A Remarkable Woman of the Tang Dynasty Chengdu
From October 28 to 29, 2025, the Chengdu Radio and Television Station premiered its grand historical documentary, Shu: Eminent Figures — Talented Woman Xue Tao, during prime time on CCTV-9, China’s Documentary Channel.Following Du Fu of the Thatched Cottage and Sima Xiangru, this production marks another milestone in the Shu: Eminent Figures series and is now streaming on the official website of China Media Group.https://tv.cctv.com/2025/10/27/VIDAaKts3DKF0R8kakqEnGuB251027.shtml
Blending Scholarly Depth with Artistic Innovation
Centered on “a woman’s unyielding struggle against fate,” the documentary constructs a narrative that intertwines Xue Tao’s personal resilience with her creative brilliance.The first episode, “Grace by the Stream”, retraces the arduous journey of her early life — from her migration to Shu in early childhood and the loss of her father, to her entry into the courtesan registry during adolescence, unveiling her transformation from an entertainer to an accomplished stateswoman.The second episode, “Echoes of the River”, focuses on her later years, depicting her transcendence of feudal constraints and her political insight in contributing to Bashu’s regional stability.Spanning Xue Tao’s life from age 7 to 63, the film examines 16 representative poems and vividly reconstructs 22 historical scenes, shaping a full and tangible portrait of Xue Tao.
In its historical presentation, the film takes rigorous scholarship as its guiding framework, weaving together insights into Tang dynasty marriage customs, the system of registered courtesans, and the civil office of the Collator of Books (jiaoshulang) into the warp and weft of understanding mid-Tang society. The appearances of historical figures such as Wei Gao and Yuan Zhen further enrich this multidimensional portrait of the era.
In its artistic expression, the film achieves multiple layers of innovation and breakthrough.As the first historical documentary in China devoted exclusively to the inner world of female consciousness, it transcends the conventional “female silhouette through a male gaze,” delving deeply into Xue Tao’s spiritual essence of her “economic independence, integrity of character, and freedom of thought”. At the same time, the production integrates AI-generated imagery with ancient music, costume, and dance, where technology becomes an enabler of aesthetics, evoking the refined beauty of the mid-Tang era across a millennium, achieving a seamless unity between historical authenticity and artistic resonance.
Echoes Across Time: A Spiritual Resonance Beyond Centuries
The documentary’s resonance has extended far beyond China’s borders. Nakao Seishō, President of the Xue Tao Research Association in Japan, praised The Talented Xue Tao for its exceptional production quality and its balanced, insightful portrayal of Xue Tao’s inner strength and unshakable confidence, offering Japanese audiences the vivid visual documentation, inspiring deeper reflection on the intertwined themes of history, gender, and identity, which fulfills the goal of communication — to use the wisdom of the past as a mirror for the present.
Through the documentary, Professor Jin Enzhouof the School of Asian and African Studies at Chengdu Foreign Languages University traced the cultural lineage linking the classic Korean song “Dongshim Grass” to Xue Tao’s “Spring Vision Lyrics.”She believes that this transcultural and trans-temporal dissemination allows the charm of this Tang dynasty poetess to reach a broader global stage through modern media.
Over twenty historians and cultural scholars from prominent Chinese universities viewed The Talented Xue Tao in full. Professor Li Dingguang of Shanghai Normal University observed that the film captures Xue Tao’s multifaceted genius — poet, calligrapher, and inventor — with extraordinary insight.Professor Zha Pingqiu of Fudan University commended the documentary’s meticulous recreation of the Xue Tao Paper, which he said perfectly embodies her rare versatility and creative talent.
From a historical lens, Professor Hu Xu of Xiamen University noted that The Talented Xue Tao brings to life the social landscape and official culture of mid-Tang Sichuan through tangible details such as the portrayal of the Collator of Books office.Researcher Chen Caizhi of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences praised the film’s method of “using poetry to illuminate history,” emphasizing how it moves beyond the pathos of Xue Tao’s life story to reveal a patriotism that transcends gender.
Furthermore, the documentary’s finely detailed and artistically rendered treatment of Xue Tao’s major works — including “Spring Vision Lyrics” and “Song of the Wutong Tree by the Well” — has been met with wide scholarly praise.Professor Qian Zhixi of Peking University remarked that by interweaving Xue Tao’s poetry with the story of her life and its cinematic form, the film deeply engages Tang poetry lovers in Korea, Japan, and beyond, serving as a powerful conduit for the global appreciation of traditional Chinese culture.
The documentary The Talented Xue Tao traces the life of the Tang dynasty poet Xue Tao, portraying how she maintained an upward spirit within a life that often turned downward, offering ordinary people a tangible model for facing adversity and finding self-worth.It reveals how, in her youth, she accepted the disparity of her circumstances yet refused to be defined by them; how, in adulthood, she built her own sense of security through mastery of her craft — the creation of the famed Xue Tao Paper; and how, in later years, she achieved inner harmony, choosing not to live for others’ need of her, but for her own capacity to be at peace with herself.The Talented Xue Tao is not a story of genius defying fate, but of an ordinary life lived with extraordinary clarity — a testament to the art of living well: accepting what cannot be changed, improving what can, securing one’s place through skill, and finding serenity through self-understanding.
