Pingmei Shi

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 in 1902 in Pingding County, 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 Taiyuan. 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 school had been started by Lü Bicheng. 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 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 Lü Bicheng, Eileen Chang and Xiao Hong. 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.