Lu Jingqing

Lu Jingqing (Lu Ching-Ch'ing) 1907-1993

Lu was known chiefly as a poet and essayist. As a young woman, she was deeply affected by the loss of several loved ones. Her mother committed suicide in 1922. Three years later her father died of illness and in 1927 her best friend, Shi Pingmei 石評梅 (1902–1928), died. These losses were compounded by a painful and unrequited first love. Finally, she herself was wounded in the bloody government suppression of the anti-Japanese demonstrations of 18 March 1926, in which many of her friends died. All these tragedies prompted Lu to leave Peking and begin her life of 'wandering'. This is the context of the first two sections of her autobiographical essays, entitled Wanderings.

After leaving Peking, Lu travelled south to join the United Front of Communists and Nationalists in the Northern Expedition against the warlords who controlled much of northern China. She married the poet-activist Wang Lixi 王禮錫 (1898–1939) in 1931, and the couple were forced to flee to Europe because of certain of Wang's incendiary writings. There they continued their patriotic anti-Japanese activities, returning to China in 1937 to take part in war relief work. Unfortunately, Wang died of illness that same year. Lu taught in a university in Shanghai until her retirement in 1965.