In 1987. a mountain on Mercury ( 水星 ) got a name 一 Li Qingzhao, the name of a Chinese female poet According to the International Astronomical Union, all new mountains on Mercury must be named after a litterateur ( 文人 ) or an artist who was famous for more than fifty years, and dead for more than three years, before the date they are named. Of the total of 310 names, fifteen are named after famous Chinese writers and artists, and Li Qingzhao is one of them, together with Li Bai, Bai Juyi Cao Xueqin and Lu Xun. What did Li Qingzhao do to deserve such an honour? Li is a poet of the Song Dynasty. Compared with other male poets in China, who have left hundreds or even thousands of poems, Li has only eighty-seven, like a drop in a bucket of water However, her talents and artistic creativity as shown in her eighty-seven works have earned her a lasting place in the Chinese literary circle. Li was born into a scholar-official family in 1084. Like other young women in a rich family, she was well-read and trained in Chinese calligraphy ( 书法 ) and musical instrument. Most young women of rich families were taught to follow the "Three Obediences and Four Virtues" at that time, while Li was free in both character building and artistic development. When it was time for her to start another stage in life 一 marriage, Li married Zhao Mingcheng. a student at the supreme academy of the imperial court. The couple devoted their spare time to their common interests 一 literature and the collection of calligraphy and painting. Unluckily, their happiness didn't last long. The power struggle at the very top of the government destroyed everything. Li first followed her husband to Qing Zhou, and spent the next ten years there. It turned out that the ten years in Qing Zhou was the most productive period for her artistic creativity. Then in 1127, when the North Song Dynasty ended, Li followed her husband to Lin'an. Soon her husband died. And the worst part was that not only did she lose her loved husband but she also lost most of her accumulated ( 积累的 ) works. Later, Li remarried a government official, who turned out to be a total liar and treated her badly. She died in 1155 in loneliness and pain.