Xu Yezhao (徐葉昭), who lived around 1729-1794, was a female writer and biographer in China's Qing Dynasty. Born and raised in modern-day Zhejiang, China, Xu grew up in an “elegant family,” where her family members were supportive of her studying and writing. Xu's father,  Xu Shengjia(徐繩甲), served as a "教諭 (Jiaoyu)" in a "縣儒學(Xianruxue, Prefectural Confucius Study)" institution in Zhejiang[1], which performed the role of guiding rituals in Confucius temples and education of schoolchildren[2]. Due to this well-educated background, Xu Shengjia supports Xu Yezhao in pursuing high-level writings that "carry the Way of humans."[3] At the time of imperial China, it was not common for women in ordinary families to be educated and to have their literature works done and preserved. Compared with men in Qing Chinese society, who needed to be highly literate to pursue their careers, women were not encouraged to learn reading and writing, as their daily activities were confined to their traditional social gender roles of only reproductive work. While a certain number of literary works from female writers were still preserved, these works, including Xu’s articles, provide us with a unique perspective to look back at the social circumstances, literature developments, history, and gender dynamics at that time.

The major documentation we can refer to Xu, for now, is Zhi si zhai xue wen gao(職思齋學文稿), a collection of Xu’s writing, including writings in the genre of Wen(文) and in the forms of autobiography as a preface(Zi xu自序), preface(Xu序), biography (Zhuan傳), record(Ji記), and argument(Lun論). According to prior scholarships from Professor Grace S. Fong, in spite of poems(Shi詩), Wen and biography were widespread forms of female writing, and they were also the major components of Xu’s collection. In her book, Xu wrote ten Wen articles about “The Way(道)” of being women and clearly described the roles of women in the Qing Dynasty, which are gendered and hierarchical, in these articles[4]. Biographies and other forms of Wens were also included in Xu’s book; they provided more anecdotal stories and the author's personal arguments. In this book, we can find out that Xu’s writings were born with Xu’s own life and were based on her own life experiences. She recorded biographies for her family members, ranging from highly-ranked men to socially lower-ranked female servants, and paid attention to marginalized groups of women in Qing Chinese society. 

As an active participant in her family life, Xu also participated in the edition, collection, and preface writing for literary works of her other family members. For example, she was the main (and probably the only) editor of Shi yi yu cun(什一隅存), which was also titled Xu shi yi wen(徐氏遺文, Collection of Articles Left by Xu Family). It was a lengthy collection of articles written by members of Xu Yezhao's family, including Xu Shengjia, Xu Feiran, Xu Erjun(Yangtian), Xu Xuejian, and Xu Yezhao herself. The book Zhi si zhai xue wen gao mentioned above was also included in this big collection[5]. What is noteworthy here is that among all these authors in this collection, Xu was the only female writer, and she also played the most significant role of collecting and preserving literary works of her family, which enabled us to be able to trace back to literature documents in Qing China. 

Influenced by her father as a Confucius teacher, Xu Yezhao hold the belief that "literature is the vehicle of moral teaching." As a result, we can see clear components of moral teachings and philosophical arguments in her articles. Her clear logic and convincing writing style were praised by people reading her articles. For instance, Wang Zongzhi(王宗志), a contemporary Chinese scholar, wrote a review of Xu's article "寄兄敬齋書(Letter to My Brother Jingzhai)" and praised Xu's writing for having clear criticism and convincing argument that has meaningfulness in even today. [6] However, there are also criticisms against this ideal of conveying moral teaching in articles with official tones. Zhou Zuoren(周作人), a Chinese writer, critiqued Xu Yezhao's writing in his article that Xu was trying too hard to make her argument undoubtedly convincing in order to eliminate the "heresies" to maintain the "orthodoxy" she believed, which is itself doubtful. [7] 

Due to the fact that not a lot of historical sources about Xu Yezhao have been preserved, what we can learn about her is limited to a handful of her works and a brief evaluation of her by later generations. However, it is still clear that Xu made a crucial contribution to women's literature in Qing China. By making the story of women, not only her own story as a rarely seen literate woman but also other women who might lose their voices in the long river of history, Xu successfully narrated and critically reassessed social norms, gender roles, life philosophy, etc. Her work also offers us a large and comprehensive view of the writing styles of female writers in pre-modern China, which is itself a forgotten field. As we read through articles in Zhi si zhai xue wen gao and pay attention to the two articles selected in this webpage, we hope to use Xu's work to provide those who visit this site with a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of women in the past. In doing so, we might also be led to a larger and more comprehensive consideration of the silence of women and marginalized groups in history.