秋瑾故居
Qiu Jin’s former residence is one of the first national cultural preservation places in Shaoxing. “Qiu Jin’s former residence” plaque, is dedicated by the revolutionist Ms.He Xiangning. The couplet on the gib door“The sad autumn carries forward the ambition and the pitiful gem remains in our mind.”is the words pasted at the site where she died at a martyr by an anonymous author.
Notes: “Qiu” is the heroine’s family name whose pronunciation sounds like “autumn”, and “Jin” implies “a beautiful gem”.
“Hechang Hall” is the venue where the family holds important ceremonies and the inner room to the east is Qiu Jin’s bedroom and study.Qiu Jiahe’s couplet hungin the air in the middle of the hall means “The clouds in the sky look like a tiger or a leopard and after the rainfall, they become flood dragons”. On its side are the photo of Qiu Jin in men’s wear and a Longquan sword. Andthere is a secret room behind the bed, where Qiu Jin stowed her guns and confidential documents. On the desk near the window Qiu Jin’s manuscript for the Liberation Army Uprising and the scholar’s four treasures of the study she used are kept. On the wall of the outside room there is anantithetical couplet presented by her intimate Mz. Wu Zhiying, which is “The hero has great ambition and pursuits it with painstaking efforts.”
The east site of the Memorial Hall is a study and the west is the bedroom of Qiu Jin’s elder brother (Qiu Yuzhang) and her wife (Zhang Chunzi). Qiu Yuzhang once joined such revolutionary organizations as the Restoration Society and the United League and he supported and even participated in the revolutionary activities organized by Qiu Jin. Her sister-in-law Zhang Chunzi had deep love with Qiu Jin and when Qiu Jin was in financial trouble, she sold her jewelry to fund Qiu Jin’s revolutionary activities.
The west side of the bedroom is the “family school”, on the wall of which hangs a family motto for theirdescendants“Study hard with no presumptuous demand and in that case, you will be satisfied with poverty and seek pleasure at the same time.” The east side is the bedroom of Qiu Jin’s parents. Her father Qiu Shounan was a successful candidate in the imperial examinations at the provincial level in the Qing dynasties and accepted the offer to work as a governor in Taiwan. Afterwards, he was promoted to work in Hunan.
The last room of the Mansion is the kitchen, which is also the place to burn the manuscripts after Qiu Jin knew the failure of Xu Xilin’s uprising in Anqing. The back garden is the place where Qiu Jin practiced sword and martial arts as a young girl.
The exhibition hall of Qiu Jin’s life story was originally at the side wing of the Former Residence, and at the entrance stands Qiu Jin’s statue made of white marble, hanging up the inscription of Sun Yat-sen “a heroic woman of China”
Qiu Jin, born in 1875, traveled to various places in Fujian Province with her grandfather and father. But Xiamen in the late Qing Dynasty was already an open trading port stipulated in the Treaty of Nanjing, and since her childhood, she saw the foreign missionaries bullying the common people at their will, which inspired her profound patriotism in her mind. In 1893, his father Qiu Shounan met the local rich Wang Fuchen in Hunan and in 1896, the two families got connected through marriage, and the married couple lived in the “Yiyuan pawnshop”. But after the marriage, Qiu Jin found her husband Wang Zifang was a good-for-nothing young man from a wealthy family, and they found they were not to each other’s liking. After giving birth to his son Wang Jinde（yuande）in 1897, she went to Beijing with her husband Wang Zifang who donated some money to buy an office working in the Ministry of Construction. Then, Beijing was in the course of turbulence and the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China. Wang Zifang had to take his wife back to Hunan. Just during this period, Qiu Jin read some progressive books such as《Revolutionary Army》and 《Zhejiang Tide》, books that stimulated her democratic idea. After Qin Dynasty government signed the Peace Protocol of 1901, the war came to an end and her husband Wang Zifang resumed his post in Beijing. There, she met Ms.Wu Zhiying, the wife of her husband’s colleague Lian Quan. Wu Zhiying’s thoughts tended to reform, and she encouraged women to contact the world, her thoughts influencing her revolution spirit a lot at the early stage. Through her introduction, Qiu Jin had the opportunity to communicate with some progressives, and then Qiu Jin broke through the resistance to study in Japan at her own expense!
Entering Japan, Qiu Jin enrolled in the Tokyo Practical Girls’ School. After school, Qiu Jin set up a Common Love Society and attended the speech exercises. In order to play her role in the war, she also translated a book entitled theNursing Tutorial.
In the spring of 1905, he returned to her home country to raise tuition fees and visit relatives, and was introduced by Xu Xilin to attend the Restoration Society.After returning to Japan in June, he met Dr. Sun Yat-sen and joined the United League.
At the end of 1906, the Qing government colluded with the Japanese counterpart to issue Qing Ban Rules for International Students. Chen Tianhua felt it hopeless to save the country and ended his life in the ocean, and the students represented by Qiu Jin thought that they shouldfight to the end, and they all withdrew to the country to protest.Qiu Jin successfully inspired some international（Chinese）students to return to China.
After returning to China, Qiu Jin taught in Nanxun Xunxi Girls’School. The two sisters, Xu Zihua and Xu Yunhua, co-principals of Xunxi Girls’ School, embarked on the revolutionary road under her influence.In 1907 she founded theChina Woman Newspaper in Shanghai
At the beginning of 1906, Xu Xilin, in order to enter the Qing government, bought an office and worked in Anhui, so he entrusted the Datong School to Qiu Jin, the two people met in Hangzhou and echoed each other a common uprisingin Zhejiang and Anhui. Xu Xilin failed in the Anqing uprising and died bravely. Qiu Jin heard that and despite her relativities’ and friends’ persuasion, went to uprising in advance. On July 13, 1907, the Qing army besieged the Datong School, and Qiu Jin was captured after covering his comrades to leave. The magistrate brought Qiu Jin to trial, but Qiu Jin did not yield and wrote down “autumn rain and autumn wind worried the evil spirit.”The magistrate and the rich men invented the confession and sentenced Qiu Jing to death hastily. On July 15, 1907, Qiu Jin died bravely in Xuantingkou, Shaoxing City.
After Qiu Jin was murdered, her revolutionary comrades buried her by the West Lake according to her wishes.In 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen wrote down a “HEROINE” when he paid tribute to Qiu Jin’s tomb in Hangzhou.Soon after, with the efforts of Xu Zihua, he established the “Autumn Society” and the “Competitive Girls’ School” in Hangzhou, set up monuments and Former Residence in Shaoxing, and published various books and produced films.People from all walks of life have left calligraphy for her in different periods of time!
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