Right, so this is my last summer holiday before I actually go on to Real Life™, become a Legitimate Adult and get a Proper Job®, so FYCM or Fuck Yeah Chinese Myths will be on a semi-hiatus or a hiatus.

BUT WHAAAAAAAI? You ask.

I am going to Egypt. (While you guys are reading this I’m probably in transit or something.) I was originally supposed to go to China and I had already borrowed Lonely Planet’s really thick travel guide, but then this volunteer organization said that they were looking for people to go to Egypt to go teach children. When they said Egypt I got stuck on it ‘cause it’s like, home to another really cool ancient civilization and I signed up for fun.

I have a very strange idea of what I think is fun.

I had to go through stupid things like interviews, and I didn’t really take the process seriously, so I really didn’t expect them to say, “Ohay, we selected you, just sayin’.” Although I will have fun, I will also be working, which means I may not have the time to update this blog. I may or may not write what I think of certain issues off the cuff, but that depends on the kind of time and energy I have.

Moreover, I don’t have the resources that I have back home, (unless I discover a library). If you want good quality posts written by me, you will have to wait until I officially return on the 21st of July. 

But FYCM will be reblogging posts from various Chinese blogs, or anything related to Chinese history, culture, literature, mythology, and so on and so forth.

If you’re interested in reading about what I’m doing in Egypt, you can follow me on this blog, here. Heads up - the style is going to be more personal, so it may not be for everybody. Meanwhile, you can go and read the previous posts and request myths. I’ll get to them as soon as I get back.

Have a great summer errbody!

Min

Hey! Look! Xue Tao playing music!

Anyway, the last time we left Xue Tao, she had returned to Sichuan, and all was going well for her, right?

Nope.

The thing is, Xue Tao didn’t have a happy life, and she really didn’t like being a courtesan, ‘cause men used her for sex. She really wanted to get married, so she wrote this other poem:

A pair of mandarin ducks nestle in the pond,
Inseparable from dawn till dusk.
And when they have a fledgling to care for,
With one heart nurture it amid lotus leaves.

It was real hard for her to get married, though, ‘cause of her low status (under patriarchy, no less) plus her supposed love affair with the poet Yuan Zhen, who was the governor of Sichuan. He even wrote a poem for her, like so:

Delicate is the Brocade river, elegant is Emei mountain,
Both nurtured the poets Zuo Wenjun and Xue Tao.
Your ready tongue is eloquent as a parakeet’s,
Your poetry as dazzling as a phoenix’s plumage.
Poets all pause in their writing,
Each lord dreams of an adroit writing brush.
Separated by mist and water, I yearn for you.
The clematis will be blooming, the rosy clouds aloft. 

There’re more, of course. But this wasn’t to be. Yuan Zhen left Chengdu, and Xue Tao set up a school instead at Bijifang or Green Cockerel Lane. She called it the “House for Reciting Poetry,” or Yinshilou. She became a Taoist, and went to work instead of feelin’ sorry for herself. Which is just as well, ‘cause even when Yuan Zhen came back 10 years later, he totally forgot to send for her even though he was about to, but sent for another singing girl instead.

Of course Xue Tao’s total awesomeness didn’t like, end there. When this dude, Li Deyu, came to Chengdu to construct a building called the Border Command Tower, to guard against the tribes that wanted a piece of China. Xue Tao wrote a poem ‘bout it too, which basically said, “It’s real good that you have this tower and all, but don’t attack the tribes, keep it safe for errbody, yo.” 

Guess what? Them peeps listened to her.

So even though there was no happily ever after ending for Xue Tao (sorry Disney, I ain’t giving you some heteronormative shit to chew on, nuh-uh) she managed to rise from her lowly position. See, religiousity was a way for people to overcome their baseness, and by cultivating herself with the way, and living the contemplative life, she was able to rise from her base position. 

After she died, she was like, really famous. I mean, even her calligraphy received praise, ‘cause a Song Dynasty writing manual was all, “Check this out! Her strokes so look like Wang Xizhi’s, yo.” (Wang Xizhi was famous fo’ his calligraphy in the Jin Dynasty) Xue Tao even made herself some good writing paper, which meant that she was pretty good with her hands, too. The well she got water to make paper is also named after her - don’t laugh - it’s a pretty big deal! The well is in Wangjiang park in Chengdu. 

Of course, the governor of Sichuan wrote an epitaph on her tomb, honouring her, and you can’t get any more bad-ass than that.

Oh wait, you can. See what she wrote to her ex-bf:

Sending old poems to Yuan Zhen

The urge to make poems:
everyone’s got it.

But I alone
really grasp
rich subtleties of scenes.

I sing of flowers beneath the moon,
loving what’s still and pale,

or write of willows at rainy dawn
for sake of their angled fringe.

Women like Green Jade*
have long been kept
hidden in secret depths.

And yet, I always write
as I please,
on my scarlet poem-slips.

Grown old, one can’t collect one’s work
and fix up all that’s wrong,

so I send these poems to you,
as if shown to teach a boy.

* Green Jade means the dutiful Confucian woman, by the way.

She kicked his ass so hard, showing him that she was wayy better than that, and not one to be messed with. She showed errbody the power of words and what they could do, makin’ the best of what she’s got. That’s awesome right there.

Check her out! I’ve always wanted to feature more kick-ass ladies on this blog, and here we are! If you don’t know who she is, she’s Xue Tao, a Tang Dynasty poet, but for her, life was so not easy, but that didn’t stop her from writing 5000 poems and songs, and 89 of them are in Quan Tang Shi, or the Complete Collection of Tang Dynasty Poetry. Pretty neat huh? 

Anyway, let’s carry on with her life story!

Xue Tao was born in 768AD, in Chang’an, or present day Xi’an, but when she was just a li’l girl, her family moved to Sichuan ‘cause her Dad was an official. Her family also gave her this nickname, called Hongdu, which meant great breadth i.e. she knew a lot! And why not? Her father was an official, and so he taught her all he knew, especially wit’ writin’ some verse.

One day, her father rapped some lines composed two lines of a poem, like so:

In the courtyard stands an ancient wutong treee,
The towering trunk pierces the clouds. 

She was all,

Its branches welcoming birds from south and north,
Its leaves buffeted by the changing winds.

Pretty cool, huh? When she was about 17 or 18, her father died, though, which sucked, ‘cause there was no moneh comin’ in and she had to look for a job. By that time, though, peeps were saying, “Damn! That girl’s so fiiiine - and uh, intelligent, of course.” Xue Tao was spotted by Wei Nie, who was all, “Hey, Imma give you a recording contact to sign - uh I mean, you wanna sing and dance at my banquets?” Which is what she did ‘cause she really had no money.

It was good for her, though, ‘cause it gave her exposure to some big rappers names of the day, like Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Liu Yuxi and Du Fu. They were all pretty impressed by her ‘cause she could hold her own, and like, even though she was regarded as a courtesan, all these men knew that she was real smart, too. Wang Jian, this other poet, thought that she should be recommended to court, but  them peeps at the court ignored him. After that happened, Xue Tao was addressed as ‘secretary’ in the Sichuan government, so things worked out, right?

Um, not really. 

See, she pissed him off, and so she was sent to the borders in exile. What did she do there? Write poems of course. Here’s the poem she wrote, called, ‘To Wu After Being Exiled to the Borderland’:

Drawing reins on a ridge in the freezing whether,
Bitter winds and sleet chill my bones.
If they would show mercy and let me go back home
Never again will I enjoy landscapes and painted screens.

Guess what? After that, the Sichuan government was all, “Kay, you can come back now.” Which is what she did.

If you want to know what happens next, come back and Imma tell you (or you can google her, but seriously, there isn’t that much info on her on the webs.)