Wattpad brings you a guest post from T.E. Waters, author of our newest featured story, The Ghost Tiger’s Lament:
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If you’re looking for writing inspirations, or need new role models for your badass female characters, check out this post by T.E. Waters on some of the most awesome female warriors from China. Who are your female idols from the past?
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[image via Wikimedia Commons]
Thanks to Disney, we’re all familiar with the Chinese heroine Mulan, who disguised herself as a man to go to war in place of her ailing father (and according to “The Ballad of Mulan,” fought on the front for more than ten years). But how many people realize that she’s actually just one figure in a long line of historical and literary female Chinese warriors?
Fu Hao
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[image via Baidu]
There are cases of women leading armies into battle as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE) — most notably Lady Fu Hao. According to oracle bone inscriptions unearthed from the Shang capital and artifacts excavated from her tomb (including more than 100 weapons!), Fu Hao was among the most powerful military leaders of her time. She personally led numerous campaigns against various enemy tribes, conducted important rituals and sacrifices, and even governed her own territories.
The Maiden of Yue
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[image via Baidu, illustration by Lee Chi Ching based on Jin Yong/Louis Cha’s “Sword of the Yue Maiden”]
The Maiden of Yue, one of the inspirations for my historical fantasy series, was a nameless swordswoman from the 5th century BCE, first referenced in the semi-historical text Wu Yue Chun Qiu. The king of Yue was preparing to attack a stronger kingdom. One of his advisers heard of a mysterious swordswoman from the southern forests and invited her to court to display her skills. On her way there, a master swordsman challenged her to a bout; she took up a bamboo stick and defeated him in just four moves. Later, the king was so impressed by her theories on swordplay (which she claimed would enable a single warrior to take on a hundred opponents) that he immediately set her to training his commanders and their men. The armies of Yue eventually prevailed, and the Maiden’s philosophies continued to influence martial arts for generations afterward.
Xun Guan
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[image via Baidu]
Born in 303 CE, Xun Guan was a mere girl of twelve when one of her governor father’s subordinates revolted and laid siege on their city. As provisions dwindled, Xun Guan volunteered to break through the surrounding army with a handful of men to request reinforcements. She succeeded in her escape and managed to convince not just one but two generals to send help, thus saving her city and earning the eternal respect of her father and his newfound allies.
Qin Liangyu
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[image source unknown]
Qin Liangyu (1574-1648 CE) was a general who fought to suppress various rebellions during the final years of the Ming Dynasty. She was an excellent rider and archer, having trained since childhood alongside her brothers. When her husband died in 1613, she took over his “White Pole” cavalry, named for the hooked poles they carried in order to ease travel through mountainous terrain. Due to her resistance efforts against invaders on the frontier, the emperor wrote a set of four poems in her honor, and she was eventually promoted and given the title “Grand Protector of the Crown Prince.” She spent her final years overseeing a small territory for refugees from the fallen Ming.
Qiu Jin
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[still of The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake (2011) via lovehkfilm.com]
Now for a slightly more modern and perhaps personal example: the revolutionary Qiu Jin (1875-1907), posthumously dubbed the “Woman Knight of Mirror Lake.” I first learned of Qiu Jin as a young girl listening to my mother’s Tsai Chin CDs; she swiftly became one of my childhood heroines despite my complete unfamiliarity with the sociopolitical context in which she lived. At the time, it was enough for me to know that she had died fighting for what she believed in — for that was a sort of strength and conviction I had until then thought limited to men.
It wasn’t until much later that I learned just how amazing Qiu Jin was. Not only was she a feminist and a martial arts aficionado who preferred male clothing, she was also an accomplished poet and writer and a strong supporter of women’s education. Together with her cousin, she worked to unite various revolutionary factions in hopes of overthrowing the government, but was ultimately arrested and executed at the age of 31 after a failed uprising.
So as you can see, Mulan, extraordinary as she is, was hardly an anomaly. Nor is this list at all exhaustive. Unmentioned examples include Lin Siniang, Liang Hongyu, Lady White Snake, Mu Guiying and the other women of the Yang family, Princess Pingyang, Sun Shangxiang, Mother Lu, Ching Shih, Wang Cong’er…
Or, as Qiu Jin herself wrote, “Don’t tell me women are not the stuff of heroes”!
For more adventures of amazing heroines, check out The Ghost Tiger’s Lament on Wattpad:
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As a child, Ashne swore two oaths. With her adopted sister Zsaran she made a pact: one would never die without the other. To their mistress, the queen, who plucked them both out of the inhospitable marshlands, she vowed eternal loyalty. When a tiger spirit from a rival kingdom kidnaps the queen’s only daughter, Ashne, now a trusted bodyguard, follows in pursuit despite knowing that her sword will be of little use against the ancient magic steadily reawakening across the land. But it is her human adversaries who prove more dangerous as she navigates the shifting political landscape in a kingdom still recovering from a decades-long war: a foreign sorcerer, an eccentric apothecary, an ambitious bandit chief — perhaps even Zsaran, who has long awaited a chance to achieve freedom for both herself and Ashne. Soon Ashne can no longer reconcile her love for her sister and her devotion to the women they have both served since childhood. Yet she must bring back the princess regardless. If not for love and duty, for her people’s continued survival against the encroachment of powerful foreign conquerors, before whose ravenous ambitions the squabbles of two tribal kingdoms amount to dust.