Li Zhisui ( zh, t=李志綏, s=李志绥, p=Lǐ Zhìsuí; 1919 – 13 February 1995) was a

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

's personal doctor and confidant.Derek Davies
OBITUARY: Li Zhisui
The Independent, 17 February 1995 He was born in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, Republican China in 1919. He studied medicine during World War II at the

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

of West China Union University. After emigrating to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, he wrote a biography of Mao entitled '' The Private Life of Chairman Mao'', in which he described Mao as selfish, cruel, having a craving for young women, and poor personal hygiene. The biography was based on his recollection of journals he had kept, and later found expedient to destroy, while a doctor to Mao. In the summer of 1968, during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, Mao's wife,

Jiang Qing Jiang Qing (March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and political figure. She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman of the Communis ...

, placed Li's life in danger by accusing him of trying to poison her. Li managed to hide, living incognito with the workers of the Beijing Textile Factory. These workers were among the 30,000 Mao dispatched to

Qinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. I ...

to quell the warfare there between two factions of the

Red Guards The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

. On 13 February 1995, Li died following a heart attack at his son's house in Carol Stream, Illinois, where he had been living since emigrating. Li was interested in psychiatry. In October 1986, Li wrote the preface for the first Chinese textbook on

psychopharmacology Psychopharmacology (from Greek ; ; and ) is the scientific study of the effects drugs have on mood, sensation, thinking, behavior, judgment and evaluation, and memory. It is distinguished from neuropsychopharmacology, which emphasizes ...

, ''Psychopharmacological Treatment for Psychiatric Disorders'' edited by Tsai Neng (蔡能) and Shi Hong-zhang (史鸿璋), and published by Shanghai Scientific Technology Publisher in May 1987.

Work

* '' The Private Life of Chairman Mao: The Memoirs of Mao's Private Physician'', publ. Random House, New York (1994),

References

''Li Zhisui'' on Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009
1919 births 1995 deaths Physicians from Beijing Writers from Beijing Chinese biographers People's Republic of China emigrants to the United States 20th-century American biographers {{china-med-bio-stub West China Union University alumni