Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing () (March 1914 – May 14, 1991) stage name Lan Ping, the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, and also known as Madame Mao was a Chinese political leader most famous for forming the Gang of Four.

Early years

She was born as Lǐ Shúméng (李淑蒙) in Zhucheng (诸城), Shandong Province in 1914. Also known as Lǐ Jìn (李进) and Lǐ Yúnhè (李云鹤), Jiang Qing was the daughter of a carpenter. After being educated at Qingdao University she worked as a stage and film actress in Shanghai under the stage name of Lán Píng (蓝苹).

She joined the Communist Party of China in 1933 and worked as an actress in Shanghai from 1933 to 1937. In 1939, Kang Sheng introduced her to Mao Zedong in Yan'an, and she and Mao were later married. After 1949, she worked in the Ministry of Culture.

Rise in power

Jiang Qing emerged as a serious political figure in China during the Cultural Revolution when she criticized party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, who favoured the introduction of piecework, greater wage differentials and measures that sought to undermine collective farms and factories. She became a member of the Politburo in 1969. She was appointed as the deputy director of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and formed the Gang of Four with Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen. From that point on, she was the most powerful figure in China during Mao's last years and became a controversial figure of Mao's regime.

During this period Mao Zedong galvanized students and young workers as his Red Guards to attack what he termed as revisionists in the party. Mao told them the revolution was in danger and that they must do all they could to stop the emergence of a privileged class in China. He argued this is what had happened in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev. Jiang incited radical youths organized as Red Guards against other senior political leaders and government officials, including Liu Shaoqi, the President of the PRC at that time, and Deng Xiaoping, the Deputy Premier. Internally divided into factions both to the "left" and "right" of Jiang Qing and Mao, not all Red Guards were friendly to Jiang Qing.

The Cultural Revolution came to an end when Liu Shaoqi resigned from all his posts on 13th October 1968. Lin Biao now became Mao's designated successor. Mao now gave his support to the Gang of Four: Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan and Zhange Chungqiao. These four radicals occupied powerful positions in the Politburo after the Tenth Party Congress of 1973.

Jiang also directed operas and ballets with communist and revolutionary content as part of an effort to transform China's culture. The Eight model plays were allegedly created under her guidance. Critics say her influence on art was too restrictive. She replaced nearly all earlier works of art with revolutionary Maoist works.

According to Jung Chang's and Jon Halliday's biography of Mao Zedong, Jiang's favorite hobbies included photography, playing cards, and watching foreign movies, especially Gone with the Wind. She suffered as a hypochondriac as diagnosed by Mao´s physician Li Zhisui).

Jiang first collaborated with then 2nd-in-charge Lin Biao, but after Lin's death in a plane crash in 1971, she turned against him publicly in the Anti-Lin, Anti-Confucius Campaign. She also spearheaded the campaign against Deng Xiaoping in the mid '70s (later saying that this was inspired by Mao). The Chinese public became intensely unhappy at this time and, rather than blaming Mao, chose to blame the more accessible and easy targeted Jiang Qing. After the death of Mao, the infamous Gang of Four quickly fell from power and was blamed for the Cultural Revolution. She was arrested after the death of Mao and the end of the Cultural Revolution (1976).

Later years

At her trial in 1981 she was the only member of the Gang of Four who bothered to argue on her behalf. The Defense's Argument was that she was obeying the orders of her husband at all times. It was at this trial that Qing made the famous quote "I was Mao's mad dog. Whoever he asked me to bite, I bit". She was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1981, and the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. She was released for medical reasons in 1991. She died soon after. Later the government claimed that she committed suicide in her apartment, ten days after her release.

References

Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (London, 2005); Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0679422714
Ross Terrill, The White-Boned Demon: A Biography of Madame Mao Zedong (New York: Morrow, 1984). ISBN 8013316
Roxane Witke, Comrade Chiang Ch'ing (Boston: Little Brown, 1977). ISBN 77000935
Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (London, 1990)

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Jiang Qing

Early years

Rise in power

Later years

References

See also