The Chinese teacher for Le Jing's class was a female teacher, who was about thirty years old. She had a serious and rigid personality and was an absolutely strict teacher. The students were all in awe of her and called her "tiger mom" behind her back.
Before class every day, she would ask students to recite the lesson they had learned the previous day. If the students failed to recite it, she would slap them on the palm of their hands. She was ruthless even to female students. There were even female students who had been beaten to tears by her.
So as soon as she entered the room, the students in the class subconsciously slowed down their breathing. Le Jing's deskmate, a boy named Ding Hui, nervously began to recite silently.
The female teacher stood on the podium and slowly swept her serious eyes over the people in the audience. However, she did not start the usual spot check on the recitation of the text. Instead, she suddenly asked the students a strange question: "Girls here, have you watched the play "Memoirs of a Famous Courtesan" written by Mr. Night Watchman and performed by Mr. Bai Shaoyao recently?"
Many of the people present had certainly seen the famous play "Memoirs of a Famous Courtesan". Even those who had not seen it had heard of it. Although it seemed a bit strange for the female gentleman to address the prostitute actresses as sir, many girls still nodded in response.
Then the lady asked, "So, how many of you have read the original novel?"
Now there were only three or two female students nodding their heads.
The female teacher randomly pointed to someone and said, "Cao Wanying, can you tell us what story Memoirs of a Famous Courtesan tells?"
The girl named Cao Wanying blushed nervously and stammered, "I told you, I told you..."
The lady looked at her with a kind look she had never seen before, and said gently, "Good child, don't be anxious, speak slowly."
It was rare for a female teacher to speak to her in such a gentle voice. Cao Wanying was flattered and miraculously regained her composure. She began to tell the story of Bai Moli in clear and articulate language.
After listening to her, the female teacher did not ask her to sit down, but asked her another question: "Why do you think Bai Moli chose to commit suicide by jumping into the lake?"
This point is mentioned in the novel, so Cao Wanying answered fluently: "For freedom... in the last moments of her life, she wanted to choose her own way of death."
"Freedom..." The lady closed her eyes and sighed with laughter, her expression was indescribably sad. She recited softly with a melodious tone: "We love freedom, let's encourage freedom with a glass of wine. Equality between men and women is God's will, how can we be content to be behind the cow? I wish to pull myself out of it and wash away the shame of the past. I wish to be a peer and restore the country with my own hands. The old habits are the most shameful, women are treated like cows and horses. The dawn of civilization is coming, and I will take the lead alone. I wish slavery will be eradicated, and knowledge and learning will be cultivated. The responsibility is on my shoulders, and the national heroine will live up to the expectations."
The clear voice of the female teacher reciting poetry floated in the air above the silent classroom. She stood proudly in the morning sunshine with her hands behind her back. Her old-fashioned face was extremely vivid and lively, and her slightly closed eyes were brewing a dazzling brilliance. At this moment, she was so dazzling that people could not look directly at her.
No one spoke. Perhaps it was because the female teacher had great prestige, or perhaps they were all captivated by the poem. No one was distracted. They all stared silently at the female teacher reciting the poem on the podium, which made the scene even more sacred.
The female teacher opened her eyes and asked Cao Wanying, who was still standing upright, softly, "Do you know who wrote the poem I just read?"
Cao Wanying shook her head timidly.
The female teacher sighed, waved her hand and asked her to sit down. Her expectant eyes slowly swept across the faces of the other female students and asked eagerly, "Does anyone of you know?"
After a few breaths, a female voice sounded softly: "This poem is called "Song for Women's Rights", and it was written by Qiu Jin, the heroine of "Memoirs of a Famous Courtesan", Bai Moli's childhood crush."
The female teacher smiled and nodded excitedly, "Yes, this poem was written by Qiu Jin... Do you know anything about Qiu Jin?"
"My mother had met Qiu Jin a few times when she was young. Later, when Qiu Jin... was martyred, my mother cried very sadly. Since then, she has often talked to me about Qiu Jin."
The female teacher was particularly happy and talkative today. She excitedly told the students about Qiu Jin's life, how she went to Japan to study at her own expense despite her husband's opposition, how she returned to China to set up a women's school, how she lobbied for gender equality, how she called on women to join the revolution, and how she was heroically martyred after the failure of the revolutionary uprising. By the end, this usually cold-blooded female teacher was already in tears.
Cao Wanying had never heard of Qiu Jin before, but that didn't stop her from tearing up and being filled with admiration after hearing about the life of this great woman. There were many female students like Cao Wanying in the Grade 2 (1) class. Even several male students couldn't help but show admiration.
Le Jing suddenly remembered the female teacher's name - Bai Nianqiu.
Nian Qiu, Nian Qiu, what a good name and also a good ambition.
Amid the voices of comfort from the female students, the female teacher wiped away her tears and said solemnly to all her students: "Tomorrow I will conduct a random check on the content of the novel Memoirs of a Famous Courtesan. Those who cannot answer my questions will be punished with a stick!"
The students who originally had sad faces suddenly changed their expressions. A girl questioned: "Sir, this article is about prostitutes..."
Bai Nianqiu glared at her fiercely and said fiercely, "What's wrong with prostitutes? Are prostitutes not women? It's hard for us women to survive in a patriarchal society, and we should help each other! In order to abuse and enslave women, men divide women into different classes and force us women to kill each other under the rules set by men! If you despise prostitutes, you will do what those stinky men want!"
After a moment of silence, a boy whispered, "Then... we guys don't need to read this book, right?"
Bai Nianqiu raised his eyebrows: "Why don't you want to watch?"
The boy shrank his neck and answered in a low voice: "This book is about women. What does it have to do with us?"
Bai Nianqiu couldn't help but sneer and said, "There are still too few men in this world who pity women like Mr. Night Watchman and take the initiative to speak for women and lobby for women's rights! 99% of men are like you who enjoy the power given to them by their gender and never care about the life and death of women!"
"Sir, I don't have any..."
Bai Nianqiu interrupted him impatiently: "You men should read this book! You need to see what your patriarchal society has done to us women!"
She paused, took a deep breath, calmed down, and said meaningfully: "I want you men to read this book because all men are sons of women."
"If you love your mother, you must firmly defend women's rights."
Le Jing stared at the female teacher on the stage who was speaking eloquently and decisively, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: She is so beautiful.
He didn't know what kind of ending would await this respectable pioneer of feminism, and he had never heard of the name Bai Nianqiu in later history books.
So she is most likely submerged in the sea of history.
But history will remember her small but crucial efforts at this time.
Those who come after her will not let her efforts go to waste.
Because, we love freedom...
What a great poem, it should be made clear!
The author has something to say:
I had already thought that this world was fictional and no historical figures would appear in it, but I still couldn't help but want to write about Mr. Qiu Jin and her poem. Mr. Qiu Jin died in 1907, before the dawn of the new world. In the timeline of this article, she had been dead for many years, so I dared to mention her. I will not mention any historical figures in the future.
The situation has been very tense recently and I don’t want this book to be banned.
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