The Works of Li Qingzhao, Ci Poems 3.1 - 3.8

[x_los]

This week we start working with Li Qingzhao’s ci poetry. As usual, the book is 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). We're reading the poems 3.1 through 3.8 inclusive.

This collection uses footnotes and endnotes to explicate the work. There are three endnotes for this week’s group of poems, but these aren’t very rich in exegesis.

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

Comments

Re: 3.4

[x_los]

This is interesting because these songs normally have female performers, and the POV is associated with them, which implies that it’s fairly normal for a woman (maybe even a woman of the poet’s class?) to operate such a canoe? on her own. That sounds trivial, but there’s been a ton of writing on what the bike did for women’s mobility and real liberty in Europe, and in a land as dominated by waterways as China, that could mean something.

Re: 3.4

[pengwern]

Song is generally known for the openness and freedom for women especially compared to the stifling horrorshow of ming and qing.
I really do love any of the lyrical verses involving the passage through lotus leaves.....such a mainstay of the waterways and lakes of the jiangnan region, and this very famous one is so so lovely.

Re: 3.4

[douqi]

This is interesting because I have often seen the Song (associated with neo-Confucianism) called a horrorshow for women (and marginalised people generally) compared to the Tang. I suppose things just kept getting worse.

Re: 3.4

[pengwern]

:(((((((((
Yeah after the Tang was ... the reaction against the Wu Zhou......
Every time something bad happens they goes home and take it out on the people they can control...