Li Qingzhao

Li Qingzhao (Chinese: 李清照; pinyin: Lǐ Qīngzhào; Wade–Giles: Li Ch'ing-chao; 1084 – ca 1155), pseudonym Yi'an Jushi (易安居士), was a Song dynasty Chinese writer and poet. She is considered the greatest woman poet in Chinese history.

Li Qingzhao was born 1084 in Zhangqiu (modern Shandong province) into a family of scholar-officials. Her father was a student of Su Shi. He had a large collection of books and Li was educated during her childhood. She was unusually outgoing and knowledgeable for a woman of noble birth.

Before she got married, her poetry was already well known within elite circles. In 1101 she married Zhao Mingcheng, with whom she shared interests in art collection and epigraphy. They lived in present-day Shandong. After her husband started his official career, he was often absent. They were not particularly rich but shared enjoyment of collecting inscriptions and calligraphy which made their daily life count and they lived happily together. This inspired some of the love poems that she wrote. Li and her husband collected many books. They shared a love of poetry and often wrote poems for each other as well as writing about bronze artifacts of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The Northern Song capital of Kaifeng fell in 1127 to the Jurchens during the Jin–Song wars. Fighting took place in Shandong and their house was burned. The couple took many of their possessions when they fled to Nanjing, where they lived for a year. Zhao died in 1129 en route to an official post. The death of her husband was a cruel stroke from which Li never recovered. It was then up to her to keep safe what was left of their collection. Li described her married life and the turmoil of her flight in an Afterword to her husband's posthumously published work, Jin shi lu. Her earlier poetry portrays her carefree days as a woman of high society, and is marked by its elegance.

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