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A FORTUNATE CHILDI was born in China during the Qing dynasty. Women did not hold a high place in society and were seen as not worth educating. I was very lucky, as I had the good fortune of being born into a family that valued education. They did not define what a woman could or could not learn, and they wanted me to absorb as much as I could about the world. This was a blessing, and I did not waste the opportunity I had been given.My father was a doctor and he taught me medicine, geography and mathematics. My grandfather had been a District Governor and taught me astronomy.&nbsp; My grandmother was a poet, and she gave me a love of language. I wanted to read every book in our huge library, even though lots of them were very complicated.As a teenager, I travelled all over East China with my father. Seeing so much of China inspired my poetry and led to many poems about what I saw during my travels.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2Fb6f1e0f14d1f48c28ae354d16f9b6105" alt="" style="width: 435px; height: 214.23px;"> FINDING STRENGTHWhen I was 18, a group of women scholars continued my education and encouraged my curiosity. We needed to hide the fact that we were studying and learning, but it did not stop us. I decided to focus my studies on astronomy and mathematics.I did endless experiments at home, trying to find answers to important questions about the universe, including how our planet revolved around the sun.&nbsp;Mathematics and trigonometry&nbsp;became my passion, and I worked out Pythagoras’&nbsp;theorem&nbsp;on my own.Being self-taught, I understood the importance of having books, guides and articles that were easy to read, and that gave ordinary people access to scientific works. So, I rewrote and simplified the work of other scientists.When I was just 24, I wrote a five-volume beginner’s guide to equations titled&nbsp;Simple Principles of Calculation,&nbsp;making it easier for beginners to do multiplication and division.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2Faf9a6f84980041f1907f448e0f3ce413" alt="" style="width: 50%;"> STAYING STRONGHaving proof of why things worked was very important to me. This was quite a new idea since most people in China at that time believed only in myths and legends. The work was challenging, and people criticised me. There were times I had to put down my pen and sigh. But I would think to myself, “I love the subject. I do not give up”.When I was 25, I married Zhan Mei. He supported my right to learn as much as possible. By this time, I was considered such an academic that I even had male pupils – which was unheard of!I wanted to use my position to try and bring about change. During the Qing Dynasty, the use of the Western calendar spread to China. Because it was based on the movement of the sun, I believed it was more precise than the Chinese calendar, and I argued for its adoption. However, many Chinese scholars rejected the idea, perhaps simply because it came from the West. I responded: “What counts is the usefulness, no matter whether it is Chinese or Western”. <img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2F3fc3fe30a9b143b6aff944349a8d66c2" alt="" style="width: 25%;"> THE POWER OF POETRYEven though I was most interested in science, I also used my love of poetry to try and change Chinese culture. In my poems, I protested the widespread unfair treatment of women in China. My writing style was direct, and I wrote about wealth and gender inequality in society. My 13 volumes of poetry were called ‘unfeminine’ because of their lack of flowery language, but I didn’t care. I wrote about what I saw and how I felt.“It's made to believe Women are the same as Men;&nbsp; Are you not convinced,&nbsp; Daughters can also be heroic?”These thoughts and ideas were shocking to many, but I was determined to highlight some of the difficulties - especially of the poor in my country, particularly women. &nbsp;The gap between rich and poor was very wide. I was determined to do what I could to make this known.When I realised my health was failing me, I gave everything I had written to my best friend to record for all time. Sadly, my life was short, but it had been lived to the full. I could only hope that my endeavours would be remembered and would make a difference for future generations.GLOSSARYTrigonometry&nbsp;– A branch of mathematics that deals with triangles, their sides and angles, and the relationships between these.Pythagoras’ Theorem&nbsp;– a proven idea that helps us find the length of one side of a right-angle triangle by using the lengths of the other two sides.&nbsp;LEGACY AND RECOGNITION<ul><li>Before she died, Wang Zhenyi’s writings were passed to a friend for safekeeping. Sadly, many have since been lost.</li><li>Her observations about how equinoxes moved were extremely accurate and explained solar eclipses. An equinox occurs twice a year when the sun is directly above the equator giving exactly 12 hours daylight and 12 hours night.</li><li>Her research on gravity was way ahead of its time.</li><li>She urged the adoption of the Western Calendar in China, saying:&nbsp;"what counts is the usefulness, no matter whether it is Chinese or Western".</li></ul>IMAGE CAPTIONS AND CREDITSA small curtain, called a valance, China 18th&nbsp;Century,&nbsp;Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<o:p></o:p>Female Scholars in Ancient China,&nbsp;Shanghai Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<o:p></o:p>Reading a scroll in Ancient China,&nbsp;British Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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