Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this poetry collection, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Before seeing this on Netgalley I had never heard of Li Qingzhao and now I'm about to preorder this and see what other books I can hunt down. It's a new sort of niche interest I suppose, but I find Li Qingzhao's life equal parts interesting and tragic. I used to live in Hangzhou where she eventually settled at one point and now I wish I had known about her then. I'm sure that if I had shown an interest one of my students would have mentioned her, but I didn't know enough at the time. However, based on my Google Maps history I did visit her Memorial Hall/Pavillion while I was there. For me, it is both a miracle that so many of her poems survive, but also disappointing that more didn't.

Her poetry has a descriptive and yet ethereal quality to me. However, there is a distinct shift in tone from her earlier poetry to her later poetry. I wish that some of her essays survived, but in my research it seems that mostly only her ci form poetry survived. Wendy Chen does an excellent job giving us readers an overview of Li Qingzhao's life and poetry at the beginning of the book, but also for stoking the flames of curiosity to learn more.

Overall, I think that fans of classic Chinese poetry will probably have already read the poems here, but I this could be a chance to reexamine or compare. Fans of poetry looking to dip their toes into classic Chinese poetry will find this to be a friendly and enchanting place to start. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this for my shelf and to seek out some friends to go next to it. I also hope that Wendy Chen does more work either for Li Qingzhao or some other aspects of Chinese poetry/culture. I found her writing in the beginning to be clear, concise, and educational.

I saw this ARC and wanted to read it because I really know nothing about Chinese poetry. Reading the translated poems, I must admit that they are not something that lights a spark in me. I can't read the original, but I believe Wendy Chen did a great job - which means I am simply not a fan of Chinese "ci".

On the other hand, reading about the poetess who survived a war and loss of her husband and fortune, abusive second husband, imprisonment and defied cultural expectations for women was such a pleasure for me. Many interesting informations about life and law in 12th century China caught my interest and made me respect Li Qingzhao even more.