Chapter 1: Family Background and Early Years

【中文版】

Li Xuying 李旭英, known by her pen names Xuyin 絮因 and Xuyin 絮茵, was born in the spring of 1903 in Guiyang 贵阳, Guizhou 贵州, though her family originally hailed from Jiujiang 九江, Jiangxi 江西. At the time of her birth, her grandfather served as a county magistrate in Guiyang. Xuyiing’s grandfather was a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations as a jinshi 进士, but, lacking powerful connections, he was assigned to this remote post. Among his children, only one was a boy—Li Xuying’s father, Li Yuzeng 李裕增 (also known as Futian 福田 or Futian 茀田). It was a time when the gates of ancient China had just begun to open to the world. Even in distant Guizhou, local officials caught whispers of the outside world and felt the stir of new ideas. Li Xuying’s grandfather was no conservative; he placed great importance on his son’s education. Li Yuzeng, exposed to progressive ideas from a young age, grew up with an open mind. He co-founded Guiyang Public Normal School 贵阳公立师范学堂 with Yu Dekai 于德楷, Le Jiazao 乐嘉藻 (1867- 1944), and Li Duanfen 李端棻 (1833-1907), where he also taught. This was Guizhou’s first normal school and one of the earliest secondary normal schools in China.

Li Xuying’s childhood memories were warm and vivid. Her family lived in Caijiafang 蔡家坊, a notable neighborhood within Guiyang city, where they were considered a prominent household. Young Xuying had a maid her age as a companion, and the house was filled with antiques and collectibles. She often slipped into the living room alone, where calligraphy, paintings, vases, and porcelain jars were displayed, losing herself in admiration of these treasures.

Her mother, from the Lu 陆 family, was a homemaker with three children—Xuying, the eldest, and two younger brothers. Lu was kind and devoted to her children but suffered from poor health. She passed away in Guiyang in 1910, during the second year of the Xuantong 宣统 reign. After her death, Li Yuzeng remarried a woman from a well-off family. This stepmother, literate and articulate, quickly took charge of the household. She had no children of her own and, influenced by traditional values that favored boys, favored Xuying’s brothers over her, leading to a strained relationship.

Around the time of the 1911 Revolution, Li Yuzeng moved the family to Beijing. There, he worked as a technician in the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, and later held roles such as technician at the Zhili Province Commodity Exhibition Institute, investigator for the Industrial Promotion Research Association, and head of the investigation department. He also served on occasion as the acting director. The exhibition institute aimed to promote industry by showcasing improved Chinese products, introducing domestic and international industrial developments, and aiding Chinese enterprises in participating in global trade expositions.

In Beijing, Li Yuzeng settled his family in a fine courtyard house in the Shuidayuan 水大院 of Xicheng’s Bingmasi 西城兵马司 area. Unlike typical courtyards, this one had a moat-like channel filled with water, goldfish, and aquatic plants surrounding the rooms. The family also kept pigeons and rabbits. When Li Yuzeng later worked in Tianjin 天津, the household remained in Beijing, though he brought his two older children, including Xuying, to Tianjin. Li Yuzeng placed great importance on his children’s education, including that of his daughter. In Tianjin, Xuying and her brother attended some of China’s earliest kindergartens and primary schools.

Xuying loved to draw from a young age. As she put it, “As a child, I loved drawing little figures—my classmates, my teachers.” Her stepmother disapproved of girls studying, so Xuying often hid under her father’s desk in his study to read, straining her eyes in the dim light and becoming nearsighted at a young age.

In 1916, Xuying enrolled in the Beijing Women’s Normal School 北京女子师范学校, located on Shifuma 石驸马 Street (now Xicheng’s Xinwenhua 新文化 Street). Established in 1909 as the Imperial Women’s Normal School 京师女子师范学堂, it was renamed Beijing Women’s Normal School in 1913 after the founding of the Republic. This public institution provided free tuition and living expenses, and students lived on campus. Li Yuzeng, still working in Tianjin, supported his daughter’s education. Her stepmother, seeing no cost to the family and perhaps relieved to have Xuying away, did not object. Over time, Xuying grew increasingly distant from her family. In a nostalgic poem, Passing by My Childhood Home at Shuidayuan, she wrote:

Withered, fallen, scattered like sand, 
The house remains, its people are gone, the sun slants low.
Yearning for those days I cannot return to, 
The old locust tree still hums with roosting crows.

For Xuying, school was a new world—engaging, intense, and filled with learning. The library’s vast collection fueled her thirst for knowledge, and her spirits lifted. Unlike at home, where she treaded carefully to avoid her stepmother’s wrath, school allowed her to read and pursue her passions freely. She dove into literature and painting, and the school’s vibrant extracurricular activities, like spring outings, brought her joy she’d never known. After a spring outing in 1917, she wrote a lyric poem Huanxisha: Spring Outing with Beijing Women’s Normal School:

Red mist and green haze blur the eyes,
Spring sun warms as we stroll hand in hand,
A clear song rises, turning to the oriole’s call.
Pear blossoms, pale and wet with last night’s rain,
Swallows flit, with bits of soft spring mud.
Searching for fragrance, we linger, drunk in the garden’s west.

Xuying’s literary talent shone early; she began writing poetry at twelve, earning praise from her father. In the summer of 1921, she graduated from Beijing Women’s Normal School with excellent grades. During her time there, her gentle nature won her many friends. As graduation approached, she was reluctant to part with her classmates, penning a farewell lyric poem, Yi Jiangnan: Parting with Schoolmates at Graduation:

Together morn and eve, yet parting comes so soon.
Petals’ lingering scent holds the butterflies,
Willow strands, powerless to aid the young steeds.
Birds take flight on the spring breeze.

After graduation, Li Xuying began teaching Chinese and art at Xiangshan Orphanage 香山慈幼院. The orphanage was founded in 1920 by Xiong Xiling 熊希龄 (1870-1937), a former premier of the Beiyang 北洋 government. Xiong, a scholar who passed the imperial exams at a young age and later supported reform and republican ideals, dedicated his later years to charity, disaster relief, and anti-Japanese efforts.  After the devastating floods in Hebei 河北 and Beijing in 1917 left many children homeless, Xiong, who was overseeing disaster relief and social welfare at the time, decided to establish a school to shelter and educate them. He chose Xiangshan’s Jingyi 静宜 Garden, a former imperial retreat, and built an orphanage that could house over a thousand students.

Initially, the orphanage had separate schools for boys and girls, and Xuying taught at the girls’ school. This was the happiest time of her life. She spent her days with lively, innocent children, climbing Xiangshan’s highest peak, Guijianchou 鬼见愁, with fellow teachers in the crisp morning air. They marveled at spring’s blooming flowers, sipped cool spring water in summer, gathered red leaves in autumn, and admired snowy vistas in winter, living carefree. Xuying especially loved Shuangqing 双清 Villa in Jingyi Garden, named for the two clear springs that flowed from the rocks. Xiong Xiling had converted it into his residence, but teachers and students could visit freely. Xuying and her friends often gathered there, sitting in the pavilion, gazing at the scenery, discussing poetry and painting with great delight.

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Preface

Chapter 2: Admitted to the National School of Fine Arts