Female Poetry in the Qing Dynasty in Writing Ambition Poems

Portraits became very popular in the Qing Dynasty, and many male scholarsand female authors made “small pictures” or “small portraits”. Made by either oneselfor others, the portrait and its included poem became part of the major“self-reinterpretation” channels for women in the Qing Dynasty. As the portraitrecorded the female subject’s appearance and image and the poem demonstrated herspiritual contents, a full self-image was formed by combining these elements. Hence,the self-image, self-ideal, self-interest, and self-value of life of women in the QingDynasty are manifested in the portrait’s poem.When the painting’s poem is made by others, it is the female image formed inthe mind of the writer according to their viewpoint of the subject or the narrator’sperception on the protagonist’s interest and mind. From painting poems made “byoneself” and “by others”, multiple aspects of the female image in the Qing Dynastyare revealed. Therefore, by reviewing portrait painting poems made by either theindividual or others, the female image formed, depicted, and interpreted in thefirst-person and third-person viewpoints and the cultural implications of a female’sself-expressed psyche are further explored.