薛涛的一生行迹（768-831）
薛涛（约768-约831），字洪度，长安人，幼随父入蜀。父亡后沦为乐妓，韦皋镇蜀时召令侍酒赋诗，称"女校书"。后脱乐籍，居浣花溪，自制薛涛笺，与元稹、白居易、刘禹锡等唱和。诗风清丽婉约，为唐代女诗人之冠。《春望词》《送友人》传诵千古。
长安（768） · 长安幼年
唐代宗大历三年（768年）前后，薛涛出生于长安。她自幼聪慧，八岁即知声律，父薛郧一日指井中梧桐试之，薛涛应声成诗，才思惊动家人。
成都（785） · 成都乐籍
唐德宗贞元元年（785年）前后，薛涛随父入蜀，父卒后家道中落，不得已入成都乐籍为诗妓。她以绝艳之姿与出众之才，很快名动蜀中，为节度使韦皋所赏识。
成都（女校书）（793） · 女校书时
唐德宗贞元九年（793年）前后，韦皋拟奏请朝廷授薛涛校书郎之衔，虽未果，但"女校书"之名由此传开。薛涛在韦皋幕中权势甚盛，"出入将相，车马如龙"。
松州（795） · 女校书时
唐德宗贞元十一年（795年）前后，薛涛被罚赴松州（今四川松潘）边地。松州地处川西北高原，与吐蕃接壤，她在此亲见戍卒之苦与边备之艰，写下《罚赴边有怀》等诗。
成都（浣花溪）（805） · 浣花溪畔
唐顺宗永贞元年（805年）前后，薛涛脱去乐籍，在成都浣花溪畔筑室而居。她自制薛涛笺——以芙蓉皮为料、溪水制浆、小幅染色——成为中国文化史上最著名的个人品牌之一。
成都（元稹）（809） · 浣花溪畔
唐宪宗元和四年（809年），元稹以监察御史出使东川，途经成都，与薛涛相会。两位诗人一见倾心，在成都短暂而热烈的交游，成为唐代文学史上最著名的浪漫传奇之一。
长安（815） · 浣花溪畔
唐宪宗元和十年（815年）前后，薛涛一度离开成都赴长安。她在京城与白居易、刘禹锡、牛僧孺等名公交游，诗名远播，但终因不适北地风土，不久即返蜀。
成都（终老）（831） · 碧江晚岁
唐文宗大和五年（831年）前后，薛涛卒于成都碧江坊，享年约六十三岁。她晚年身着道袍、足衣女冠，从乐妓到女校书再到女冠，完成了人生的最后蜕变。
The Life Journey of Xue Tao, the Collator Lady of Shu
Xue Tao (c. 768-831), born in Chang'an and raised to eight-year-old prodigy (her father tested her on the well-side wutong tree; she finished the couplet), entered the Shu entertainment registry after her father's death and rose beyond it: the 'Collator Lady' — the title Wei Gao wanted to give her officially and the world gave her anyway — poet to eleven military governors of Sichuan, inventor of the small crimson Xue Tao writing-paper on the Huanhua stream, and half of the great romance with Yuan Zhen. She ended her life a Daoist, famous and free.
Timeline of the Journey
- 768 · Chang'an — Born in the capital; at eight, tested by her father with a wutong couplet, she completed it to his alarm — the talent and the omen both arriving early.
- 785 · Chengdu — The family's move to Shu, her father's death, poverty: into the Chengdu registry as a registered courtesan-poet. Her talent brought her at once to the governor Wei Gao's attention and his staff.
- 793 · Chengdu — Wei Gao moved to have the court grant her the collator's title — blocked, but 'the Collator Lady' was now her name forever; her influence in the headquarters so great that 'her gate was like a minister's.'
- 795 · Songzhou — Banished to the border prefecture of Songzhou by a displeased Wei Gao: the plateau garrisons, the Tibetan frontier, the soldiers' misery — the 'Poems on Punitive Exile to the Border,' written on the road and effective: recalled.
- 805 · Huanhua — Out of the registry at last: a house built on the Huanhua stream, hibiscus-bark paper, small sheets, dyed crimson — the 'Xue Tao paper' that Chinese writers would buy for a thousand years.
- 809 · Chengdu — Yuan Zhen, investigating censor, passes through Chengdu: the meeting, the exchange of poems, the brief intense romance — the most famous literary love affair of the Tang.
- 815 · Chang'an — Her one journey out of Shu: the capital, Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, Niu Sengru — the fame national now; the north's climate not to her taste, and home again.
- 831 · Chengdu — Dead in the Bijiang ward, about sixty-three, in Daoist dress — from registry girl to Collator Lady to recluse: the only Tang woman who made every stage of that journey on her own verses.
'The branches greet the spring; each speaks of separation.' The woman who turned a paper mill into a brand and a courtesan's registry into a scholar's name — Xue Tao is Tang China's proof that talent could negotiate.
