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Saint George and the Dragon

The only female general recognized by the Chinese Orthodox Histories,The Twenty-Four Histories (Chinese: 二十四史)

【Historical Artifact Reference】:

China Ming Dynasty Royal Painting:《出警图/Departure Herald》

In this handscroll is a great imperial procession making its way to pay respects at the imperial tombs. Departing from the Te-sheng (Victory) Gate of the Peking city wall, the artists here depicted shops along the way and the appearance of ceremonial guards to the final destination of the imperial tombs, the final resting place for Ming dynasty emperors 45 kilometers from the capital at Mt. T'ien-shou. Departure Herald is actually accompanied by another long handscroll painting entitled Return Clearing. That work depicts the process of the tomb sweeping and inspection tour. Usually considered as a pair, they are collectively known as Departure Herald and Return Clearing.

↑Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty of China, Zhu Yijun, wearing armor

The emperor's guards and ceremonial guards, a good depiction of Ming dynasty armor

【秦良玉/Qin Liangyu：The only female general recognized by the Chinese emperor and official history】

Qin Liangyu (1574–1648), courtesy name Zhensu, was a female general best known for defending the Ming dynasty from attacks by the Manchu-led Later Jin dynasty in the 17th century.

Early life and education

Qin Liangyu was born in Zhongzhou (忠州), which is in present-day Zhong County, Chongqing.Her father, Qin Kui (秦葵), obtained the position of a gongsheng (貢生) in the civil service examination. He believed that girls should receive the same education as boys, so he made Qin Liangyu study history and the Confucian classics with her brothers. He also taught them martial arts. Qin Liangyu learnt martial arts more deeply than her brothers and became proficient in archery and horse-riding. She was also known for her skill in poetry.

Marriage to Ma Qiancheng

In 1595, Qin Liangyu married Ma Qiancheng (馬千乘), the tusi and xuanfushi (宣撫使; "Announcing and Pacifying Commissioner") of Shizhu County, and accompanied him in minor battles against local warlords in the southwestern border of the Ming Empire. They had a good marriage and he often sought her advice.In 1599, when Yang Yinglong (楊應龍) started a rebellion in Bozhou (播州; present-day Zunyi, Guizhou), Ma Qiancheng brought 3,000 riders with him to suppress the revolt while Qin Liangyu brought an additional 500 to support her husband. They successfully quelled the rebellion and destroyed the rebels' camps.

In 1613, Ma Qiancheng offended Qiu Chengyun (邱乘雲), an influential court eunuch, and ended up being arrested and imprisoned. He died in prison later. Qin Liangyu succeeded her husband as the xuanfushi of Shizu County. Those under her command were known as the White Cavalry (白杆兵).

Resisting rebel forces in Sichuan

In 1620, Qin Liangyu's elder brother, Qin Bangping (秦邦屏), led 3,000 White Cavalry to Liaodong to resist invaders from the Manchu-led Later Jin dynasty. He was killed in action at the Battle of Hun River (渾河之戰).

In 1623, Qin Liangyu assisted Ming forces in suppressing the She-An Rebellion in Sichuan and Guizhou led by She Chongming (奢崇明) and An Bangyan (安邦彥). In the following year, her elder brother, Qin Minping (秦民屏), was killed in battle by An Bangyan's forces.

In 1630, when Later Jin forces besieged the Ming capital, Beijing, Qin Liangyu led forces from Sichuan to reinforce the capital. The Chongzhen Emperor showered her with praises in poetry and presented her with four poems as she passed through Beijing. In 1634, when Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army invaded Sichuan, Qin Liangyu and her son, Ma Xianglin (馬祥麟), led their troops to attack the rebels, defeated them at Kuizhou (夔州; present-day Fengjie County, Chongqing) and drove them away. In 1640, Qin Liangyu defeated another rebel force led by Luo Rucai (羅汝才) in Kuizhou and Wushan. In recognition of her contributions to the Ming Empire, the Chongzhen Emperor appointed her as the Crown Prince's Guardian (太子太保) and awarded her the title "Marquis Zhongzhen" (忠貞侯; lit. "Loyal and Chaste Marquis").

Later life and death

The Ming Empire was overthrown in 1644 by rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, and its former territories were conquered by the Later Jin dynasty (later renamed to Qing dynasty). Some Ming loyalists formed a remnant state, the Southern Ming dynasty, in southern China to resist the Qing dynasty. Its nominal ruler, the Longwu Emperor, also granted Qin Liangyu a marquis title. Meanwhile, Zhang Xianzhong invaded Sichuan again, and Qin Liangyu attempted to resist him, but was defeated and forced to retreat, allowing Zhang to conquer most of Sichuan. She did however prevent her soldiers from surrendering to Zhang.

Qin Liangyu controlled part of Shizhu County and her policy of agricultural self-sufficiency made her region attractive for refugees. She helped about 100,000 refugees to settle down in Shizhu.

Qin Liangyu died in 1648 and was buried in present-day Yachun Village, Dahe District, Shizhu County, Chongqing. She was given the posthumous name "Zhongzhen" (忠貞; lit. "Loyal and Chaste") and was survived by her son, Ma Xianglin (馬祥麟).

Legacy

Qin Liangyu's life, along with her weapons and armour, is showcased in a museum in Shizhu County, Chongqing. A statue of her is in the Ganyu Hall of the Shibaozhai in Zhong County (that was preserved during the Three Gorges Project).Together with Hua Mulan, Liang Hongyu and He Yufeng, Qin Liangyu is one of the most well-known female warriors and heroines in China.

In the Twenty-Four Histories, Qin Liangyu was also the only woman whose biography was listed among the biographies of court officials and generals.

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S C R E A M I N G AT 26-YEAR-OLD NAPOLEON PLOTTING TO MARRY A 70-YEAR-OLD RICH LADY FOR HER MONEY 😭😭😭😭😭😭

(Pause here and marvel for a moment at the idea of cultural memory of a great war persisting as an oral tradition for 500 years, morphing over the centuries from whatever real event may have been to the myth we know today.)

And then consider this- no one in the Iliad or the Odyssey are ever described as reading or writing anything.

Why?

Because the period of time between the fall of Mycenean civilization (which used linear B) in the 11th century BCE and when the Iliad and the Odyssey were written (in Ancient Greek) was a "dark age" where as far as we can tell, cities and palaces were abandoned, most trade routes collapsed, and written language was *completely lost*. It wasn't until about 800BCE that a totally new writing system had to be basically imported from the Phoenicians and adapted into ancient Greek.

Their whole culture just kind of collapsed for a few hundred years, preserving their stories through oral tradition for CENTURIES, until they scrapped together a totally different God damn alphabet to write with.

πέμπε δέ μιν Λυκίην δέ, πόρεν δ᾽ ὅ γε σήματα λυγρὰ

γράψας ἐν πίνακι πτυκτῷ θυμοφθόρα πολλά,

δεῖξαι δ᾽ ἠνώγειν ᾧ πενθερῷ ὄφρ᾽ ἀπόλοιτο.

but he sent him to Lycia, and gave him baneful tokens, graving in a folded tablet many signs and deadly, and bade him show these to his own wife's father, that he might be slain. (Il. VI.168-170, trans. A.T. Murray)

This is the earliest post-dark ages reference to writing/greek script that we have!

"(In 1461) The sultan left Sinop and marched in rainy weather, not along the coast but inland over the military highway leading to Erzurum by way of Amasya and Sivas. Apparently he wished to give the impression that he was headed not for Trebizond but for the territory of Uzun Hasan. East of Tokat, two days’ march from Sivas on the road to Erzurum, lies the mountain castle of Koylu Hisar (or Koyunlu Hisar; now Koyul Hisar), which Uzun Hasan had wrested from one Hiiseyin, its former owner, and established as a border fortress to protect his territories against invasion from Anatolia. The sultan commissioned Sarabdar Hasan Bey, governor of Little Rum, that is, the region of Amasya and Sivas, to take the castle or at least to lay waste the surrounding country. Both tasks were carried out and the sultan marched on eastward toward Erzincan.

On his way he was met by Sara Hatun, Uzun Hasan’s mother, probably an Aramaic Christian from the region of Diyarbakir, accompanied by Sheikh Hiiseyin, bey of the Kurds, and numerous Turkmen princes. She had been sent with rich gifts to negotiate a peaceable compromise in her son’s name. Mehmed received the princess and the sheikh with special honors, addressed the one as “mother,” the other as “father,” and through them concluded a peace with Uzun Hasan, who was required to promise that he would give the Comneni no further assistance.

Then, accompanied by Sara and Hiiseyin, he headed for Trebizond across the precipitous coastal mountains. Mehmed was obliged to climb the heights of Zigana largely on foot. “My son,” said Sara to the sultan, “how can you undergo such hardships just for the sake of Trebizond?” “Mother,” he was reported to have answered, “in my hand is the sword of Islam. Without this hardship I should not deserve the name of ghazi [warrior of the faith], and today and tomorrow I should have to cover my face in shame before Allah!” Sara Hatun’s efforts to include the emperor of Trebizond in the peace treaty of Erzincan were no more successful than her wily attempt to discourage the sultan from marching against David by describing the dangers ahead—impassable mountains, impenetrable wooded ravines, and lack of supplies. David’s doom was sealed."

I found this by complete chance here around a year ago before promptly proceeding to lose it like a dumbass when I got a new phone. I rediscovered it while going through some old messages with a friend, so I'm posting it here for posterity.

"On New Year's Eve, 1855, the tea clipper Living Age struck a reef in the South China Sea while under full sail. In a ghastly cacophony of tearing timbers she shuddered to a stop, pinned to the rocks and swept by a vicious surf that took the boats away. The men were yelling and running about in panic, convinced that they were about to be overrun by pirates, when the captain's wife, Mrs. Robert P. Holmes, hove into sight on deck.

Mrs. Holmes was wearing men's clothing and carrying a dirk, but her whole demeanor was so calm that the seamen were instantly ashamed, and made an effort to control themselves. As day dawned, the whole ship's company managed to make its way to the island, which turned out to be uninhabited by pirates—or anyone else. For more than a month, until February 25, 1856, when rescue finally arrived, Mrs. Holmes somehow survived on that island, a lone woman in a party of desperate men. Unsurprisingly, once they got back home, neither she nor her husband went on voyage again."

Silver inlaid bronze sword, Han Dynasty China, 206 BC - 220 AD

I'm not sure if there's an actual term for it, but the main (and perhaps only) point of reference that everyone seems to use is this painted plaster head of a woman from Mycenae c. 12th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum Athens inv. 4575). it's a unique and pretty unusual object for the period, but apparently there are a couple of other (less well-preserved or less impressive) examples of women's faces depicted with these red suns/stars/rosettes on their cheeks and chins in Mycenaean art. there's some thought that it might be a representation of some sort of makeup worn by real women in late Bronze Age Mycenae, potentially royalty and/or priestesses in official ritual contexts. alternatively it could be an artistic marker of divinity or non-human status with absolutely no relation to women's appearances in real life, since this head may have belonged to a statue of a goddess or a sphinx. we do have a decent number of Mycenaean wall painting fragments depicting female figures, and I don't believe any of them have these markings on their faces-- the trend of depicting mythic or historical Bronze Age Greek women like this really does seem to all come back to this one object.

I've always thought that Mary Ann Patten was one of the most hardcore seafaring women. I mean:

It was 1856

She was 19 and pregnant

Her husband had fallen ill so she took command of his ship

Stopped a mutiny and made everyone accept her commands

Navigated the treacherous waters of Cape Horn and safely reached her destination

However, I just finished reading Joan Druett's Hen Frigates and found some serious contenders.

(Hen Frigate: c.1785 traditionally any ship with the captain's wife on board (neutral). Yes, there was a term for that)

Emma Armstrong

1879, the ship Templar arrived in San Francisco. Everyone thought the ship had been lost

However, the captain’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Emma Armstrong, had taken command

The ship had been caught through a gale and sickness spread on board

The captain’s wife died and the captain himself was terribly ill

The ship was without a navigator. Luckily, Emma had the requisite navigation skills because her father had taught her

Emma herself was ill. She had to be brought on deck in a litter to give directions and instructions

She brought the ship safely into port along with the valuable cargo

Miss Arnold 

1850, the ship Rainbow, having departed from England, reached Aden, North Africa

The ship was commanded by…Ms Arnold, the captain's sixteen-year-old daughter whose father had died

The untrustworthy second mate tried to deceive her and to run away with the ship. So she appealed to the crew and placed herself under their protection, a task they took very seriously

She then made them throw all the alcohol overboard

Fols. 43v & 31v of 'The Hours of Henry VII', Chatsworth House Devonshire Collection, given by Henry VII to his daughter, Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots

"The positioning of Henry VII’s inscriptions is also meaningful . . . Henry’s second inscription [‘Pray for your louyng fadre that gave you ths booke and I geve you att all tymes goddes blessing and myne henry R’] is . . . juxtaposed alongside the ‘Commemoratio de sancto georgio’ (Commemoration of St George), and following a full-page image of St George slaying the dragon (fol. 31v). Henry thus asserts and authorizes his position by signing his name immediately alongside an image of the patron saint of England. Furthermore, in the background of this image stands a woman dressed in pink who closely resembles the image of St Margaret of Antioch (also portrayed with a dragon) on fol. 43v. An association is therefore forged between the two dragon-slayers, and Margaret of Antioch is co-opted into the English saintly tradition as a fitting model for her namesake, Margaret Tudor. Henry’s inscriptions transform the manuscript into a memorial volume — a way for Margaret to maintain a connection with her family once north of the border"