When the women of her time had their feet bound to please men, Qiu Jin was already questioning the sexual inequality of feudal traditions. Free-spirited and well-educated, she grew up practicing martial arts and was as well versed in poetry as she was in sword-fighting. When this rebellious girl moved to Beijing with her husband, she witnessed how her country was raided and ravaged by foreign powers. With the encouragement of her neighbor Wu Zhiying, the wife of righteous magistrate Li Zhongyue, Qiu Jin left her family behind to pursue study in Japan. There, she met some like-minded schoolmates who shared her ideals, including revolutionary leader Xu Xilin, and secretly joined his anti-Qing cause. After returning to China, Qiu Jin participated in the uprisings staged by Xu Xilin, leading a small group of hot-blooded students against the armed forces of the corrupt Qing government…
