Jiang Qing (March 1914 (1914-03) – 14 May 1991 (1991-05-15); also spelled as Chiang Ch'ing), born Li Yunhe, also known as Li Jin, and briefly known by her stage name Lan Ping in the 1930s Shanghai, was a Chinese revolutionary, actress, and political figure. The fourth wife of Mao Zedong, she played a major role in the Cultural Revolution and led the Gang of Four.
Born to an abusive father and a mother who worked as a domestic servant and sometimes a prostitute, Jiang joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1933. She pursued an acting career in Shanghai before going to Yan'an, where she married Mao in 1938. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, she wielded considerable influence over the arts while engaging in party power struggles, orchestrating campaigns against the film The Life of Wu Xun and the Peking opera Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, and promoting revolutionary operas.
Jiang reached the height of her power in late 1960s. A Politburo member at the Ninth and Tenth Central Committees and de facto leader of the Cultural Revolution Group, she was arrested following Mao's death and expelled from the party. Blamed for the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, she was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in a televised trial, before her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. She committed suicide in May 1991.
Jiang was known by various names throughout her life, as well as Madam Mao. Before her birth, her father named the baby Li Jinnan, where Jinnan means the "coming boy." When she was born, her father changed the name to Li Jinhai, meaning the "coming child." Therefore, Jiang also called herself Li Jin. Several other sources indicate her birth name Li Shumeng, which means "pure and simple."
She adopted the name Li Yunhe during primary school. She told her biographer Roxane Witke that she liked the name because "Yunhe," meaning "crane in the cloud," sounded beautiful. In July 1933, during her first visit to Shanghai, she assumed the name Li He and worked as a teacher for local workers. On her second visit to Shanghai in June 1934, she used the alias Zhang Shuzhen. Later, when detained by the Nationalist government in October 1934, she identified herself as Li Yungu.
In 1935, when she entered the entertainment industry, she took on the stage name Lan Ping, which means "blue apple". Although the name had no particular meaning, its bluntness made it unique. However, Jiang did not favour this name due to its association with her scandals in Shanghai. She became known as Jiang upon arriving in Yan'an, where Jiang means river and Qing means azure or "better than blue".
In 1991, when she was hospitalised in Beijing, she used the name Li Runqing. When she died in Beijing, her body was labelled with the pseudonym Li Zi. In March 2002, she was buried in Beijing by her school name Li Yunhe.
In English, many contemporary articles used the Wade–Giles romanisation system to spell Chinese names. For this reason, some sources – especially older ones – spell her name "Chiang Ch'ing", while newer sources use Pinyin and spell her name "Jiang Qing". She was also known as Madame Mao. In accordance with Chinese customs in which women retain their maiden names after marriage, her surname remained unchanged in Chinese.
Jiang was born in Zhucheng, Shandong, in March 1914. She deliberately kept her exact birth date private to avoid receiving any gifts. Her father was Li Dewen, a carpenter, and her mother, whose name is unknown, was Li's subsidiary wife, or concubine. Her father had his own carpentry and cabinet making workshop. Her parents were married after her father initially found his first wife unable to conceive.
As a child, Jiang was deeply traumatised by the domestic violence inflicted by her father, who verbally and physically abused her mother almost every day. One Lantern Festival, after her father broke her mother's finger during an attack, her mother fled with Jiang under the cover of darkness. Her mother found work as a domestic servant that often blurred the lines with prostitution, and her husband separated from her.
Jiang eventually moved with her mother to her grandparents' home in Jinan. However, they soon returned to Zhucheng, as her mother continued to seek inheritance rights, or financial support, from her husband's family, which proved extremely difficult. During this period, Jiang attended two primary schools with disruptions, where she was often mocked for wearing outdated, boyish clothing from her brothers. She became silent and not easy to open up.
Her mother, having fallen ill, eventually abandoned hope of obtaining further financial support from her husband. After selling some of her belongings, she purchased a train ticket, and together with Jiang, boarded a train from Jiaoxian to Jinan. There, Jiang was welcomed by her grandparents and resumed her primary education. In 1926–1927, her mother took her further north to Tianjin to stay with her half-sister. During this time, Jiang worked as a housekeeper in the household. She proposed taking a job rolling cigarettes, but the family disapproved. Later they returned to Jinan, where her mother died in 1928.
At 14, Jiang, now an orphan, joined a local underground theatre troupe, seeking independence. Her striking looks drew attention, but she remained sensitive about her poor upbringing. Alarmed by her undisclosed departure, her grandparents paid the troupe's boss to bring her back. She enrolled in the Experimental Arts Academy, which became less picky about the social class of new entrants due to the May Fourth Movement. Despite her strong Shandong accent initially hindering her performances, she excelled during her year of training, in some traditional opera roles. When the academy closed in 1930, Jiang, though only half-trained, was chosen to join theatrical companies in Beijing. She returned to Jinan in May 1931 and married Pei Minglun, the wealthy son of a businessman, and soon divorced.
Following her divorce, Jiang reached out to Zhao Taimou, the former director of the Arts Academy and dean of Qingdao University. With the assistance of Zhao's wife, Yu Shan, Jiang secured a position as a clerk in the university library. Yu Shan later introduced Jiang to her brother, Yu Qiwei, an upper-class youth who had embraced the Communist cause and was connected to underground Communist organisations as well as literary and performing arts circles.
The Mukden Incident in September ignited her patriotism, leading her to develop a dislike for the Kuomintang and its supporters. By the end of 1932, Jiang and Yu Qiwei fell in love and began living together, enabling Jiang to gain entry into the Communist Cultural Front. She became a member of the Seaside Drama Society, performing in plays such as Lay Down Your Whip, harnessing the influence of theatre to resist Japanese aggression. In February 1933, she officially joined the CCP.
The Communist activities at Qingdao University, which was later renamed Shandong University, attracted significant attention from the Kuomintang's secret police, who arrested Yu Qiwei in July, forcing Jiang to leave Qingdao.
After the arrest of Yu Qiwei, Yu Shan arranged for Jiang to move to Shanghai. With a recommendation from Tian Han's younger brother, Tian Luan, she enrolled as a visiting student at the Great China University in Shanghai. In July, with endorsements from Tian Han and his associates, Jiang became a teacher at the Chengeng Workers' School, an institution organised by Tao Xingzhi. During this time, Yu Qiwei was released and visited her in Shanghai. In October, Jiang re-joined the Chinese Communist Youth League, became a member of the League of Left-Wing Educators, and resumed her career as a drama actress.
She performed in the Shanghai Work Study Troupe. Jiang was among the cast of a production of Roar, China! which British authorities banned from being performed in Shanghai's International Settlement.