Wang Duanshu studied with his brother when he was young and was very talented. The teacher lamented: If this was a boy, he would "definitely be famous in Hanyuan as the number one" in the future.
My father Wang Siren was a talented scholar during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. After the Ming Dynasty, he followed King Lu to fight against the Qing Dynasty. After Shaoxing was occupied by the Qing army, he went on a hunger strike and died. With such a father, it is not difficult to understand that Wang Duanshu's poems contain strong feelings of family and country, with sighs of ups and downs, embodying the painful desolation of the times. She not only expresses her own pain, but also records the world and people's hearts, transcending the narrow vision and weak style of ordinary boudoirs. Wang Duanshu also wrote many biographies of martyrs in the late Ming Dynasty and officials loyal to the Ming Dynasty. The position of his followers is self-evident. She is good at historiography, writing history, and is well-read. During the Shun Nian period, the Qing court wanted to ask Wang Duanshu to be a teacher for the princesses and concubines in the palace, forcing her to resign.
His husband Ding was appointed Li of Quzhou in the late Ming Dynasty. After Ming Chao's death, the couple lived in Yin Shan's hometown. The family had no money and no food or clothing. Coupled with poverty and illness, both Wang Duanshu and his wife fell ill from time to time. In the days of poverty, Ding drank his sorrows with wine, and Wang Duan wrote poems to express his sorrows. In desperation, Wang Duanshu traveled around as a boudoir teacher and professional artist. Her brothers seemed a little embarrassed by her publicity and tried to dissuade her. She responded with a poem: Her family was poor and she was not good at needlework. She can only make a living by teaching and painting.
As a rare professional woman at that time, Wang Duanshu worked as a boudoir teacher, sold articles and paintings, and had a wide circle of friends. She not only supported the family, but also led the family's interpersonal interactions, wrote poems for her husband, spent money to buy concubines for him, and even wrote mourning poems for him after his death. She is good friends with fellow countryman Zhang Dai and the famous opera singer Li Yu. She participated in their poetry and wine gatherings and gained great reputation in the cultural circle composed of male intellectual elites.
For more than 20 years, Wang Duanshu compiled 42 volumes from 0755 to 79000, including more than 2,000 poems by more than 800 female poets, and published it in the early years of Kangxi. This is an important collection of poems in the history of women's poetry and the first time a female writer selected women's works.
In the spring of 1644, Wang Duanshu sold her jewelry and bought a concubine for her husband, Chen Suxia. The two gave birth to a daughter. Wang Duanshu cherished her very much and wrote poems to praise her intelligence. Zhao Ding was obviously very close to the couple, but Wang Duanshu turned against him, and he couldn't help but reveal his resentment in the poem. Wang Duanshu is not so willing to hide his emotions. This is related to her character, and there is another reason: a fresh and lovely beauty is what she paid for Ding.
Wang Duanshu’s girlfriend Gao Youzhen’s poem about a socialite. Chen Suxia, an unusual woman in the work, has a reputation as a talented woman aged 3335414. She "reads historical records and understands the rhyme of rules and regulations". She is even more famous for her calligraphy. Zhao Ding said, "The drunkard doesn't care about drinking. He only cares about his family affairs and only curses." "If you don't wear a shirt you'll be in a drunken place while you cry and laugh". But Chen Suxia was always "respectful" to him. Su Xia died eight years after arriving at the Ding family. Her poems are bright and beautiful, and Yiyin was selected by Wang Duanshu and included in Suxia Chuanyuan. Wang Duanshu said in his poems about famous ladies that Su Xia's husband "respected her for eight years" and died of illness at the age of 28. Su Minghui is beautiful, gentle and virtuous, and he obviously respects Wang Duanshu, the powerful head of the family. Wang Duanshu said that Su Xia's poems are "like the curling smoke in the forest, the moon rising in the gorge, the beautiful and quiet music, and the talent of my family." She couldn't bear to bury it, so she recorded her beautiful words, "Let the talented people in the sea know that my master has this charm."