He Zizhen

He Zizhen (; 20 September 1910 – 19 April 1984) was a Chinese soldier, revolutionary, and politician who was the third wife of Chairman Mao Zedong from 1928 to 1937 and participated in the Long March.

Early life and career

He Zizhen was born in Yunshan (云山, now Yongxin County), Jiangxi, in 1910, as He Guiyuan (贺桂圆), the second of four children. Her family were impoverished scholar-gentry that ran a tea house and sent He to a free Protestant missionary school in her youth. She joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1925 along with her siblings. He Zizhen later graduated from the Yongxin Girls' School and became a full member of the Chinese Communist Party in 1926.

Revolutionary life

Early communist activities As a party member He Zizhen was made head of the county's Women's Bureau and worked as a traveling propagandist. She fought in the Yongxin uprising of 1927 and began serve as a communist partisan.

Relationship with Mao and the Long March He Zizhen was introduced to Mao Zedong at Jinggangshan by Yuan Wencai, a classmate of her elder brother, in the spring of 1928. She and Mao married in 1928. When they married, Mao had not divorced his second wife Yang Kaihui, whom he had wed in 1920. Yang was arrested and executed in 1930 by the Kuomintang. While with Mao, He Zizhen restricted herself to clerical work and served as Mao's secretary. Being closely pursued and having given birth to a daughter, He glanced at her and was carried back to the Long March, leaving 13 yuan and a note behind.

In 1936, while still on the long march, He Zizhen helped Jin Weiying to give birth to Li Tieying, son of Head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Weihan. Liu Ying and Li Jianzhen also assisted with the birth.

Divorce from Mao and sojourn in Russia In 1937, Mao had allegedly begun an affair with Wu Lili, the interpreter of journalist Agnes Smedley. later attending the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, under the pseudonym Wen Yun. In Moscow, in 1938, He Zizhen gave birth to a boy, Xiao Liuwa, To support three children, He took in washing, knitted socks, and went logging on weekends. He Zizhen was labeled schizophrenic and confined in a sanitarium between 1942 and 1946.

Later life and death Upon her return to China in 1947, she found she could not hope to fulfill any sort of political role in Beijing, and moved to southern China, staying variously in Nanchang, Fuzhou and finally Shanghai. She later became the chair of Zhejiang Province Women's Union. After 1972, He raised her granddaughter, Kong Dongmei, in Shanghai. Together they traveled to the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall,

Legacy In 2007, a memorial hall was opened in Yongxin for He Zizhen with her daughter, Li Min, present as a guest.