Letter to Zhou Wennan
(May 12, 1950)

Source: Shuxin, p. 369.

Zhou Wennan ( ‘a.k.a. Zhou Renfang) was the wife of Mao’s brother Zetan, who died in
the fighting against KMT troops in Southern Fujian in late 1935. Zhou herself had
stayed in Hunan to do revolutionary work. In mid-1930, when the Communists
attacked Changsha, several Mao family members remaining in the region were
arrested by the KMT, including Mao’s first wife Yang Kaihui and his younger sister,
together with Zhou. While Yang and Mao’ s sister were executed, Zhou was spared and
subsequently released. At the time of this letter, Zhou was the chief executive officer of
the criminal court of the People’s Court of Shenyang Municipality. For more information on Mao Zetan and Zhou, see D. Klein and A. Clark, eds. (1971), I, p. 675, and
Zhonggong renming lu, appendix, p. 18.

Comrade Wennan:

I have received your letter and am greatly gratified. As for taking your
mother to the Northeast to live with you, I think it is a good thing. I can write
to the authorities in Hunan to have them issue you some travel funds. None-theless, your mother is of an advanced age, and whether or not she will be
safe along the journey if no one is there to take care of her is a question.
Would you be needed to personally go to bring her with you to the Northeast?
Would that not be better? Please give it some thought and let me know. If you
are going [to Hunan] yourself to fetch her, than my letter to Hunan can be car-ned by you. The enclosed document is returned to you.’ Jiang Qing’ and oth-
€rs are all doing well.

My best wishes for your health,

Mao Zedong
May 12, 1950

Notes

wove cording to the source this refers to the letter that Zhou’s mother, Zhou Qian, nee Chen,
This tele In which she described her lonely conditions in Shaoshan xian, Hunan.

tional opens €rs to Mao’s wife at the time. Born in 1915, Jiang began learning the Chinese tradi-
Operatic Scher 1929 and served her apprenticeship at the Shandong Provincial Experimental
duction of thee at Jinan under the name Lian Shumeng. It was in 1932, when she joined the pro-hame of La le film Wang lao wu” (The Bachelor) in Shanghai, that she changed to the acting
Schoo} of the Ping. In the summer of 1937, Jiang went to Yanan and enrolled at the Lu Xun

€ Arts. It was about this time that she assumed the name of Jiang Qing, which she has

te


used since. Around 1940 she married Mao Zedong. Jiang played almost no part in public life until 4
the time of the Cultural Revolution. In 1963, however, she began to emerge as a somewhat 4
influential figure in the criticism of certain orientations in literary and artistic circles, organizing 4
with Ke Qingshi (see text Dec. 26, 1953, source note) the campaign against the film Li Huiniang j
and the article “There Is No Harm in Having Ghosts.” In 1965, she promoted the “modern revolu- 4
tionary operas,” which she directed, Hong deng ji (The Red Lantern), Zhi qu wei hu shan (Taking 9
Tiger Mountain by Strategy) and Shajia bin, as “model operas” (yangban ju). In 1966 she }
emerged as a chief spokesperson for Mao, and when the directive (the “May 16 directive”) to
organize a “Cultural Revolution Group for the Central Committee” was issued by Mao at the:
enlarged plenum of the Political Bureau at Hangzhou that year, Jiang became a member of that 4
group. She became one of the paramount leaders of the Cultural Revolution. In 1976, shortly 4
after Mao’s death, she and others labeled as the “Gang of Four” were toppled. Jiang has been 4
under arrest since. For more biographical information on Jiang, see Zhonggong renming lu,}
appendix, pp. 27-31.