He Zizhen

He Zizhen (; 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 was born in Yunshan (云山, now Yongxin County), Jiangxi, in 1910, as He Guiyuan (贺桂圆), the second of four children. He's family were impoverished scholar-gentry that ran a tea house and sent He to a free Protestant missionary school in her youth. She joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1925 along with her siblings. 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. 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".Karl, 37 - 38

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. When they married, Mao had not divorced his second wife Yang Kaihui, whom he had wed in 1920. Yang was arrested and executed in 1930 by the Kuomintang. While with Mao, He Zizhen restricted herself to clerical work and served as Mao's secretary. Despite this, she was still severely injured by shrapnel in 1935 and needed to be carried by stretcher on parts of the Long March, suffering 17 gunshot wounds during it.

He Zizhen had three daughters and three sons with Mao Zedong – she was pregnant ten times in her life– 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.
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. 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.

Divorce from Mao and sojourn in Russia

In 1937, Mao had allegedly begun an affair with Wu Lili, the interpreter of journalist Agnes Smedley. After a confrontation with Mao, He Zizhen traveled, pregnant, to the Soviet Union for treatment of a wound suffered earlier in battle, later attending the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, under the pseudonym Ven Iun. In Moscow, in 1938, He Zizhen gave birth to a boy, Xiao Liuwa, 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. According to Mao Anying, He Zizhen suffered severe depression after losing yet another child. To support three children, He took in washing, knitted socks, and went logging on weekends.

While He Zizhen was in Russia, Mao courted Jiang Qing, who would become his fourth wife. He Zizhen was reportedly "dispatched to a mental asylum in Moscow to make room for Jiang". 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. Together they traveled to the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, 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.

Legacy

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

References

Citations

Sources

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Zizhen
1910 births
1984 deaths
Family of Mao Zedong
People from Ji'an
Women in war 1900–1945
Women in war in China
Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies alumni
Members of the 5th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
Secretaries to Mao Zedong