Houston Community News >> Qin Jin - A Revolutionary Chinese Heroine
9/2/2007 Introduction: As much
remembered for her writing as her heroic deeds, Qui Jin gave her life for her
only true love—her country, and is the epitome of a Chinese heroine.
"Alas! We can say that her hot heart was given, a whetstone, that the country
might sharpen its dull sword." Biography of Qui Jin
Her family name means "autumn," her personal name "jade;" Qui Jin's naming was
probably the last time this modern-era Chinese heroine followed convention.
Unusually for a girl born in the mid-1870s, Qui Jin received an excellent
literary education courtesy of her scholarly parents. Yet it is reported that
her mother gave up trying to teach her sewing and embroidery, for her determined
daughter preferred archery and martial arts novels.
At eighteen Qui Jin was married by arrangement to a Circuit Commissioner in the
capital Beijing, and she bore him two children. However she was unhappy with
married life, forging an identity and life separate to that of her husband;
sword-fighting, riding horses and drinking wine like a hero from a ying xiong
(hero) novel. To the embarrassment of her husband she would appear in public
wearing Western men's clothing, and was a forceful proponent of Western ideas in
an era where women didn't have any, establishing a girl's school and lecturing
against foot-binding.
In 1904 and after thirteen years of marriage, Qui Jin took the unthinkable step
of leaving her husband and children for Japan, writing the following poem during
the ocean crossing:
...Unstrained wine never quenches the tears of a patriot;
A country's salvation relies on exceptional genius.
I pledge the spilled blood from a hundred thousand skulls
To restore the universe with all our strength.
In Japan Qui Jin's first action was to unbind her feet, an extremely painful,
bloody act she would later describe in Stories of the Jingwei Bird (1905-07).
One of a group of revolutionaries abroad, Qui participated in the plans for the
revolution to come, the first woman to join the republican party Ko Ming Tang,
and wrote for revolutionary journals on the need to educate and emancipate
Chinese women. However under pressure from a fearful Qing Government, the
activities of political exiles were restricted by Japan. The time for theory and
debate had come to an end—in 1906 Qui Jin resolved to return home.
Now a leader in the Restoration Society, whose declared aim was the overthrow of
the corrupt Qing Dynasty, Qui established its chapter in Shanghai, overtly
taking a series of teaching positions and starting the Chinese Women's News
magazine. Formerly a revolutionary of ideas, Qui Jin joined others, including
her cousin Xu Xilin, in planning for an active, armed revolution, learning to
make explosives and even starting a clandestine bomb factory. Still hidden from
official suspicion, as a school principal she trained not only her students but
local people as an army.
Long-made plans for a nationwide uprising on July 19, 1907 were disrupted by the
premature action of a lone revolutionary cell several weeks earlier, prompting a
swift government retaliation. In warning, Qui sent a message to her cousin Xu,
who decided to act before government troops could seize him, assassinating the
governor of Anhui. He was sentenced to death by the cutting out of his heart.
Hearing this news on July 9 in Shaoxing, Qui and her students discussed various
plans of action but came to none, and when soldiers entered the city on July 12
she refused to flee, and was arrested with six others. Remaining silent even
under torture, she was convicted on the evidence of two of her poems. During her
trial, Qui composed what is now her most famous work—her death poem:
"Autumn rain, autumn wind; my heart dies of sorrow."
Qui Jin was sentenced to death and executed July 15, 1907. Receiving initially
an ignominious burial, upon the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty five years later,
Qui Jin was reburied under the oversight of Sun Yat-sen, the first President of
the Republic of China, acknowledged officially as the hero she had always sought
to be.
The final line of her epitaph reads: "Not only under Southern Sung (Song
Dynasty) were heroes lightly put to death ...all shall esteem (and) remember in
their hearts her fiery heroism."
John-Paul Gillespie is a New Zealand based writer and designer with a love of writing and a practice of meditation. A member of the Sri Chinmoy Meditation Centre, he pursues an inner revolution by other means. John-Paul helps produce inspiration podcasts for Sri Chinmoy TV.