User:Jiayi Li/Lü Bicheng

Lü Bicheng's life
Lü Bicheng is a famous female poet. She has received a lot of traditional education, and the educational environment is better than ordinary people. But during the May 4th Movement, her "ancient" language was replaced by vernacular. Lü's talent helped her, she became the first female editor of Dagong Bao. She used Dagong Bao to promote feminism and became a well-known figure. Lü bicheng established Beiyang Women's Normal School in Tianjin in 1904. Lü Bisheng was also a well-known Chinese devout Buddhist in the early 20th century. She wrote many Buddhism works to advocate vegetarianism.

Lü Bicheng and Yuan Shikai were old friends so they went into politics together. However, Lü saw yuan's desire growing stronger and she was disappointed and chose to leave. After that, Lü returned to Shanghai to live with her mother and sister. Unfortunately, Lü's mother passed away in 1913. Afterwards, Lü sometime went to the Nanshe's Yaji. In the early Years of the Republican era, Lü Bicheng became a businessman in Shanghai, where she amassed a huge fortune. She began to yearn for and pursue an elegant lifestyle environment, combining traditional social customs and art with western living environment and conspicuous consumption. After that, Lü Bicheng spent time in the United States and Shanghai, but finally settling in Switzerland. Her purpose is to make western culture more integrated into China. She wants Chinese people to see the world with her.

Mount Lu
Between 1918 and 1920, Lü Bicheng visited Mount Lu, she wrote a literary essay "Sojourn in Mount Lu: A Sundry Record". And She also wrote a poem "On Climbing Mount Lu". Like other famous poets, she likes the natural scenery of Mount Lu. Lü wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of Tianjin and Shanghai because she loved the sense of freedom that the Mount Lu gave her. She had been lost on the mountain twice but was rescued, first by Chinese lumberjacks and then by foreigners on a tourist trip. After that, at the Fairy Glen Hotel she fashioned herself as a free female without a bond. In Mount Lu Lü Bicheng met a lot of foreigners, she used their way of communication and interaction. Lü also wrote about how western women are also bold in their clothes and feel inferior when facing western women with the same hair style as her own. After that she took care of her appearance and her words. Lü Bicheng not only wanted to combine traditional Chinese learning with western natural science, but also wanted to let the world see the elegant style of Chinese women, so that women have a free life.

Differences and Similarities Between Buddhism and Science
Lü Bicheng thought there was a wonderful connection between Buddhism and science. At the beginning, she studied Buddhism as an inquiry into scientific ideas. Lü contacted Wang Xiaoxu who is a scientist and a Buddhist. They discuss many topics, such as geography, Śūraṃgama-sūtra, cosmology and the Buddhist worldview of modern geology etc. After a long conversation with Wang, Lü Bicheng published Differences and Similarities Between Buddhism and Science (Foxue yu kexue zhi yitong 佛學舆科學之異同) in 1941.

In the 1910s, the photos of Lü Bicheng also appeared in magazines Women's Eastern Times (Funü shibao, 1911-17), this magazine is China's first business-oriented women's magazine.

Lü Bicheng wrote a "progressive" ci that she had previously written, set to "A River Full of Red" ("Manjianghong") usually used to express heroic emotions. Ying transcribed the whole song in her diary and published it in L'impartial two days later.

Shanghai Buddhist Studies Press has published several books by Lü Bicheng. There is a book about vegetarianism and animal rights that has an unusual theme and presentation called Light of Europe and America(Oumei zhi guang). it was published in Shanghai in 1931 and distributed both by the Shanghai Buddhist Press and by Kaiming Book.