Gu Taiqing (;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Gù Tàiqīng''; 1799 – c. 1877) was one of the top-ranked women poets of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. She is especially known for her ''ci'' poetry and for her sequel to the novel ''Honglou meng'' (

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known for ...

). One scholar estimates that there are as many as 1,163 surviving poems written by Gu.

Life

She was descended from Manchu family from the Silin-Gioro (西林覺羅 Xilin Jueluo) clan. There had been some debate as to whether or not she was of

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

descent. It had been claimed that she was born into a banner family named Gu and took on Manchu identity after her marriage to Aisin-Gioro Yihui 奕会 (1799-1838), a Manchu prince. Other scholars claim that the confusion about her identity is an attempt to obscure her family's descent from E-er-tai, a Manchu grand secretary disgraced (and forced to commit suicide) during one of Qianlong's literary inquisitions. Her marriage to Yihui seems to have been a happy one, despite the fact that she had the status of concubine rather than primary princess consort (Yihui's princess consort was Lady

Hešeri Hešeri ( Chinese: 赫舍里; Pinyin: Hesheli; Manchu: ''Hešeri''), is a clan of Manchu nobility with Jianzhou Jurchens roots, originally hailing from the area which is now the modern Chinese provinces of Jilin and Liaoning. It was once one of ...

). She had five children—three sons and two daughters. Yihui also had children with his primary wife, who died early. Gu's life was thrown into turmoil when her husband died in 1838. Yihui's family forced her and her children out of their Beijing home. The reasons for their hostility are unclear, but a rumored affair between Gu Taiqing and Gong Zichen may have been part of the story. During this period of poverty she may have sustained her family by selling jewelry and artwork. After the death of her husband, Gu's circle of female friends, including the

Xu sisters Yunlin and Yunjiang Xu or XU may refer to: People and characters * Xu (surname), one of two Chinese surnames ( or /), transliterated as Xu in English * ǃXu, a name for the ǃKung group of Bushmen; may also refer to the ǃKung language or the ǃKung people * ǃXu ( ...

and

Shen Shanbao Shen Shanbao (沈善宝, 1808–1862) courtesy name Xiangpei 湘佩 and style name Xihu sanren 西湖散人 was a Chinese poet and writer active during the Qing Dynasty. She is the author of the ''Mingyuan Shihua,'' which provided biographical mat ...

, who was her sworn sister, became even more important to her, both emotionally and as a source of creative inspiration.

Work

Gu Taiqing was the author of a sequel to ''Honglou meng'' (Dream of the Red Chamber), entitled ''Honglou meng ying'' (紅樓夢影 Dream Shadows of the Red Chamber). Gu Taiqing's poems exist in a number of modern editions. Translations of individual poems have been made by Ellen Widmer; David McCraw, Grace S. Fong and Irving Yucheng Lo; Yanning Wang; and Wilt Idema and Beata Grant.''The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China,'' edited by Wilt Idema and Beata Grant. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard East Asia Monographs, 2004, pp.630-652. This section also includes a brief excerpt from her sequel to ''Honglou meng.'

References

External links

Chinese text of some of her poems at the Ming-Qing Women's Writings database
{{Authority control Chinese women poets Qing dynasty poets 1799 births Year of death missing 19th-century Chinese women writers 1870s deaths Manchu people Poets from Beijing 19th-century Chinese poets Qing dynasty princesses consorts

Life

Work

References

Further reading

External links