Yun Zhu or Wanglan Yun Zhu aka Adept of the Lotus Lake (29 July 1771 – 1 June 1833) was a

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 ...

poet, painter, anthologist and moralist.Yun Zhu
Oxford Reference, Retrieved 17 November 2016 She gathered together thousands of poems written by hundreds of women.

Life

She was born in 1771 into an artistic family in Yanghu in

Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...

. Her aunt, Yun Bing, was a skilled artist. and her great grandfather,

Yun Shouping Yun Shouping ( Chinese: 惲壽平; 1633 – 1690), also known as Nantian ( Chinese: 南田), was a Chinese calligrapher and painter. He was a major artist of the early Chinese Qing dynasty. Along with the Four Wangs and Wú Lì, he was regarded ...

, was a renowned painter. During her birth her grandmother had a dream that a stranger gave her a large shining pearl. Taking this as a sign she was called "Zhu" the word for pearl. Her father was a jailer but she married Wanglan Tinglu who was a Manchu aristocrat. They had four children Wanyan Linqing in 1791, Wanyan Linchang in 1792, Wanyan Linshu in 1794 and a daughter the following year. 惲珠的四季平安圖

She wrote and collected poems. Her favourite son Linqing discovered that his mother had collected over 3,000 poems by women during her childhood and as an adult. Possibly without her consent Linqing arranged for some to published in 1814. Yun was annoyed as she felt that only poems intended for posterity should be published. Her ''Drafts poems and Lyrics from Hongxiang Library'' went to be reprinted in 1866 and 1928. She restarted her life at the age of 50 following the death of her husband in 1820, the year before. She took a pen name of ''Adept of the Lotus Lake''. She went to live with her son and this meant that we know of her life from his autobiography. He was an expert in water conservation in

Anhui province Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

. When he moved from the Huizhou prefecture, she wanted to travel via the sights of Xin'an, so she wanted a route through the Dahong mountain. Linqing obliged and he led the way giving her a commentary. Linqing decided to get a painting made of her following his lead up steep mountain paths in a sedan chair. Her pre-eminent work was a book of poetry called ''Women's Poetry: anthology for a Correct Beginning''. The book included 933 different authors and 1,700 poems. It took twenty years to complete and it included poets from

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. Yun was able to travel widely as accompanied her father on his business trips. The proof reading of the book was completed by her granddaughters and her daughters in law. She was known as "Dame dowager of the first rank" and had been given other honours by the Imperial court. She taught three sons and fourteen grandchildren before she died in 1833. She died without her favourite son ashehadbeen ordered by the emperor to become the Governor of

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

. This was a challenge for Linqing as he did not want to leave. However fear of bandits and of disobeying the emperor meant that he had to journey alone. His split loyalties are shown in the paintings and poetry he created en route. After she died Linqing took her remains to Beijing for burial.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yun, Zhu 1771 births 1833 deaths Qing dynasty poets Anthologists Chinese women poets 19th-century Chinese poets Poets from Jiangsu Writers from Changzhou 19th-century Chinese women writers Painters from Changzhou