This is the introduction to the book "Scent of Talented Women", which talks about the stories of talented literary women in Chinese history. From this excerpt, we can more or less understand why the author, Shi Jihang, decided to write such a book. Before "Scent of Talented Women", he published several others books on the subject of ancient Chinese poets and scholars, all males, since throughout the whole of Chinese history, males have tended to dominate nearly all major events and stories. But Shi Jihang believes women's literature plays a unique role in Chinese history.

"Due to the feudalism of Chinese society, women's literature was both promoted and oppressed. People thought it was appropriated for women to compose poems and articles, which could elucidate their characteristics. However, these works would not be spread about like those composed by males. So although there were many talented women in ancient China, and their literary values were by no means inferior to those of males, few of them have been preserved till the present day."

Due to such historical realities, Shi Jihang says it is not so easy for him to collect relevant materials. Taking a brief look at his book, you would find that many of the heroines were from periods prior to the Tang and Song dynasties. After that, in the Ming and Qing, talented women, especially those from the aristocratic families, can barely be found. Shi Jihang has this to say.

"The thriving of neo-Confucianism in the Song dynasty brought with it more and more restrictions against women. Such a trend got even more serious during the Ming and Qing dynasties, not only to women, but men also."

Shi Jihang said because of this, most talented women after the Song dynasty were geishas, instead of coming from aristocratic families.

But let's forget about their identity and focus on the literary value of these talented women. Many of us would assume that their value could hardly be compared with that of males, since they received little or no education, and the themes of their poems or essays were mainly on trivial affairs around them. But Shi Jihang doesn't think so.

"Compared with male poets, the poems composed by women sound more sincere and natural. Men were heavily influenced by other factors, because in general they were well-read; some liking to cite quotations, others being too pedantic or utilitarian. Women however were not so much influenced by other books or thoughts, their works are more characteristic of colloquialism."

In choosing which talented women to include in his book, Shi Jihang has his standards.

"I only chose those whom I could access first-hand material. There are some legends or poems that cannot be proven to be 100 percent attributed with a particular woman, those I would not choose. Furthermore, the heroine had to be a true person in history, and her story and compositions needed to be recorded in available historical documents."

Despite such a precise attitude toward the selection of the book contents, Shi Jihang tries to depict all the stories in a vivid and even humorous way. He thinks if the language is too stiff, it will read more like an academic thesis, which is aimed solely at scholars and experts. He hopes his book can bring casual enjoyment and relaxation to the common reader.

Out of many people's expectation, the author is not a professional writer, but a middle school teacher who teaches geography in a small town of east China's Shandong Province. Talking about his future, Shi Jihang said he is neither willing to change his career nor abandon his hobby in writing books on the Chinese history and literature, in which he could get the most happiness, and he wishes to convey such happiness to more people through his publications.