The Research Of Xie Daoyun

As one of the most famous female writers and poetess in the history of Ancient Chinese Language and Literature, Xie Daoyun almost has been a Classic symbol which stands for great talent and strong personality of women.She was a native of the famous Xie family from Chen County in Nanyang,born to be a Aristocratic miss of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.According to The Biographies of the Female Elite in the History of the Jin Dynasty,Xie Daoyun was Xie An’s nephew, known as the Prime minister.And she was also the daughter of Xie Yi,known as the general who pacified the west.Her husband was the Wang Ningzhi,son of the master calligrapher Wang Xizhi. Anfortunately,Xie Daoyun don’t love her husband any more.In her yongh,Xie Daoyun was known for her extraordinary intelligence.Once at a family party when it was snowing heavily outside,Xie An raised a questiong:"What is a blizzard like?"Xie Lang,one of Xie Daoyun’s cousins, said that it looked like grains of salt were sprinking down from the sky.But Xie Daoyun came up with a different version:"the snowflakes are like catkins swirling in the wind".Her analory won everyone’s approval and earned her poetic name "catkin rhymer". According to The Record of the Books and Writers in the History of the Sui Dynasty,Xie Daoyun wrote lots of poets and articles in her life.Unfortunately they all scattered and lost excep <An Ode to Mountain Tai>、<A Parody on an Ode to the Pine by Ji Kang>、<An Ode to Catkin>、<A Praise to The Analects>.The three extant poems attributed to Xie Daoyun display her clarity of thinking,profundity of intention anf transcending artistry.The metaphysical figures of speech Xie Daoyun uses in her poem were in vogue when it was written.Xie Daoyun knows well about<the Moral><Chuang tzu>,and she once hept her brother-in-law Wang Xianzhi won a argument in a debate about some metaphysical questions.A famous poet Zhan Xuan, had a younger sister who was a scholar.People all said that she was as wise as Xie Daoyun.A nun named Ji was believed to be good at reading people’s minds.After visiting both families,the nun gave the conclusion that Xie Daoyun was "liberal and gentle in the sipitit"and"commanded a style of a celebrity in seclusion",while Zhang’s sister was at best "a beauty of the boudoir with an enligh(?)ened mind". When she was in the fifties,her husband and son died in a riots.Xie Daoyun killed several cutthroats with knife and kept her grandson safe.After the misfortune,she lived alone and supported the whole family all by herself.Comparing with other female poetess,Xie Daoyun’s poems were expertly composed and showed no feminine touch.Xie Daoyun,as a woman of letters,was indeed a rare talent of her time. We should realize Xie Daoyun’s greatness and importance in thehistory of Ancient Chinese Language and Literature.