Weerabbit Edinburgh, United Kingdom

A room of one’s own, a book written by Virginia Woolf in 1929, recommended by G while ago. Eventually I finished reading it.

I have to admit that it was a great book but a hardly understood even though I read through it.

Virginia Woolf was a pioneer of feminism. She pointed out many sharp but true arguments of unequal basis between men and women. She described the history of women writers, mainly from 16th to 19th Century.

Interestingly, she imaged that Shakespeare had a sister, who was equally in talent and in genius as Shakespeare himself. However, she would never be able to write a word due to the limitation and constraint to a woman at that time. What a shame!

In this book, furthermore, she claimed that a woman must have fixed money and a room of her owns therefore she has the freedom to create.” What kind of room a woman needs if she wants to write? A room, like many thousands, with a window looking across people’s hats and vans and motor-car to other windows, would do. I guess. How much a woman needs if she wants to write? Well, it depends on how long a woman will write.

Are there successful female writer to support her point? I pondered. Think of any famous female writer? Well, we have Li, Qingzhao(李清照, 1084–c. 1151), the greatest female poet in Chinese history. Did she have a room and money in order to write so many touching and romantic Sung poems? After search the background of Li, Qingzhao, the answer is a Yes. I reckon.

Fortunately Li was born in Licheng to a family of officials and scholars (So she could be well educated). Before she got married, her poetry was already well known with elite circles. In 1101 she married Zhao Mingcheng, with whom she shared interests in art collection and epigraphy. They lived in the province Shandong. After he started his official career, her husband was often absent. (See, she got a great but empty house on her own without mention only a room. Ha~Ha~) This inspired some of the love poems that she wrote. Both her husband and she collected many books. Her husband and she shared a love of poetry and often wrote poems for each other (A room of Li’s own with abidance of money, so she could write and reach her potential.).