Qiu Jin

Qiu Jin was born into a family of scholars and officials from Shaoxing and, unusually for a girl, was taught to read the classics and write poetry. She also learned to ride and to use a sword. At 21 she was married, by arrangement, to the son of a wealthy merchant, and had two children. The marriage was miserable. When the family moved to Beijing she saw the aftermath of the Boxer uprising and the foreign occupation, and began reading reformist writings and meeting other women who wanted more than the household.

In 1904 she pawned her jewellery, left her husband and children, and sailed to Japan to study. She joined the revolutionary societies of the Chinese students there, took to wearing Western men's clothing and gave speeches attacking foot-binding and the buying and selling of daughters in marriage. She returned to China in 1906 and founded a journal for women in Shanghai, urging them to earn their own living and free their feet.

In 1907 she took charge of the Datong School in Shaoxing, which trained teachers by day and drilled revolutionaries in secret. Her cousin Xu Xilin assassinated the governor of Anhui that July and was executed. Qiu Jin was warned that the authorities knew of the school and was urged to leave. She sent the students away and stayed. She was arrested, tortured and beheaded in Shaoxing on 15 July 1907.

Four years later the dynasty fell. She is now remembered in China as a national heroine and a founder of its women's movement.