The Works of Li Qingzhao, introduction and poems 1.1 to 1.5

[x_los]

This week we're reading The Works of Li Qingzhao, freely available via De Gruyter's Library of Chinese Humanities in Mandarin and English and via several publication formats, including two open access options (the pdf appears to be better formatted than the ebook; it might be worth someone letting them know as much). We're starting with the introduction and poems 1.1 to 1.5, inclusive.

This collection uses footnotes and end notes to explicate the work (though none of this week's poems has an end note).

We might get into more English exegesis, but this week the Introduction gives us more than enough of that to be getting on with.

CLP has an episode on Li Qingzhao you might find relevant.

Comments

Re: 1.2 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, I

[superborb]

Sogdia - an ancient Iranian civilization in present-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan per wiki.

From Baike:

The emperor loved cockfighting and this distraction led to his downfall. Later generations will use "Five Imperial Pens children" to refer to those who do not do honest work.
The meat and ale is glossed as a luxurious life.

Yeah, she's saying Xuanzong in contrast sucksssss.

"left then for spirits and ghosts to obliterate on a cliff" -- the Baike vernacular sounds more like 'might as well ask ghosts and deities to wear down a mountain'?