Background

Ban Jieyu was a daughter of Ban Kuang, who was a Commandant of Cavalry under Emperor Cheng. There is no exact information about the date and the place of her birth.

Career

Ban Jieyu became a concubine of Emperor Cheng and quickly rose to the rank of Lady of Handsome Fairness, the highest grade of concubine at that time, and became a favorite of the emperor.

Ban Jieyu was a great poet and was also renowned as a great scholar, able to recite poems from the Shi Jing and a lot of other texts.

Around 19 B.C.E, however, Emperor Cheng took a liking to the dancing girl Zhao Feiyan and her sister Zhao Hede. They were both made concubines and he favored them over Empress Xu and Consort Ban. In 18 B.C.E both the Empress and Consort Ban were accused of witchcraft. Empress Xu was put under house arrest away from court, but Consort Ban pleaded her case. Ban Jieyu used citations of Confucius and made a speech that impressed the emperor and he allowed her to stay at court. She then chose to become a lady in waiting to the Empress Dowager, instead of remaining consort to the Emperor. Yet, abandoned by Emperor Cheng, Ban Jieyu served at the imperial tomb after he died. When her tragic life ended, she was buried in the funerary park.

Achievements

• Ban Jieyu was known as one of the most outstanding characters of Chinese literature. She is best known for a famous poem attributed to her "Yuan Ge Xing" or "Song of Resentment". The poems attributed to her, or written in her persona, have remained in circulation in the many centuries after her death.

Personality

Ban Jieyu was clever, her conduct above reproach, and her scholarship unequaled. She was highly respectful and having taken to heart the sentiments expressed in the Book of Poetry, especially those concerning women.

Connections

Ban Jieyu was a concubine of Emperor Chengdi. She bore him two sons, but both died in infancy.

husband:

Liu Ao

Emperor Cheng was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty ruling from 33 until 7 BC.

Brother:

Ban Zhi

Ban Zhi was the father of the historian Ban Biao.

nephew:

Ban Biao

Ban Biao was a Chinese historian, and an official born in what is now Xianyang, Shaanxi during the Han Dynasty.

grandniece:

Ban Zhao

Ban Zhao was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician. She was the first known female Chinese historian.

References

• The Position of Woman in Early China According to the Lieh Nu Chuan, The Biographies of Chinese Women.
  1971
• Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E. - 618 C.E This new volume of the "Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women" spans more than 2,000 years from antiquity to the early seventh century. It recovers the stories of more than 200 women, nearly all of them unknown in the West.
  1998
• Courtiers and Commoners in Ancient China: Selections from the History of the Former Han Translations from the Oriental classics by B Watson.
  1646
• Crisis and Conflict in Han China This volume illustrates the growth of two attitudes towards government in China during the first century B.C., the one progressive, realist and forward-looking, the other conservative, idealist and harking back to the past. It demonstrates the close relationship that existed between political decisions, intellectual policy and the choice of religious observances of state, whilst showing how personal ambitions and the intrigues of the palace were intimately involved with the interplay of these two basis attitudes.
  1974