Chapter 3 Mother is the reliance of Chairman Mao

When he was studying, his mother was Mao Zedong's reliance, and Mao Zedong was also loyal to his mother.Although his love for her had not waned, as he had grown into a grown labor, his mother's influence on him was not as great as before, especially during the last two or three years in Shaoshan.At that time, Mao Zedong was fighting against the "Chinese way". Some members of a peasant's secret society, the elder brother's society, went to Mao's house to burglarize.Many years later, Mao Zedong recalled: "I think this is a good thing, because they stole something they didn't have." His outrageous views were not only opposed by his father, but also by "my mother."Zedong admitted.

Mao Shunsheng had a way to deal with his imaginative but stubborn son. This way was very typical in that era. He forced the 14-year-old Chairman Mao to marry a girl he arranged.Poor Zedong was petrified.He submissively endured the rigid and hateful ceremony, the frightened young bridegroom, neatly dressed, prostrating to every visitor.But he refused to consummate the bride, who is six years his senior, saying he had never touched a finger of her. [13] Mao Zedong found a broader spiritual and social field, so his thoughts were no longer confined to the familiar world of the countryside.The private school gave Chairman Mao valuable learning ability.He searched and read all kinds of books he could find in Shaoshan like a cat looking for a mouse.A pamphlet describing the imperialist threat to China came into his hands. Decades later, he can still fondly recall the first sentence of the book: "Woohoo! China is doomed!" When recalling the influence of this pamphlet on him, he said: "After I read it, I felt depressed about the future of the country. I began to realize, 'Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the country'." [14]

A book called for reform and technological improvement --- "Words of the Flourishing Age" introduced such an idea to Mao Zedong: Chinese learning is for the body, and Western learning is for application.This book written by a comprador with reform ideas convinced Mao Zedong that for the sake of China, he should go out of Shaoshan to learn more knowledge. In 1915, Mao Zedong returned to his cousin Wen Yunchang the "Words of a Prosperous Age" and a note for returning the book. Not long before he dropped out of his private school in Shaoshan, one day, Mao Zedong and his classmates met a group of bean merchants from Changsha. ［15］The reason why they left Changsha was that the famine in 1906 caused a large-scale rice-grabbing riot in Changsha, and the angry people drove the governor out of the yamen.Later, a new governor was appointed by the government, and the rule was restored, followed by a series of bloody incidents. Many mobs were beheaded for public display, and their heads were hung on flagpoles as a warning to others.

For several days, people in the private school were talking about this thunderous news from outside the mountain.This incident made Chairman Mao unforgettable all his life.Almost all of Mao Zedong's friends were on the side of the rioters, but they "only looked at things from the standpoint of bystanders."He expressed sympathy for the people who participated in the riots, but did not see the connection between this incident and himself. "They don't understand what it has to do with their own lives."But Mao Zedong saw a deeper level of the problem: "I have kept it in my heart since then. I think these 'mobs' are ordinary people like my family members. I feel deeply wronged by the injustice they have suffered."

There were also rebellions in Shaoshan.Some members of the Gelaohui—which was powerful throughout Hunan—had a dispute with a landlord in Shaoshan over land rent.The angry landlord sued his tenants and bribed the government with silver dollars to win the case.The Gelaohui members, led by a blacksmith surnamed Peng, staged a riot, and the governor's officers and soldiers pursued them, forcing them to take refuge in nearby Liushan.The landowner spread the word that they had killed a baby sacrificial flag before rising up.The members of the Gelaohui were quickly rounded up, and Peng Tiejiang was beheaded.

In Zedong's view, Li's story is being repeated in his hometown.He had heard Blacksmith Peng referred to as a "bandit," and in stirring novels Song Jiang, the leader of a peasant uprising, was also called a bandit.At the same time, as so often in history, the mountains became shelters.There was another connection between Mao Zedong and this incident. He later recalled: "In our minds, Peng Tiejiang was the first peasant hero." [16] Soon, Mao Shunsheng also became the target of rebellion. When Ze Dong was 17 years old, the time was lean and yellow, and there was a food shortage in Shaoshan.Pairs of hungry eyes were staring at the granaries of merchants and landlords, and the hungry people shouted the slogan "eat the big households".Mao Shunsheng, a "big family", was hardly spared. When the hunger hit Shaoshan, he actually sold grain to Changsha.Angry villagers intercepted his cargo ship and robbed him of all the food. [17]

"I don't sympathize with him." [18] Mao Zedong said when talking about his father who was furious at the time.He developed a deep-seated notion that his loathsome father was the local defender of the unequal social order of old China.The teenager noticed that his father was getting richer.He came to a terrible conclusion: the old man is a stumbling block on China's road to self-help. The whole connotation of Mao Zedong's appalling remark about his father is: "I have learned to hate him."19 He has linked his teenage life with an entire era. Twenty-six years later, when Mao Zedong recalled the reason why he did not fully support the rioters at the time, he said: "But at the same time, I felt that the methods of the villagers were wrong." [20] He may have been shocked to see his home being attacked , or he was using this incident to verify his later experience, that is, simple resistance without a complete set of political strategies will not succeed.

By 1910, the quarrel between Mao Zedong and his father had intensified over the issue of further education.Mao Shunsheng planned to let Mao Zedong work as an apprentice in a rice shop in Xiangtan County, more than 70 miles away from Shaoshan.Mao Zedong did not strongly object to his father's arrangement. He thought that the county town might provide better opportunities, but what he really wanted was to study in a new-style school that taught "foreign" courses.He quietly and politely talked about his thoughts to his father, but his father just laughed dumbfounded, which hurt Zedong.After this, he and his father did not speak to each other for a period of time.

With the help of some relatives from his mother's natal family, Zedong taught himself for half a year at the home of an unemployed law student in Xiangtan.Although he had to return to Shaoshan under pressure from his father—or perhaps because he had financial problems in Xiangtan.But the six months of studying and arguing with others, coupled with his experience in Xiangtan, made Mao Zedong no longer the kind of precious son his father expected. The 16-year-old Mao Zedong made a solid and feasible plan for himself.He borrowed five dollars from his mother's family and friends from his own family and borrowed ten dollars to prepare for his action.One day, while having dinner, he looked straight at his father and said, "I'm going to Dongshan High School to study."

"What did you say?" Mao Shunsheng got angry.His last trump card against his wayward son is money, "Did you win the lottery this morning and get rich all of a sudden?" When he learned that Mao Shunsheng had collected some money for this, Mao Shunsheng's greedy face was completely exposed.The miser said loudly that if Mao Zedong went to Xiangxiang to study, he would have to get a sum of money to pay the wages of the long-term workers hired to replace him. [21] Chairman Mao did not want to push his greedy father too far.He also borrowed some money from a relative (from his mother's natal side) who respected learning and had once sponsored the clan's education.

When the matter was brought up again, Chairman Mao was rude to his father.He interrupted the old man's self-pitying complaints, and simply asked: "How much does it cost to hire a long-term worker a year?" Poor Mao Shunsheng said it would cost twelve yuan.Putting a paper bag on his rough hand, Mao Zedong said: "Here is twelve yuan, and I will go to Dongshan tomorrow morning." [22] At dawn, Chairman Mao got up to pack his things.Wen Qimei looked worriedly at her busy son and hardly said anything.Apart from asking her son if he wanted to bring anything else, she only said one sentence: "Are you going to say goodbye to your father?" Chairman Mao replied: "No, I won't." Soon after dawn, Chairman Mao left Shaoshan.It is a cool golden autumn morning.On the shoulder is still the usual pole, but the two ends are not dung baskets.At one end was a bundle containing a robe, two sheets, and a mosquito net;He knew almost nothing about the world outside Shaoshan, and since then, he will never come back to live here.