LI CH'ING-CHAO: REMEMBERED

Li was born in Licheng; her father was a friend of Su Shi. Before she married Zhao Mingcheng in 1101, her poetry was already well known with elite circles. The couple shared an interest in art collecting, and they lived in the province Shandong. After he began his official career, he was often an absent husband. This inspired some of Li Qingzhao’s love poems. They both collected books, and shared a love of reading and writing poetry. They also wrote about bronze artifacts of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The Northern Song capital of Kaifeng fell in 1126 to the Jurchens. Fighting took place in Shandong and their house was burned. When they fled to Nanjing, where they lived for a year, they were able to take many of their possessions. Zhao died in 1129, which was a cruel blow on Li, One she never recovered from; she considered it her responsibility to keep what was left of their collection safe. Li described her married life, and the turmoil of her flight in Hou hsu.