Ele Willoughby, PhD
My final #PrinterSolstice2526 #linocut for the prompt multiplication: astronomer, mathematician, meteorologist & poet Wang Zhenyi (1768-1797), who left her impact on Qing era China during her short life. Raised by her father & grandparents, her ancestral home was in Anhui province. Her grandfather, Wang Zhefu, an avid reader & collector of books, was governor of Fengcheng County & the Xuanhua District. Her father, Wang Xichen wrote a 4-volume Collection of Medical Prescriptions. 🧵1/
Mar 19 at 11:59amWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD4d ago
While many Qing women were denied literacy & education, Zhenyi absorbed it all: astronomy from her grandfather, poetry from her grandmother Dong, medicine, geography & math from her father. When she was 9, her grandfather died & the family travelled to Jilin near the Great Wall to mourn & attend his ornate funeral. They remained there for 5 years & Zhenyi studied under the Lady of Bu Qianyao, & read her grandfather’s library of full 75 bookcases. 🧵2/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD4d ago
She also learned to ride, do archery on horseback & martial arts & became an expert mounted markswoman.
She travelled with her father & they settled in Nanjing. At 25, deemed late to marry at the time, she married Zhan Mei from her home province. Their marriage was happy but they had no offspring. She gained fame from her poetry, math & astronomy knowledge. She advanced weather forecasting for farmers. She even took on some male students, an extraordinarily uncommon thing 🧵3/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD4d ago

for a woman scholar at the time. She wrote many books.

She simplified methods for multiplication & division & wrote math texts. At a time when many of her contemporaries would attribute an eclipse to anger of the gods, she bluntly wrote, “In fact, it’s definitely because of the moon” & famously demonstrated this with round table, mirror & lantern (as in my print) to represent Earth, moon & sun. She was a proponent of the Western sun-based, heliocentric calendar over the lunar calendar, 🧵4/5

Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD4d ago

for its precision and advocated for its adoption.
She wrote, “It’s made to believe,
Women are the same as Men;
Are you not convinced?
Daughters can also be heroic?”

She died at 29 having achieved so much.

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/4470942938

I also have a longer bio here: https://minouette.blogspot.com/2026/03/wang-zhenyi-astronomer.html?m=1

#womenInSTEM #histsci #printmaking #mastoArt 🧵5/5