I picked the word ‘zhi’
- Poetry of Li Qingzhao

‘zhi’: knowledge or fame

This poem was an outcome of an intellectual game she had with her lady friends perhaps in the drawing room (similar to a poetry club /book club today), where Yi’an picked the word ‘zhi’ so she had to come up with a poem using the word as the end rhyme right there and then, in seconds! She also had a lot of fun doing the game with her husband and maybe, her brother, too. They could spend hours playing the game and the rewards were usually the loser serve tea to the winner, or it could be wine made of rice, flowers or fruits.

The ‘she’ in the poem refers to herself. She’s past thirty years old now and her works had been well recognized ever since teenage years. Famous poets like Zhao Buzhi, Wang Jun and many others would mention her poems to their peers for her amazingly good lines. Zhao even said that her teenage poems  “almost as good as the best poets of the time.”