Writers › Writer / Poet
Xue Tao
Mid-Tang poet in Chengdu, known as the 'female collator', who exchanged verse with Yuan Zhen and others and is traditionally credited with the red Xue Tao notepaper
Mural of the event “Poetry Paper at Huanhua Stream”, which this person took part in.
From the Zhenyuan era of the Tang, Xue Tao lived in Chengdu and won the notice of Wei Gao, Military Governor of Jiannan, who by tradition invited her to compose verse at his banquets; she became known as the Female Collator. Living by Huanhua Stream, she had small sheets of poem paper made, known as Xue Tao paper, and exchanged poems with Yuan Zhen and other poets.
Also known as Zi Hongdu · Nu Jiaoshu · Xue Jiaoshu · Huanhua Daoren
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Xue Tao, courtesy name Hongdu, was born in Chang'an and as a child followed her father to an official post in Sichuan, staying on in Chengdu after his death. In the Zhenyuan years the military governor Wei Gao invited her to his banquets to compose verse, and she was enrolled as a government entertainer; he is said to have wanted to petition the court to make her a collator of texts, and though nothing came of it, the name 'female collator' stuck. She exchanged poems with Yuan Zhen, Wang Jian and others, and Wang Jian addressed her as the female collator by the Wanli Bridge. In later years she lived by the Huanhua Stream, where, by tradition, she made small deep-red sheets of paper for her poems, later called Xue Tao paper. Duan Wenchang, a former governor of the region, wrote her epitaph. Her Jinjiang Collection in five scrolls is lost, and the Complete Tang Poems (Quan Tangshi) preserves one scroll of her verse.
Life and times
- c. 768 CEBorn
Tang - 785Poetry Paper at Huanhua Stream
Took partXue Tao won renown in Chengdu for her poetry under the Jiannan governor Wei Gao and, living by Huanhua Stream, had the small poem sheets made that are known as Xue Tao paper.- Xue Tao, Female Collator of JiannanWhen Wei Gao governed Shu, he summoned Xue Tao to compose verse at his banquets, and she became known as the Female Collator.
- Xue Tao Paper and Poetic Exchanges805Xue Tao had small poem sheets made, known as Xue Tao Paper; Yuan Zhen exchanged poems with her, and Bai Juyi and others also wrote verse connected with her.
- Xue Tao's Last Years at Huanhua820In her last years Xue Tao lived in retirement by Huanhua Stream in Daoist dress; the Tang Talents biography credits her with a five-juan collection, the Jinjiang Ji.
- Xue Tao, Female Collator of Jiannan
- c. 832 CEDied
Works
Literature · Poetry1- Farewell to a Friend · Frosty Night on the Reed WatersTangXue Tao's quatrain of farewell on a frosty autumn night among the river reeds
- Literature · Sayings1
- Reeds Under Night Frost in the Land of WatersTangLine from Xue Tao's Seeing Off a Friend: frosted reeds and cold moonlight at parting
