He Zizhen

He Zizhen (Template:Zh; 20 September 1910 – 19 April 1984) was a Chinese soldier, revolutionary, and politician who was the third wife of Chairman Mao Zedong from 1928 to 1937 and participated in the Long March.

Early life and career

He Zizhen with Mao Zedong

He Zizhen was born in Yunshan (云山, now Yongxin County), Jiangxi, in 1910, as He Guiyuan (贺桂圆), the second of four children.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> He's family were impoverished scholar-gentry that ran a tea house and sent He to a free Protestant missionary school in her youth.<ref>https://inf.news/en/history/ff5a04b7b592fe131aef70457ef9e995.html Template:Webarchive Template:Bare URL inline</ref> She joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1925 along with her siblings.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He Zizhen later graduated from the Yongxin Girls' School and became a full member of the Chinese Communist Party in 1926.

Revolutionary life

Early communist activities

As a party member He Zizhen was made head of the county's Women's Bureau and worked as a traveling propagandist. She fought in the Yongxin uprising of 1927 and began serve as a communist partisan.<ref name=":0" /> An expert in guerrilla warfare and a capable fighter, He Zizhen was also an excellent shooter who earned the nickname of "Two-Gunned Girl General".<ref name="Karl37ff">Karl, 37 - 38</ref>

Relationship with Mao and the Long March

He Zizhen was introduced to Mao Zedong at Jinggangshan by Yuan Wencai, a classmate of her elder brother, in the spring of 1928. She and Mao married in 1928.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When they married, Mao had not divorced his second wife Yang Kaihui, whom he had wed in 1920.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Yang was arrested and executed in 1930 by the Kuomintang.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> While with Mao, He Zizhen restricted herself to clerical work and served as Mao's secretary.<ref name=":0" /> Despite this, she was still severely injured by shrapnel in 1935 and needed to be carried by stretcher on parts of the Long March,<ref name=":0" /> suffering 17 gunshot wounds during it.<ref name=hunan/>

He Zizhen had three daughters and three sons with Mao Zedong – she was pregnant ten times in her life<ref name=hunan/>– but except for their daughter, Li Min, all of them either died young or were separated from the family. This was partially due to the constant movement of the communists as they worked to evade the Kuomintang. Their eldest daughter, Yang Yuehua, who was left to a local family in Fujian, was found and recognized by He Zizhen's brother in 1973, but never had the chance to meet Mao or He.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Being closely pursued and having given birth to a daughter, He glanced at her and was carried back to the Long March, leaving 13 yuan and a note behind.<ref name=Zhang/> Two English researchers who retraced the entire Long March in 2002–2003 located a woman whom they believe might be a missing child left in the care of others by Mao and He in 1935.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive</ref><ref name="unbound">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>[2] Template:Webarchive</ref>

In 1936, while still on the long march, He Zizhen helped Jin Weiying to give birth to Li Tieying, son of Head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Weihan. Liu Ying and Li Jianzhen also assisted with the birth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Divorce from Mao and sojourn in Russia

In 1937, Mao had allegedly begun an affair with Wu Lili, the interpreter of journalist Agnes Smedley.<ref name=":0" /> After a confrontation with Mao, He Zizhen traveled, pregnant,<ref name=":0"/> to the Soviet Union for treatment of a wound suffered earlier in battle,<ref name="telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref> later attending the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, under the pseudonym Wen Yun.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Moscow, in 1938, He Zizhen gave birth to a boy, Xiao Liuwa,<ref name=Zhang/> who died shortly of pneumonia. Her daughter, Li Min, also suffered pneumonia after arriving in Moscow with Mao Anqing and Mao Anying to accompany He.<ref name=":0" /> According to Mao Anying, He Zizhen suffered severe depression after losing yet another child.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> To support three children, He took in washing, knitted socks, and went logging on weekends.<ref name=hunan/><ref name=Zhang/>

While He Zizhen was in Russia, Mao courted Jiang Qing, who would become his fourth wife.<ref name="telegraph" /> He Zizhen was reportedly "dispatched to a mental asylum in Moscow to make room for Jiang".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He Zizhen was labeled schizophrenic and confined in a sanitarium between 1942 and 1946.

Later life and death

Upon her return to China in 1947, she found she could not hope to fulfill any sort of political role in Beijing, and moved to southern China, staying variously in Nanchang, Fuzhou and finally Shanghai. She later became the chair of Zhejiang Province Women's Union. After 1972, He raised her granddaughter, Kong Dongmei, in Shanghai.<ref name=hunan >Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Zhang>Template:Cite web</ref> Together they traveled to the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall,<ref name=hunan/> when He was elected to the fifth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. She spent her last years in hospital in Shanghai, where she died on 19 April 1984.<ref name=":0" />

Legacy

In 2007, a memorial hall was opened in Yongxin for He Zizhen with her daughter, Li Min, present as a guest.

References

Sources

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• Karl, Rebecca. Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World. (2010). Durham: Duke UP. Template:ISBN