彈詞小說《天雨花》作於清朝康熙初年，原序中有女性作者陶貞懷的署名。其序後經學者考證為偽作，陶貞懷的作者名因而被推翻。但據此並不足以排除作者為女性的可能。國內彈詞研究學者胡曉真所建構的女性彈詞文學史，以乾隆年間所作的《玉釧緣》為第一部可知的女性彈詞小說。鮑震培二○○二年甫出版的《清代女作家彈詞小說論稿》中，根據外證，推論《天雨花》作者為浙江無錫的女作家，但並未針對文本考察其書寫的性別特徵。 有根據文本分析，考察《天雨花》的書寫策略，認為作者有意藉由女子的義勇精神、才學智巧，與以理服人等特質，塑造女性自主換形象；又透過一夫一妻家庭模式的安排，以及對男權借禮教之名行鉗制女性之實的揭發，意圖補償女性在現實文化秩序中欠缺的尊嚴，宣揚兩性互等的理念；作者且細膩記述女性的思維觀點、日常生活、身心變化、母姊情，及變愛婚姻等，全面呈現了女性的人生體驗與生活面貌。綜觀其寫寫策略，高度符合於女性主體發音、女性自主意識、女性觀點見解、男女主客變易、書寫自我體驗等女性書寫特徵；攏具廠了胡曉真所歸納的明清女性彈詞傳統所慣有的女性英雄、家居生活、母女關係、才子佳人等題材要素。本文足以為鮑震培所提出《天雨花》作者為女性的推論提供內證，則明清可知的第一部女性彈詞小說，即可由《玉釧緣》推前百年為《天雨花》。

Tan-Ci novel Tain-Yu-Hua was written in the early Qing dynasty. The original preface contained the signature of the female author Tao Zhen-Wuai. The preface however was later proven to be a fake by scholars thorough textual research. The assertion of Tao Zhen-Wuai being the author was therefore overthrown. But this alone however can not rule out the possibility of the author being a woman. According to the literary history of Tan-Ci novel constructed by domestic scholar Hu earliest known female Tan-Ci novel. Based on external evidence, Bao Zhen-Pei inferred in his recent book A Study on Tan-Ci novel. Based on external evidence, Bao Zhen-Pei inferred in his recent book A study on Tan-Ci novels which written by Female Authors in Qing Dynasty published in 2002, that the author of Tian-Yu-Hua was a female from Wuxi, Zheijang Province. But he didn’t examine the sexual characteristics of the writing. According to the review of the writing strategies of Tian-Yu-Hua based on text analysis, this paper finds the author was deliberately shaping an independent female image by portraying women’s qualities such as courage, intelligence, and persuading people with reason. And through the arrangement of a monogamous family model and the exposure of the fact that men are actually using their rights to suppress women in the name of traditional teachings and values, the author tried to compensate for women’s dignity in real order of culture and promote the concept of gender equality. The author portrayed in great detail women’s thoughts, daily life, physical and psychological changes, mother- and sister-hood, love and marriage, which presents the whole life and living experience of women. The writing strategies are highly consistent with the characteristics of women’s writing style such as subjective voices, self-consciousness, female perspective and views, subject-object transpositions of women and men, and self-experience writing. And it also included the traditional materials typical of female Tan-Ci novel in the Ming and Qing Dyansties summarized by Hu Xiao-Zhe, such as women heroines, family lfie, mother-daughter relationship, and the match of a beautiful lady with a talented young man. This paper provides the internal evidence for Bao Zhen-Pei’s assertion that the author of Tian-Yu-Hua is a woman. And therefore, the first traceable female Tan-Ci novel during the Ming and Qing Dynasties can be dated back one hundred years from Yu-Chuan-Yuan to Tian-Yu-Hua.