Translated From the Chinese

Abstract

The following biography of Ch'iu Chin, the Chinese national heroine, is taken from an edition of her poems published in 1910, three years after her death. It forms a page of history which at present is practically unknown to Europe, but which, in consequence of the revolution of 1911, is likely to be studied with increasing care as the years go by. The postscript to the work has also been translated, as containing certain facts of bibliographical interest. Biography No 3 from of the Mirror Lake 1, was a native of Qjy iQ Kuei-chi in Chehkiang 2, and belonged to the administrative district of Shan-yin. When a child, she accompanied her father to an official post in Foochow, and afterwards she again went with him to Hunan. At the age of eighteen, she was married to a Hunanese gentleman called J Wang, whose personal name was 1! T'ing-chin. He acquired by purchase the office of' Secretary to a Board, and resided as an expectant official in Peking. Chin accompanied him thither, and became the mother of a son and a daughter. Subsequently, she made an agreement with her husband, whereby the family property was divided, Chin receiving 10,000 ounces of silver. This money she invested in a commercial speculation, but having placed her confidence in an untrustworthy person, she lost the whole of her capital. Moreover, she was now on bad terms with her husband; her relatives and fellow-townsmen T'ao Ta-chin [of Kuei-chij, If Ch'gn Ching-chai [of Shan-yin] and others