.jpg)
Posted on 07/15/2021 11:10:02 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1907, Chinese poet, intellectual and activist Qiu Jin (Ch’iu Chin) was beheaded for plotting an anti-Qing rising.
The daughter of a well-to-do gentry family, Qiu was shunted into the arranged marriage that would have been usual for her milieu.
It did not suit her.
Hers had been an active mind from youth, and after several years of domestic misery, resolved to make her own way in the world, separated herself from her husband, and headed for Japan.
She prepared herself for this journey by an act taxing symbolism as heavily as physique: painfully un-binding her feet. “Unbinding my own feet to undo the poisoned years / Arousing the souls of a hundred flowers to passionate movement,” she wrote in verse while en route to Japan.*
She would later issue a plea for women to emancipate themselves by doing likewise.
[W]e women, who have had our feet bound from early childhood, have suffered untold pain and misery, for which our parents showed no pity. Under this treatment our faces grew pinched and thin, and our muscles and bones were cramped and distorted. The consequence is that our bodies are weak and incapable of vigorous activity, and in everything we do we are obliged to lean on others.....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Had her feet been bound, they could have better controlled her.
Should have written “remained bound”.
Rich, spoiled brat who has everything turns anarchist. Happens here everyday.
Some sh!t needs to be overthrown.
Yes. I really can’t on this woman’s case. She did make some good points.
See photos, post 6.
It’s a shame the statue didn’t show her unbound feet. Although it’s hard to imagine how she, or any woman, could ever straighten out the bones so distorted from such horrible maiming started in infancy.
Bkmk
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.