Tears of Blood and Sorrow: Depression and Women in Traditional China

Abstract

This article examines the connection between women and depression in traditional China. By analyzing poems written by women from the 11th to the 18th centuries, the paper argues that these poems were used to express profound personal loss, sadness and depression. Over a span of eight hundred years, women used similar images and ideas when expressing their depression. As well, their depression was seen by the poets as a part of being a woman. This concept of depression is re-iterated by the medical practices that most physicians relied on curing physical illness, not mental illness. As a result, women were rarely treated for this mental condition.