Qiu Jin (1875-1907)
Dec. 15th, 2024 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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senzenwomen[I’m sorry this is both late and too short; Qiu Jin deserves better, but I’ve been sick this weekend and thought I was better off posting what I had. I hope other people can fill in more]
Qiu Jin was born in 1875 in Fujian, China, the daughter of government officials. Although her feet were bound according to the custom of the time, she was taught to ride a horse and use a sword along with writing poetry in her childhood. She was briefly and unhappily married in her early twenties, moving to Beijing with her husband, where she unbound her feet.
In 1903 she traveled to Japan to study, leaving two children behind in China; she attended the Girls’ Practical School run by Shimoda Utako, where she joined various revolutionary societies and made herself notable by wearing Western men’s clothes. She also edited the Vernacular Journal, which published revolutionary articles in vernacular written Chinese (still a rarity at the time), including her own protests against bound feet and forced marriage, as well as (with Xu Zihua) the China Women’s News.
In 1905 she returned to China and became principal of a girls’ school with a revolutionary focus in Shaoxing. She was arrested and put to death in 1907 for plotting against the Qing Dynasty. She wrote poetry and (often unfinished) novels throughout her life.
Sources
https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/qiu-jin-five-poems/ (translations of Qiu Jin’s poetry by Yilin Wang)
Qiu Jin was born in 1875 in Fujian, China, the daughter of government officials. Although her feet were bound according to the custom of the time, she was taught to ride a horse and use a sword along with writing poetry in her childhood. She was briefly and unhappily married in her early twenties, moving to Beijing with her husband, where she unbound her feet.
In 1903 she traveled to Japan to study, leaving two children behind in China; she attended the Girls’ Practical School run by Shimoda Utako, where she joined various revolutionary societies and made herself notable by wearing Western men’s clothes. She also edited the Vernacular Journal, which published revolutionary articles in vernacular written Chinese (still a rarity at the time), including her own protests against bound feet and forced marriage, as well as (with Xu Zihua) the China Women’s News.
In 1905 she returned to China and became principal of a girls’ school with a revolutionary focus in Shaoxing. She was arrested and put to death in 1907 for plotting against the Qing Dynasty. She wrote poetry and (often unfinished) novels throughout her life.
Sources
https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/qiu-jin-five-poems/ (translations of Qiu Jin’s poetry by Yilin Wang)
no subject
Date: 2024-12-16 06:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-16 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-17 07:47 am (UTC)Those poems are so fascinating! The deliberate drawing on martial imagery, the dutiful heroism/patriotism in
"A Reply Verse in Matching Rhyme", and "Unbinding my feet to pour out a millennium’s poisons / I arouse the spirit of women, hundreds of flowers, abloom."
Thank you for sharing with us!
no subject
Date: 2024-12-20 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-21 09:42 am (UTC)Do you know any resources on the process of unbinding feet? I know it was occasionally done, but not how or how successfully (though I came across a fascinating community example in an article, about a certain type of agricultural labour needing more people, and women could do it, but not with bound feet, so there was suddenly an economic incentive to stop).
I hope you're feeling better now.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-27 10:36 am (UTC)