Pingmei Shi or Shi Pingmei (石评梅; 20 September 1902 – 30 September 1928) was a Chinese writer. She was considered as one of the four women famous for their contributions to modern Chinese literature in the early Republic of China.

Life

Shi was born in

Taiyuan Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: (Jin Chinese, Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base foc ...

in 1902 in

Pingding County Pingding County () is a county in the east of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China, bordering Hebei to the east. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Yangquan, occupying its southeast corner. Climate Transportat ...

, Shanxi Province. From an early age she was exceptional. She would memorise whole books. Her father did not agree that to keep women virtuous you should keep them ignorant and he sent his daughter to school in

. She studied in Shanxi's provincial capital until she was 18 when she graduated from the Taiyuan Women's Teaching College. Her education's costs were small as charges were not made for exceptional students.The Life of Shi Pingmei:Some Love Stories Have Tragic Endings
Zuihui Zhang, 19 March 2008, WomenOfchina, Retrieved 3 November 2016 The school had been started by

Lü Bicheng Lü Bicheng (, also known as P. C. Lee i-Cheng Lee or Pi-Cheng Li Alice (P.) Lee or Alice Pichen Lee: 1883–1943) was a Chinese writer, activist, newspaper editor, poet and school founder. She has been mentioned as one of the top four women in ...

. She took an interest in politics and for that reason she moved to Beijing and enrolled at the Women's Teaching College. She actually majored in physical education because there was no course that year for literature. After she left education she had a busy life. She wrote novel poetry and became a popular writer on ideas and Marxism. Her love life was tragic. She was tricked into swearing her undying love to a married man. When she met another man, Gao Junyu, she felt too damaged to accept his proposals and she demanded only friendship. He was from the same province of China and he was a founding member of China's communist party. Gao Junyu was also a devoted communist and he was married. They would meet and Gao Junyu divorced his wife. The only token of love she accepted was an ivory ring which matched one that he wore. He died when she was 23 and for the next three years she went to Taoran Pavilion where he was buried. She also had a now famous friendship with fellow writers Lu Yin and Lu Jingqing., Renditions.org, Retrieved 3 November 2016 Both of these friends had been very close to her during her life with an intimacy that is similar to heterosexual love. All three of them appear in Lu Yin's book and they act as narrators of Shi Pingmei's fictionalised story. Shi died when she was 26 and was buried next to Gao Junyu in Taoranting Park. The story was highlighted by

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...

when he was premier of a communist China. He visited their graves and highlighted that love and revolution were not incompatible. Shi died in 1928 and she came to be regarded in the Republic of China as one of the top four most talented Chinese women with

Eileen Chang Eileen Chang ( zh, t=張愛玲, s=张爱玲, first=t, w=Chang1 Ai4-ling2, p=Zhāng Àilíng；September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), also known as Chang Ai-ling or Zhang Ailing, or by her pen name Liang Jing (梁京), was a Chinese-born Am ...

and

Xiao Hong Xiao Hong or Hsiao Hung (1 June 1911 – 22 January 1942) was a Chinese writer. Her infant name (乳名，ruming) was Zhang Ronghua (張榮華). Her formal name used at school (學名，xueming) was Zhang Xiuhuan (張秀環). Her name Zhang Nai ...

. After her death her friend Lu Yin wrote a novel based on her love story named "Ivory Rings". This story has been retold in a book and a film. Gao Junyu and Shi's graves were a place of pilgrimage for young couples and groups after her story was published.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shi, Pingmei 1902 births 1928 deaths People from Pingding County 20th-century Chinese writers 20th-century Chinese women writers Burials in Beijing