Xue Tao



Xue Tao (, c. 770–832), courtesy name Hongdu (洪度/宏度) was a Chinese Gējì, poet and qingke(清客) of the Tang dynasty. She was one of the most famous women poets of Tang poetry, along with Yu Xuanji, Li Ye and Liu Caichun known as "the four great female poets of the Tang Dynasty".

Life
Xue Tao was the daughter of a minor government official in Chang'an, which was the Chinese capital during the Tang Dynasty. Her father, Xue Yun (薛郧) was transferred to Chengdu, when she was still little, or possibly before her birth. Her father died while she was young, but she had literary education from him; her adult career also offered her the opportunity to learn from practicing poets.

After Xue Tao's father passed away, her mother became a widow, and the family's life became poor. Xue Tao was registered with the guild of Gejis and entertainers in Chengdu and in time became well known for her wit and her poetic talent.

Her poetry attracted the attention of Wei Gao, the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan) and she was made his official hostess. In this position she met poets like Yuan Zhen, to whom she was said to have become close; at the very least, this story indicates the charisma of both figures. Certainly, she exchanged poems with Yuan Zhen and many other well-known scholars of the day, famous Tang Dynasty poets Bai Juyi, Du Mu and Liu Yuxi all had poetic exchanges with Xue Tao.

When Wu Yuanheng became governor in 807, she presented him with two poems. Wu was so impressed that he asked the Emperor to appoint Xue as an editor (jiaoshu) in his office. This was an unusual request as Xue Tao was both a woman and a government Geji. Although Xue Tao was never given the position, she became known as the "female Jiaoshu(女校书)". Later "female Jiaoshu" used to refer to a talented Geji.

In later years, Xue was able to live independently in a site outside the city associated with the great poet of an earlier generation, Du Fu. Some sources record that she supported herself as a maker of artisanal paper used for writing poems. The letterheads made by Xue Tao also facilitate the timely storage of poetic inspiration. In the past, large letterheads were not easy to carry, but Xue Tao's letterheads were compact and could be taken anywhere and anytime. The letter paper made by Xue Tao was later called "Xue Tao Jian(薛涛笺)". In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the letter paper she made was already an item on the desks of literati. By the Ming Dynasty, Xue Taojian's production technology was almost lost, and the annual output was very small. The King of Shu in the Ming Dynasty once used it as a tribute and handed it over to the Ming Dynasty court. Xue Tao was also a calligrapher, and her calligraphy inherited Wei Zhi(韦陟)'s "Wuyun(五云)" style running script in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. "Xuanhe Calligraphy(宣和书谱)" of the Northern Song Dynasty commented on Xue Tao's calligraphy, saying that her calligraphy was unfeminine and her writing was powerful. The beauty of her calligraphy is quite similar to that of Wang Xizhi. Xue Tao was the first female innovator in the history of Chinese calligraphy,she is also a female innovator in the history of Chinese papermaking. A contemporary wrote that she took on the garments of a Daoist adept, signaling a relatively autonomous status within Tang society.

Hsueh Tao, a Venusian crater, is named after her.

Poems
Some 450 poems by Xue were gathered in The Brocade River Collection that survived until the 14th century. About 100 of her poems are known nowadays, which is more than of any other Tang dynasty woman. They range widely in tone and topic, giving evidence of a lively intelligence and deep knowledge of the great tradition of earlier Chinese poetry.