Qiu was executed after a failed uprising against the Qing dynasty and is considered a national heroine in China and a martyr of republicanism and feminism.

Born in Fujian, China,[1] Qiu Jin spent her childhood in her ancestral home,[2] Shaoxing, Zhejiang.

[3] Qiu Jin's wealthy and educated background, along with her early exposure to political ideologies were key factors in her transformation to becoming a female pioneer for the woman's liberation movement and the republican revolution in China.

Qiu Jin's father arranged her marriage to Wang Tingchun, the youngest son of a wealthy merchant in Hunan province.

Losing to Japan in this war woke the Qing government up to the fact that China was no longer the most powerful nation even in Asia.

[8] Qiu Jin was one of the girls who got the chance to study overseas as these opportunities were only given to the children of higher social class.

[5] She was very fond of martial arts, and she was known by her acquaintances for wearing Western male dress[11][12][1] and for her nationalist, anti-Manchu ideology.

Already known as a calligrapher and a poet, Qiu described herself as “tossing aside the brush to join the military ranks,” in encouraging educated women not to waste time on poetry but to instead engage in direct action.

In one issue, Qiu wrote A Respectful Proclamation to China's 200 Million Women Comrades, a manifesto within which she lamented the problems caused by bound feet and oppressive marriages.

[5] The novel describes the relationship between five wealthy women who decide to flee their families and the arranged marriages awaiting them in order to study and join revolutionary activities in Tokyo.

[5] Titles for the later uncompleted chapters suggest that the women will go on to talk about “education, manufacturing, military activities, speechmaking, and direct political action, eventually overthrowing the Qing dynasty and establishing a republic” — all of which were subject matters that Qiu either participated in or advocated for.

In 1907, Xu Xilin, Qiu's friend and the Datong school's co-founder was executed for attempting to assassinate his Manchu superior.

Qing officials soon ordered for her tomb to be razed, but Qiu Jin's brother managed to retrieve her body in time.

[3] Lu Xun, one of China's greatest 20th-century writers was one of her biggest critics; he “[...] believed Qiu’s reckless behavior in Shaoxing was linked to the enormous adulation she received during her time in Japan.” She was “clapped to death,” he told a friend — although there is no clear explanation as to why Qiu decided to remain at the school despite knowing that the authorities were on their way.

Chinese scholar Hu Ying, professor of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of California, Irvine, published a monograph on Qiu in 2016, Burying Autumn,[21] that explores Qiu Jin's friendship with her sworn sisters Wu Zhiying and Xu Zihua and situates her work in the larger sociopolitical and literary context of the time.

[23][24] Another film, released in 2011, Jing Xiong Nüxia Qiu Jin (競雄女俠秋瑾), or The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake, was directed by Herman Yau.

Qiu composes verse with a wide range of metaphors and allusions that mix classical mythology with revolutionary rhetoric.

My poetic ponderings expanded, a sail between sky and sea, dreaming of Japan's three islands, delicate jade under moonlight.

Grieving the fall of bronze camels, guardians of China's palace gates, a warhorse is disgraced, not one battle yet won.