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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
Tan Sitong's summary execution at the close of the Hundred Days Reform (1898) inadvertently threw his wife, Li Run, into the public limelight. Following the September coup, the Guowen bao (National News) in Tianjin carried a story, entitled “Tan liefu zhuan” (Biography of the virtuous woman Tan), in which Li allegedly committed suicide by slashing her throat on learning of her husband's fate. She died broken-hearted, it was said, in protest against the wicked court ministers responsible for Tan's death. The story was quickly reprinted in Qingyi bao (The China Discussion), a periodical which Liang Qichao, a reformer in exile, started in Yokohama, Japan, as one prong of his anti-Qing campaign. The report on Li's demise continued to circulate. Twenty years later, when the Chinese scholar, Yi Zhongkui, compiled his Xin shishuo (Sequel to New Account of Tales of the World), he included a short biography of Li Run, based on the Guowen bao account. More recently, in her Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution 1850–1950, Ono Kazuko refers to the suicide story and wisely cautions about its veracity. But she adduces no evidence to confirm what actually did happen to Li Run in 1898.
This paper was first presented at the Canadian Asian Studies Association Conference, 9–11 June 1994, Calgary, Alberta. It was part of a larger project on Tan Sitong supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. I wish to thank SSHRC for its generous support and Professor Jack Gerson for commenting on an earlier draft of this paper.
1 There is very little information available in English on Li Run's life. She is mistakenly named as Li Kuei in Rankin, Mary B., “The emergence of women at the end of the Ch'ing: the case of Ch'iu Chin”, in Women in Chinese Society, ed. Wolf, Margery and Witke, Roxane (Stanford, 1975), p. 54Google Scholar, and as Li Kueh in the index of the same book, p. 311.
2 No. 10, GX25/2/21 (Taibei, 1967), pp. 601–2.
3 Preface 1918 (Taibei, 1968), pp. 526–7.
4 Kazuko, Ono, Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850–1950 (Stanford, 1989), pp. 38–9.Google Scholar
5 TSTQJ, p. 54.
6 For the family genealogy, see Xuncong, Tan, Qing Tan Fusheng xiansheng Sitong nianpu (A Chronological Biography of Mr Tan Sitong of the Qing Dynasty) (Taibei, 1970).Google Scholar
7 See copy of an obituary of Mr Tan Xuncong distributed at his funeral, in author's possession.
8 Pingjun, Liu, “Yi zumu Li Run” (In memory of grandmother, Li Run), in Liuyang wenshi ziliao (Source Materials on the History of Liuyang District), compiled by Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi Liuyangxian weiyuanhui wenshizu (Liuyang, 1984), pp. 39–42.Google Scholar
9 Pingjun, Liu, “Xianzumu Li Run ersanshi” (Remembering grandmother Li Run), in TSTYZH, pp. 96–100.Google Scholar
10 Unless otherwise indicated, the information on Li Run in this paragraph comes from my interview notes with Liu Pingjun on 7 June 1986, in Linxiang, Hunan.
11 Notes on interview with Mr. Tan Shunzhi, 82 years old, on 9 June 1986 at his home in Liuyang, Hunan.
12 Henghui, Tan and Yingrui, Tan, “Sitonggong shengpingshiji buyi” (Additional information on the life of Tan Sitong), in TSTYZH, pp. 51–2.Google Scholar
13 This biography is embodied in a later article by Xuncong, Tan (Hengrui), “Tan Sitong furen shilue” (A brief account of Madame Tan Sitong), Yiwenzhi (Arts and Literature), XXX (1968), pp. 21–2.Google Scholar
14 For Ouyang's remark, see TSTQJ, p. 536.
15 Chao, Zhang and Yi, Mou, “Tan Sitong yuefu Li Huangxian shilue” (A brief account of Li Huangxian, Tan Sitong's father-in-law), in TSTYZH, pp. 174–7Google Scholar; also, Yusheng, Liu, Shizaitang zayi (Recollections of Liu Yusheng) (Beijing, 1960), pp. 38, 40–1.Google Scholar
16 For a discussion of this event, see my “Imperial authority in crisis: an interpretation of the coup d'état of 1861,” in Modern Asian Studies, XVII (1983), pp. 221–38.Google Scholar
17 Extant letters written by Tan to Li Run and especially, a poem with preface composed by Tan to commemorate their fifteenth wedding anniversary confirm this observation. See TSTQJ, pp. 284–5, 530–2.
18 Tan Sitong to Wang Kangnian, GX23/5/19, in TSTQJ, p. 503.
19 See advertisement in Shiwu bao (The Chinese Progress), no. 47, GX23/11/11 (Taibei, 1967), p. 3238.Google Scholar
20 Tan Sitong to Li Run, GX24/7/11, in TSTQJ, p. 531.
21 Bozan, Jian et al. , (comp.), Wuxu bianfa (The 1898 Reform) (Shanghai, 1953), iv, pp. 433–6.Google Scholar
22 TSTQj, pp. 396–7.
23 Henghui, Tan and Yingrui, Tan, TSTYZH, p. 64.Google Scholar
24 A term used in Zhenyi, Guo, Zhongguo funü wenti (The Question of Chinese Women) (Shanghai, 1937), pp. 202–4.Google Scholar See also Youning, Li and Yufa, Zhang, (comp.), Jindai Zhongguo nüquan yundong shiliao (Historical Sources on the Feminist Movement in Modern China) (Taibei, 1975), p. 1187.Google Scholar
25 Sishu Wujing (The Four Books and Five Classics) (Beijing, 1985), i, p. 1.Google Scholar
26 For a useful discussion of the contemporary situation, see Wolf, Margery, Revolution Postponed (Stanford, 1985).Google Scholar
27 Rongning, Long, “Tan Sitong yu wozufu di jiaoyi” (Tan Sitong's friendship with my grandfather), in TSTYZH, p. 431.Google Scholar