Early life of Mao Zedong

The early life of Chinese revolutionary and politician Mao Zedong covered the first 27 years of his life, from 1893 to 1919. Born in Shaoshanchong, Shaoshan in Hunan province, Mao grew up as the son of Mao Yichang, a wealthy farmer and landowner. Sent to the local Shaoshan Primary School, Mao was brought up in an environment of Confucianism, but reacted against this from an early age, developing political ideas from pro-western literature. Aged 13 his father organised a marriage for him with Luo Yigu, the daughter of another land-owning family, but Mao denounced the marriage and moved away from home.

In 1911 Mao began further education in the Hunanese capital of Changsha, where he came under the influence of republicanism, and became an admirer of republican revolutionary Sun Yat-Sen. When the Xinhai Revolution broke out between republicans and monarchists, Mao signed up as a soldier, although conflict subsided and he left the army after six months. Seeing himself as an intellectual, he became heavily influenced by classical liberalism, and began studying at the First Normal School of Changsha, as well as penning his first publications. With Xiao Yu he co-founded the Renovation of the People Study Society in April 1918 to discuss and perpetuate revolutionary ideas among students, before graduating in June 1919.

Childhood: 1893–1911
Mao was born on December 26, 1893 in the rural village of Shaoshanchong in Shaoshan, Hunan Province. His father, Mao Yichang, had been born a poverty-stricken peasant, and had gained two years of education before joining the 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. Zedong described his father as a stern disciplinarian, punishing his four children—the boys Zedong, Zemin and Zetan, and an adopted girl, Zejian—for perceived wrongdoings, sometimes by beating them. His wife, Wen Qimei, was a devout Buddhist who tried to temper her husband's strict attitude. Zedong became a Buddhist, venerating a bronze statue of the Buddha, but abandoned this faith in his mid-teenage years. His father was largely irreligious, although after surviving an encounter with a tiger, gave offerings to the gods in thanks. The family lived with Yichang's father, Mao Enpu, who died when Zedong was ten.

Mao's father recognised the financial value of a basic education, sending the 8-year-old Mao to the local Shaoshan Primary School. Learning the value systems of Confucianism, one of the dominant moral ideologies in China, Mao later admitted that he didn't enjoy the classical Chinese texts preaching Confucian morals, instead favouring popular novels like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. Reacting against his Confucian upbringing, aged 11 Mao ran away from home, heading for what he believed was a nearby town, but his father found him and brought him home.

At the age of 13, Mao finished primary education, and his father had him married to the 17-year-old Luo Yigu, uniting their land-owning families. Never living together, Mao refused to recognise her as his wife, becoming a fierce critic of arranged marriage and temporarily moving away to live with an unemployed student. Luo was locally disgraced and eventually died in 1910. Working on his father's farm, Mao read voraciously in his spare time, developing a "political consciousness" from Zheng Guanying's Sheng-shih Wei-yen (Words of Warning to an Affluent Age), a booklet which lamented the deterioration of Chinese power in East Asia, arguing for technological, economic and political reform, modelling China on the representative democracies of the western world. Influenced by Great Heroes of the World, Mao was inspired by the military prowess and nationalistic fervour of American George Washington and Frenchman Napoleon Bonaparte.

His political views were shaped by Gelaohui-led protests which erupted following a famine in Hunanese capital Changsha; Mao supported the protester's demands, but the armed forces suppressed the dissenters and executed their leaders. The famine spread to Shaoshan, where starving peasants seized his father's grain; disapproving of their actions as morally wrong, Mao nevertheless claimed sympathy for their situation. Aged 16, Mao moved to a higher primary school in nearby Dongshan. Here, he was taught alongside younger students of a higher social standing, and was bullied for his scruffy appearance and peasant background.

The Xinhai Revolution: 1911–1912
In 1911, Mao convinced his father to allow him to attend middle school in Changsha. The city was "a revolutionary hotbed", with widespread animosity towards the absolute monarchy of Emperor Puyi. While some advocated a reformist transition to a constitutional monarchy, most revolutionaries advocated republicanism, arguing for an elected presidency. The primary figurehead behind the republican movement was Sun Yat-sen, an American-educated Christian who led a secret society known as the Tongmenghui. At Changsha, Mao came under the influence of Sun's newspaper, The People's Independence (Minli bao), penning his first political essay, which he stuck to the school wall; later admitting it was "somewhat muddled", it involved the creation of a republic governed by Sun, but with concessions made to the moderates by having Kang Youwei as premier and Liang Qichao as minister of foreign affairs. As a symbol of rebellion against the Manchu monarch, he and a friend cut off their queue pigtails—a sign of subservience to the emperor—before forcibly cutting off those of several classmates.

Inspired by Sun's republicanism, the army rose up against the emperor across southern China, sparking the Xinhai Revolution. Changsha initially remained under monarchist control, with the governor proclaiming martial law to quell protest. When the infantry brigade guarding the city defected to the revolution, the governor fled, leaving the city in republican hands. Supporting the revolution, Mao joined the rebel army as a private soldier, but was not involved in the fighting. The northern provinces remained loyal to the emperor, and hoping to avoid a civil war, Sun Yat-sen—proclaimed "provisional president" by his supporters—compromised with the monarchist general Yuan Shikai. The monarchy would be abolished, creating the Republic of China, but the monarchist Yuan would become president. The Xinhai Revolution over, Mao resigned from the army in 1912, after six months of being a soldier. Around this time, Mao discovered socialism from a newspaper article; proceeding to read pamphlets by Jiang Kanghu, the student founder of the Chinese Socialist Party, Mao remained interested yet unconvinced by the idea.

Fourth Normal School of Changsha: 1912–1917
Returning to education, Mao enrolled and dropped out of a police academy, a soap-production school, a law school and an economics school. His father only approved of the latter, but the lectures were in English, which Mao didn't understand, and so Mao abandoned it for the government-run Changsha Middle School; he soon dropped out of this too, finding it rooted in Confucianism. Undertaking his studies independently, he spent much time in the Changsha public library, reading core works of classical liberalism such as Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws, as well as the works of western scientists and philosophers such as Charles Darwin, J.S. Mill, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Herbert Spencer. Viewing himself as an intellectual, years later he admitted that at this time he thought himself better than working people. Inspired by the work of Friedrich Paulsen, the liberal emphasis on individualism led Mao to believe that strong individuals were not bound by moral codes but should strive for the greater good; that the end justifies the means. Seeing no use in his son's intellectual pursuits, Mao's father cut off his allowance, forcing Mao to move into a hostel for the destitute.

Desiring to become a teacher, Mao enrolled at a teacher training college, the Fourth Normal School of Changsha, which had high standards, yet low fees and cheap accommodation. Several months later, it merged with the First Normal School of Changsha, widely seen as the best school in Hunan. Befriending Mao, Professor of Ethics Yang Changji urged him to read a radical newspaper, New Youth (Xin qingnian), the creation of his friend Chen Duxiu, Dean of the Faculty of Letters at Peking University. Although a Chinese nationalist, Chen argued that China must look to the west, adopting "Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science" in order to cleanse itself of superstition and autocracy. Mao published his first article, "A Study of Physical Culture", in New Youth in April 1917, instructing readers to increase their physical strength to serve the revolution. He joined The Society for the Study of Wang Fuzhi (Chuan-shan Hsüeh-she), a revolutionary group founded by Changsha literati who wished to emulate Wang Fuzhi, a philosopher who symbolized Han resistance to Manchu invasion.

In his first school year, Mao befriended an older student, Xiao Yu; together they went on a walking tour of Hunan, begging and writing literary couplets to obtain food. A popular student, Mao remained active in school politics, and in 1915 was elected secretary of the Students Society. He used his position to forge an Association for Student Self-Government, leading protests against school rules. In spring 1917, he was elected to command the students' volunteer army, set up to defend the school from marauding warlord soldiers, arming these troops with makeshift bamboo spears and wooden rifles. Increasingly interested in the techniques of war, he took a keen interest in the events of World War I, but also began to develop a sense of solidarity with workers. Mao undertook feats of physical endurance with Xiao Yu and Cai Hesen, describing themselves as the "Three Heroes," a sobriquet taken from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. With other young revolutionaries they formed the Renovation of the People Study Society in April 1918 to debate Chen Duxiu's ideas. Desiring personal and societal transformation, the Society gained between 70 and 80 members, including some females, many of whom would go on to join the Communist Party. Mao graduated in June 1919, being ranked third in the year.