ABSTRACT
Li Qingzhao (1083-1151 a . d . ) , China’s greatest female poet, specialized in ci poetry-lyric verse written to popular tunes. Considered a genius, she is described by historian Hu Binqing as an “ epoch-making poet on an equal footing with her (male) contemporaries in prosody, rhetoric, and creation.’’ Li is praised for the originality of poetic imagery, emotional language, and the harmony of verses. She also wrote (shi) shih poetry, or po etry in regular verse, but few poems of this style have survived.
