Meet the Great Chinese Women Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention

It’s International Women’s Day and there are sure to be any number of “Notorious/Famous/Badass Women in Chinese history” listicles. The problem, as I see it, is that most of the women on those lists are famous in Chinese history for acting like men.

(We should address later the possibly greater problem of looking around the office for someone to write this piece before settling on the middle-aged white guy from New Hampshire, but hey... it's a living.)

There is no way to include everyone who is worthy of inclusion. Let’s leave aside the batshit notion that Mar 8 is the “Day We Celebrate the Women” and remember women are history and any history that leaves out women is an incomplete story. Nevertheless, if we are to celebrate famous women in Chinese history, I think it’s time we expanded the list beyond the standard starting five (Wu Zetian, the Pirate Queen Ching Shih/Zheng Yi Sao, Ban Zhao, Hua Mulan, and Pick-Your-Favorite Soong sister).

Take Wu Zetian (624-705). She was a concubine of the Tang Taizong [r. 626-649] and then, after Taizong’s death, married his son, the Emperor Gaozong [r. 649-683]. She eventually became the Empress Dowager and then simply “Emperor.” She is famous for being the only woman in Chinese history to take that title (although the exact nature of the title is a matter of historical dispute). OMG! A woman on the throne. Quick. Get a picture.

Then there is Hua Mulan who literally is famous because she dressed like a man and did men things like join the army.

The Pirate Queen Zheng Yi Sao? Legitimate badass but once again gets included for the novelty factor as if it’s a shock women can have it all: Be a bloodthirsty pirate overlord and also find love. Although in this case, love meant marrying her own (adopted) son.

The Empress Dowager Cixi, like Wu Zetian, sometimes gets on these lists. She seized power in 1861 and ruled the Qing Empire for the next 47 years through a succession of child emperors including her son and, later, her nephew. Her ability to wield influence over male subordinates caused such cognitive dissonance it prompted one famous foreign male fantabulist to write a memoir in which he claimed to have been sodomized by the Cixi during a series of erotic encounters. Cixi was straight-up gangster but is she really the best person to trot out every Mar 8?

Let's look at a few other Chinese women who usually don't make the Top 5 and probably should

Li Qingzhao (1084-1156) was one of the greatest poets in Chinese history. Her father was a friend of the Song-era super scholar/official Su Shi, and she received a solid classical education from an early age. Today she is recognized for her exquisite poetry and literary refinement.

I wake dazed when smoke
breaks my spring sleep.
The dream distant,
so very distant;
and it is quiet, so very quiet.
The moon spins and spins.
The kingfisher blinds are drawn;
and yet I rub the injured bud,
and yet I twist in my fingers this fragrance,
and yet I possess these moments of time!

Cai Yan (sometimes known as Cai Wenji) lived in an even earlier era. Born in the 2nd century AD, she was an accomplished calligrapher, musician, and poet:

My dwelling is often covered by frost and snow,
The foreign winds bring again spring and summer;
They gently blow into my robes,
And chillingly shrill into my ear; 
Emotions stirred, I think of my parents,
Whilst I draw a long sigh of endless sorrows.

Both Cai Wenji and Li Qingzhao lived in dangerous times. Cai Wenji saw the fall of the Han dynasty which had lasted for over 400 years, and Li Qingzhao and her family were forced to flee southward when Jurchen invaders from what is today Manchuria conquered north China in 1115.

Qin Liangyu (1574-1648) joined her brothers in defending the Ming Dynasty against the Manchus invading from beyond the Great Wall and rebel groups seeking to use the situation to their advantage. She personally led troops from Sichuan to Beijing to help defend the capital when the Manchus threatened Beijing in the 1630s. She also protected her home county from the predations of the notorious rebel leader Zhang Xianzhong (1606-1647). Her heroics earned her titles and honors from the last Ming Emperor. After the Manchus finally succeeded in conquering China in 1644, she continued to be a highly respected figure in her corner of Sichuan.

Cixi and Wu Zetian usually suck all the oxygen out of the room when it comes to Noble Consorts and Dowager Empresses, but let’s give it up also for two other imperial women: Shulü Ping (879-953), also known as the Empress Yingtian, and Bumbutai, AKA Empress Xiaozhuangwen (1613-1688). Neither was technically Chinese, but both played essential roles in empires ruling parts or all of China. Empress Yingtian was married to the Khitan ruler Abaoji (872-926) who was the first emperor of the Liao dynasty which ruled parts of North China (including the area around modern-day Beijing). When Abaoji died, Khitan custom was for the Empress to join her husband in death. Empress Yingtian, no doubt uttering an eloquent and powerful Khitan phrase which we would today translate as “F**k that shit” refused. Instead, to show her faithfulness to her husband she cut off her right hand and proceeded to rule through her son becoming the most influential figure at the Liao court for many years. 

Empress Xiaozhuangwen was the Mongolian mother of the Shunzhi Emperor [r. 1643-1661], who was the first emperor of the Qing Empire to rule from Beijing. The father of the Shunzhi Emperor, the Manchu ruler Hong Taiji, never lived to see his dream of the Manchus conquering China realized. That would be left to his brothers, one of whom Dorgon (and yes, with names like Bumbutai and Dorgon, early Qing history can sound a lot like a Drunk History version of Game of Thrones) was instrumental in setting the Manchus up in Beijing for the next 268 years. Dorgon may or may not have also been getting busy with Bumbutai after his brother’s death. Empress Xiaozhuangwen proved to be a critical stabilizing figure in her young son’s reign during the difficult consolidation of Manchu rule in China. She’s also the subject of the historical novel Green Phoenix and many Chinese TV dramas.

Qiu Jin (1875-1907) is usually the token female in every history teacher’s “Chinese Revolutions” lecture. She was famous for dressing like a man, riding a horse astride, and for dying in an uprising against the Qing dynasty which failed because of the incompetence of her male co-conspirators.

Don't get me wrong: Qiu Jin was also a legitimate badass but there were, of course, more women than just Qiu Jin involved in the political and social revolutions of the era. One of my personal favorites is the anarcho-feminist He Zhen (1884-1920). She was married to the writer Liu Shupei (1884-1917). Together they published the journal Natural Justice which advocated anarchism and revolution. He Zhen believed no political revolution could ever succeed unless it also addressed fundamental social inequalities especially the status of women in that society.

Lin Huiyin (1904-1955) was one of the first female architects in modern China. She and her husband Liang Sicheng, both graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, formed an architectural and historic preservation power couple in the 1920s and 1930s Beijing. Their beautifully restored courtyard, which was of course torn down in recent times to make way for Beijing’s continued “development,” became a prominent salon where they entertained intellectuals, artists, and scholars from China and around the world. Lin died in 1955 of tuberculosis, and Liang Sicheng soon found his ideas about urban planning and historic preservation out of step with the prevailing political winds, but they remain remembered today for their pioneering work in researching Beijing’s architectural past. (Lin Huiyin’s niece Maya Lin, born in Athens, OH, became famous in 1980 when her design was chosen for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.)

In modern times, there is Zhang Haidi. Born in Shandong in 1955, Zhang became paralyzed as a young child. Social conventions at the time prevented her from going to school, but nothing could stop her from learning. She taught herself English, Japanese, German, and even Esperanto. She earned a master’s degree in 1993 and became a writer, translator, and motivational speaker and advocate for the rights of the disabled in China. In 2008, she succeeded Deng Pufang, the son of Deng Xiaoping, as the chairperson of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation.

Did we leave your favorite female in Chinese history off the list? Let us know about her in the comments section below!

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Images: Wikimedia Commons, Giphy, livejournal.com, Follow cn.com, thesundaytimes.co.uk, chinanews.com, cgtn.com