In ancient China, the overall environment was not friendly to women, and if a woman showed great talent, it was not necessarily a good thing for her personally. There are too many talented women in history, and their situation makes people sigh after seeing them.
Let's talk about a few talented women of the Tang Dynasty.
Xue Tao's "popularity" is relatively high, and he was born in a family of official eunuchs. However, Xue Tao's father, Xue Yun, was an upright and courageous person who spoke, so much so that he offended the powerful people of the dynasty and was relegated to Sichuan.
As a result, a large family waded through the mountains and rivers from the bustling capital chang'an to the distant Chengdu. At the age of 14, Xue Tao's father died of miasma from an envoy to Nanzhao, which immediately put the life of the mother and daughter in trouble. Therefore, in order to make a living, Xue Tao relied on his "beautiful appearance" and "tonal rhythm, good debate and wisdom, and work poetry endowment", and joined the music book at the age of 16 and became a camp prostitute.
At that time, Xue Tao was not only beautiful but also versatile, so he made friends with some well-known literati, such as Bai Juyi, Du Mu and others. In addition, Xue Tao and Wei Gao and Yuan Shu still have emotional intersections, but there are no results. Wei Gao did give her a lot of financial support, but this fueled her temper. At that time, some officials in Sichuan wanted to see Wei Gao and began to open up relations from her. Wei Gao was very dissatisfied with this, and in a fit of rage, he ordered her to be sent to Songzhou (松州, in modern Songpan County, Sichuan) as punishment.
In the end, after Xue Tao broke away from the music book, he lived a very indifferent life and died at the age of 73.
Yu Xuanji, also one of the four great female poets of the Tang Dynasty, had a rather bumpy life. Written histories of her are rare, but scattered in a few personal anthologies.
It is said that she is very intelligent, especially in poetry. It is said that Wen Tingjun admired Yu Xuanji's talent, which made the two become good friends, and from time to time they would write poems. After that, Wen Tingjun brokered her to marry Li Yi. However, Li Yi already had a wife, and Yu Xuanji was not tolerated by the main mother, so he had to become a Taoist priest at home. But for some reason, Yu Xuanji actually killed the maid out of jealousy and was executed three years later.
Before her death, she also wrote a seven-sentence poem "Composition in Prison":
Burn incense on the jade altar, and give a simple gift to the golden que.
The bright moon shines in the gap, and the breeze opens the short placket.
Due to the small amount of information, it is impossible to make a complete evaluation of Yu Xuanji, and can only identify her talent through the poems she left behind. The poems of Yu Xuanji have survived in one volume, collecting 49 poems, and the National Library of China (North Map) has an engraved copy of the Southern Song Dynasty "Tang Girl Fish Xuanji Poems". In addition, in the "Wenyuan Yinghua" there is a fish Xuanji "Folding Willow" one, which is not found in the concentration, so there are 50 Fish Xuanji poems in the world.
Like the two of them, so literate, if they are put in the present, not to mention other aspects, at least there is no concern in life. But they have to grievance themselves, even if they are full of talent, without the protection of their fathers, brothers and husbands, life can only be described as difficult.
In fact, one of Li Longji's concubines, Jiang Caiping, can also be regarded as a talented woman of that era. It is said that at the age of five or six, he was able to write poetry and composition, and when he entered the palace at the age of 12, he was very favored by the emperor and was named "Princess Mei". However, there came a Yang Guifei, and in the end, she was demoted to the Cold Palace.
During the "Anshi Rebellion", Li Longji secretly fled, and the only concubines around him were Yang Guifei, and the rest of the people did not want it. However, by the time Li Longji returned, he could no longer find anyone. Since Tang Xuanzong escaped and did not take Concubine Mei in the Yang Palace, Concubine Mei had to commit suicide by wrapping herself in a well.
Take a look at the poems she and the emperor wrote when they were admiring plums:
A branch of shadow pigment, alone against severe frost and cold.
Morning and evening incense, incense drifting for ten miles.
It is said that one day Princess Mei had a dream to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang at this time, and Princess Mei said: "When Your Majesty fled, I died at the hands of the rebels, and there were people who pitied me and buried me under the plum tree on the east side of the pool. In the end, The Tang Xuan Sect sent people to find the body of Concubine Mei under the plum tree by the hot spring pool, wrapped in a brocade mattress and piled with almost three feet of thick soil. Inspecting the knife marks under the ribs of Concubine Mei's body, Tang Xuanzong cried loudly, changed the burial with concubine etiquette, and ordered people to plant various plum trees around her cemetery, and personally wrote sacrifices for her...
If she hadn't entered the royal backyard that year, would Jiang Caiping have lived a happier life, and would her literary attainments have gone further?
In the previous dynasty, Nanqi also produced a talented woman, although she only lived for 23 years, but she was very famous in the folk, she was Su Xiaoxiao. In fact, almost nothing of her own poetry has survived, but literati have written her stories throughout the ages, which were first seen in the Jade Terrace New Wing.
So, what kind of legend does Su Xiaoxiao have?
It is still the story of a talented woman, but she is just a poetry trick, which big family can accept this identity? It seems that she and some literati at that time had a lot of intersection, but it was just a matter of admiring her appearance and exchanging some poems. Fortunately, Su Xiaoxiao is not a person who is entangled in emotions, but his physical health is not good, and he thanked the world early. And before dying, he instructed the waiters around him: "I have nothing else to ask for, but I want to bury my bones after death." ”
In fact, Su Xiaoxiao's story can be passed down, and more is that she sponsored a student Bao Ren to study. Later, Bao Ren passed the examination, but she had already returned to the Western Heavens. Bao Ren, who took the test to ascend to the throne, later followed Su Xiaoxiao's last wish to "bury his bones in Xiling" and funded the construction of a tomb on the bank of Xiling Bridge, and a stone stele was erected in front of the tomb, with the inscription "Qiantang Su Xiaoxiao's Tomb". But in 1964, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, the tomb was destroyed by the Red Guards. After a heated debate among the public in 2004, the Hangzhou municipal government decided to rebuild Su Xiaoxiao's tomb, and the garden expert Meng Zhaozhen repeatedly deliberated on the old photos and rebuilt it.
Come to think of it, too many literati expect such a woman, who is not only talented and good-looking, but also has a common heart.
In addition, there is a talented woman Cai Wenji in history, who has a fate, and if it were not for Cao Cao's later spending money to redeem her, it is estimated that there would be fewer colors in the history of literature.
Cai Wenji's father, Cai Yong, was a very powerful writer and calligrapher at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and after learning that his daughter was talented in musical rhythm, he was also devoted to cultivating. However, Cai Wenji's first marriage was due to the premature death of her husband, so that she could only return to her mother's home. At that time, Dong Zhuo was holding the Han Room hostage and forcing Cai Yong to become an official at his place, and then killed him because of the incident. After that, Cai Wenji lost her dependence and was robbed to the Xiongnu.
Perhaps, in her opinion, this life should be qualitative.
Fortunately, the talented Cao Cao and Cai Yong were good friends at that time, and after hearing her news, he did not hesitate to take her back and arranged a marriage for her, so that he had the "Poem of Sorrow and Indignation":
Han Ji lost his authority, and Dong Zhuo was in chaos.
If you want to usurp the land, you will first harm the virtuous.
……
Exile becomes contemptuous, and often fears that it will be re-donated.
When life is geometric, I have sorrow all the years.
Nowadays, when I read their stories again, I don't feel that it is a little unfair to feel that the world is not wrong, since I have given them such excellent talent, why should I give them so many tribulations?
It can only be said that in such a society, there has never been any space for them to give full play to their talents. How many people really appreciate them? Cao Cao took Cai Wenji back, and later took the opportunity of her husband Jun's crime to ask for Cai Yong's books. Although Cao Cao loved Cai, it could not be denied that he still had a selfish heart.
Therefore, perhaps only like Xue Tao, who looks down on everything in the red dust, can he live a long life.
Resources:
["The Biography of Tang Caizi", "Yan Zi Liu: The Talented Female Fish Mystery", "The Biography of Concubine Mei"]