Qiu Jin

Life

Her courtesy name was Xuanqing (璿卿; also written 璇卿), and Jingxiong (競雄) was another name. She used the hao Jianhu Nüxia (鑑湖女俠), and was also known as Danwu (旦吾), Hanxianüer (漢俠女兒), and 姑秋氏; her original or earlier name was Guijin (閨瑾), and her childhood name was Yugu (玉姑). Other recorded names include Bicheng (碧城), Qiuxia (秋俠), Qiuqian (秋千), and Qiu Runjin (秋閏瑾).

Her father was Qiu Xinghou (秋星侯), and her brother was Qiu Tong (秋桐). In 1896, she married Wang Tingjun (王廷鈞), a gentryman from Xiangtan; another record gives her husband’s name as Wang Zifang (王子芳). They had a son, Wang Yuande (王沅德), and a daughter, Wang Guifen (王桂芬).

In 1904, she went to Japan to study at her own expense. While there, she ran the Baihua Bao and joined the Hongmen Tiandihui. The following year she briefly returned to China, joined the Restoration Society, and soon went back to Japan to join the Tongmenghui and participate in anti-Qing activities; another account places her organization of the Restoration Society after her later return to Shaoxing. After returning to China, she established the China Women’s Journal in Shanghai to promote revolution and women’s rights, later headed Datong School in Shaoxing, and worked with Xu Xilin to prepare uprisings in Anhui and Zhejiang.

After Xu Xilin’s failed uprising in Anqing in 1907, Qiu Jin was arrested when plans for an armed anti-Qing uprising were exposed; another account says that an informer denounced her. She was executed at Xuantingkou in Shaoxing, calmly according to one account. Her death date is variously given as the sixth day of the sixth month, July 15, or July 17, 1907, and friends arranged her burial in Hangzhou.

Poetry and thought

Her poetry was vigorous and uninhibited, often devoted to revolutionary propaganda; another description compares its manner to Gao Jianli striking the zhu and calls its cadence resonant and flowing. She rejected feudal ritual, advocated equality between men and women, and often likened herself to Hua Mulan and Qin Liangyu. Chivalrous in character, she studied both literature and martial arts and wore men’s clothing.

Later editors compiled 《秋瑾集》, which includes her ci lyrics. Other titles associated with her are 《秋瑾詩詞》, 《秋瑾女俠遺集》, and 《秋瑾史蹟》.

Associations and posthumous remembrance

She was a friend of Lü Bicheng (呂碧城). Shen Zhiying (沈芝瑛), Wang Canzhi (王燦芝), Wu Yuzhang (吳玉章), Guo Moruo (郭沫若), and Sun Yat-sen (孫文) wrote prefaces to works associated with her; Wu Zhiying (吳芝瑛), Chen Qubing (陳去病), and Tao Chengzhang (陶成章) wrote biographies of her, while Xu Zihua (徐自華) wrote her tomb inscription.