The legendary Ban Zhao and Xie Daouyun are known for their poets, elegies, hymns, letters and rhapsodies in the 7^th century, of which some of them still exist today. The two women became for women and later centuries par excellence of the women’s poet. Ban Zhao was a Chinese historian, philosopher and politician. She is famously recognized as the first female Chinese historian along with Pamphile of Epidaurus.  Ban Zhao finished the work of his brother Ban Gu on the history of the Western Han. After the death of his brother, she was summoned by the emperor to finish his brother already started work.  She had a great passion for astronomy, commemorative writings and poems. She is best known as the famous Chinese female scholar and a tutor of Taoist sexual practices. On her family background, Ban Zhao was born in Anling to a scholarly family. Ban Biao, a known historian, was her father, and his brother Ban Gu was also a historian and poet. She was a remarkable poet from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. She was married at the age of 14, and his husband passed away shortly after their marriage (Idema, and Grant p.19). After the death of his Husband, Ban turned to write. On the other hand, Xie Daoyun was also a Chinese poet, scholar and writer. According to the authors, she belonged to the Xie clan and was born in Yangxia, Henan (Idema, and Grant pp. 138-139). Although their mother is unknown, she was a sister to the military general Xie Xuan and had five siblings.  Xie was also a niece to Prime Minister Xie An. She got married to a known calligrapher named Wang Ningzhi. Her husband believed in divine intervention, which cost his life and his sons’ during a rebellion.

Generally, women of the 7^th century were submissive women who followed what their husbands ordered them to do. This similarly applies to both Ban Zhao and Xie Daoyun. They were both submissive women who followed orders from the superior men without question. Ban Zhao obeys the emperors calling to finish his brother’s work without question. On the contrary, Xie stayed in her marriage despite her dislike for Wang Ningzhi. Xie An, Xie Daoyun uncle, often spends time with his nephews teaching essays. Xie Daoyun was usually outstanding in answering questions, and she is best known for the phrase, “willow floss drifting in the wind”, when his uncle asked her what the snow was like (Idema, and Grant p.137). Xie wrote many poems in her life and combined them into anthologies.  She was an exquisite writer, debater, scholar and poet of the Jin Dynasty of her time. On the contrary, Ban Zhao contributed to the finishing of his brothers work on the Han Dynasty and also taught people how to read the work (Idema, and Grant p.22). Just like Xie, she wrote many influential poets like lessons for women. She also played a significant role in teaching empress Deng Sui and the court members in the royal library. On the other hand, she often offered advice to the emperor Shang of Han when needed. She later became a librarian at the court in charge of editorial labours of a staff assistant and taught other scholars to read the Books of the Han.  In 113 CE, after her son was appointed an official in Chenliu, she accompanied him and wrote about the journey.

Based on her scholarly background, Ban Zhao made a lot of writing poems and essays. She wrote commemorative writings, inscriptions, Eulogies, Argumentations, essays, treaties, and memorials. Apart from finishing her brother’s work, she wrote a rhapsody on Traveling Eastward while accompanying her son to Chenliu. (Idema, and Grant p.23). In the poem, she expressed her impression of the journey and her sadness of not knowing if she could ever go back to the city. She also finished the Han Shu poem, which was initially written by his father and brother together with two other authors. In all of her poems, she is well recognized by Nujie (Precepts for My Daughters), an instructional manual to her daughter (Idema, and Grant p.33). In the poem, she advised women to be submissive to their husbands and, at the same time, advocated for education for women. Furthermore, her poem Needle and Thread was an extant and influential poem (Idema, and Grant p.30). The title does not merely represent women’s role in sewing, but she wrote to praise those who dared to criticize the lousy actions of their superiors. Ban Zhao remains for centuries to be a role model for women through her writings. On the other hand, Xie Daoyun wrote several literary works. She is recognized with the writings of Seven Sages, and one of her poems was an imitation of Xi Kangs’ poems on a pine tree (Idema, and Grant p.141). Her poem of Mountain Climbing demonstrated a grotto- heaven; she also wrote other poems after the death of her family. In my view, she was an exemplary symbol of female talent during her era and later times.

 Generally, Ban Zhao and Xie Daoyun’s literary works were extant and inspiring to the people of their time. They are superior to other men’s writing of their time, which influenced the Chinese women of their time and later ages. In her poem of Needle and Thread, Ban Zhao praises the women on the criticism of the wrongdoings of their superiors. It is evident that she influences the women of the later time to stand up and dare criticize the wrongdoings of those in power through speech or writing. She also influences later women’s in her poem Precepts for My Daughters. She advises young women and girls on survival means they find themselves in intimidating situations from their husbands (Idema, and Grant p.33). She also advises them to be submissive to their husbands in which a good Chinese wife ought to be at the time.  Furthermore, she is a role model to the women aspiring to be writers through her poems and her ambitions to serve in the court to tutor other women of the Inner Palace. On the other hand, Xie Daoyun became an inspiration to other women of later times through her poems, particularly those of Ming and Qing (Idema, and Grant p.144). She is recognized as the model par excellence of female poets. She had all the attributes which were in the later times regarded as the ideal woman poet. She possessed a remarkable talent at a younger age which was recognized by the male authority figure. She was also a symbol of woman figure talent of her time and later dynasties, which attracted many women of later times. Besides, her courage in facing the bandits after the death of her family was remarkable, which also served as an inspiration to the women of the later times. Therefore, through their literary works and actions, Ban Zhao and Xie Daoyun influenced the Chinese women of later ages.