Mao's fourth wife Chiang Ch'ing (1914-1991) was an actor. She gained first fame in Shanghai among others in Ibsen's play A Doll's House. In 1933 she joined the Communist Party, meeting Mao in Yenan and marrying him.
Mao married three times before his fourth wife Chiang Ch'ing. His first wife wasWoman Luo. Luo was Mao's 18-year-old cousin. Mao referred to her age as 20, but that is considered an exaggeration. They were married when Mao was 14, c.1907-1908, in an arranged marriage. The couple never lived together. Luo was born in c.1889 in Shaoshan and died in 1910.
His second wife was Yang Kai-hui. Yang was the daughter of one of Mao's teachers at the Changsha provincial normal school. Married in 1921, they had two or three sons. Yang was executed in 1930 by the KMT/Kuomintang forces.
His third wife was He Zichen aka Ho Tzu-chen and Ho Zizhen. Born c.1910 in Jiangxi. Mao had lived with He Zichen since 1928 when she was 18. They married in 1930 in Jiangxi, and had five daughters.
She accompanied Mao on the Long March of October, 1934 and had one of their children on the march. She was in poor health and Mao sent her to the Soviet Union for medical treatment.
While she was away, Mao fell in love with Lan Ping.
His marriage with He Zichen ended in divorce in 1939 in Yan'an. She was reportedly confined to a mental hospital in Russia. She died in 1984.
His fourth wife Lan Ping, aka Yunhe, Jiang Qing, and Chiang Ching. Born c.1913-1914. Lan Ping abandoned an arranged marriage, and had two other failed marriages. Lan and Mao met at one of his lectures in 1934 in Yenan. Mao married Jiang Qing in 1938-1939. They had two daughters. She was an outspoken film actress.
When Mao married his fourth wife Chiang Ch'ing, he was more than twenty years older than she and had eight children. During Cultural Revolution she became an enormous force, but after Mao's death she was imprisoned with her three radical associates Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan. The group was called the Gang of Four. It is told, that on the day of their arrest every wine shop in Beijing was sold out of alcohol. Chiang Ch'ing committed suicide in 1991.
From 1950 on Mao introduced land reforms and the first Five Year Plan started in 1953. Peasant co-operatives were set up. In 1958, the Great Leap Forward was introduced as were the first land communes. Though he used the term "Five Year Plan", Mao did not accept the theory that all ideas had to start with Russia and China would have to follow. In fact, Mao remained very independent of Russia and publicly criticised the rule of Khrushchev when he became leader of Russia.
In 1949 Mao met Stalin, but Stalin held Mao's son Anying hostage for four years. The "thaw" period in the Soviet Union (1955-64) was noted also in China and in 1956 Mao launched the slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom".
After Nikita Khrushchev in his famous speech denounced Stalinism in 1956, China broke with Moscow. Mao's criticism of "new bourgeois elements" in the Soviet Union and China alienated the Soviet Union irrevocably; Soviet aid was withdrawn in 1960. Mao accused Soviet leaders of betraying Marxism.
After the communist victory over Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, and the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Mao's position was immeasurably strengthened. Despite all that the Chinese people had endured, it seems not to have been too hard for Mao to persuade them of the visionary force and practical need for the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s.
In Mao's mind, the intensive marshaling of China's energies would draw manual and mental labor together into a final harmonious synthesis and throw a bridge across the chasm of China's poverty to the promised socialist paradise on the other side.
In 1958, in an attempt to introduce a more 'Chinese' form of communism, Mao launched the 'Great Leap Forward'. This aimed at mass mobilisation of labour to improve agricultural and industrial production.
The result, instead, was a massive decline in agricultural output, which, together with poor harvests, led to famine and the deaths of millions. The policy was abandoned and Mao's position weakened.
Mao spoke too of the hundreds of thousands who had died in the revolution so far, but firmly rebutted figures--quoted in Hong Kong newspapers--that 20 million had perished. "How could we possibly kill 20 million people?" he asked.
It is now established that at least that number died in China during the famine that followed the Great Leap between 1959 and 1961. In 1959, Mao gave up the position of head of state. This went to Liu Shao-chi. He did remain party chairman and concentrated his efforts on ideological changes.
In 1959 Liu Shaoqi, an opponent of the Great Leap Forward, replaced Mao as chairman of the central government council, but Mao retained his chairmanship of the Communist party politburo.
Mao served as Chairman of the Chinese People’s Republic until after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, in 1959.
Still chariman of the Communist Party, in May 1966 Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution with a directive denouncing "people like Khrushchev nestling beside us."
From 1960 to 1965, a struggle took place between Liu and Mao over who were the more important - the industrial workers or the peasants. Mao still placed his faith in the peasants. Liu favoured the urban workers. By 1965 Mao feared that he was losing control. He appealed to the populace against the Party apparatus and consolidated again his power by the Cultural Revolution.
On 3rd September, 1966, Lin Biao made a speech where he urged pupils in schools and colleges to criticize those party officials who had been influenced by the ideas of Nikita Khrushchev.
Mao was concerned by those party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, who favoured the introduction of piecework, greater wage differentials and measures that sought to undermine collective farms and factories. In an attempt to dislodge those in power who favoured the Soviet model of communism, Mao galvanized students and young workers as his Red Guards to attack revisionists in the party. Mao told them the revolution was in danger and that they must do all they could to stop the emergence of a privileged class in China. He argued this is what had happened in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev.
Red Guards were formed in 1966 and sent into the countryside to force bureaucrats, professors, technicians, intellectuals, and other nonpeasants into rural work. In the vengeful outburst of hatred and ignorance, tens of thousands were murdered or forced to give up their jobs, and China's economy suffered. "A revolution is not the same as inviting people to dinner, or writing as essay, or painting a picture... A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." Mao had said. The publishing of new books and the introduction of new ideas virtually stopped. Except for the works of the deceased Lu Xun, all modern works were banned.
In the Cultural Revolution, Mao used the army and the student population against his opponents. Once again millions suffered or perished as Mao combined the ruthlessness of Shang Yang with the absolute confidence of the long-distance swimmer.
Mao's ”The Little red Book” or Mao Zedong on People's War (1967) became in the 1960s the ultimate authority for political correctness. It was carried about by millions during "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" of 1968. The plastic-bound work, edited by the minister of defense, Lin Piao, consisted of quotations from several Mao's writings, among themSignificance of Agrarian Reforms in China, Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War, On the Rectification of Incorrect Ideas in the Party, A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People. Another compendium, also edited by Lin Piao, was entitled Long Live Mao Tse-Tung Thought.
The clash between Mao and Liu formed the background to the Cultural Revolution of 1966 when Mao openly and successfully sided with the peasants. Mao had sheer numbers on his side as China was still an agricultural nation despite exploding an atomic bomb in 1964. From 1966 on, some essays by Mao entitled "Thoughts" became all but compulsory reading for Chinese people – especially the young who Mao actively courted. This was to become Mao’s famous "Little Red Book".
Rejecting his former party allies, and anyone who could be accused of espousing the values of an older and more gracious Chinese civilization, In August 1966, Mao wrote a big poster entitled "Bombard the Headquarters."
From 1966 for the following six years publication of art journals was suspended. Art schools were closed and artists disbanded. Large numbers of old temples and monuments were smashed or vandalized. In the end, the disorder was so bad that the army was called in to repress the Red Guards and other fractions. After the chaos, Mao decided open doors to the West.
One-and-a-half million people died and much of the country's cultural heritage was destroyed. In September 1967, with many cities on the verge of anarchy, Mao sent in the army to restore order. Mao appeared victorious, but his health was deteriorating.
In 1966 Jiang Ching was appointed deputy director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and claimed real power over Chinese politics for the first time. She became one of the masterminds of the Cultural Revolution, and along with three others, held absolute control over all of the national institutions.
Zhou Enlai at first gave his support to the campaign but became concerned when fighting broke out between the Red Guards and the revisionists. In order to achieve peace at the end of 1966 he called for an end to these attacks on party officials. Mao remained in control of the Cultural Revolution and with the support of the army was able to oust the revisionists.
The Cultural Revolution came to an end when Liu Shaoqi resigned from all his posts on 13th October 1968. Lin Biao now became Mao's designated successor.
Mao now gave his support to the Gang of Four: Jiang Qing (Mao's fourth wife), Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan and Zhange Chungqiao. These four radicals occupied powerful positions in the Politburo after the Tenth Party Congress of 1973.
The Gang of Four, together with disgraced Communist general Lin Biao, were labeled the two major "counter-revolutionary forces" of the Cultural Revolution and officially blamed by the Chinese government for the worst excesses of the societal chaos that ensued during the ten years of turmoil.
Jiang Ching was considered leader of the "Gang of Four" and was arrested in October, 1976.Her trial in November 1980 lasted until January 1981. She was sentenced to death, but it was later commuted to life imprisonment. she died in 1991. Jiang Ching is not mentioned in Chinese history.
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Mao married three times before his fourth wife Chiang Ch'ing. His first wife wasWoman Luo. Luo was Mao's 18-year-old cousin. Mao referred to her age as 20, but that is considered an exaggeration. They were married when Mao was 14, c.1907-1908, in an arranged marriage. The couple never lived together. Luo was born in c.1889 in Shaoshan and died in 1910.
His second wife was Yang Kai-hui. Yang was the daughter of one of Mao's teachers at the Changsha provincial normal school. Married in 1921, they had two or three sons. Yang was executed in 1930 by the KMT/Kuomintang forces.
His third wife was He Zichen aka Ho Tzu-chen and Ho Zizhen. Born c.1910 in Jiangxi. Mao had lived with He Zichen since 1928 when she was 18. They married in 1930 in Jiangxi, and had five daughters.
She accompanied Mao on the Long March of October, 1934 and had one of their children on the march. She was in poor health and Mao sent her to the Soviet Union for medical treatment.
While she was away, Mao fell in love with Lan Ping.
His marriage with He Zichen ended in divorce in 1939 in Yan'an. She was reportedly confined to a mental hospital in Russia. She died in 1984.
His fourth wife Lan Ping, aka Yunhe, Jiang Qing, and Chiang Ching. Born c.1913-1914. Lan Ping abandoned an arranged marriage, and had two other failed marriages. Lan and Mao met at one of his lectures in 1934 in Yenan. Mao married Jiang Qing in 1938-1939. They had two daughters. She was an outspoken film actress.
When Mao married his fourth wife Chiang Ch'ing, he was more than twenty years older than she and had eight children. During Cultural Revolution she became an enormous force, but after Mao's death she was imprisoned with her three radical associates Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan. The group was called the Gang of Four. It is told, that on the day of their arrest every wine shop in Beijing was sold out of alcohol. Chiang Ch'ing committed suicide in 1991.
From 1950 on Mao introduced land reforms and the first Five Year Plan started in 1953. Peasant co-operatives were set up. In 1958, the Great Leap Forward was introduced as were the first land communes. Though he used the term "Five Year Plan", Mao did not accept the theory that all ideas had to start with Russia and China would have to follow. In fact, Mao remained very independent of Russia and publicly criticised the rule of Khrushchev when he became leader of Russia.
In 1949 Mao met Stalin, but Stalin held Mao's son Anying hostage for four years. The "thaw" period in the Soviet Union (1955-64) was noted also in China and in 1956 Mao launched the slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom".
After Nikita Khrushchev in his famous speech denounced Stalinism in 1956, China broke with Moscow. Mao's criticism of "new bourgeois elements" in the Soviet Union and China alienated the Soviet Union irrevocably; Soviet aid was withdrawn in 1960. Mao accused Soviet leaders of betraying Marxism.
After the communist victory over Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, and the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Mao's position was immeasurably strengthened. Despite all that the Chinese people had endured, it seems not to have been too hard for Mao to persuade them of the visionary force and practical need for the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s.
In Mao's mind, the intensive marshaling of China's energies would draw manual and mental labor together into a final harmonious synthesis and throw a bridge across the chasm of China's poverty to the promised socialist paradise on the other side.
In 1958, in an attempt to introduce a more 'Chinese' form of communism, Mao launched the 'Great Leap Forward'. This aimed at mass mobilisation of labour to improve agricultural and industrial production.
The result, instead, was a massive decline in agricultural output, which, together with poor harvests, led to famine and the deaths of millions. The policy was abandoned and Mao's position weakened.
Mao spoke too of the hundreds of thousands who had died in the revolution so far, but firmly rebutted figures--quoted in Hong Kong newspapers--that 20 million had perished. "How could we possibly kill 20 million people?" he asked.
It is now established that at least that number died in China during the famine that followed the Great Leap between 1959 and 1961. In 1959, Mao gave up the position of head of state. This went to Liu Shao-chi. He did remain party chairman and concentrated his efforts on ideological changes.
In 1959 Liu Shaoqi, an opponent of the Great Leap Forward, replaced Mao as chairman of the central government council, but Mao retained his chairmanship of the Communist party politburo.
Mao served as Chairman of the Chinese People’s Republic until after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, in 1959.
Still chariman of the Communist Party, in May 1966 Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution with a directive denouncing "people like Khrushchev nestling beside us."
From 1960 to 1965, a struggle took place between Liu and Mao over who were the more important - the industrial workers or the peasants. Mao still placed his faith in the peasants. Liu favoured the urban workers. By 1965 Mao feared that he was losing control. He appealed to the populace against the Party apparatus and consolidated again his power by the Cultural Revolution.
On 3rd September, 1966, Lin Biao made a speech where he urged pupils in schools and colleges to criticize those party officials who had been influenced by the ideas of Nikita Khrushchev.
Mao was concerned by those party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, who favoured the introduction of piecework, greater wage differentials and measures that sought to undermine collective farms and factories. In an attempt to dislodge those in power who favoured the Soviet model of communism, Mao galvanized students and young workers as his Red Guards to attack revisionists in the party. Mao told them the revolution was in danger and that they must do all they could to stop the emergence of a privileged class in China. He argued this is what had happened in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev.
Red Guards were formed in 1966 and sent into the countryside to force bureaucrats, professors, technicians, intellectuals, and other nonpeasants into rural work. In the vengeful outburst of hatred and ignorance, tens of thousands were murdered or forced to give up their jobs, and China's economy suffered. "A revolution is not the same as inviting people to dinner, or writing as essay, or painting a picture... A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." Mao had said. The publishing of new books and the introduction of new ideas virtually stopped. Except for the works of the deceased Lu Xun, all modern works were banned.
In the Cultural Revolution, Mao used the army and the student population against his opponents. Once again millions suffered or perished as Mao combined the ruthlessness of Shang Yang with the absolute confidence of the long-distance swimmer.
Mao's ”The Little red Book” or Mao Zedong on People's War (1967) became in the 1960s the ultimate authority for political correctness. It was carried about by millions during "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" of 1968. The plastic-bound work, edited by the minister of defense, Lin Piao, consisted of quotations from several Mao's writings, among themSignificance of Agrarian Reforms in China, Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War, On the Rectification of Incorrect Ideas in the Party, A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People. Another compendium, also edited by Lin Piao, was entitled Long Live Mao Tse-Tung Thought.
The clash between Mao and Liu formed the background to the Cultural Revolution of 1966 when Mao openly and successfully sided with the peasants. Mao had sheer numbers on his side as China was still an agricultural nation despite exploding an atomic bomb in 1964. From 1966 on, some essays by Mao entitled "Thoughts" became all but compulsory reading for Chinese people – especially the young who Mao actively courted. This was to become Mao’s famous "Little Red Book".
Rejecting his former party allies, and anyone who could be accused of espousing the values of an older and more gracious Chinese civilization, In August 1966, Mao wrote a big poster entitled "Bombard the Headquarters."
From 1966 for the following six years publication of art journals was suspended. Art schools were closed and artists disbanded. Large numbers of old temples and monuments were smashed or vandalized. In the end, the disorder was so bad that the army was called in to repress the Red Guards and other fractions. After the chaos, Mao decided open doors to the West.
One-and-a-half million people died and much of the country's cultural heritage was destroyed. In September 1967, with many cities on the verge of anarchy, Mao sent in the army to restore order. Mao appeared victorious, but his health was deteriorating.
In 1966 Jiang Ching was appointed deputy director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and claimed real power over Chinese politics for the first time. She became one of the masterminds of the Cultural Revolution, and along with three others, held absolute control over all of the national institutions.
Zhou Enlai at first gave his support to the campaign but became concerned when fighting broke out between the Red Guards and the revisionists. In order to achieve peace at the end of 1966 he called for an end to these attacks on party officials. Mao remained in control of the Cultural Revolution and with the support of the army was able to oust the revisionists.
The Cultural Revolution came to an end when Liu Shaoqi resigned from all his posts on 13th October 1968. Lin Biao now became Mao's designated successor.
Mao now gave his support to the Gang of Four: Jiang Qing (Mao's fourth wife), Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan and Zhange Chungqiao. These four radicals occupied powerful positions in the Politburo after the Tenth Party Congress of 1973.
The Gang of Four, together with disgraced Communist general Lin Biao, were labeled the two major "counter-revolutionary forces" of the Cultural Revolution and officially blamed by the Chinese government for the worst excesses of the societal chaos that ensued during the ten years of turmoil.
Jiang Ching was considered leader of the "Gang of Four" and was arrested in October, 1976.Her trial in November 1980 lasted until January 1981. She was sentenced to death, but it was later commuted to life imprisonment. she died in 1991. Jiang Ching is not mentioned in Chinese history.
Sources:
kirjasto
Infoplease
Answers.com
historylearn..
spartacus
BBC
TIME
marxists
Marriage.about
JSTOR
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