Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 02-24-08
Li Qingzhao /Li
Ch'ing-chao (c.1083-aft.1149)
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"I WOULD HAVE BEEN GLAD TO GROW OLD IN SUCH A WORLD."
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Li Qingzhao (old spelling: Li Ch'ing-chao) was born into a Chinese family known for literary talent and service to the emperor. Her poetry was well known even before her marriage in 1101 to a student, Zhao Mingching (1081-1129). In 1103, her husband began his official career; from 1108 the couple lived in Shandong province. From 1121, he spent much time traveling around the province; his periodic absences may have provided the occasion for some of Li's love poems. Throughout their married life, the couple collected antiquities; this, combined with the political upheavals of the time, explains the relative poverty in which they lived.
In 1126, the Song dynasty capital, Kaifeng, fell to the Jin people from the north; Shandong province was in their path and considerable fighting took place there. In the fighting, the home of Li and Zhao was burnt. In 1127, the emperors were captured by the Jin; the Han loyalists named a new emperor, and the entire court, plus all those who served the court, moved slowly to the south, to establish a new "Southern Song" court in Hangzhou. During this period Zhao died, and Li was left to try to save their collection. Li describes her married life and the turmoil that ended it in Hou hsu.
Li Qingzhao finally arrived at Hangzhou, to spend the rest of her life and to publish her husband's work, Jin shi lu (Records on metal and stone), a 30-volume collection of inscriptions that Zhao had copied over the years. She continued to write poetry; we know that she was writing for the court in the 1140s.
The last official mention of her is in 1149. In the same year a contemporary wrote that she had remarried and then divorced; a letter exists that has Li Qingzhao describing that experience. Attribution of the letter is not certain: for centuries neo-Confucian writers said it was a forgery and that a "proper lady" wouldn't have done such a thing; most modern scholars appear to accept the letter as genuine.
Li' Qingzhao's poetry was originally published in seven volumes of shi (traditional poetry) and prose, plus six volumes of ci (lyrics composed to be set to existing popular music). About 50 ci (tz'u in the old spelling) and 17 shi survive. Also extant are brief prose works: Hou hsu, an epilogue that she added in 1132 to her husband's book; Cilun (or Lun ci: On lyrics), a study of the ci form of poetry; and the disputed letter.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Hou hsu
Poetry (shi)
Cilun
A letter on her second marriage (attributed)Information about secondary sources.
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1. Quite a few of Li Qingzhao's ci are online; a number are alternative versions of the same poems (for examples of her shi, see below, under "In print"):
(a) Links to 18 ci, translated by Lucy Chao Ho; you may also go to the Chinese characters for 13 of the poems (for information on the book in which the poems were published, see below, under "In print").
(b) Use your browser's search function to go to "Qingzhao" for links to 15 ci (the first link includes a biography). Each link will take you to the original in both Chinese characters and romanization, and to both a literal and "poetic" translation.
(c) Links to seven ci.
(d) Second in this collection of Chinese women poets, four ci from Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung.
(e) Another four, translated by Kevin Tsai.
(f) And four more, translated by Nathan Sturman.
(g) "Sky and autumn are both radiant!" translated by Eugene Eoyang, followed by three versions of another poem, two of a third, and four more.
(h) In this collection, go to "Qingzhao" for two poems: "The wind has subsided---a fragrance of petals fallen," and "Searching, seeking, seeking, searching."
(i) Two poems translated by Arthur Sze: "Thin mist, dense clouds," and "When night comes."
(j) And two more, translated by Mark Francis: "Often I recall that sunset on the pavilion by the brook," and "Last night the rain came scattered, wind sudden."
(k) "Bored on the swing dreamily I get up," translated by Zachary Chartkoff, followed by three other translators' version of the same poem.
(l) "The sky becomes one with its clouds," translated by Jane Hirshfield.
(m) At the bottom of the page, "Already, out of the snow," translated by Rexroth and Chung.
(n) "Lonesome in my deepest boudoir," translated by Jill Jones.
(o) Part way down the page, Rexroth's version of "Once more it is the Ninth Day."
(p) In a biography, "My sleep last night was troubled," as well as some lines from other poems.
(q) After a brief biography, lines from a longer poem, "A friend sends her perfumed carriage," translated by Rexroth and Chung.
2. In this alphabetical listing, click on "V" and go to the 1994 essay collection edited by Pauline Yu, Voices of the Song Lyric in China; from there you can link to four essays that include discussions of Li Qingzhao:
(a) "Meaning the Words: The Genuine as a Value in the Tradition of the Song Lyric," by Stephen Owen, translates and analyzes one of the most famous ci: "To the tune of 'Sheng Sheng Man'."
(b) "Formation of a Distinct Generic Identity for tz'u," by Shuen-fu Lin, discusses Cilun, the analysis of earlier and contemporary ci.
(c) "The Poetry of Li Ch'ing-chao: A Woman Author and Women's Authorship," by John Timothy Wixted, focuses on the critical reception of the poetry by later critics.
(d) "Engendering the Lyric: Her Image and Voice in Song," by Grace Fong, shows how Li Qingzhao and other women poets present and represent women.
3. Other essays, etc.:
(a) Jaosheng Wang's introduction to his translation, The Complete Ci-poems of Li Qingzhao: A New English Translation (1989), discusses Li Qingzhao's influence and style and includes brief remarks on the shi. At #13 on another page of the same site, you can download a PDF file of the entire translation (for more information on the book, see "In print").
(b) Near the end of this lecture by John Rothfork, the author's use of three of the ci to illustrate Li Qingzhao's Buddhism.
(c) A description of a 2005 Chinese opera based in part on the story of Li Qingzhao's remarriage.
4. An annotated bibliography by Kathleen Collins. The bibliography is brief (two items), but it offers a detailed description of the chapter on Hou hsu in Stephen Owen's 1986 Remembrances (for excerpts from Owen's translation, see "In print").
5. Two pages of a 1700s collection of Li Qingzhao's poems.
6. For historical background:
(a) A brief history of the Northern Song Dynasty (before 1127); at the bottom, link to a history of the Southern Song (after 1127).
(b) A 1960 essay by Kenneth Rexroth, "Sung Dynasty Culture," which includes his translation of a Li Qingzhao ci, "The lascivious air of Spring."
(c) The Wikipedia entries on Li Qingzhao's two verse forms: the ci, and the shi.
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[This anthology contains translations by Stephen Owen of the complete Hou hsu and of four ci. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
An anthology of Chinese literature: beginnings to 1911 / edited
and translated by Stephen Owen. New York: W.W. Norton, c1996.
(xlviii, 1212 p.)
LC#: PL2658.E1 A814 1996; ISBN: 0393038238
Includes bibliographical references (p.1153-1164) and index.
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"...laughing so hard that the tea would spill in my lap."
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[From Hou hsu (1132), Li Qingzhao's epilogue to her husband's collection of inscriptions. The opening:]
What are the preceding chapters of "Records on Metal and Stone"? ---the work of the governor Zhao De-fu. In it he took inscriptions on bells, tripods..., goblets, and bowls from the Three Dynasties of high antiquity [2200s BCE] all the way to the Five Dynasties [900s CE]...; here also he took the surviving traces of acts by eminent men and obscure scholars inscribed on large steles and stone disks.... It contains things which, on the highest level, correspond to the Way of the Sages, and on a lower level, supplement the omissions of historians....
In 1101 [aged 17/18],... I came as a bride to the Zhao household. At that time my father was a division head in the Ministry of Rites, and my father-in-law, later a Grand Counselor, was an executive in the Ministry of Personnel. My husband was then 21 and a student in the Imperial Academy.
In those days our two families, the Zhaos and the Lis, were not well-to-do and we were always frugal. On the first and fifteenth day of every month, my husband would..."pawn some clothes"... [and] buy fruit and rubbings of inscriptions. When he brought these home, we would sit facing one another, rolling them out before us, examining and munching. And we thought ourselves persons of the age of Ge-tian [an age of contentment].
When, two years later, he went to take up a post, we lived on rice and vegetables and dressed in common cloth; but he would search out the most... ancient writing and unusual scripts. ...[I]n the Imperial Libraries... one might find many ancient poems omitted from the Classic of Poetry, unofficial histories, and writings never before seen, works hidden in walls and recovered from tombs....
I recall that... a man came with a painting of peonies by Xu Li [900s] and asked twenty thousand cash for it. In those days twenty thousand was a hard sum to raise, even for children of the nobility. We kept the painting with us for a few days, and having thought of no plan by which we could purchase it, we returned it. For several days afterward my husband and I faced each other in deep depression.
Later we lived privately at home for ten years, gathering what we could here and there to have enough food and clothing.... When he got hold of a piece of a piece of calligraphy, a painting, a goblet, or a tripod, we would go over it at our leisure, pointing out faults and flaws, setting for our nightly limit the time it took one candle to burn down. Thus our collection came to surpass all others in fineness of paper and the perfection of the characters.
I happen to have an excellent memory, and every evening after we had finished eating, we would... make tea. Pointing to the heaps of books and histories, we would guess on which line of which page in which chapter of which book a certain passage could be found. Success in guessing determined who got to drink his or her tea first. Whenever I got it right, I would raise the teacup, laughing so hard that the tea would spill in my lap, and I would get up, not having been able to drink any of it at all. I would have been glad to grow old in such a world. [p.591-593]
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"Abandon the household goods first, then the clothes,..."
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[As the last sentence above suggests, "such a world," although it lasted 25 years, did not last until Li Qingzhao grew old. In 1126 the Jin Tartars from the north began to take over much of China, and the court moved south. In 1227, while she and her husband were in the south with 15 cartloads of books, their home, containing the bulk of their treasure, was sacked by the Jin. Two years later, still in the south, Zhao was given a new assignment:]
At that point an imperial decree arrived, ordering my husband to take charge of Hu-Zhou and to proceed to an audience with the Emperor before he took up the office.... He had the boats [containing the remaining treasure] pulled up onto the shore... and took his leave.
I was terribly upset. I shouted to him, "If I hear the city is in danger, what should I do?"
He answered from afar...: "Follow the crowd. If you can't do otherwise, abandon the household goods first, then the clothes, then the books and scrolls, then the old bronzes--but carry the sacrificial vessels for the ancestral temple yourself. Live or die with them; don't give them up!"
With this he galloped off on his horse. [pp.593-594]
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"We hired a boat to take us toward the sea, following the
fleeing court."
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[Zhao became ill and died before he could take up his post. His wife was able to reach him a few days before he died. Then:]
After the funeral was over, I had nowhere to go. His Majesty had already sent the palace ladies elsewhere, and I heard that future crossings of the Yangzi were to be prohibited.... The situation was getting more serious by the day. I thought of my husband's brother-in-law... in Hong-Zhou, and I dispatched two former employees of my husband to go ahead to my brother-in-law, taking the baggage.
In February that winter, the Jin invaders sacked Hong-Zhao and all was lost. Those books which... it took a string of boats to ferry across the Yangzi were scattered into clouds of smoke....
Since I could no longer go upriver, and since the movements of the invaders were unpredictable, I was going to stay with my brother, a reviser of edicts. By the time I reached Tai-Zhou, the governor of the place had already fled. Proceeding on to Shan through Mu-Zhou, we left the clothing and linen behind. Hurrying to Yellow Cliff, we hired a boat to take us toward the sea, following the fleeing court. ...
[E]arly in 1131, all the officials of the government were released from their posts. [pp.594-595]
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"All that remained...."
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[A year later, by the time she was able to find refuge in rented lodgings:]
All that remained were six or so baskets of books, paintings, ink and inkstones that I hadn't been able to part with. I always kept these under my bed and opened them with my own hands. [p.595]
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"When there is possession, there must be loss...."
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[Predictably, five of the baskets were stolen by her landlord. By the time she came to publish Zhao's inscriptions:]
I still have a few volumes from three or four sets, none complete, and some very ordinary pieces of calligraphy, yet I treasure them as if I were protecting my own head --- foolish person that I am!
Nowadays when I chance to look over these books, it's like meeting old friends.... It is so sad---today the ink of his writing seems still fresh, but the trees on his grave have grown to an armspan in girth....
When there is possession, there must be loss of possession; when there is a gathering together, there must be a scattering --- this is the constant principle in things. Someone loses a bow; another person finds a bow; what's so special in that? The reason why I have recorded this story... is to let it serve as a warning for scholars and collectors in later generations. [pp.595-596]
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[This collection includes an essay, "The Snares of Memory," which gives an earlier translation by Owen of Hou hsu. The translation has only minor differences from the above; the essay analyzes each part of the work:]
Owen, Stephen. Remembrances: the experience of the past in
classical Chinese literature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1986. (147 p.)
LC#: PL2265 .O94 1986; ISBN: 0674760158
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Poetry
[Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung have translated 50 ci and 17 shi of Li Qingzhao. The book includes a biography by Chung and detailed endnotes, although no superscripts in the text alert the reader to them:]
Li Ch'ing-chao, complete poems / translated [from the Chinese]
and edited by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung. New York: New Directions,
c1979. (118 p.)
LC#: PL2682 .A27 1979; ISBN: 0811207447, 0811207455
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"We need heroes among the living."
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[Since translations of many of the ci are online
(some in Rexroth's and Chung's translation), the excerpts here
are from the shi. First, from a satire: in the 1127 rush
to escape the invaders, some of the courtiers apparently thought
more of saving their lives than of defending their emperor:]
From: "A satire on the lords who crossed the Yangtse in
flight from the Chin [Jin] troops"
Alive we need heroes among the living
Who when dead will be heroes among the ghosts.
I cannot tell how much we miss Hsiang Yu
Who preferred death to crossing to the East of the River.
[p.65]
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"My spirit has not yet deteriorated."
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[The prose introduction to two shi. In 1133, there was a chance at negotiation with the Jin occupying the north. The 50-year-old widow sent her thoughts to the two ambassadors:]
In the fifth month of the third reign year of Shao-hsing, Lord Han, the Minister of the Council of Defense, and Lord Hu, the Minister of the Board of Works, were appointed as envoys to the Barbarians, in order to establish communication between our Supreme Lord and our captive Emperor Hui and Emperor Ch'in.
I am a married woman, style name Ease and Peace Scholar. Both my father and grandfather were pupils of Lord Han's ancestors. Today the fame of my clan has declined, and our family members are scattered among the humble and the insignificant. I dare not lift up my head to look at the dust raised by the carriages of your Lordship. In addition, I am stricken by poverty and ailments.
Fortunately, my spirit has not yet deteriorated. When I heard of this Imperial decree, I was unable to withhold my voice any longer. Therefore, I have composed two poems in the ancient regular form [shi], to express my trivial thoughts and to prepare poems for a future collector of my poetry. [p.59]
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"I send blood-stained tears to the mountains and rivers
of home."
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[ From "To Lord Hu," the second of the two poems referred to above:]
We shall not ask for the precious pearl of the Duke of Sui,
nor for the priceless jade disk of Master Ho.
We merely ask for the recent news of our homeland.
The Palace of Spiritual Illumination must be still there,
surrounded by desolation.
What's happened to the stone statues buried deep in the grass,
still guarding the Imperial tombs?
Is it true that our people left behind in the occupied territories
are still planting mulberry trees and hemp?
Is it true that the rear guard of the Barbarians
only patrols the city walls?
This widow's father and grandfather were born in Shantung.
Although they never held high office, their fame spread far and
wide.
I remember when they carried on animated discussions
with other scholars by the city gate.
The listeners were so crowded that their sweat fell like rain.
Their offspring crossed the Yangtse River to the South many years
ago.
Drifting in the rapids, they mingled with refugees.
I send blood-stained tears to the mountains and rivers of
home,
And sprinkle a cup of earth on East Mountain.
I imagine when Your Lordship, His Majesty's envoy, upholding
the Imperial spirit,
passes through our two capitals, K'ai Feng and Lo Yang,
Thousands of people would line the streets and present tea and
broth
to welcome you....
Announce that the Emperor's heart aches for the suffering
people---
they are his own children.
Let them understand that the Will of Heaven remembers all living
beings.
Our sagacious Emperor offers his trust which is as brilliant
as the sun.
There is no need to negotiate many times after the long chaos
of the years. [pp.63-65]
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"The life of men could be like this."
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[From "A morning dream," apparently a later poem; An Ch'i-sheng and O Lu-hua were immortals:]
This morning I dreamed I followed
Widely spaced bells, ringing in the wind,
And climbed through mists to rosy clouds.
I realized my destined affinity
With An Ch'i-sheng the ancient sage.
I met unexpectedly O Lu-hua
The heavenly maiden.
...Together we saw lotus roots as big as boats.
Together we ate jujubes as huge as melons.
We were the guests of those on swaying lotus seats.
They spoke in splendid language,
Full of subtle meanings.
The argued with sharp words over paradoxes.
We drank tea brewed on living fire.
Although this might not help the Emperor to govern,
It is endless happiness.
The life of men could be like this.
Why did I have to return to my former home,
Wake up, dress, sit in meditation.
Cover my ears to shut out the disgusting racket.
My heart knows I can never see my dream come true.
At least I can remember
That world and sigh. [p.75]
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[Jaosheng Wang has translated 55 ci, 43 certainly
Li Qingzhao's and 12 attributed to her. The introduction and
the notes to the poems are helpful; the originals are given in
calligraphy on facing pages. (The introduction is available online
in HTML, the whole text in PDF):]
Wang, Jaosheng. The Complete Ci-poems of Li Qingzhao:
A New English Translation. Sino-Platonic Papers, 13 (1989).
LC#: PL1001 .S56
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[Lucy Chao Ho's study gives translations of 43 ci (with the Chinese characters and romanization) and 2 shi, and a paraphrase of Hou hsu; the book also gives a detailed biography, based on contemporary sources. For examples of Ho's translations, see online:]
Ho, Lucy Chao. "More gracile than yellow flowers";
the life and works of Li Ch'ing-chao. Hong Kong, Mayfair Press;
[distributor: Yu Fang Book Co., New York] 1968. (157 p.)
LC#: PL2682 .Z5H6 1968
Issued also as author's thesis (M.A.)--Seton Hall University,
1965. "Editions of Li Ch'ing-chao's works": p. 39-42.
Bibliography: p. 148-153.
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Cilun; A letter on her second marriage (attributed)
[Wilt Idema's and Beata Grant's survey /anthology of Chinese women's writing before 1911 includes a chapter on Li Qingzhao. It provides the authors' complete translations of Hou hsu and Cilun, part of the attributed letter on her second marriage, 20 ci and 3 shi. (See the book's table of contents online).:]
The red brush: writing women of imperial China / Wilt Idema
and Beata Grant (Harvard East Asian monographs; 231) . Cambridge:
Harvard University Asia Center, c2004. (xvi, 931 p.; 26 cm)
LC#: PL2278 .I344 2004; ISBN: 067401393X
Includes bibliographical references and index
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"Rites and music, culture and might were grandly established."
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[Cilun is a brief work, but it shows the high standards Li Qingzhao insisted on for a poetic form that had generally been considered merely a light diversion. She emphasizes the form's complexity and doesn't hesitate to adversely judge her predecessors. After speaking of the songs of earlier times, she comes to her own:]
Once the present dynasty was founded [960], rites and music, culture and might were grandly established. But it would take another one hundred years of nurturing to produce a Liu Yong [c.987-c.1053], who changed the old tunes and turned them into new ones.... But although he adheres to the notes and the scales, his words and phrases are vulgar and common. [p.236]
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"There are few who really understand it."
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[Li Qingzhao as critic, evaluating her contemporaries, and through her choice of comparisons, revealing something of her own values:]
...[W]e know that the lyric is a genre unto itself and that there are few who really understand it.
Later, only Yan Jidao, He Zhu, Qin Guan, and Huang Tingjian were capable of understanding the genre. Even so, Yan Jidao suffers from a lack of developed exposition, and He Zhu is deficient in classical decorum.
Qin Guan focuses on the delineation of feeling but does not employ enough allusions. His works may be compared to a beautiful woman of a poor family: she may be exceedingly voluptuous and dazzling, but in the end she does not have the bearing of one born to wealth and status.
Huang Tingjian loves allusions, but his works contain many faults and failings; they may be compared to a beautiful jade, the crack in which diminishes its value by half. [p.237]
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"In my panic, I acted too rashly."
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[Idema and Grant accept the authenticity of and give an excerpt from a letter attributed to Li Qingzhao, sent to Qi Chongli, a high official and relative of her first husband. In it she explains what led to her second marriage in 1132 to the official Zhang Ruzhou (who apparently wished to gain whatever of her valuables had not been lost) and what followed it. The classic Rites (Li ji) described the ideal widow as one who did not remarry:]
Since youth I have been versed in the norms of righteousness and have had a rough understanding of the Odes and Rites. Not long ago, because of a serious illness, I was hovering at the brink of death.... Even though I still had my weak younger brother [Li Jang] to taste my medicine for me, we had only one old soldier to guard the gate.
In my panic, I acted too rashly; I believed Zhang's stories which were as glib as a bamboo reed, and was misled by his words which were as beautiful as brocade. As my younger brother was easily deceived, he took the man at his word.... As I myself was about to die, I had not the slightest suspicion that Zhang would not be "a jade mirror stand." He brought unspeakable pressure to bear on us and we found ourselves in an insoluble quandary. [p.215]
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"Yet I was also unwilling to... take my misery for happiness."
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[Remarriage was socially disapproved ("my disgusting behavior"), but to make accusations against a court official was much more dangerous. Li Qingzhao finally secured her divorce (with the help of Qi Chongli), but not before she would have experiences unlike anything she had known before:]
Even before I had recovered from my illness, he had taken me by force to his home. As soon as I could again see and hear clearly, I realized it would be impossible to live with him.... While I myself had earned public contempt for my disgusting behavior, he was determined not only to carry off the prize but also to kill me. And so he gave free rein to his brutal violence, and each day I suffered his beatings....
I complained to Heaven and Earth, but how could I dare... complain to all and sundry! Yet I was also unwilling to resign myself to my terrible fate and take my misery for happiness. As outside help was nowhere to be found, there was no harm in lodging a complaint.
But how could I have predicted that such a trifling affair would come to the notice of the emperor! A decision was taken in the palace that this case was to be assigned to the highest court. Shackled hand and foot I gave my deposition, and was forced to make my case together with the worst criminals. I felt deeply ashamed.... I only prayed for escape from death, I did not hope for a restitution of my money. [pp.215-16]
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"I have only myself to blame."
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[Looking back, Li Qingzhao can identify her own responsibility for her plight:]
It was not Heaven's punishment that I was forced to live with this cruel and violent man for a hundred days; it was not the doing of anyone else that I had to spend nine days in prison. If one tries to chase away a sparrow by throwing gold at him, what profit will come of it? If one smashes a dish of jade with one's head, one is bound to suffer a loss. I have only myself to blame for this stupid misery.... [p.216]
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[This anthology also contains a translation, by John Timothy Wixted, of Cilun, (here called Lun ci) with useful notes. The book includes 22 of Li Qingzhao's poems, translated by Eugene Eoyang. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women writers of traditional China: an anthology of poetry
and criticism / edited by Kang-i Sun Chang and Haun Saussy; Charles
Kwong, associate editor; Anthony C. Yu and Yu-kung Kao, consulting
editors. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, c1999.
(xxiv, 891 p.: maps)
LC#: PL2278 .W65 1999; ISBN: 0804732302, 0804732310
Includes bibliographical references (p. 851-869) and index
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[Another translation, by Shiu-Pang E. Almberg, of Li Qingzhao's letter to Qi Chongli. Almberg's introduction describes in detail the situation that lead to the letter. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Almberg, Shiu-Pang E. Li Qingzhao's Letter to Academician
Qi Chongli. Renditions, 41/42 (1994)
LC#: PL2658.E1 R56; ISSN: 0377-3515
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[This is the print version of the essay collection available online. (See the book's table of contents.):]
Voices of the Song lyric in China/ edited by Pauline Yu (Studies
on China; 18). Berkeley: University of California Press, c1994.
(xxi, 408 p.)
LC#:PL2336 .V65 1994; ISBN: 0520080564
Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-391) and index
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[P'in-ch'ing Hu's 1966 study is rather patronizing, but it gives much of what is known of her life, as well as translations of 50 ci and 1 shi:]
Hu, P'in-ch'ing. Li Ch'ing-chao (Twayne's world authors series,
5. China). New York, Twayne Publishers [1966]. (128 p.)
LC#: PL2682.Z5 H8
Bibliography: p. [123]-124
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[Patricia Buckley Ebrey makes only fleeting reference to Li Qingzhao, but her book is useful for its broad coverage of the period in which the poet lived. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The inner quarters: marriage and
the lives of Chinese women in the Sung period. Berkeley: University
of California Press, c1993. (xviii, 332 p. : ill., map)
LC#:HQ684 .A25 1993; ISBN: 0520081560, 0520081587
Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-319) and index
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Updated 02-24-08