Early years Lu Yin was born in the Chinese province of
Fujian in 1898 however, the exact date of her birth remains in question. Lu Yin's tense relationship with her mother and the neglect she faced as a child would inform the themes of many of her future writings that explored characters with unhappy childhoods. These two women shared many of the same romantic experiences, with both women becoming involved with married men who died suddenly and around the same time. and the two writers often publicly displayed their friendship through their published poems, essays and stories. Upon Shi's death in 1928 from meningitis, Lu Yin had her buried near her lover with matching poems carved into the headstones; this was against cultural morality at the time, as Shi's lover was never her husband. Following the death of Lu Yin's close friend Shi Pingmei, Lu Yin also lost her brother shortly thereafter and with his death, fell into a depressive state. After her period of grieving Lu Yin began to interact with other scholars again and started the literary journal named
Huayan yuekan. With the creation of this literary journal, Lu Yin began engaging with more young writers who wanted to have their work published and one of these writers was a student from
Qinghua University named Li Weijian. After their initial meeting Lu Yin and Li Weijian began to meet frequently, taking walks and having public outings as lovers. This relationship caused much controversy due to Lu Yin's status as a widowed mother of a young daughter and the nine year age gap between her and her younger lover. During the period from February 14 to April 8, 1930, sixty-eight of the couple's love letters were published and depicted the development of their relationship for readers intrigued by Lu Yin's status as a notable woman writer and the identity of her younger lover. In the summer of 1930 Lu Yin and Li Weijian went to Tokyo to elope and live a quiet life in Japan however, financial burden caused them to move back to China at the end of 1930. Upon their departure from Japan, the couple first moved to
Hangzhou and in August 1931 they would settle in Shanghai where Lu Yin would give birth to a daughter soon after their arrival. During this period of time spent in Hangzhou and Shanghai Lu Yin wrote many works including essays, short stories and a novel based on the life of Shi Pingmei entitled
The Ivory Ring, that includes Lu Yin acting as the narrator of Shi Pingmei's fictionalized story. Lu Yin continued to write prolifically in the 3 years before her death, producing notable works such as the
Thorns of Roses essays (1933), her novel
The Heart of a Woman (1933), and the more politically focused novel entitled
Flames, published posthumously in 1936.
Death In the preface to his work entitled
Dongjing xiaopin, Lu Yin's husband says that in May 1934 Lu Yin underwent surgery to repair what was described as a hemorrhaging uterus. Lu Yin survived her surgery but would die days later on May 13, 1934, from complications that historians consistently cite as relating to pregnancy and labour however, the exact medical explanation for her death still remains unclear despite her husband's account. == Lu Yin and the May Fourth Movement ==