Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 09-12-08
Xue Tao /Hsueh T'ao /Sie Thao
/Hung-tu (768-831)
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"THE URGE TO MAKE POEMS: EVERYONE'S GOT IT. BUT I ALONE...
GRASP RICH SUBTLETIES OF SCENES."
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Xue Tao (old spelling: Hsueh T'ao) was the daughter of a minor government official in Xian, the capital of Tang dynasty China. When Xue Tao was a child, her father was transferred to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan province; by the time she was in her mid-teens, her father had died. Since her mother did not return to her home in Xian, scholars have assumed that she was too poor to do so. At any rate, Xue Tao was registered in Chengdu's guild of courtesans and entertainers.
In part because of her skill at poetry and calligraphy, she became the favorite concubine of Wei Gao, the military governor of the province. He made her his official hostess; his successors apparently kept her in this position. As such, she came to know the prominent figures of her day, including the major poets Bo Juyi and Yuan Zhen. She and Yuan Zhen became close friends (perhaps lovers).
When Wei Gao died in 805, he left Xue Tao provided for, so she was able to live independently for the 25 years before her death. She continued to write poetry and remained a respected literary figure. A contemporary wrote that she became a Daoist priestess; certainly much of her extant poetry reflects the Daoist emphasis on spontaneity and simplicity of life.
Some 450 poems by Xue Tao were gathered in "The Brocade River Collection" that survived until the 1300s; today about 100 poems are extant, but even this is a greater number than by any other Tang dynasty woman.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about a secondary source.
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1. Translations by Jeanne Larsen (for more, see below, under "In print"):
(a) With a brief description of Larsen's 1987 book, Brocade River Poems: Selected Works of the Tang Dynasty Courtesan Xue Tao, "When that chilly hue strikes clear."
(b) Use your browser's search function to go to "Xue" for "Pull up!"
(c) Near the bottom of the page, the first half of the poem, "In your astral palace."
2. From various translators:
(a) Ten poems ("Spring Gazing" is made up of four separate poems), translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping.
(b) Go to "Xue" for six poems: the four of "Gazing at Spring" (as above); then "A strain of mist arouses from a pouring spring,," and "Sudden westwind tells the coming pairs of wild geese." The translations are by Bern Smiley.
(c) Two other versions of the "Spring Gazing" poems, these by Zachary Chartkoff and by Larsen; the original is also given in script.
(d) "Poems are written in various shapes" (another version of the first poem given above in #2a); the translation is by Mary Kennedy (for more from Kennedy, see "In print").
(e) Two poems (the second and third in a collection): "The crescent, tiny as the curtain hook," translated by Eric W. Johnson; and "Hills and rivers in landscape," translated by Larsen (with Larsen's commentary).
(f) "Thousand piled-up cloud peaks," translated by Dongbo, with Chinese script and romanization; the phrase "pillow talk" here refers to a legend that using water as a pillow purifies the body. (And at the same site, a brief biography of Xue Tao.)
(g) "Tender reeds," described as "retranslated by Professor Gloom."
(h) "Blossoms of spring," translated by Z.Z., with the original in script.
(i) "Behind a ribbon of evening mist, a chill sky distills."
(j) Near the bottom of the page, a prose translation of the opening of one poem of Xue Tao's sequence titled "Ten Partings," on bamboo parted from its protecting wall (for three of the complete "Parting" poems, see "In print").
3. Two pages of a 1700s manuscript edition of Xue Tao's poems, with a brief biography in English.
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[Jeanne Larsen has translated 67 of Xue Tao's poems; she also gives the Chinese characters for each poem. The book has a thorough introduction and helpful notes:]
Brocade River poems: selected works of the Tang dynasty courtesan
Xue Tao / translated and introduced by Jeanne Larsen (The Lockert
Library of poetry in translation). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, c1987. (xxvii, 110 p.)
LC#: PL2677.H76 A24 1987; ISBN: 0691066868, 0691014345
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"But now at last I've come to understand."
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[Xue Tao apparently spent some time in a frontier town, perhaps during one or more of the several periods that rebellious generals were threatening Chengdu; Wei is her patron/lover:]
Title: "On being banished to the Borderlands: Submitted to Commander Wei":
I'd heard of the hardships
in walled-off frontier towns.
But now at last
I've come to understand.
Ashamed, I take up
a song from your court
and sing it
for back-country boys. [p.45]
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"Just one fleck: now it's defiled."
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[Three of "Ten Partings," a sequence of poems sent, Larsen believes, either to Yuan Zhen, a fellow-poet and perhaps a lover, or to Wei Gao --- at any rate, to someone whom Xue Tao had offended by some hasty action:]
"Dog parted from her master":
Yes, she's a good dog,
lived four or five years
within his crimson gates,
fur sweet-smelling,
feet quite clean,
master, affectionate.
Then by chance she
took a nip
and bit a well-loved guest.
Now she no longer sleeps
upon his red silk rugs. [p.51]
"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. [p.56]
"Fish parted from the pond":
She leapt and danced in a deep
lovely pool
through four or five years' falls.
She flicked her ruddy tail
to tease
the silky line,
the hook.
Then by chance she squirmed and broke
a his-face-lily bud,
and where that water ripples clear
no longer takes
her sport. [p.57]
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"He's done with reading holy texts."
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[A poem titled "Listening to a monk play the reed pipes":]
Dawn cicadas choke back sobs.
Evening orioles grieve.
Lively language,
quick,
precise,
from ten fingers' tips.
He's done with reading holy texts.
He want to play a bit.
His tune floats after
temple chimes
to gild clear autumn's air. [p.70]
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"But each perches on its one branch, alone."
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[On cicadas:]
Dew-rinsed:
their pure notes
carry far.
Windblown:
as dry, fasting leaves
are blown.
Chirr after chirr,
as if in unison.
But each perches
on its one branch,
alone. [p.4]
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"And yet, I always write as I please."
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[Here,"Green Jade" represents the dutiful Confucian woman:]
Title: "Sending old poems to Yuan Zhen":
The urge to make poems:
everyone's got it.
But I alone
really grasp
rich subtleties of scenes.
I sing of flowers beneath the moon,
loving what's still and pale,
or write of willows at rainy dawn
for sake of their angled fringe.
Women like Green Jade
have long been kept
hidden in secret depths.
And yet, I always write
as I please,
on my scarlet poem-slips.
Grown old, one can't collect one's work
and fix up all that's wrong,
so I send these poems to you,
as if shown to teach a boy. [p.88]
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[This anthology includes 47 poems by Xue Tao, translated by Bannie Chow and Thomas Cleary. All but a few are in Larsen, above, but it is interesting to compare different interpretations of the same poems. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Autumn willows: poetry by women of China's golden age / translated
from the original Chinese by Bannie Chow, Thomas Cleary .Ashland,
OR: Story Line Press, c2003. (117 p.)
LC#: PL2658.E3 A87 2003; ISBN:1586540254
Li, Ye, 8th cent. Poems. English Xue, Tao, 768-831. Poems. English
Yu, Xuanji, 842-872.
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"I'd never look at a landscape screen ever, ever again!"
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[Compare Chow and Cleary's translation to Larsen's "Pull up!" available online:]
Title: "On the way into exile, to Commander Wu":
I draw the reins atop the ridge,
cold and getting colder;
a light wind and fine rain
pierce my heart and liver.
If only I could be allowed
to go back to my home,
I'd never look at a landscape screen
ever, ever again! [p.75]
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"...the land so desolate and poor."
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[One of the poems not given in Larsen:]
Title: "To Prime Minister Gao, after pacification of a rebellion":
Startled to see the land
so desolate and poor,
I glimpse the verdant hills to see
the setting sun of yore;
now I trust your majesty
to bring light as before;
even sun and moon above
take radiance from yours. [p.52]
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"...nothing more than ink set down on paper."
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[And another:]
Title: "Atop a mountain":
Even in a master painting
the sense of a mountain's grandeur
is after all nothing more
than ink set down on paper;
now that I'm actually here on high,
gazing abroad from up in the sky,
my headdress, with its trailing pearls
crowns a thousand peaks. [p.56]
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[This is a 1969 novel by Evelyn Eaton, based on Xue Tao's life (in the book she is called Hung Tu, her "personal" name). The novel incorporates 37 of the poems (including several not in Larsen), translated by Mary Kennedy; the poems are also presented together at the end of the novel:]
Eaton, Evelyn Sybil Mary. Go ask the river (1st Celestial
Arts pbk. ed.) Berkeley, Calif.: Celestial Arts, 1990. (viii,
280 p.; 22 cm)
LC#: PS3509.A84 G6 1990; ISBN: 0890876118
Includes "Poems, by Hung Tu [Sie Thao], adapted by Mary
Kennedy" published in 1968 under title: I am a thought of
you]
[Eaton's novel originally published: New York, Harcourt, Brace
& World, 1969]
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"...serenely unaware of summer's passing."
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The golden headdress of the Mandarin drake
gleams in long grass near the marble steps.
A duck is nesting nearby in a green hollow,
Blue and purple feathers, elegant white markings,
shine in the pride of fine weather---
they are serenely unaware of summer's passing.
[p.250]
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"Careless hands leave torn red blossoms...."
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This magical young season banishes the clouds
and wakes the land to bloom.
Fish play in the river pools
catching new scales from the small petals on the surface of the
water.
The worldly have no knowledge of the delicate message of flowers;
Careless hands leave torn red blossoms scattered along the bank.
[p.272]
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"All night I have listened to the wise, yet failed to learn."
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The early sun dissolves the mist
that has covered the mountain.
All night I have listened to the wise,
yet failed to learn.
Dimly, darkly, the eternal pines
rise without effort from the vanishing fog. [p.279]
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[In her book on ci /tz'u (poems written to be set to existing music), Marsha Wagner gives a good description of the Tang period; she also provides useful background in a section on the courtesan culture (pp.81-91), in which Xue Tao is briefly discussed:]
Wagner, Marsha L. The lotus boat: the origins of Chinese tz'u
poetry in T'ang popular culture (Studies in Oriental culture;
no. 18). New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. (xviii, 199
p.: ill.)
LC#: PL2341 .W33 1984; ISBN: 0231042760
Bibliography: p. [171]-179. Includes index.
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Updated 09-12-08