This anthology of Chinese womens poetry in translation brings together representative selections from the work of some 130 poets from the Han dynasty to the early twentieth century. To measure the development of Chinese womens poetry, one must take into account not only the poems but also the prose writingsprefaces, biographies, theoretical tractsthat framed them and attempted to shape womens writing as a distinct category of literature. To this end, the anthology contains an extended section of criticism by and about women writers.