My hometown, Heye Town, is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese feminist movement. Among the eight most outstanding feminist fighters in the century-long history of China’s feminist movement, four came from this small town. Including other associated feminist pioneers, the total number of renowned feminists emerging from our small town likely exceeds ten. Through long-term exposure, I have gained a general understanding of the stories behind these feminist fighters. However, as I mentioned in my previous article What Are Online Historical Controversies Really About?, historical figures are often evaluated differently at various stages, especially these feminist fighters. Some people tend to embellish their stories, pitting their achievements against the men around them to highlight their greatness. But upon closer examination, I found that even without creating such opposition or maliciously demeaning one side, their status would not be diminished—it’s just that the story might not be as dramatic.

Wang Tingjun: The Man Behind Qiu Jin

Basic Information

Qiu Jin (1877–1907), female, courtesy name Jingxiong, pseudonym Jianhu Nüxia, was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. She was an advocate for women’s rights and education, and a revolutionary in modern Chinese history. In 1894, at the age of 19, Qiu Jin was betrothed by her father, Qiu Shounan (then the Director of the Xiangxiang County Sales Bureau), to Wang Tingjun. They married on April 17, 1896, and she officially moved to my town.

Wang Tingjun (1879–1909), originally named Zhaolan, courtesy name Zifang, pseudonym Chunxin, was from Heye Town, Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province. Wang Tingjun’s family lived less than 1.5 kilometers from the hometown of Zeng Guofan. His great-uncle married Zeng Guofan’s eldest sister, and from then on, the Wang and Zeng families frequently intermarried, elevating the Wang family to the status of a prominent local clan. It was this illustrious family background that led Qiu Jin to marry him.

Wang Tingjun married Qiu, courtesy name Jin, daughter of Shounan. She was granted the title of “Madame” by the Qing court, born on October 11, 1877, and died on June 6, 1907, in Shanyin County, Zhejiang. She was buried by West Lake with a memorial pavilion. Their son, Yuande, was adopted by half-brother Qi as heir. Their daughter, Guifang. (Qi was Wang Tingjun’s second elder brother.) “Shangxiang Chengnan Wang Family Genealogy, Fourth Revision”

Brief Interaction Between the Two

Qiu Jin and Wang Tingjun had a harmonious marital relationship. While Wang helped his father manage the pawnshop business, he also hired private tutors to teach at home. The couple studied and progressed together, showing mutual respect and admiration, much to the envy of others. In the second year of their marriage, Qiu Jin gave birth to their first son, named Wang Yuande. (This child later became the wealthiest man in Xiangtan, joined the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, and continuously funded revolutionary activities, even catching the attention of the central government. After liberation, he was introduced by Zhou Enlai to work at the Hunan Institute of Culture and History.)

A change occurred in 1899 when Wang Tingjun purchased a position as a secretary in the Ministry of Works from the Qing court. In the spring of the following year, he took his wife and child to Beijing to assume his post. Although the position was bought, the Qing court still accorded the proper formalities, and Qiu Jin, as the official wife, was granted the title of “Gongren” (similar to a noble title). However, due to the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Wang Tingjun, having only served for a month, worried about the safety of his wife and child and took them back to their hometown for refuge.

In 1901, the couple had their second child in Heye Town, named Wang Canzhi. (This girl later studied aviation in the United States and, upon returning to China in 1930, became China’s first female pilot, a pioneer in Chinese aviation history.)

In 1903, Wang Tingjun took his wife and child to Beijing for the second time to assume his post, this time as a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue (renamed from the Ministry of Finance, roughly equivalent to a director in today’s Ministry of Finance). It was from this year that Qiu Jin, leveraging her husband’s connections, began to enter the circles of Qing court elites, making friends, broadening her horizons, and witnessing the final gasps of the corrupt Qing court, which led to a significant shift in her ideological understanding.

In 1904, Qiu Jin, against her husband’s wishes, went alone to study in Japan. Shortly after Qiu Jin left for Japan, Wang Tingjun, finding it uninteresting to be an official in Beijing alone with the children and with his father seriously ill, resigned and returned home, planning to re-enter officialdom in a few years with better prospects.

In 1906, Qiu Jin, having further absorbed progressive ideas in Japan, returned to China and came back to Heye Town early the following year. Here, she intended to ask her husband for funds to support the “Restoration Society” in their revolutionary activities. However, Wang Tingjun was in Beijing at the time, so she forced the Wang family to provide the money at knifepoint and declared a break with the family. Considering the need to maintain family harmony, the Wang family eventually gave her the money, which Qiu Jin used to establish the Datong School and found the Chinese Women’s Journal.

In 1907, Qiu Jin was heroically executed, and Wang Tingjun fell ill and never recovered, passing away two years later. Both their lives ended at the age of 30.

Personal Evaluation

Many previous accounts of Wang Tingjun came solely from Qiu Jin’s descriptions, embellished by those who sought to portray him as a typical decadent landlord-class playboy, stubbornly clinging to outdated ideas, engaging in domestic violence, and being counter-revolutionary, all to highlight Qiu Jin’s greatness. However, upon closer examination, these evaluations do not hold up.

Although many have described the marital relationship between Wang Tingjun and Qiu Jin as a “mismatch,” with the man coming from a landlord-merchant background and the woman from an official family, they were not entirely incompatible. Especially with the benefit of hindsight, viewing the man as representing the interests of the decaying landlord class, filled with feudal dregs, and the woman as representing the emerging national bourgeoisie, filled with progress and revolution, it is no surprise that such a contrast is drawn. However, I believe the two were quite well-matched.

1. Physical Compatibility
   In appearance, Qiu Jin had a more masculine look, with many photos making it hard to distinguish her gender, often mistaken for a man. On the other hand, Wang Tingjun had a more feminine appearance, to the point that Qiu Jin’s brother described him as “graceful and elegant, with the appearance of a woman.” If only one partner in a marriage had cross-gender physical traits, it might seem mismatched, but if both exhibited such traits, it could be seen as a perfect match.

2. Personality Compatibility
   In family life, it is often a disaster if both partners have fiery tempers or are both introverted. Compatibility in personality generally means a balance of yin and yang, where both parties understand and tolerate each other, or one party does so. If both are confrontational or indifferent, the relationship is bound to fail. In the relationship between Wang Tingjun and Qiu Jin, it is clear that Wang Tingjun was the more tolerant and accommodating one. Despite the significant impact of his wife’s actions on the family, he chose to endure and support the family alone. Perhaps his greatest mistake was not supporting Qiu Jin’s decision to study in Japan, but from the perspective of a husband, letting his wife go abroad alone while he stayed home with two children, I believe 99% of men would make the same decision. Later events also showed that Qiu Jin had some regrets regarding her family, especially her two children. Qiu Jin herself said, “I have no attachments to my children, only concerned with my legacy.” In modern terms, this means she was more focused on her legacy than on raising her children, leading her children to later find it quite bizarre that their mother would pit familial love against fame and fortune. They even discovered that Qiu Jin wrote extensively about her nieces and nephews but never penned a single word for her own children.

3. Family Compatibility
   Although Wang Tingjun came from a wealthy family, he was not stubbornly traditional. After Qiu Jin married into the Wang family, he did not want her to be just a young lady of a landlord’s household. While in Heye, the couple studied together and often traveled to Xiangtan and Changsha to broaden their horizons. Within a few years, Wang Tingjun decided to use his purchased official position as an opportunity to take his wife to Beijing to see the world. There are even recollections of the couple studying foreign languages together, and Qiu Jin’s social circle in Beijing was largely expanded through Wang Tingjun’s family connections. It can be said that without Wang Tingjun’s progressive thinking and the support of the Wang family, Qiu Jin might not have risen to the center of the historical stage. Moreover, even when his wife was involved in revolutionary activities against the Qing court, Wang Tingjun, as a Qing official, did not distance himself or cut ties. The Wang family also went above and beyond for Qiu Jin. For example, in 1906, when Qiu Jin returned to Heye to ask the Wang family for money for the revolution, they risked execution to provide it. In 1909, after Wang Tingjun’s death, the Wang family learned that Qiu Jin’s coffin in Zhejiang had not been buried and risked execution again to move it to Hunan for burial.

It is worth noting that from 1907 to 1909, no one in Zhejiang dared to bury Qiu Jin, but after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, Zhejiang began to compete for her remains. Despite her children’s strong desire to keep her tomb in Hunan and Hunan’s plans to rebury her at Yuelu Mountain, Hunan Governor Tan Yankai ultimately lost the battle to Zhejiang’s forces and agreed to move the tomb to Zhejiang. Upon learning of this, the Wang family eventually funded the construction of the Qiufeng Shrine in Changsha for Qiu Jin.

Biography of Mr. Zifang and His Wife
Mr. Zifang, the youngest son of Mr. Wang Fuchen of Xiangxiang, was originally named Zhaolan, with the courtesy name Zifang and pseudonym Chunxin. He was of a delicate build, with a fair complexion, earning him the reputation of a graceful gentleman. He was quick-witted in his studies but disliked rote memorization. He wrote essays with broad strokes, preferring not to refine them meticulously. Without practicing calligraphy, his handwriting was elegant. Ambitious and eager for official advancement, he twice took the imperial examinations but failed, leading him to abandon traditional studies. In 1901, he purchased a position as a secretary in the Ministry of Works through contributions to the Shaanxi-Shanxi relief fund, serving for two years before being promoted to a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue, where he was granted the title of “Zhongxian Dafu.” Not long after, his father fell seriously ill, and he returned home to care for him. After several months of tending to his father, he mourned deeply, his health deteriorating. He spent his time at home in mourning and recuperation, planning to return to officialdom after the mourning period to fulfill his ambitions. However, fate was unkind, and after two years of illness, he passed away at the age of 30, buried in Yezi Pond, Sandu, Xiangtan County.
His wife, Ms. Qiu, courtesy name Jin, pseudonym Jingxiong, was from a prominent family in Shanyin, Zhejiang. She loved reading and was skilled in poetry, often expressing her thoughts with passion. Her father, Mr. Xinghou, had served in Hunan for many years, and Ms. Qiu accompanied him to Xiangxiang, where she became engaged to Mr. Zifang. They married when she was 19, and their relationship was harmonious. In 1902, Mr. Zifang went to Beijing to assume his post, and Ms. Qiu accompanied him. She was never without a book in hand, constantly composing poetry. Fellow townsmen Guo Tongbai and Li Hanping admired her poetry and often sought her compositions. After living in Beijing for some time, witnessing the corruption of the Qing government and influenced by foreign ideas, she passionately told Mr. Zifang, “Japan is a gathering place for scholars, and there must be many heroes there. I wish to visit.” She then pawned her jewelry to travel to Japan, enrolling in the Japan Women’s University to study women’s education and crafts. In her spare time, she wrote articles and compiled the Vernacular Journal, a monthly publication aimed at enlightening women, taking on the role of a pioneer for women’s rights. After the Japanese government issued regulations restricting international students, she could no longer tolerate it and decided to return to China. By then, her father had passed away, so she went to Zhejiang to visit her mother before returning to Hunan to visit her in-laws in Xiangtan. She sorted through her old clothes and distributed them to servants and poor neighbors. Her generous nature was evident in her acts of charity. She wired Beijing to ask Mr. Zifang to return to raise funds for her studies, but after waiting several days without his arrival, she asked her in-laws for 2,000 taels of silver. She then went to Zhejiang to establish the Chinese Women’s Journal in Shanghai and founded the Women’s Physical Education Association in Shaoxing. Her writings, including essays and poems, were widely published in newspapers, all imbued with revolutionary sentiments. In 1907, when revolutionary martyr Xu Xilin was executed in Anhui, Ms. Qiu, who was related to Xu, held a memorial service at her school upon hearing the news, which led to her being implicated. She was executed on June 6, 1907, at Xuanyuan Crossing in Zhejiang. Xu Jichen and Wu Zhiying buried her by West Lake, but the Qing court forced her remains to be moved. Her son brought her coffin back to Hunan, where she was buried at Zhaoshan. After the revolution, people from both Hunan and Zhejiang, remembering her as a revolutionary leader and pioneer of the restoration movement, held memorial services to honor her spirit. Hunan Governor Tan ordered her burial at Yuelu Mountain, while Zhejiang scholars competed to bury her by West Lake, erecting a tombstone, establishing the Autumn Society, and building the Sorrowful Autumn Pavilion in her memory. Though she died young, her legacy lives on. She had one son, Yuande, and one daughter, Canzhi. I, Zhang Yiliu, a fellow townsman and former magistrate of Tongshan County, Hubei, having parted ways with the couple in Beijing and never meeting them again, deeply reflect on their story. In my spare time, I have recorded their major deeds for inclusion in the Wang family genealogy, hoping it may be of use to historians. — Respectfully written by Zhang Yiliu, former Magistrate of Tongshan County, Hubei.

Reference: Qiu Jin and Hunan

Due to the sheer number of feminist fighters from Heye and the complexity of each of their stories, I will only write about Qiu Jin for now due to time constraints. I plan to update with four more articles, aiming to complete them within this month.

1. Ge Jianhao (August 17, 1865 – March 16, 1943). A pioneer in early Chinese feminist activities and women’s education, and a revolutionary. She pioneered the inclusion of “gender equality” in the constitution.
2. Tang Qunying (December 8, 1871 – April 25, 1937). One of the founders of the Republic of China, a leader in the feminist movement, a pioneer of feminism, a democratic revolutionary, an educator, a key figure in the 1911 Revolution, and the first female member of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance.
3. Xiang Jingyu (September 4, 1895 – May 1, 1928). One of the founders and early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, an outstanding communist fighter, a loyal proletarian revolutionary, a pioneer and leader of the Chinese women’s movement, and the first Minister of Women’s Affairs of the CCP Central Committee.
4. Cai Chang (May 14, 1900 – September 11, 1990). One of the earliest members of the Chinese Communist Party, a pioneer and outstanding leader of the Chinese women’s movement, a prominent figure in international progressive women’s movements, the founder of the All-China Women’s Federation, and the first, second, and third Chairwoman of the All-China Women’s Federation, and the fourth Honorary Chairwoman. She also served as the Vice Chairwoman of the Fourth and Fifth National People’s Congress Standing Committee.