Disclaimer: Wu Xuehua's original works
He Zizhen, born in 1909 in Yongxin County, Jiangxi, was originally named Guiyuan, her father's name was He Huanwen, was a famous local gentry, her brother was called He Minxue, her younger brother He Minren, and her younger sister He Yi.
Her father, He Huanwen, was from a local prominent family, donated a person when he was young, and served as the county magistrate of Anfu County in the early days of the Republic of China, but because of his upright personality and unaccustomed to corruption in the officialdom, he resigned and returned home.
This year, He Huanwen was involved in a lawsuit over a water source, and the family ran out of money to rescue him from prison, and the family road began to fall. The ideas of the "May Fourth Movement" spread to Yongxin County, and He Zizhen and her sister entered the local girls' school to study, and she gave herself a name, "Zizhen".
In the girls' school where she studied, there are many rich ladies, there are also poor children, students are naturally divided into two factions, because He Zizhen has a strong personality and dares to come out, so she has become the "head" of poor students, every time there is an argument between classmates, the teacher will protect the students of the rich family, for this reason, He Zizhen is not less blamed, but her stubborn character, is innate, never submit to soft, do not admit defeat. She very much hoped that she would be a boy who could fight for the poor like the ancient warriors.
In the struggle with the rich students, He Zizhen gradually grew, the fame is getting bigger and bigger, she is medium-sized, the skin is white, the delicate melon face, under the curved thick eyebrows, is a pair of eyes full of indomitability and wisdom, known as "Yongxin a flower".
One day, she learned that Yuan Wencai, a classmate of her brother He Minxue, had become a bandit in Jinggangshan, robbing the rich and helping the poor to support the poor, thinking that one day she would be able to be like Yuan Wencai, a jianghu person who was happy to take revenge. During this period, she read many books brought back by her brother, such as "Guide" and "Chinese Youth", and her thinking underwent great changes, hoping that China could arm the poor with communist ideas like Russia.
What she did not expect was that these books were brought back from Nanchang by a man named Ouyang Luo, who was the first to spread communist ideas in Yongxin County. In 1925, Ouyang Luo was ordered to establish a party branch in Yongxin and build a party group, and He Zizhen resolutely joined the Communist Youth League despite his brother's opposition. She told her brother: What I believe, ten horses can not be pulled back.
Soon, He Zizhen transferred to Xiushui Girls' School, where she actively carried out the student movement and propagated revolutionary ideas. The following year, because of his outstanding work, he became a member of the Communist Party. In 1926, in order to meet the Northern Expedition of the Southern Revolutionary Army, He Zizhen organized a mass meeting to expel the warlord Chen Xiujue who was entrenched in Yongxin. After the Northern Expedition entered Yongxin, she became the first women's minister and deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League in Yongxin County, a year when she was 17 years old.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek raised a butcher's knife to the Communists, and after his brother's arrest, He Zizhen contacted Yuan Wencai of Jinggangshan and pulled up a Red Guard. Under her leadership, the Red Guards launched a riot and rescued the captured comrades. This "yongxin flower" accepted the baptism of revolution and became a famous two-gun female general.
Due to the counterattack of the Kuomintang, the Red Guards who captured Yongxin were forced to go to Jinggangshan, and He Zizhen became the first female Communist Party member on Jinggangshan.
In October of that year, a revolutionary detachment from Hunan went up to Jinggangshan, led by a tall and thin young man named Mao Zedong.
After the two teams were united, Mao Zedong commanded the revolutionary contingent at Jinggangshan and skillfully repelled the enemy's attacks again and again, and his ideas on the peasant movement were admired by He Zizhen. In April of the following year, another revolutionary detachment from Nanchang also went up to Jinggangshan and established the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, with Mao Zedong as the party representative, Zhu De as the commander, and Chen Yi as the director of the political department. Zhu Peide, the governor of the Kuomintang province of Jiangxi Province, ordered Yang Ruxuan, the 27th Division of the Gan Army, to attack Jinggangshan.
During this period, once the person who registered the name registered He Zizhen's name as He Zizhen, and from then on, she became He Zizhen, but in Mao Zedong's place, until after the founding of the People's Republic, she was "He Zizhen".
Relying on the strength of the local masses, Mao Zedong successfully repelled Yang Ruxuan's attack and fought a great victory, not only capturing a lot of weapons and ammunition, but also expanding his territory.
Subsequently, the revolutionary contingent avoided the real and the virtual, three into the new, Mao Zedong calmly and calmly, commanded ruo, turned the crisis into safety, showed the great courage of a revolutionary and military man, because of the work relationship, He Zizhen went to Mao Zedong's side as a confidential secretary, her understanding of Mao Zedong, from the original comrades, gradually changed, the two hearts also came together.
Her task was to take care of Mao Zedong's life and manage confidential documents for the former committee and the Xianggan Special Committee. In May 1929, when the Red Army attacked Longyan twice, He Zizhen gave birth to her love crystal with Mao Zedong, a girl named Mao Jinhua. Due to the needs of the revolutionary situation at that time, she shed tears and entrusted her children to a local farmer.
In April 1932, when the Red Army once again defeated Longyan, He Zizhen, who had a big belly, wanted to retrieve her first child, but was told that the child was no longer alive. As a mother, for the sake of the revolution, she could only cover her mouth and swallow tears into her stomach. In November of that year, she gave birth to a boy for Mao Zedong in Longyan, named Mao Anhong and mao mao.
From 1928 to 1933, He Zizhen witnessed the development of the Jinggangshan Revolution. After arriving in the Central Soviet Region, with the arrival of Li De, Mao Zedong was treated unfairly, and the base areas that the Red Army had worked so hard to lay down were also lost in the "cubs selling the fields without pain". She followed Mao Zedong and lived in a thatched hut in the valley, and when Mao Zedong fell seriously ill, she served carefully and without complaint. The man she identified, living and dying with, did not abandon, and foamed at each other.
At the time of the Red Army's Long March, Mao Anhong was already two years old, and every time Mao Zedong went out, Mao Mao was clinging to the door, hoping that his father would return early. Due to the needs of the revolutionary struggle, Mao Zedong had to leave his children to his younger brothers Mao Zeqin and He Yi, who insisted on guerrilla warfare in the Soviet area. However, after the fall of the Central Soviet District, Mao Zeqin entrusted Mao Mao to the guards before his death, and the whereabouts of the child were unknown. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Yi visited Mao Anhong in Ruijin many times, but unfortunately suffered a car accident and died.
He Zizhen followed Mao Zedong on the Long March, becoming one of the 30 female warriors approved by the central government. During the Long March, He Zizhen became pregnant again, but she miscarried due to malnutrition, and she insisted on walking despite her weakness. In a bombing by an enemy plane, in order to protect the wounded Zhong Chibing, she was seriously injured, and suffered more than 20 injuries, the most serious of which was the head and lungs, due to the limited medical conditions at that time, the shrapnel was deeply trapped in it and could not be removed, when everyone thought she could not survive, she actually survived, but due to the shrapnel of the head and the excessive hard work of the body, resulting in lifelong disability.
In 1936, He Zizhen, who was in Wayao Fort, gave birth to a daughter for Mao Zedong, who named her Li Min and Jiaojiao. After giving birth to a child, He Zizhen, after four months of nursing, entrusted her daughter Jiaojiao to the villagers and entered the kang da study.
At that time, Yan'an was a holy land of revolution, and young people of insight from all over the country gathered in Yan'an, bringing noise to this remote small town. He Zizhen is a strong person, and she believes that she cannot lose to those young people culturally.
After the American journalist Snow interviewed Mao Zedong, he wrote a book that introduced He Zizhen like this: ... On the outside, Mao Zedong's wife, Ms. He Zizhen, was simply a weak young woman. In fact, her personality is very lively. She was rarely seen wearing long clothes, and for ten years she had always worn the uniform of the Red Army, with pistols hanging from her belt; she had fought against the communist forces of the central government (of the Kuomintang) and transported wounded soldiers on the front line. Went to the rear, nursed the sick, organized a female army, and was wounded in the battle to the north, and even almost lost his life...
When He Zizhen was studying at Kang Da, due to physical reasons, he often felt dizzy, and sometimes fainted when he looked at the book. She wanted to do more work for the revolution, but physically she couldn't. To be revolutionary, you must have a strong body. She had the idea of going to Shanghai for medical treatment, but Mao Zedong needed her, and said movingly: "I am a person who usually does not like to shed tears, and has only shed tears in three situations, one is that I can't hear the cries of the poor people, and when I see them suffering, I can't help but cry; second, I have followed my correspondents, I am reluctant to let them leave, some correspondents have sacrificed, I will shed tears; and there is also that time in Guizhou, I heard that you were injured, and I was about to die, I shed tears..."
The two of them met in October 1927 and fell in love in 1928, which lasted for ten years. These ten years are precisely the most arduous decade of the Chinese revolution, and mao Zedong has experienced political ups and downs, and in his most difficult period, He Zizhen has always accompanied him, facing the ups and downs of politics and life together.
At this time, she found that she was pregnant again, she had flowed twice during the Long March, and in order to give birth to a delicate child, she almost took her life, and she thought that she must raise her body well in order to better take care of Mao Zedong and make a better revolution, so she had to go to the hospital.
She said what she had said to her brother to Mao Zedong again.
In this way, she traveled from Yan'an to Xi'an, and originally planned to go to Shanghai, but due to illness, she followed others and went to the Soviet Union via Xinjiang. During this period, she received a letter from Mao Zedong asking her to return to Yan'an, but she only sent Mao Zedong a new quilt sewn by hand, as well as a farewell letter written on a white handkerchief. When she arrived in Xinjiang, Mao Zedong once again sent a message asking her to return to Yan'an, but she was unable to return and eventually boarded a plane to the Soviet Union.
After she left, she never returned to Mao Zedong's side, and she drank and hated herself for her stubbornness and rashness for the rest of her life.
After arriving in the Soviet Union, she worked in the Eastern Department of the International Children's Hospital, and also took care of Mao Anying and Mao Anqing, born to Yang Kaihui. Soon after, she gave birth to a boy for Mao Zedong, but unfortunately, the child suffered from fatal pneumonia in the cold Soviet Union and died in her arms. On a silent night, she found a desolate and remote place, dug a pit with her hands, shed tears, and buried her hope and happiness with her own hands.
Not long after, she got the news that Mao Zedong had another woman by his side, and this sunny thunderbolt woke her up from her confusion, and only then did she understand how unwise it was to leave Yan'an in the first place.
She was a very strong woman, thin and weak, beating with an incomparably strong heart, in front of people, she pretended to be fine, but at night, her silent tears had already soaked the pillow.
Jiaojiao followed the arrival of the people who went to the Soviet Union, giving He Zizhen some comfort to this traumatized heart. Due to the severe war situation in the Soviet Union, all personnel in the Soviet Union suffered in difficulties. At the most difficult time, He Zizhen and the children huddled in front of the fire, relying on the soup of a few pairs of black bread, and insisted on surviving. After that, He Zizhen was treated unfairly in the Soviet Union, and even imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital, until Wang Jiaxiang and his wife visited the Soviet Union in 1947, and her situation was changed.
He Zizhen with his daughter and nephew
The revolution in China was in full swing, the situation was very good, He Zizhen repeatedly wrote reports asking to return to China to participate in revolutionary work, but the report did not reply, so she has been waiting for the call of the motherland in the Soviet Union.
This winter, He Zizhen and her daughter Li Min could finally return to China, she could not suppress her inner excitement, thinking of making more contributions to the revolution in the future, but after entering the northeast, she was told that she could not enter the customs. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, she was told that she could not enter Beijing, but could only go to Hangzhou to work. She obeyed the organization's arrangement and worked in the Hangzhou Women's Federation. In this year, the disability she suffered during the Long March was designated as a third-class disability, but she was determined not to receive a pension for disabled soldiers, and she believed that she had no disability and was not a disabled soldier.
During her work in Hangzhou, she had only one idea, that is, to meet Mao Zedong and ask him if he really thought of her.
She wrote letters to Mao Zedong, but she did not know that all her letters were suppressed, and only He Yi personally sent a letter written by He Minxue when he sent Li Min. Because of her longing for Mao Zedong and the absence of her daughter, she suffered another headache and was transferred to Shanghai for medical treatment in the winter of the same year, where she lived in the home of her brother He Minxue.
She finally waited for Mao Zedong's letter, to the effect of the letter: Zi Zhen, say hello to you! Petite is nice to be around me and I like her very much. I hope that you will take care of your body, revolution first, body first, others first, and take the overall situation into account.
When He Zizhen looked at Mao Zedong's familiar calligraphy font, she could no longer suppress the pain in her heart and cried loudly. Although her brother He Minxue and sister-in-law Li Liying were very distressed about her, they did not come forward to dissuade her, and they cried a catharsis, perhaps a treatment for psychological trauma.
Somehow, she learned to smoke, and smoked so badly that she coughed all night. She burst into tears whenever she heard Mao's voice on the radio or saw a picture of Mao zedong in the newspaper. She didn't think about tea and dinner, and her spirit was often in a trance. Once, he fainted from his heart and was urgently sent to Shanghai Donghua Hospital for rescue.
After Mao Zedong learned of this, he wrote a second letter to He Zizhen, in which he asked Him Zizhen to quit smoking and raise her body, hoping that she would be strong. Along with Xin, he Zizhen was accompanied by their daughter Li Min.
The arrival of her daughter and Mao Zedong's handwritten letter were equivalent to giving He Zizhen a shot of cardiotonic agent, she quit smoking, and her body gradually recovered her health.
In 1959, He Zizhen, who was idle in Nanchang, was picked up in Lushan and met her dreamy Mao Zedong, the first time the couple had met since they separated in 1937. Originally, she had a lot to say to Mao Zedong, but after meeting, she kept crying, couldn't say anything, and cried so much that Mao Zedong's heart was broken. The next morning, He Zizhen was arranged to go down the mountain, and she never imagined that this would be the last time he would see Mao Zedong.
When Mao Zedong died of illness in September 1976, Li Min and Kong Linghua rushed to Shanghai to accompany He Zizhen, worried that she could not withstand this blow, but she showed unusual composure, and she became very strong after suffering from worry. She will not be sad in front of the child, her tears will only flow alone when no one is there.
In 1977, He Zizhen suffered a stroke and was paralyzed, and after more than two years of careful treatment, she improved, perhaps knowing that she was running out of time, she applied to the organization to see Mao Zedong. Her application was approved by the organization.
On September 8, 1979, He Zizhen, who was in a wheelchair, accompanied by his daughter and son-in-law, entered the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. Although she had been told to "not be too excited, not too sad", when she saw the familiar face in the crystal coffin, she still couldn't help but burst into tears and cover her mouth and cry. Decades of emotion, at this moment, were vented in the form of tears.
On April 19, 1984, this great and strong female communist fighter completed her long and bumpy life.
References: He Zizhen and Her Brothers and Sisters, edited by Wang Zhenggang, Biographical Literature Anthology Magazine
"The Biography of He Zizhen" Chen Guanren People's Daily Publishing House
The Autobiography of Mao Zedong (United States) Records of Edgar Snow was published in November 1937 by the Digest Society of Fudan University in Shanghai