“妇人尤不可作诗”:质疑声下的唐代士人妻女作诗

“Women Cannot Write Poems”: Poetry Writing by Wives and Daughters of Officials under Questing Voices in the Tang Dynasty

在女子作诗问题上,唐朝与明清多有衔接,如明清时人对女子作诗的质疑就肇始于中晚唐。唐人质疑女子作诗的理由有两点,即作诗乱情与才非妇德。作诗乱情针对的是正妻、室女,而非姬妾冠妓;才非妇德源于儒家礼教,一些唐代士人妻女内化了这一观念,并予以倡扬与实践。儒家诗歌观主要侧重其社会政治功用,而主内与居内的女子与这种诗歌功用一般无涉。因此,唐代士人妻女便在礼教的缝隙中,找到了“三从”与君臣关系这些男权切入点,围绕夫、子、家、君主展开诗歌创作;诗人家庭的女子还获得了更大的作诗空间,她们的创作在一定程度上起到了光耀门楣的作用。

On women’s writing poem, ideas in Ming-Qing Dynasties are related to Tang Dynasty. Questioning on women’s poetry writing started from late Tang. Tang people had two reasons to challenge women’s writing: one is writing poetry may cause crazy love, the other is talent is not virtue of women. The former rule was applied to wives and daughters but not concubines, prostitutes and female Taoist priests. The latter rule stemmed from Confucian, and wives and daughters at that time internalized it, then advocated and followed it. The Confucian value of poetry lays stress on its social political function, but women who stay at home has nothing to do with that function. So, wives and daughters in Tang looked into cracks of the Three Obediences and the relation between monarch and its subjects, writing around husband, son, family and monarch. Women from poet family got more writing space, and their poems played an important role in earning honor for their family.