When you think of Qiu Jin, what comes to mind? Is it a talented woman? Is it a poet? Is it the shadow of a maiden dancing sword? Or is it a martyr of great righteousness and generosity to die? For me, the first thing I think of is Qiu Jin dressed in men's clothes. Suits, canes, leather shoes, you must know that Qiu Jin is overly wrapped, wearing leather shoes, this is how twisted.
Why is Qiu Jin so obsessed with wearing men's clothes? In fact, this represents the awakening of Qiu Jin's feminist consciousness.
In 1896, Liang Qichao published "On Women's Studies", in which he believed that women's lack of learning was the foundation of China's weakness, and that "the strength of the Westerners" and "the prosperity of Japan" all benefited from the advocacy of women's studies. He said that looking around the world today, "the strongest female scholars, the strongest in their country, and the soldiers who surrender without a fight." "Those who are secondary in female learning are second strong in their country", and "female students are declining, their mother's teachings are lost, they have no jobs, they have few wisdoms, and those who survive in the country are fortunate." According to this, he believes that "the female scholar is the survival of the world's strength and weakness of Oharaya".
Inspired by such thoughts, Qiu Jin finally woke up from washing her face with tears all day and indulging in the sorrow of male and female feelings and family contradictions day by day. She must cry out for women's rights, fight for women's rights, and seek justice and breathe for all the talented and ambitious women who have suppressed humiliation for thousands of years. For feminism, Qiu Jin has her own understanding and expression. The feminist rights she understands are "equal rights for men and women", which is the opportunity and right for women to show their talents in the same way as men, to make contributions with their own efforts and talents, and to stay famous for a hundred generations.
To achieve this goal, she must turn herself into a man, and she must strive for this goal.
Therefore, Qiu Jin first took off her women's clothes and changed into a man's outfit. After changing into men's clothes, she also ran to the photo studio to take a photo and inscribed a poem on the photo:
Self-titled small photo
Who is it that you are looking at? The hero's former life regrets the paramitage.
The past form of the skeleton was originally an illusion, but the future scene is doubtful.
Meet and hate the evening love should be gathered, and the anger will be lifted when the house is up.
He saw his old friends day by day, and his words were now swept away.
Qiu Jin men's clothing photo
What kind of self does Qiu Jin see in the photo?
This was his own past life, the heroic bone boy of the hall, the Qiu Jin who had sent the wrong body, had disappeared forever like an illusory past-like skeleton.
Is there any doubt in the future world, the world of meritorious achievements, the world of famous history, waiting for this heroic boy to perform a storm?
This is the real Qiu Jin, facing "him", Qiu Jin meets and hates late, looking up to the sky and screaming!
What do you say when you see old friends in the future? Qiu Jin had long been ready, saying that now Qiu Jin had swept away the female body that had wrongly fallen on her like a floating sink, and this chivalrous boy was the real Qiu Jin.
Through the dress change, Qiu Jin completed her phoenix nirvana, liberation and sublimation like rebirth.
Later, in her letter to her brother Qiu Yuzhang, she said: "Sisters and children have no worries, and those who have experienced them are famous behind them", which is exactly this turn.
Don't underestimate the significance of Qiu Jin changing into men's clothes for the society at that time and her own psychology. In China's traditional culture, clothing is the externalization of the gangchang ethical system, and "changing clothes and changing systems" is a major event related to life and death. Qiu Jin's men's clothing is a shocking cry of rebellion against the traditional patriarchal society, symbolizing the status of women who rebel against tradition, symbolizing independence, reform and liberation.
Qiu Jin began to go out openly in men's clothes. In Beijing, Qiu Jin went out in a carriage, but instead of sitting in the car, she dressed in men's clothes, sat on the rim, held a book in her hand, and went through the market in a self-style manner and attended various social events. For a while, it became a scene in the capital, and everyone was amazed.
Dressed in men's clothes, Qiu Jin is bent on doing earth-shattering things, leaving a name in the history of Qing, as if she is a traditional masculine woman, a woman who really wants to be a man. So is that really the case? In fact, this is not the case at all.
For herself, her men's clothing is her declaration that she will emotionally get rid of her attachment to men, and she will live for herself from now on, for her faith, talent, pursuit, and dignity independently.
Her men's clothing is a kind of rebellious cry for the reality that women in the patriarchal society, even if they are talented and capable, cannot be displayed, and it is a deliberate disturbance of the existing order. In the depths of her heart, she still insists on the softness and beauty of women.
In Tianjin, she shared a room with Lü Bicheng, who woke up in the morning and was startled to see Qiu Jin's men's boots, but then saw Qiu Jin smearing powder on her nose. This detail is worth recalling.
In addition, there is her hairstyle. She always wore braids. Her braids were not the kind that Qing Dynasty men shaved off their hair around and left a wisp in the middle, it was just a symbol of accepting the humiliation of foreign oppression and slavery, while Qiu Jin's braids were truly feminine.
So in the eyes of others, what does Qiu Jin look like in men's clothes?
Once Qiu Jin went to visit Lü Bicheng, and the miscellaneous servant reported: "Here comes a grandfather who combs his hair!" This refers to Qiu Jin, who was wearing a suit and official-style soap boots, but her head was still combed with a Western-style bun. So the miscellaneous servants said that the grandfathers who combed their hair were actually women in men's clothing.
Another time, she went to a party and met the wife of Hattori Uyukichi, a Japanese professor at Kyoshi University, Hattori Shigeko. So, in hattori's eyes, what is Qiu Jin like?
In Hattori's essay "Remembering Ms. Qiu Jin", she recalls her impression when she first saw Qiu Jin: "Tall, fluffy black hair combed into a Western hairstyle, blue duck tongue hat covering half of the ears, blue old suit is very ill-fitting on the body, and the sleeves are almost completely covered by her white and tender hands." Holding a thin cane in his hand, the fat trousers under the exposed brown leather shoes, a green tie tied on the chest, a pale blue face, big eyes, high nose bridge, thin lips, slim figure, a dashing youth! At first sight, Hattori also thought that Qiu Jin was a man.
After a few days, Qiu Jin took the initiative to visit Hattori Fumiko, and said the reason why she wanted women to dress as men, Qiu Jin said: "Madam, you know, in China, men are strong, women are weak, and women are oppressed. I want to be as strong as a man, so I have to look like a man first, and then become a man psychologically. ”
When we look at Qiu Jin now, we may think that her dress as a man is not only extreme, but also quite childish. At that time, Hattori Shigeko thought so, and she said to Qiu Jin: "It is not better to imitate the form of a man by envying a man. Wearing a man's clothing, but the body can not be changed, where the woman is also a woman, to live without inferiority, dignified, in order to make men admire. ”
But Qiu Jin stubbornly said: "Madame is also right, but I still insist on my opinion." ”
Qiu Jin's persistence is completely her reason. To break the family and social system in China at that time, the unequal position of men and women in the family and the deep-rooted concept of "male superiority and female inferiority", it was too difficult to change the status quo without a few fierce and decisive figures like Qiu Jin.
Lu Xun said that in China at that time, if we wanted to reform and open a few windows for a room, we would never agree. Only the proposal to remove the roof so that the window could be opened would be accepted.