Magpies" (300 BCE), written after her husband was arrested and she was forced to marry his captor (the Duke of Sung) against her will:

There are magpies on the South hill.
You set your net on the North hill.
The magpies soar free.
What good is your net?

When a pair of magpies fly together
They do not envy the pair of phoenixes.
My lord I am a common person-
I do not envy the Duke of Sung.

Lady Ho hanged herself shortly after.

A similar theme of tragedy, loss, and lack of agency is also found in Ts'ai Yen's 200 CE work, "18 Verses Sung to a Tartar Reed Whistle". This series of poems chronicles Ts'ai Yen's experience of being kidnapped the Huns and forcibly married. In one of the selected verses, Ts'ai Yen mourns the loss of her home and freedom:

I have no desire to live, but I am afraid of death.
I cannot kill my body, for my heart still has hope
That I can live long enough
To obtain one and only desire-
That someday I can see again
The mulberry and catalpa trees of home

In verse XIII, Ts'ai Yen reveals that she has been ransomed and is to be brought back to the Han court and married to an officer. She is once again subject to the whims of the men around her, forced to leave the beloved children she'd had with her Hun husband behind, never to see them again.

Sorrow for my boys dims the sun for me.
If we had wings we could fly away together.
I cannot move my feet,
For each step is a step away from them.

In verse XVII, Ts'ai Yen yearns for her children and reflects on the ways in which she has essentially left one prison for another.

Before I missed my homeland
So much that my heart was disordered.
Now I think again and again, over and over,
Of the sons I have lost...
I will never know them again
Once I have entered Chang An.
I try to strangle my sobs
But my tears stream down my face

These two poems, written several hundred years apart, exemplify the lack of agency women have historically experienced. The mid 9th century poet, Yu Hsuan-Chi (Yu Xuanji) (one of my all time faves) also felt heavily the restrictive roles forced upon her due to gender norms. This is seen in her poem "On a Visit to Ch'ung Chen Taoist Temple I See in the South Hall the List of Successful Candidates In the Imperial Examinations":

Their names are written in beautiful characters
And posted in order of merit.
How I hate this silk dress
That conceals a poet.
I lift my head and read their names
In powerless envy

Yu Xuanji greatly resented her lack of choices in life and did what she could in order to afford herself some degree of autonomy. She was a courtesan who eventually became a concubine, only to be pushed out by the man's jealous wife. She then became a Daoist nun. Taking her vows enabled her to have a significantly greater degree of freedom than she might have otherwise had, given that Daoist philosophy was generally more lax in terms of the strict gender norms and ideas of chastity typically found within Confucianism. As a result, she had the freedom to take as many lovers as she desired (including, according to some accounts, women as well as men; making her the first known open bisexual woman in Chinese history) and write as much as she wished. She therefore carved out a space for herself in the world, in spite of the fact that she could not access the same opportunities as men of her time did, such as taking the Imperial Examinations.

I have a lot more to say about these themes and I feel like some of the ways in which I've engaged with historical Chinese gender roles is a bit oversimplified and monolithic, but that's probably beyond the scope of a goodreads entry and this review is getting really freaking long, so I will refrain from turning this into a full blown essay! Instead, I will list a few of my absolute favorite poems/poets found in the anthology:

1. Huang O's (16th century) exceptionally horny and biting works, particularly "To the tune 'The Fall of a Little Wild Goose'", which contains the absolutely incredible line "That insufferable little bitch/ With her coy tricks!/ She'd better not forget-/ This old witch can still make a furious scene!", and "To the tune 'Red Embroidered Shoes", where she tears a man apart for being incapable of making her orgasm.

2. Absolutely everything by Wu Tsao (19th century)!! She was a lesbian poet who romanced a shit ton of ladies and wrote them a lot of beautiful, passionate, and erotic poems, before eventually becoming a Daoist priestess. One of my favorite pieces by her is "For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin", which has really swoon-worthy lines such as "One smile from you when we meet,/ And I become speechless and forget every word." and "I want to possess you completely-/ Your jade body/ And your promised heart" (need me a freak like that!!)

3. Pretty much any poem by Ch'iu Chin (Qiu Jin) (19th century), a revolutionary who bailed on her husband (apparently he sucked) and kids (maybe the kids had bad vibes?), moved to Japan where she became a revolutionary feminist, and came back to China where she founded a radical newspaper for women, started a school that was secretly a military training camp for revolutionaries, became well known for being gallant and chivalrous and looking really hot in men's clothing, may have possibly engaged in lesbianism with her sword sister (are they... you know... ~sword sisters~?), and eventually was tragically executed for her revolutionary activities. In "A Letter to Lady T'ao Ch'iu", she writes "Who can understand me./ My hopes and visions are greater/ Than those of the men around me... What good is the heart of a hero/ Inside my dress?... I ask heaven/ Did the heroines of the past/ Encounter envy like this?"

I have several more favorites but honestly my gushing is getting really embarrassing and I've spent way too long on this!! Anyway the tl;dr of it all is that this anthology is incredible!! It's so good that i literally just spent almost 2 hours writing a whole ass essay about it FOR FUN. It made me wanna go back to grad school and get another Master's degree just so I'd have an excuse to learn and write more about woman poets in China!!! I HATED grad school so if that's not a ringing endorsement, idk what is honestly.

[Joe Molenaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite poem from this book

For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin
To the tune "The Love of The Immortals"
by Wu Tsao (19th Century)

"On your slender body
Your jade and coral girdle ornaments chime
Like those of a celestial companion
Come from the Green Jade City of Heaven.
One smile from you when we meet,
And I become speechless and forget every word.
For too long you have gathered flowers,
And leaned against the bamboos,
Your green sleeves growing cold,
In your deserted valley:
I can visualize you alone,
A girl harboring her cryptic thoughts.

You glow like a perfumed lamp
In the gathering shadows.
We play wine games
And recite each other's poems.
Then you sing "Remembering South of the River"
With its heart breaking verses. Then
We paint each other's beautiful eyebrows.
I want to possess you completely-
Your jade body
And your promised heart.
It is Spring.
Vast mists cover the Five Lakes.
My dear, let me buy a red painted boat
And carry you away."

[Wyatt Reu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. With a great selection too of (then) contemporary (but now, still recent) poets. As a great and concise essay in the appendix notes, Chinese women had many fewer opportunities and encouragements to write poetry than Chinese men. It is astonishing, then, to read these poems which at their best rival and even succeed the male masters of Chinese verse. They are fabulous poem-translations in their own right as well and like the rest of Rexroth’s translations are genuine treasures to English readers.

[Ani Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

a reread for fun. love love love. exploration of sexuality!? nature!? thousand year old poetry?! love

[Edwing Marroquin · Rating 5 out of 5]

""Esclavos de ayer con los pies libres" Tuo Ssu

[Therese L. Broderick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am entranced by these translations from the Chinese. Ling Chung, this book's female co-translator and co-editor, used to work at the State University of Albany, my own city of residence. Five of her poems appear in this anthology: "Dusk on the Veranda by Lake Mendota (Summer 1968)," The Fall of Moon Lady (Before the landing of Apollo X), "On the Melting Lake," "Song of Rootless People," and "Visiting." Also included in this collection are pieces by the eminent poets Li Ching-Chao, Chu Shu-Chen, Lady Wei, and Hsueh Tao; and by the empress Wu Tse-Tien who "openly kept a male harem"; and by "one of the great Lesbian poets of all times," Wu Tsao.

[Sean A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems of distance, intimate nature, longing, seduction. Fairly short, yet comprehensive anthology. Covers from the beginning of AD times up till the 20th century. "Many women's poems were shown only to their intimates, but were never published. In some cases. the poet herself or the parents of the poet destroyed her work so that the reputation of the clan would not be damaged." -From the epilogue. Good that these voices could see some light of day. They are worthwhile.

[Karen Erdmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

These women poets from circa 200BC to today speak to the very heart of women's issues and needs. They are passionate and compelling and I am finding a tremendous bonding with their tales and trials. It is magnificent to feel a part of the flow of history and with tenderness and admiration, I count these women poets as companions on my journey.

[Catherine Corman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I drift at ease, for I know
The soft wind will blow me home.

-Yü Hsüan-Chi, in Women Poets of China

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two and a half millennia of poetry has been distilled into this tiny book. From revolutionaries to kidnap victims to courtesans to abandoned wives to widows to philosophers, you might say all human life is here.
I came across this book because whilst doing some research on plants and music I found a poem called “from 18 verses sung to a Tatar Reed whistle”, and wanted to explore further. I had to wait for it to come across the Atlantic; no mean feat during the pandemic! But I am so pleased to have done so. There is something amazing about hearing voices not just from another time, but another culture and another thought process. It is fascinating to be mystified by the allusions and metaphors in some of the poems, and by doing further research I learned a little about Chinese culture and history. Some of the poems were written quite recently, and reflect the Chinese civil war; some hearken back to previous conflicts and indeed were written just prior to the lady killing herself to avoid capture. Some others are musing on the loss of a lover, and still others are quite frankly erotic! That for much of history female poets were either uncreated due to lack of education, or if they could write their work was burned it is a miracle we have something to read. One might point to the western poetic tradition and suggest that it suffers from the same issues, at least as far as the 1800s.
The translation from the Chinese has been done I guess with a eye to Western ears, and there is a brief notes and history section at the back of the book to tantalise the keen reader to go further.
Recommended reading if only to decolonise a bookshelf.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

very enjoyable anthology of 2300 years of women’s Chinese poetry. while I love the collection as a whole, I was particularly taken by the selections from ts’ai yen’s 18 verses sung to a tatar reed whistle, a poem that chronicles her kidnapping by Huns, birthing and raising of two sons, and return to her home without her children - from the year 200. really incredible and moving.

some of the reviews on here criticize a lack of breadth in the early selections, focusing mainly on love, heartbreak, or nature. I’m not even remotely well versed enough in Chinese poetry to tell you if this was just the result of sexism on Kenneth Rexroth’s selection or a broader issue of what was permissible in women’s writing before the Ch’ing Dynasty (which seems to be when women poets were socially permissible, according to the back cover)

Of particular note are the poems of the early to mid 20th century, which have a literary modernism that seems to taper off in the years leading to the cultural revolution. These poems read as strikingly contemporary until the deviation into socialist realism. Again, not really able to speak much on the cultural revolution or how it impacted Chinese literature, but Yu Hua’s “China in Ten Words” is an incredible and accessible resource for those interested in the topic.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine and interesting collection of poems dated from around 300 B.C. to the mid 20th century. Some were very beautiful and intriguing. Some weren't that great. It was good, however, to get a feel for the lives of these Chinese women poets throughout history. In the notes at the back of the book there is information about the lives of the poets, cultural history, and folktales, and etc...

Some of my favorites:
From 18 verses sung to a Tatar Reed Whistle by Ts'ai Yen (pg 4)
Starting at Dawn by Sun Yun Feng (pg 70)
Madrid by Pai Wei (pg 88)
Cloud Dissects Itself by Lin Ling (pg 94)
To ___ by Hsiung Hung (pg 104)
Summer Freezes Here by Hsiung Hung (pg 102)
"You know it well,
This land of my white polar heart,
A road 20 miles long that harvests your footsteps."

[Macha · Rating 4 out of 5]

reads kind of uneven, owing to a big contrast in coverage between the early poets and the 20th century ones, and there's sadly a dropoff in quality too. but the early poets (most of the book), who go back as far as 300BC and are all given detailed biographies as much as it's possible, are uniformily exquisite, and this is an important volume.

[Csuren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is very good in rendering the spirit and emotion of Chinese poets, and conveys the original beauty of these women poets in the long history of China. What's more, the translations by poet Rexroth are English poems by themself from enjoying reading them. I like this book very much.

[Hope Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much sex and sorrow. Concubines, heroines, courtesans, and widows express their loneliness as they put on their rouge and recall their evening rendezvous. Ill fated or dead lovers galore!

"Yesterday's dream is a drawer littered with little mice turds." - Tuo Ssu

[Edward Rathke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great poems, some bad poems, but overall quite good.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the biography of each poet included, as well as the historical contexts.

[ronny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenneth Rexroth: still my favorite poet.

[Ehryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed how the book starts out with older poems and then adds newer poems near the end. I enjoyed each poem and the significance it held.

[Pris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The early poems had such crisp images; they were such a delight to read. With their imagery, the courtesan poems present a mix of melancholy and eroticism.

[theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

found in paper hound in vancouver

[Kaitlin Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book, well written and beautifully done. Although, I did not care for the gay part involved in Wu Tsao's poems. Why must there always be a homosexual part in everything today? This isn't even from today, but many years ago, but why must it be in there?! Anyway, there are a few racey parts I will admit, but other than that I really liked the book. Some of my favorites were- Eternal Happiness, The Sorrow of Departure, A Call to Action, Remembering, Drinking the Wind, and Midnight.

[Fyodor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many dirty poems = erotic = good rating