Tan Sitong's summary execution at the close of the Hundred Days Reform (1898) inadvertently threw his wife, Li Run, into the public limelight. Following the September coup, theGuowen bao(National News) in Tianjin carried a story, entitled “Tan liefu zhuan” (Biography of the virtuous woman Tan), in which Li allegedly committed suicide by slashing her throat on learning of her husband's fate. She died broken-hearted, it was said, in protest against the wicked court ministers responsible for Tan's death. The story was quickly reprinted inQingyi bao(The China Discussion), a periodical which Liang Qichao, a reformer in exile, started in Yokohama, Japan, as one prong of his anti-Qing campaign. The report on Li's demise continued to circulate. Twenty years later, when the Chinese scholar, Yi Zhongkui, compiled hisXin shishuo(Sequel toNew Account of Tales of the World), he included a short biography of Li Run, based on theGuowen baoaccount. More recently, in herChinese Women in a Century of Revolution 1850–1950, Ono Kazuko refers to the suicide story and wisely cautions about its veracity. But she adduces no evidence to confirm what actually did happen to Li Run in 1898.