Myth of Arrival

When the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, crushed the Boxer Rebellion and then marched into Beijing on August 14, 1900, they: "undertook several punitive expeditions against the Boxers. Troops from most nations engaged in plunder, looting and rape. German troops in particular were criticized for their enthusiasm in carrying out Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany's July 27 order to "make the name German remembered in China for a thousand years so that no Chinaman will ever again dare to even squint at a German." This speech, in which Wilhelm invoked the memory of the 5th century Huns, gave rise to the British derogatory name 'Hun' for their German enemy during World War I and World War II" (from Wikipedia Boxer Rebellion)

It was from witnessing this backdrop of violence and war that Qiu Jin began to cultivate her political awareness. Qiu was a curious paradox; on one hand she saw the Qing Emperor and Court Officials as weak and powerless to defend China and thus strove to topple them but on the other her poetry is very invested with the mythology of ancient China, that of the wandering poet-warrior who protects the innocent and rights wrongs. That no where in her writing (as far as I've found) is there any mention of replacing the Empire with a Marxist Utopia (though apparently Mao helped to foster the myth surrounding her as a martyr of the Socialist cause) speaks more to me of her place in history; she was upper-middle class and China was just about to throw off its old traditions for new ones. Qiu herself was hungry for both justice and fame and longed to see the China of old to rise up and chase the invaders into the sea. Had she lived a couple of years more she might have witnessed what she dreamed for. Instead, when she died, the Manchu government was still in control of the nation.

红毛刀歌
一泓秋水净纤毫，远看不知光如刀。
直骇玉龙蟠匣内，待乘雷雨腾云霄。
传闻利器来红毛，大食日本羞同曹。
濡血便令骨节解，断头不俟锋刃交。
抽刀出鞘天为摇，日月星辰芒骤韬。
斫地一声海水立，露风三寸阴风号。
陆专犀象水截蛟，魍魉惊避魑魅逃。
遭斯刃者凡几辈？骷髅成群血涌涛。
刀头百万英雄泣，腕底乾坤杀劫操。
且来挂壁暂不用，夜夜鸣啸声疑鴞。
英灵渴欲饮战血，也如块磊需酒浇。
红毛红毛尔休骄，尔器诚利吾宁抛。
自强在人不在器，区区一刀焉足豪？

This poem speaks to the atrocities the European troops committed once they gained control of the country. It is hard not think of more recent history, the Cold War perhaps, when she writes: "You see, I will reject you and your hateful/ weapon. Our sacrifices rest on the people/ alone and never a weapon." My friend from Beijing, Linnypooh, helped me with some of the more difficult concepts in the poem. Thank you!

This fresh autumn water, stainless from the smallest flecks
of hair but from far off I did not know this pool of light
came from the reflection off a terrible sword. It so panics
the dragons made out of jade that they cower and turn about
in their boxes; wishing for a thunder cloud to escape into.
They say this terrible sword comes from the Red Hairs.
It is more venomous than those made in Arabia or Japan.
It will barely draw blood before it cuts your bones
into pieces; it will hardly touch your neck before your head
falls from it. Pull it out: all of Heaven will tremble; the sun,
the moon and the stars will rapidly hide their white light.
The noise of a single chop is enough to make the ocean waters
leap up. Even three inches of its tip will cause all the winds
from hell to wail. Across the world it butchers elephants
and rhinoceros; in the sea waves it slices the scales
from a dragon. Demons and Mountain Spirits
scamper off in horrified terror. How many victims
have fallen under this terrible sword's edge? Our skulls
pile up in mounds; our blood billows in cresting waves
and the ghosts of all the millions massacred still weep.
No one alive is protected from its dreadful swing. Even
at night when the terrible sword hangs on the wall
to sleep it fizzles and cries like a demented owl. Is this
a warlike soul thirsting for our blood? A damned spirit
hungry for wine's release? And still …

Red Hair, Red Hair, don't you swagger!
You see, I will reject you and your hateful
weapon. Our sacrifices rest on the people
alone and never a weapon. Yes,
you have your sword now, but only
your sword, so why should you
prance? Why are you such a bully?
Why are you so irritatingly proud?

Editors Sun Chang and Saussy note that "Red Hair (hongmao) means Westerns, especially the Dutch and British" (650). To the references of a sword making noises like an owl or personified as a dragon, they say that ancient poets (mainly from the Tang Dynasty) frequently depicted swords as living and thus making noises befitting noble creatures. Since Qiu was given a classical education as a child it is not surprising that she used this motif.

Work Cited:

Sun Chang, Kang-i and Haun Saussy (eds) Women writers of traditional China: an anthology of poetry and criticism. Charles Kwong, associate editor; Anthony C. Yu and Yu-kung Kao, consulting editors. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. (1999)

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