Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing (; also spelled as Chiang Ch'ing Therefore, Jiang Qing also called herself Li Jin. Several other sources indicate her birth name Li Shumeng, which means "pure and simple." Although the name had no particular meaning, its bluntness made it unique. However, Jiang Qing did not favour this name due to its association with her scandals in Shanghai. She became known as Jiang Qing 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.

English names

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, as the wife and widow of Mao Zedong. In accordance with Chinese customs in which women retain their maiden names after marriage, her surname remained unchanged in Chinese. 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 During this period, Jiang attended two primary schools with disruptions, where she was often mocked for wearing outdated, boyish clothing from her brothers.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.

Entertainment career

Jinan

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.thumb|Jiang Qing in Qingdao in 1931

Qingdao

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.

Shanghai

thumb|Jiang in a 1935 [[film poster]]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.

In September 1934, Jiang was arrested and jailed for her political activities in Shanghai. She was released three months later, in December. She later became an actress in Goddess of Freedom and Scenes of City Life, during which she fell in love with Tang Na, her colleague at Diantong. The two began living together in September 1935. Jiang nevertheless left him for Tianjin to meet Yu Qiwei, telling Tang that her late mother "had fallen ill in Jinan." When Tang discovered the truth, he attempted suicide in Jinan but later reconciled with Jiang and returned with her to Shanghai in July 1935. Later they were married in a collective wedding ceremony at Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou in April 1936. Like many youths of her time, she was drawn to the progressive ideals associated with Yan'an. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, which marked the start of Japan's full-scale invasion of China, further galvanised young activists to advocate for a united front. Yan'an, promoted through Communist propaganda, emerged as a symbol of democracy, freedom, and hope. In 1951, Jiang Qing was given a minor position of Film Bureau Chief. After her appointment, Jiang engaged in three attempts in establishing the standard for socialist art. Jiang's first attempt was her advice to ban the 1950 Hong Kong movie Sorrows of the Forbidden City, of which Jiang believed to be unpatriotic. Her opinion was not taken seriously by the communist leadership due to the minor political influence of her office and the movie was distributed in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Mao intervened to support her.

Later that year, Jiang critiqued and objected to the distribution of the movie The Life of Wu Xun for glorifying the wealthy landed class while dismissing the peasantry. Again, Jiang's opinion was dismissed. Mao had to intervene to support her again. In 1957, Jiang recovered from cervical cancer, though she believed she was still unwell, contrary to her doctors’ assessment of her good health. Therefore, they recommended that she engage in therapeutic activities such as watching films, listening to music, and attending theatre and concerts.

Cover-up

During the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, Zhao Yaoshan, the Zhongtong agent who interrogated Jiang during her arrest in the 1930s, was executed.

After Jiang's return to China from the Soviet Union in 1962, she frequently attended local opera performances. In 1963, Jiang Qing enlisted A Jia to help modernise Beijing Opera with revolutionary socialist themes. She later instructed the Beijing Municipal Opera Company to create Shajiabang, depicting the struggle between the Kuomintang and Communists during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and tasked the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company with producing Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. The group studied writings by Mao, watched films and plays, and met with the cast and crew of an in-progress film production. The forum concluded that a "black line" of bourgeois thought dominated the arts since the PRC's founding. According to this interpretation, the history of socialist culture was a class struggle between reactionary and proletarian lines, and a large majority of writers failed to resist bourgeois ideological influence.

Revolutionary operas

thumb|Jiang Qing (in the centre) watching [[Red Detachment of Women (ballet)|The Red Detachment of Women with President and Mrs Nixon and others]]

In 1967 Jiang declared eight works of performance art to be the new models for proletarian literature and art. These "model operas", or "revolutionary operas", were designed to glorify Mao Zedong, The People's Liberation Army, and the revolutionary struggles. The ballets White-Haired Girl, Red Detachment of Women, and Shajiabang were included in the list of eight, and were closely associated with Jiang, because of their inclusion of elements from Chinese and Western opera, dance, and music.

The Red Guards condemned Yu Huiyong to be a "bad element" for propagating feudalism through his utilisation of traditional Chinese music in operas. Yu was also tagged as "a democrat hiding under the banner of the Communist Party" due to his frequent absences in party meetings. In 1966, Yu was subsequently sent to a Cow Shed, a small room where the "bad elements" were confined. In October 1966, Yu was released after Jiang requested a meeting with Yu to stage the production of two operas in Beijing. Jiang seated Yu next to her, as a display of Yu's importance in the making of yangbanxi, during the showing of Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.

Fashion designs

In 1974, Jiang Qing directed the Ministry of Culture to design a new dress for Chinese women, inspired by elements of women's clothing from the Song dynasty. The dress was called the Jiang Qing Dress. The dress featured a symmetrical V-neckline, differing slightly from the traditional Y-shaped neckline of Hanfu. Mockingly dubbed the "Nun's Robe," Jiang intended for female cadres to lead the way in wearing it, with the eventual goal of making it a nationwide standard.

Political activism

During this period, Mao galvanised students and young workers as his paramilitary organisation the Red Guards to attack what he termed as revisionists in the party. Mao told them the revolution was in danger and that they must do all they could to stop the emergence of a privileged class in China. He argued this is what had happened in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev. With time, Jiang began playing an increasingly active political role in the movement. She took part in most important Party and government activities. Jiang took advantage of the Cultural Revolution to wreak vengeance on her personal enemies, including people who had slighted her during her acting career in the 1930s. She was supported by a radical coterie, dubbed, by Mao himself, the Gang of Four. She became a prominent member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and a major player in Chinese politics from 1966 to 1976. left|thumb|[[Lin Biao with Jiang Qing in Tiananmen in 1966]]

thumb|Jiang during the [[Cultural Revolution]]On 13 December 1966, Liu Shaoqi voluntarily offered to resign from his positions as President. He proposed moving with his wife and children to Yan'an or his hometown in Hunan to take up farming, hoping to bring the Cultural Revolution to an early conclusion and minimise the damage to the country. On 18 December, Zhang Chunqiao, deputy head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, summoned Kuai Dafu, a leader of the Red Guards at Tsinghua University, and instructed him to launch a campaign to overthrow Liu Shaoqi. On 25 December, Kuai Dafu led thousands of demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, where they publicly chanted the slogan "Down with Liu Shaoqi."

The Central Cultural Revolution Group was initially a small body under the Standing Committee of the Politburo. Jiang had come to view the popular tunes as akin to yellow music. When traditional landscape and bird-and-flower paintings re-emerged in the early 1970s, Jiang criticised these traditional forms as "black paintings", which in fact targeted Zhou Enlai.

1971–1973

Jiang first collaborated with then second-in-charge Lin Biao, but after Lin Biao's death in 1971, she turned against him publicly in the Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius Campaign. After the September 13 Incident in 1971, Jiang Qing saw the collapse of the Lin Biao faction and, with Mao Zedong's declining health, she became eager to seize the highest power in the country. In 1972, Jiang Qing enlisted American scholar Roxane Witke to write her autobiography. After 1972, Mao's health deteriorated. Though Mao was largely cut off from the outside world due to his illness, Zhu De sent Mao a letter informing him about Jiang Qing's biography. This revelation deeply angered Mao, who, in a fit of rage, even expressed his desire to expel Jiang Qing from the Politburo and sever their political ties.

In 1974, Jiang visited the Twentieth Army as part of her effort to propagate the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius campaign. Jiang's visit lacked approval from the Politburo Standing Committee or the Central Military Commission and was viewed as a violation of non-fraternization policies.

On 12 December, Mao reaffirmed his support for Deng by proposing his appointment as a member of both the Military Commission and the Politburo—a suggestion that gained majority approval from Politburo members. Yet, the Chinese public became intensely discontented at politics and chose to blame Jiang, a more accessible and easier target than Mao.

Many Chinese instinctively believe that it was Jiang Qing who ordered the removal of the wreaths dedicated to Zhou Enlai from Tiananmen Square. In response, slogans appeared, such as "Down with the Empress Dowager, down with Indira Gandhi." Another individual placed a wreath in honour of Mao's revered second wife, Yang Kaihui, who had been executed by Chiang Kai-shek in 1930. Jiang Qing was often referred to obliquely as "that woman" or "three drops of water," a reference to part of the Chinese character for her name. The protests eventually evolved into a riot, with cars ignited by angry protesters and militia intervention.

Coup d'état

On 5 September 1976, Jiang Qing was informed of the critical illness of Mao Zedong and soon returned to Beijing. On the evening of 8 September, she drove to Xinhua News Agency trying to find supporters, and returned to Zhongnanhai late in night, where high-rank Chinese officials and Mao's family members were present. Jiang could not fall asleep. She needed to confront two other factions within the party, Hua Guofeng, who had already received a note from Mao saying, "With you in charge, I am at ease", and Deng Xiaoping, who was being attacked by Jiang. She approached Hua secretly, proposing to expel Deng in the Politburo meeting before Mao's death, but she did not succeed.

Mao died on 9 September. The funeral services were hosted by Wang Hongwen, with a million people assembled at Tiananmen Square to mourn his death. Jiang sent a large wreath of chrysanthemums and greenery, as his student and comrade, rather than his widow. Hua was the designated successor of Mao and soon became the party chief and became embroiled in a power struggle with the Gang of Four. Jiang went to Baoding to rally the 38th Army, preparing to replace Hua as a party chief. In response, both Ye Jianying, one of Deng's allies, and Hua mobilised their military forces in Beijing and Guangzhou. Xu Shiyou warned a north expedition from Guangzhou, if Jiang had not been arrested in Beijing. In 4–5 October, Hua continued to negotiate with Jiang's allies on the personnel arrangement and agreed to continue the talk the following day.

On 6 October, Zhang Chunqiao and Wang Hongwen were arrested when they arrived at Zhongnanhai. Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan were arrested at their homes. Hua, supported by the military and state security, had Jiang and the rest of the Gang arrested and removed from their party positions. According to Zhang Yaoci, who carried out the arrest, Jiang did not say much when she was arrested. It was reported that one of her servants spat at her as she was being taken away under a flurry of blows by onlookers and police.

In May 1975, Mao Zedong once criticised the Gang of Four for leaning too heavily on empiricism. However, he downplayed the severity of their issue, stating that it was not a significant problem but needed to be addressed. Mao remarked,

The remark served as a justification for Hua Guofeng to arrest the Gang of Four. At the time of her arrest, the country lacked the proper institutions for a legal trial. She was tried with the other three members of the Gang of Four and six associates.

Her defence strategy was marked by attempts to transcend the court room and appeal to history and the logic of revolution. Jiang was reportedly treated well during her sentence. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1983.

In 1984, Jiang was granted medical parole and relocated to a discreet residence arranged by the authorities. In December 1988, on the occasion of Mao Zedong's 95th birth anniversary, Jiang requested approval to hold a family gathering, but her petition was denied. Distressed, she attempted suicide by ingesting 50 sleeping pills she had secretly saved. The attempt failed. She was later sent back to Qincheng Prison in 1989 when her medical parole concluded.

However, He Diankui, a former staff of Qincheng Prison, later claimed that "Jiang Qing never left Qincheng Prison until her death." He suggested that she died in the prison from taking sleeping pills, which refuted the official report regarding her death.

Burial

While imprisoned, Jiang Qing expressed in her will a desire to be buried in her hometown of Zhucheng, Shandong. In 1996, Yan Changgui, Jiang Qing's former secretary, visited Zhucheng, where the city's Party Secretary asked him to convey to Li Na that Jiang Qing could be buried there, pending her consent. However, after the 16th National Congress of the CCP, Jiang Zemin suggested to Li Na that Zhucheng might not be a secure burial site. Instead, Li Na inquired about the possibility of burial in Beijing, which Jiang Zemin approved. Li Na arranged the burial at her own expense. In March 2002, Jiang Qing's ashes were interred at the Futian Cemetery in Beijing's Western Hills scenic area. The tombstone reads: "The Grave of Mother Li Yunhe, 1914–1991, respectfully erected by her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson."

Legacy

Public image

Jiang Qing was never a widely admired figure throughout her life. Her marriage to Mao in the 1930s scandalised many of the more puritanical comrades in Yan'an. During the Cultural Revolution, she did little to win the favour of other Chinese leaders.

According to Roxane Witke, Jiang's early life was marked by poverty, hunger, and violence, and later, as a woman in a male-dominated world, she faced numerous challenges. These experiences shaped her defensive and aggressive personality, fostering an opportunism that persisted even when she no longer needed to assert herself.

The 1980 Gang of Four trial solidified Jiang's image as a manipulative and villainous figure. The indictment held the Gang responsible for the violence of the Cultural Revolution, accusing Jiang of using political purges for personal vendettas and fostering large-scale chaos. Widely broadcast both within and outside China, the trial reinforced a clear dichotomy: Jiang as a symbol of the past's chaos, and Deng Xiaoping's administration as the harbinger of order and progress. This narrative was consistent with the CCP's Resolution on History, which sought to redefine Mao Zedong's legacy. While Mao was criticised for "errors," he was not held directly accountable for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Instead, full blame was shifted to Jiang and the Gang of Four, allowing Mao Zedong Thought to remain ideologically valid under Deng's reforms. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was frequently likened to Jiang Qing due to the nature of her crimes. In 2024, Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Peng Liyuan's influence over key personnel decisions within the CCP. The report highlighted her backing of Dong Jun's appointment as Minister of Defence and Li Ganjie's selection as head of the CCP Organisation Department. Dong and Li were both from Shandong, where Peng was born. The report drew parallels between Xi Jinping's leadership in his later years and Mao Zedong's, likening Peng to Jiang Qing.

Memorials

Jiang Qing's grave remained undisclosed to the public until early 2009. Each year during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, flower baskets are placed at Jiang's tomb. In 2015, leftist activists attempting to pay their respects faced resistance from dozens of security guards, with several taken to Pingguoyuan Police Station for interrogation. Frustrated Maoist supporters questioned why publicly honouring Chiang Kai-shek was permitted while commemorating Jiang Qing was not, asking if the Republic of China had somehow reclaimed the mainland. Since 2018, such commemorations have proceeded without police interference. On 14 May 2021, leftist activists held a panel discussion on "the Role of Li Jin in the History of the Party", which Li Na reportedly attended. Since 2021, as large numbers of visitors continued to honour Jiang Qing, international media noted that authorities allowed leftist groups to commemorate her while prohibiting public mourning for Zhao Ziyang. Following this, the authorities banned public mourning for her at her gravesite, with surveillance cameras and security guards constantly monitoring the situation. Jiang Qing was able to imitate Mao Zedong's handwriting. Her calligraphy was so similar to Mao's that some of her works were even displayed as Mao Zedong's manuscripts

Since 1961, Jiang Qing, under the pen names Li Yunhe and Li Jin, had multiple landscape photographs selected for four consecutive National Photography Exhibitions. She became one of the photographers with the most works featured in each exhibition. In terms of lighting techniques, Jiang favoured backlighting and side-backlighting. Her visual style, which emphasised grandeur and completeness, had a significant influence on the photography community in mainland China.

In popular culture

Fiction

Jiang Qing and Her Husbands, a 1990 Chinese historical play written by Sha Yexin

|Zhang Erdan

|The Liberation

|Yan Xuejing

|Australia

|Mao's Last Dance

|Yue Xiuqing

|2013

|China

|Mao Zedong

|Sun Jia

Notes

Explanatory notes

Translation notes

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Feature on Madame Mao by the International Museum of Women (archived 9 December 2008)
Jiang Qing's tomb (archived 31 August 2009)
Hudong.com, Jian Qing , 84-minute documentary film (on-line, in Chinese)
Jiang, Qing 1914- 1991, Wilson Center Digital Archive
The MacNeil/Lehrer Report – "Madame Mao" (October 21, 1976) at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting