Background and career

The daughter of a merchant, she was born in the town of Renhe (now Hangzhou) in Zhejiang province. She married a merchant named Huang. Her contemporaries were wont to point out that her husband and father had "never even glanced at a book".

She was famous as a lyrics (ci) writer, in which she was considered one of the best of the Qing dynasty. She also wrote poetry in the sanqu form. She was said to be a good player of the qin, a stringed instrument. Wu wrote an opera (zaju) Yinjiu du Sao (Reading the "Li Sao" While Drinking), also known as Qiaoying (The Fake Image). Two collections of her works were published: Hualian ci (Flower curtain lyrics) and Xiangnan xuebei ci (Lyrics from South of the Fragrance and North of the Snows). She became a student of the poet Chen Wenshu.

She was one of a number of early nineteenth-century women poets who wrote about the novel Dream of the Red Chamber.

Wu converted to Buddhism later in life.

Translations

Several of her works have been translated into English, notably by Anthony Yu.

生平

吳藻祖籍安徽，父葆真，字輔吾，向在浙江杭州典業生理，遂僑於浙江仁和（今杭州）。吳藻自幼接受全面規範的閨中教育，其天分極高，琴棋書畫，無所不精，尤工詞曲，又擅於詞、畫，嘗寫飲酒讀騷圖。二十歲時，以雜劇《喬影》而聞名大江南北，一時傳唱。二十二歲成婚。後移家南湖，顏其室曰香南雪北廬，自畫小影作男子裝，託名為謝絮才，殆不無天壞王郎之感。其父與夫皆業賈，兩家無一讀書人，而獨呈翹秀。卒年六十四。

作品

吳藻平生詞作收錄於二書，一是《花簾詞》，收集的是三十歲以前的詞作；一是《香南雪北詞》，在道光二十四年刊成，匯入了她三十歲以後的作品。另有《飲酒讀騷圖曲》（又名《喬影》）、《花簾書屋詩》等。

評價

• 胡云翼《中國詞史略》論述清詞提及的女性詞人惟吳藻一人，「詞譽遍大江南北，為清代女詞家中第一人」。