本文旨在選取一個特定角度——疾病——探討出版於清咸豐年間的一部閨秀詩集（《信芳閣詩草》，85年、859年兩版）所呈現的強烈自傳欲望。通過在其詩集中不斷呈現疾病並賦予其特定意義，閨秀詩人陳蘊蓮（清道光、咸豐年間人）力圖向讀者傳達一個具有顯著情節的人生故事，以使整部詩集形成自傳效果；並藉此質疑「自我」在婚姻關係中的定位，尋求乃至迫使讀者對其個人生活困境作出反應。陳明顯跨越了「溫柔敦厚」界限的直露質問，對詩歌傳統的微妙改寫以使其服從於個人寫作目的，對讀者反應的有意識操控以及其高度的寫作自覺性均宣示其「自我」不容忽略的存在。這一自我宣示的方式或可透露，在西方影響和「現代性」大規模來臨之前，女性關注自我與性別關係的方式似已悄然發生著微妙卻重要的變化。

In this study, I examine the recurrent theme of illness in the poetry collection of a Qing-Dynasty woman poet—Poetry Drafts from the Xinfang Pavilion (1851, 1 859), by Chen Yunlian (around the Daoguang and Xianfeng Reigns)—in order to probe into her creation of a very assertive “self.” In particular, I focus on Chen’s overwhelming autobiographical desire and the ways she willfully turned the construction of a life story about illness and suffering towards the end of publicizing the dilemma she was facing in her marriage. I argue that the concern Chen revealed about the position of her “self” within her marital and familial relations was in a way unprecedented. Indeed, this “self” gained so much emphasis that she eclipsed the very relations by which she was defined. I also argue that Chen’s case might serve as an inkling of change that was happening in women’s self-perceptions at this particular historical moment and that foreshadowed the rise of the “New Woman” decades later.