Career
She is incorrectly included in the Quan Tangshi, a Qing dynasty anthology of Tang dynasty poems, whose compilers assumed that she was a courtesan because she composed some erotic poems. The Ming dynasty author Li Zhen or Li Changqi (李昌祺. 1376–1452), a near contemporary of Zhao Luanluan, wrote the of Luanluan (Chinese: 鸞鸞傳).
This account, although dramatized and not entirely credible, is the only extant record about Zhao"s life.
According to Li Zhen, Zhao Luanluan was born to an elite family in Dongping, in modern Shandong province. Liu Ying, however, was later captured and killed by the rebels, and Zhao threw herself on her husband"s funeral pyre.
The Qing dynasty compilers of the Quan Tangshi (Complete Collection of Tang ) mistook Zhao Luanluan as a Tang dynasty poet and included her poems in the anthology.
