ABSTRACT
Hou Zhi was the eldest of Hou Xueshi’s children. The second child was a son (Hou Yunsong), who was talented at painting and later passed the provincial examination. The third child was also a son (Hou Yunshi), who passed the imperial examination. Hou Zhi started learning to compose poetry in her early child hood. In this she was instructed by both her father and her cousin Hou Yunjin, a successful poet whose works were collected in Tanhua shu shiju (Poems in Epiphyllum House).
