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Qiu Jin

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For other uses, seeQiu Jin (disambiguation).
In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisQiu.
Qiu Jin
Born(1875-11-08)8 November 1875
Fujian,Qing dynasty
Died15 July 1907(1907-07-15)(aged 31)
Shanyin,Shaoxing,Zhejiang,Qing dynasty
Cause of deathExecutionbydecapitation
Political partyGuangfuhui
Tongmenghui
SpouseWang Tingjun
ChildrenWang Yuande ( vương nguyên đức )
Wang Guifen ( vương quế phân )
ParentQiu Xinhou ( thu tín hầu )

Qiu Jin(Chinese:Thu cẩn;pinyin:Qiū Jǐn;Wade–Giles:Ch'iu Chin;8 November 1875 – 15 July 1907) was a Chinese revolutionary,feminist,and writer. Hercourtesy namesareXuanqing(Chinese:Tuyền khanh;pinyin:Xuánqīng) andJingxiong(traditional Chinese:Cạnh hùng;simplified Chinese:Cạnh hùng;pinyin:Jìngxióng). Hersobriquetname isJianhu Nüxia(traditional Chinese:Giam hồ nữ hiệp;simplified Chinese:Giám hồ nữ hiệp;pinyin:Jiànhú Nǚxiá;lit.'Woman Knight of Mirror Lake'). Qiu was executed after a failed uprising against theQing dynastyand is considered a national heroine inChinaand a martyr ofrepublicanismandfeminism.

Biography[edit]

Wax figure of Qiu Jin at her desk

Born inFujian,China,[1]Qiu Jin spent her childhood in herancestral home,[2]Shaoxing,Zhejiang.Qiu was born into a wealthy family. Her grandfather worked in the Xiamen city government and was responsible for the city's defense. Zhejiang province was famous for female education, and Qiu Jin had support from her family when she was young to pursue her educational interests. Her father, Qiu Shounan, was a government official and her mother came from a distinguishedliterati-officialfamily.[3]Qiu Jin's wealthy and educated background, along with her early exposure to political ideologies were key factors in her transformation to becoming a female pioneer for the woman's liberation movement and therepublican revolutionin China.[3]

In the early 1900s, Japan had started to experiencewestern influencesearlier than China. As to not fall behind, the Qing government sent many elites to learn from the Japanese[citation needed].Qiu Jin was one of these elites that got the chance to study overseas.[4]After studying in a women's school in Japan, Qiu returned to China to participate in a variety of revolutionary activities; and through her involvement with these activities, it became clear how Qiu wanted others to perceive her. Qiu called herself 'Female Knight-Errant of Jian Lake' — the role of theknight-errant,established in the Han dynasty, was a prototypically male figure known for swordsmanship, bravery, faithfulness, and self-sacrifice — and 'Vying for Heroism'.[5]

Early life in China[edit]

Childhood activities[edit]

Qiu Jin had herfeet boundand began writing poetry at an early age. With the support from her family, Qiu Jin also learned how to ride a horse, use a sword, and drink wine—activities that usually only men were permitted to learn at the time.

Marriage[edit]

In 1896 Qiu Jin got married. At the time she was only 21, which was considered late for a woman of that time. Qiu Jin's father arranged her marriage to Wang Tingchun, the youngest son of a wealthy merchant inHunan province.Qiu Jin did not get along well with her husband, as her husband only cared about enjoying himself.[6]While in an unhappy marriage, Qiu came into contact with new ideas. The failure of her marriage affected her decisions later on, including choosing to study in Japan.

Aftermath of First Sino-Japanese War[edit]

The Qing government lost the Sino-Japanese war from 1894-1895. Losing to Japan in this war woke the Qing government up to the fact that China was no longer the most powerful nation even in Asia. Japan had started learning western technology and accepting western standards earlier than China. This motivated the Qing government to progress and modernize.[7]TheDowager Empress Cixilooked to Japan as a model to emulate, and her court organized tours to Japan. Many Chinese elites were sent to Japan to learn how they could build China like the Japanese were able to do.[8]Qiu Jin was one of the girls who got the chance to study overseas as these opportunities were only given to the children of higher social class.

Life while studying in Japan[edit]

In 1903, she decided to travel overseas and study inTokyo,Japan,[9]leaving her two children behind. She initially entered a Japanese language school inSurugadai,but later transferred to the Girls' Practical School inKōjimachi,run byShimoda Utako(later to becomeJissen Women's University).[10]The school prepared Qiu Jin with the skills she needed for revolutionary activities later on. With the education from Shimoda school, many female activists participated in the Republican Revolution in 1911. During her time in Tokyo, Qiu also helped to establish the Encompassing Love Society, a women’s group that promoted women’s education and protested the Russian presence in northeast China.[5]She was very fond ofmartial arts,and she was known by her acquaintances for wearing Western male dress[11][12][1]and for her nationalist,anti-Manchuideology.[13]She joined the anti-Qing societyGuangfuhui,led byCai Yuanpei,which in 1905 joined together with a variety of overseas Chinese revolutionary groups to form theTongmenghui,led bySun Yat-sen.Already known as a calligrapher and a poet, Qiu described herself as “tossing aside the brush to join the military ranks,” in encouraging educated women not to waste time on poetry but to instead engage in direct action.[5]

Within the Revolutionary Alliance, Qiu was responsible for the Zhejiang Province. Because the Chinese overseas students were divided between those who wanted an immediate return to China to join the ongoing revolution and those who wanted to stay in Japan to prepare for the future, a meeting of Zhejiang students was held to debate the issue. At the meeting, Qiu allied unquestioningly with the former group and thrust a dagger into the podium, declaring, "If I return to the motherland, surrender to the Manchu barbarians, and deceive the Han people, stab me with this dagger!"[citation needed]She subsequently returned to China in 1906 along with about 2,000 students.[14]

While still inTokyo,Qiu single-handedly edited a journal,Vernacular Journal(Baihua Bao). A number of issues were published usingvernacular Chineseas a medium of revolutionarypropaganda.In one issue, Qiu wroteA Respectful Proclamation to China's 200 Million Women Comrades,a manifesto within which she lamented the problems caused bybound feetand oppressive marriages.[15]Having suffered from both ordeals herself, Qiu explained her experience in the manifesto and received an overwhelmingly sympathetic response from her readers.[16]Also outlined in the manifesto was Qiu's belief that a better future for women lay under a Western-type government instead of the Qing government that was in power at the time. She joined forces with her cousinXu Xilin[11]and together they worked to unite many secret revolutionary societies to work together for the overthrow of the Qing dynasty.

Between 1905 and 1907, Qiu Jin was also writing a novel called Stones of the Jingwei Bird in traditional ballad form, a type of literature often composed by women for women audiences.[5]The novel describes the relationship between five wealthy women who decide to flee their families and the arranged marriages awaiting them in order to study and join revolutionary activities in Tokyo.[5]Titles for the later uncompleted chapters suggest that the women will go on to talk about “education, manufacturing, military activities, speechmaking, and direct political action, eventually overthrowing the Qing dynasty and establishing a republic” — all of which were subject matters that Qiu either participated in or advocated for.[5]

Life after returning to China[edit]

Qiu Jin was known as an eloquent orator[17]who spoke out for women's rights, such as the freedom to marry, freedom of education, and abolishment of the practice offoot binding.In 1906 she foundedChina Women's News(Zhongguo nü bao), a radical women's journal with another female poet,Xu Zihuain Shanghai.[18]They published only two issues before it was closed by the authorities.[19]In 1907, she became head of the Datong school in Shaoxing, ostensibly a school for sport teachers, but really intended for the military training of revolutionaries[citation needed].While teaching in Datong school, she kept secret connection with local underground organization—The Restoration Society. This organization aimed to overthrow the Manchu government and restore Chinese rule.

Death[edit]

In 1907, Xu Xilin, Qiu’s friend and the Datong school’s co-founder was executed for attempting to assassinate his Manchu superior.[3]In the same year, the authorities arrested Qiu at the school for girls where she was theprincipal.She was tortured but refused to admit her involvement in the plot. Instead the authorities used her own writings as incrimination against her and, a few days later, she was publicly beheaded in her home village, Shanyin, at the age of 31.[2]Her last written words, her death poem, uses the literal meaning of her name, Autumn Gem, to lament of the failed revolution that she would never see take place:

Thu phong thu vũ sầu sát nhân
(Autumn wind, autumn rain — they make one die of sorrow)[20]

During Qiu’s life, she also drew support from two close friends: Xu Zihua and Wu Zhiying — both of whom had sworn sisterhood with her. In the months following Qiu’s execution, Wu wrote three essays mourning Qiu — in which she criticized Qing officials for the execution and argued that Qiu Jin had been slandered and her actions “unjustly besmirched”.[5]Soon after, the two sworn sisters set out to bury Qiu properly nearWest Lake,fulfilling Qiu’s wish to be buried near heroes of earlier periods. Qing officials soon ordered for her tomb to be razed, but Qiu Jin’s brother managed to retrieve her body in time.[5]Ultimately, Wu Zhiying took possession of the memorial stele, installing it in her own house and selling stele rubbings as a way to commemorate her fallen friend.[5]

To this day, people continue to have varying opinions towards Qiu’s death. Many said that her death was unnecessary because she had enough time to escape before being caught by imperial soldiers. In fact, Qiu’s friends even warned her of incoming soldiers immediately after Xu Xilin’s death.[3]Lu Xun,one of China’s greatest 20th-century writers was one of her biggest critics; he “[...] believed Qiu’s reckless behavior in Shaoxing was linked to the enormous adulation she received during her time in Japan.” She was “clapped to death,” he told a friend — although there is no clear explanation as to why Qiu decided to remain at the school despite knowing that the authorities were on their way.[3]

Legacy[edit]

The entrance to her former residence in Shaoxing, now a museum
The Statue of Martyr Qiu Jin

Qiu was posthumously immortalized in theRepublic of China's popular consciousness and literature. She is buried beside West Lake inHangzhou.The People's Republic of China established a museum for her inShaoxing,Qiu Jin's Former Residence ( thiệu hưng thu cẩn cố cư ).

Chinese scholarHu Ying,professor ofEast Asian Languages and Literature at the University of California, Irvine,published a monograph on Qiu in 2016,Burying Autumn,[21]that explores Qiu Jin's friendship with her sworn sisters Wu Zhiying and Xu Zihua and situates her work in the larger sociopolitical and literary context of the time.

Her life has been portrayed in plays, popular movies (including the 1972 Hong Kong filmChow Ken(《 thu cẩn 》), and the documentaryAutumn Gem,[22]written by Rae Chang and directed by Chang and Adam Tow. One film, simply titledQiu Jin,was released in 1983 and directed byXie Jin.[23][24]Another film, released in 2011,Jing Xiong Nüxia Qiu Jin( cạnh hùng nữ hiệp thu cẩn ), orThe Woman Knight of Mirror Lake,was directed byHerman Yau.She is briefly shown in the beginning of1911,being led to the execution ground to be beheaded. The movie was directed byJackie Chanand Zhang Li. Immediately after her death Chinese playwrights used the incident, "resulting in at least eight plays before the end of the Ch'ing dynasty."[25]

In 2018,The New York Timespublished a belated obituaryfor her.[3]

Literary works[edit]

Because Qiu is mainly remembered in the West as revolutionary and feminist, her poetry and essays are often overlooked (though owing to her early death, they are few). Her writing reflects an exceptional education in classical literature, and she writes traditional poetry (shiandci). Qiu composes verse with a wide range of metaphors and allusions that mix classical mythology with revolutionary rhetoric.

For example, in a poem,A Reply Verse in Matching Rhyme (for Ishii-kun, a Japanese friend),[26]she wrote the following:

《 nhật nhân thạch tỉnh quân tác hòa tức dụng nguyên vận 》
Chinese English

Mạn vân nữ tử bất anh hùng,
Vạn lí thừa phong độc hướng đông.
Thi tư nhất phàm hải không khoát,
Mộng hồn tam đảo nguyệt linh lung.
Đồng đà dĩ hãm bi hồi thủ,
Hãn mã chung tàm vị hữu công.
Như hứa thương tâm gia quốc hận,
Na kham khách lí độ xuân phong.

Don't speak of how women can't become heroes:
alone, I rode the winds eastward, for ten thousand leagues.
My poetic ponderings expanded, a sail between sky and sea,
dreaming of Japan's three islands, delicate jade under moonlight.
Grieving the fall of bronze camels, guardians of China's palace gates,
a warhorse is disgraced, not one battle yet won.
As my heart shatters with rage over my homeland's troubles,
how can I linger, a guest abroad, savoring spring winds?

Editors Sun Chang and Saussy explain the metaphors as follows:

line 4: "Your islands" translates "sandao," literally "three islands," referring toHonshu,ShikokuandKyushu,while omittingHokkaido- an old fashion way of referring to Japan.
line 6:... the conditions of the bronze camels, symbolic guardians placed before the imperial palace, is traditionally considered to reflect the state of health of the ruling dynasty. But in Qiu's poetry, it reflects instead the state of health of China.[27]

On leaving Beijing for Japan, she wrote a poem,Reflections (written during travels in Japan)[26]summarizing her life until that point:

《 hữu hoài —— du nhật bổn thời tác 》
Chinese English

Nhật nguyệt vô quang thiên địa hôn,
Trầm trầm nữ giới hữu thùy viện.
Thoa hoàn điển chất phù thương hải,
Cốt nhục phân ly xuất ngọc môn.
Phóng túc tiên trừ thiên tái độc,
Nhiệt tâm hoán khởi bách hoa hồn.
Khả liên nhất phúc giao tiêu mạt,
Bán thị huyết ngân bán lệ ngân.

The sun and moon without light. Sky and earth in darkness.
Who can uplift the sinking world of women?
I pawned my jewels to sail across the open seas,
parting from my children as I left the border at Jade Gate.
Unbinding my feet to pour out a millennium's poisons,
I arouse the spirit of women, hundreds of flowers, abloom.
Oh, this poor handkerchief made of merfolk-woven silk,
half stained with blood and half soaked in tears.

War flames in the north‒when will it all end?

I hear the fighting at sea continues unabated.

Like the women of Qishi, I worry about my country in vain;

It's hard to trade kerchief and dress for a helmet[28]

Gallery[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abSchatz, Kate; Klein Stahl, Miriam (2016).Rad women worldwide: artists and athletes, pirates and punks, and other revolutionaries who shaped history.Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. p. 13.
  2. ^abPorath, Jason (2016).Rejected princesses: tales of history's boldest heroines, hellions, and heretics.New York, NY: Dey Street Press. p. 272.
  3. ^abcdefQin, Amy (8 March 2018)."Qiu Jin, Beheaded by Imperial Forces, Was 'China's Joan of Arc'".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved18 May2021.
  4. ^Edwards, Louise (2000)."Women's Suffrage in China: Challenging Scholarly Conventions".Pacific Historical Review.69(4): 617–638.doi:10.2307/3641227.JSTOR3641227.
  5. ^abcdefghiHershatter, Gail (2019).Women and China's Revolutions.Rowman and Littlefield.
  6. ^Gilmartin, Christina Kelley (31 December 1995).Engendering the Chinese Revolution.University of California Press.doi:10.1525/9780520917200.ISBN978-0-520-91720-0.
  7. ^Antony, Robert J. (1 October 1990)."Ono Kazuko: Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850–1950".History: Reviews of New Books.18(2): 80.doi:10.1080/03612759.1990.9945686.ISSN0361-2759.
  8. ^J, Kucharski. "New Views on Gender".Qiu Jin: An Exemplar of Chinese Feminism, Revolution, and Nationalism at the End of the Qing Dynasty.
  9. ^Barnstone, Tony; Ping, Chou (2005).The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry.New York, NY: Anchor Books. p. 344.
  10. ^Ono, Kazuko (1989).Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950.Stanford University Press. p.61.ISBN9780804714976.
  11. ^abAshby, Ruth; Gore Ohrn, Deborah (1995).Herstory: Women Who Changed the World.New York, NY: Viking Press. p.181.ISBN9780670854349.
  12. ^Porath, Jason (2016).Rejected princesses: tales of history's boldest heroines, hellions, and heretics.New York, NY. p. 271.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^Phillibert, Chris (2 September 2014)."Progressive Women' s Education".James Blair Historical Review.2(1): 49.
  14. ^Ono, Kazuko (1989).Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950.Stanford University Press. pp.61–62.ISBN9780804714976.
  15. ^Dooling, Amy D. (2005).Women's literary feminism in twentieth-century China.New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. p.52.ISBN9781403967336.
  16. ^Ono, Kazuko (1989).Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950.Stanford University Press. pp.62–63.ISBN9780804714976.
  17. ^Dooling, Amy D. (2005).Women's Literary Feminism in Twentieth-Century China.New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. p.50.ISBN9781403967336.
  18. ^Zhu, Yun (2017).Imagining Sisterhood in Modern Chinese Texts, 1890–1937.Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 38.
  19. ^Fincher, Leta Hong (2014).Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China.London, England; New York, NY: Zed Books. p. 123.ISBN978-1-78032-921-5.
  20. ^Yan, Haiping (2006).Chinese women writers and the feminist imagination, 1905-1948.New York, NY: Routledge. p.33.ISBN9780415232883.
  21. ^Ying, Hu (2016).Burying Autumn.Cambridge: Harvard.
  22. ^Chang, Rae (2017).Autumn Gem.San Francisco, CA: Kanopy.
  23. ^Browne, Nick; Pickowicz, Paul G.; Yau, Esther, eds. (1994).New Chinese Cinemas: Forms, Identities, Politics.Cambridge University Press. p.33.ISBN0521448778.
  24. ^Kuhn, Annette; Radstone, Susannah, eds. (January 1994).The Women's Companion to International Film.University of California Press. p. 434.ISBN0520088794.
  25. ^Mair, Victor H. (2001).The Columbia history of Chinese literature.New York, NY: Columbia University Press. p.844.ISBN9780231109840.
  26. ^abWang, Yilin (2021)."Translation: Poems by Chinese feminist and revolutionary writer Qiu Jin".NüVoices.Retrieved10 March2021.
  27. ^Chang, Kang-i Sun; Saussy, Haun (1999).Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 642.
  28. ^Edwards, Louise (2013). "Joan Judge and Hu Ying, eds. Beyond Exemplar Tales: Women's Biography in Chinese History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. xiv + 431 pp. $44.95/ £30.95. ISBN 978-0-9845909-0-2".Nan Nü.15(2): 337–341.doi:10.1163/15685268-0152p0006.ISSN1387-6805.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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