Who is she:
- A textile pioneer
Notable Life Events:
- Born in 1245 during the Song dynasty to a poor family in what is nowadays Shanghai and as a result sold as a child bride when she was a teen. It was not known what her actual name was. Dao Po was just an honorific, not an actual name.
- Due to domestic abuse she ran away and followed the Huangpu River until she could catch a boat to the port of Yazhou in modern-day Hainan
- In Yazhou she married again but her husband died and she became a Daoist nun (probably the origin of her honorific). During that time she learnt textile techniques from the local minority, the Li people
- Around 1295 she returned to the Songjiang district of modern-day Shanghai to teach the local women what she had learnt of textile production.
- She pioneered a set of weaving tools including a weaving machine operated by foot pedals and greatly enhanced weaving efficiency. She also facilitate increased plantation of cotton and created the famous Wu Ni Jing blanket that created a prosperous textile trade in the Songjiang district
Why is she remarkable:
- I just thought it interesting that while she is engaged in what was essentially a women’s craft, she actually managed to create a set of technology for it. I mean, that’s nothing unusual in modern days. But I don’t know of many ancient female inventors in China or elsewhere. So that might be a lack of knowledge on my part but I still think it a noteworthy point.
Moonlake’s thoughts on her:
- I feel that just the fact that she ran away rather than staying with the abusive family shows that she has initiative and courage. Of course, it wasn’t told about the severity of the abuse she suffered so it could as well be that she was really driven away by survival instincts.
- When she returned to her birthplace to teach weaving it indicates a level of forethought over her life’s purpose
English reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huang_Daopo
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