Wu Zao
Wu Zao was a Chinese poet. She was also known as Wu Pinxiang
and Yucenzi.
Background and career
The daughter of a merchant, she was born in the town of Renhe 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 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 Yinjiu du Sao, also known as Qiaoying. Two collections of her works were published: Hualian ci and Xiangnan xuebei ci. 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.