Lady Li is a fictional character from the 14th century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, based on the events of the Three Kingdoms period. She is described to be the wife of Ma Miao (馬邈), the Grand Administrator of Jiangyou (江油) in the Shu Han state. She is remembered for her impassioned plea to her husband to not surrender the city to the invading Cao Wei army during the Wei conquest of Shu in 263 where she bit her finger to write a blood letter, and then hanged herself to demonstrate loyalty to the Shu kingdom. She is later praised by Deng Ai, a general of Cao Wei.
In real life, Lady Li's story was used as a symbol of resistance by Cheng Yanqiu, one of the greatest performers of Peking Opera and a member of the Chinese Communist Party, during the Japanese invasion of China. Cheng created the play called ''The Martyrdom of Lady Li'', where he highlights Lady Li's loyalty to her nation and Ma Miao's cowardice as an affront to the reactionary Kuomintang government that surrendered to the Japanese Empire. This play roused the patriotic enthusiasm of most Chinese people, leading to its censorship by the Chinese government shortly thereafter.
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