Li Qingzhao

Song dynasty poet

c. 1084 – 1155 · 71 years · Jinan · Asia

China's greatest female poet, a master of ci lyrics on love and loss written amid the Jurchen invasion.

Contemporaries around the world

Hildegard of Bingen — abbess, mystic and composer, 14 years younger
Averroes (Ibn Rushd) — philosopher, commentator on Aristotle, 42 years younger
Henry IV — emperor humbled at Canossa in his struggle with the pope, 34 years older
Henry II — first Plantagenet, builder of the Angevin Empire and of common law, 49 years younger
Stephen of Blois — king of the Anarchy, the civil war with Empress Matilda, 10 years younger
Conrad III — first Staufer king, unlucky leader in the Second Crusade, 9 years younger

Yuri Dolgoruky — prince of Rostov-Suzdal, founder of Moscow, 15 years younger
Andrey Bogolyubsky — prince who moved the centre of Rus to Vladimir, 27 years younger
Vladimir II Monomakh — Grand Prince of Kiev, 31 years older
Mstislav the Great — last ruler of a united Kievan Rus, 8 years older
Nestor the Chronicler — monk and chronicler, 28 years older
Sviatopolk II — prince of Kiev, participant in the Congress of Liubech, 34 years older