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Original Sources: commons.wikimedia.org en.wikipedia.org www.swordsantiqueweapons.com |
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here is a statue of her beside West Lake in Hangzhou, very
apt because Qiu Jin was also known as the Woman
Knight of Mirror Lake. She was born into a time – 1875 China – when women’s
feet were still bound, and when women were still expected to fulfill their
family duties by marrying someone chosen for them.
But then again, in childhood, she was exposed to a deep
classical education, thanks to the same family. The martial heroes she read
about became her beacons, especially those who fought for the people, and
especially those who fought for the overthrow of the Ching. She grew beyond her
present life. Her soul wasn’t to be bound up like her feet. Believing that a
Western style of education might bring women closer to equality with men, she
left her marriage and moved to Japan to study.
Her story does have a modern global scope to it.
Women who can no longer be constrained by hatred and prejudice; girls, as
bright as little suns, who have a fierce desire to go to school, many who want
to become doctors and jurists in order to make a positive contribution to their
own societies. They know what those who study global poverty know…educate a
girl and you help eradicate poverty.
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Source: www.imfdb.org |
“With all my heart I beseech
and beg my two hundred million female compatriots to assume their
responsibility as citizens. Arise! Arise! Chinese women, arise!”
On her return to China, Qiu
Jin joined revolutionary groups, published a journal for women and later became
head of a school which trained revolutionary fighters undercover. In 1907, she
was caught just before an uprising, and executed.
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Source: www.panoramio.com |
Here is one of her more famous poems -
Do not tell me women
are not the stuff of heroes,
are not the stuff of heroes,
I alone rode over the East Sea's
winds for ten thousand leagues.
My poetic thoughts ever expand,
like a sail between ocean and heaven.
I dreamed of your three islands,
all gems, all dazzling with moonlight.
I grieve to think of the bronze camels,
guardians of China, lost in thorns.
Ashamed, I have done nothing
not one victory to my name.
I simply make my war horse sweat.
Grieving over my native land
hurts my heart. So tell me:
how can I spend these days here?
A guest enjoying your spring winds?
winds for ten thousand leagues.
My poetic thoughts ever expand,
like a sail between ocean and heaven.
I dreamed of your three islands,
all gems, all dazzling with moonlight.
I grieve to think of the bronze camels,
guardians of China, lost in thorns.
Ashamed, I have done nothing
not one victory to my name.
I simply make my war horse sweat.
Grieving over my native land
hurts my heart. So tell me:
how can I spend these days here?
A guest enjoying your spring winds?
According to an article in a recent issue of Kung
Fu Tai Chi magazine on Huaquan written by Emilio Alpanseque, Cai Guiqin
taught “swordplay to China’s first feminist Qiu Jin in Shanghai and pugilism
and health preservation exercises to the founding father of the Republic of
China, Dr. Sun Yat Sen.”
Effectively, she
inhabited the martial stream in which we practitioners also live. It would have
been great to have learned from her, to have been exposed to her skills, to her
life lessons and to the depth of her spirit. Fellow martial
artists…the girls we teach, make them independent and strong. Give them the
skills, both mentally and physically, to take control of their lives. In every
little fist, there is a Qiu Jin.
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