Mao Yichang or Mao Rensheng (15 October 1870 – 23 January 1920) was a Chinese farmer and
grain merchant who achieved notability as the father of
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
. The nineteenth generation of the Mao clan, he was born and lived his life in the rural village of Shaoshanchong in
Shaoshan,
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...
Province.
The son of Mao Enpu, he was raised in a poverty-stricken family of peasants. Marrying
Wen Qimei
Wen Qimei (13 February 1867 – 5 October 1919; born Wen Suqin) was the mother of Mao Zedong.
Life
Wen was born in 1867 in the valley of Sidutaiping, in Xiangxiang county of Hunan. Her father, Wen Qifu, was a poor shoemaker who was a heavy dr ...
when he was ten, he subsequently served for two years in the
Xiang Army. Returning to agriculture, he became a moneylender and grain merchant, buying up local grain and selling it in the city for a higher price, becoming one of the wealthiest farmers in Shaoshan, with 20 acres of land. He and Wen had four surviving children, Zedong,
Zemin,
Zetan, and
Zejian, the latter of whom was adopted.
Early life
According to family
oral histories
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
, the ancestor of the Mao clan in Shaoshanchong () was Mao Taihua. Taihua left his native
Jiangxi Province
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into h ...
for
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...
, where he joined
Zhu Yuanzhang
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts i ...
's rebellion against the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fif ...
; Zhu overthrew the Yuan and founded the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
in 1368. Taihua married a local woman in Yunnan. In 1380, Taihua's family resettled in
Xiangxiang
Xiangxiang () is a county-level city under the administration of Xiangtan, Hunan province, China. Located on Central Hunan and the west of Xiangtan, Xiangxiang is bordered by Ningxiang County and Shaoshan City to the north, Xiangtan County to the ...
county,
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...
. Around ten years later, two sons moved to Shaoshanchong in
Xiangtan
Xiangtan () is a prefecture-level city in east-central Hunan province, south-central China. The hometowns of several founding leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, including Chairman Mao Zedong, President Liu Shaoqi, and Marshal Peng Dehuai, ...
county; Mao Yichang was their descendent.
Mao Yichang was born on 15 October 1870, the only child of Mao Enpu and his wife Liu. Enpu was a farmer who had lived in poverty throughout his life, leaving his son debt-ridden.
He was betrothed to Wen when she was thirteen and he was ten; the wedding took place five years later when he was fifteen.
Due to his father's debts, Yichang served for two years in
Zeng Guofan
Zeng Guofan, Marquis Yiyong (; 26 November 1811 – 12 March 1872), birth name Zeng Zicheng, courtesy name Bohan, was a Chinese statesman and military general of the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for raising and organizing the Xiang A ...
's local
Xiang Army, during which time he saved enough money to purchase much of the land that his father had lost. Mao Yichang managed through hard work and frugality to become a significant village landowner. According to stories passed down from Mao Zedong to one his daughters, Yichang often said:
Poverty is not the result of eating too much or spending too much. Poverty comes from an inability to do mathematics. Whoever can do sums will have enough to live by; whoever cannot will squander even mountains of gold!
Mao Yichang's mother, Liu, died aged 37 on 20 May 1884.
Raising Mao Zedong
Prior to Mao Zedong's birth, Mao Yichang and his wife had had two sons, both of whom had died in infancy.
After the birth of Mao Zedong, his parents were presented with a rooster, as was the local custom.
Two years later, a second son was born, who was named Zemin, followed by a third son, Zetan, who was born in 1905. Two further daughters died in infancy, but the family began fostering another daughter.
Although a poorly educated peasant, Mao Yichang became one of the richest people in the village of Shaoshan. Mao Yichang grew rice, two-thirds of which fed his family with the remaining surplus sold at market.
Mao Yichang hired two laborers and became a grain middleman for urban markets.
Grain middlemen like Mao Yichang were a feature of rural markets, and as an adult, Mao Zedong would describe their economic role as “parasitic.”
Mao Yichang was also a usurious lender, obtaining mortgages on the other peasant's farms as a result.
Mao Yichang died in 1920 of
typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
.
Mao Zedong described his father as a strict disciplinarian who
brutally beat him and his siblings. His father called him lazy because Mao preferred to read books over doing manual labor.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mao, Yichang
1870 births
1920 deaths
People from Xiangtan
Mao Zedong family
Xiang Army personnel
Chinese farmers
Deaths from typhoid fever