ABSTRACT
In 1823 the poet Chen Wenshu (1775-1845) resigned from his post and returned home to mourn for his deceased father. For the next seven years, he lived in a residence on West Lake in Hangzhou.1 During his time there, while he was engaged in the compilation of his collected works, he also embarked on another project: the restoration of the graves of three women who had been buried near West Lake.2 These three women, the unknown Lady Juxiang of the Song dynasty (960-1279), buried on the island Gushan in the lake, the legendary late Ming poet [Feng] Xiaoqing (1595-1612), and the late Ming painter Yang Huiling,3 became the focus of a collection of writings, published 36 years after Chen’s death as Lanyinji (Orchid Fate Collection).4 The collection testifi es to the collaborative nature of this project: apart from Chen Wenshu it involved his daughter-in-law Wang Duan (1793-1838), his concubines Guan Yun and Wen Jingyu, his daughter Chen Huaju, and woman poets like Wu Guichen (fl . late eighteenth century) and Liang Desheng (1771-1847).5 Chen Wenshu asked these women, and many other male and female poets in his circle, to contribute some verses to the collection, which also included earlier writings associated with the three women and their graves.6 Together, the writings in this collection illustrate the signifi cance of these three women for Chen Wenshu and his social and literary circles.
