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Jiang Qing

Chinese political figure and wife of Mao Zedong (1914–1991)

Jiang Qing, also known as Madame Mao (19 March 1914 – 14 May 1991), was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. She served as the inaugural "First Lady" of the People's Republic of China. Jiang was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the radical political alliance known as the "Gang of Four".

Sex is engaging in the first rounds. What sustains interest in the long run is political power.

Quotes

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Speech at Enlarged Meeting of the Party Military Affairs Committee (12 April 1967)

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But according to Chairman Mao, to many units this so-called noninvolvement is an illusion, they have gotten involved already. The problem is not whether they are involved or not, it is which side they are on, whether they support the revolutionary faction or they support the conservative faction or even the right wing.

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  • I am just an ordinary Communist who has worked for Chairman Mao as a secretary for many years. My work principally has concerned international problems. I am a sort of roving sentry in the field of culture and education. What I have been doing is to subscribe to some magazines and newspapers, to leaf through them, and to pick out materials which I think noteworthy, including positive and negative materials. I finally submit them to Chairman Mao for reference. Generally speaking, my work has been carried out in this way for many years.
  • Comrades, we have nothing to be ashamed of in regards to the past Cultural Revolution. Some people have mentioned that they didn't want to get involved. But according to Chairman Mao, to many units this so-called noninvolvement is an illusion, they have gotten involved already. The problem is not whether they are involved or not, it is which side they are on, whether they support the revolutionary faction or they support the conservative faction or even the right wing. In fact, some get involved from the left side, others from the right wing.
  • Moreover, I wish to remind our comrades of the importance of the cultural and educational front. As far as this problem is concerned, our past knowledge was insufficient. We placed all the questionable and not especially capable cadres in positions of the cultural and educational front, which does not include the millions of intelligentsia we have absorbed. Consequently, there was a proliferation of bourgeois and feudal materials. We weren't quite aware of the situation then, nor were we aware of its awesome effects.
  • For the past 17 years, there have been some good or comparatively good literary works which reflect the life of workers, peasants, and soldiers. Most literary works however, can be classified either as famous works, foreign works, or classics, which present a distorted image of the workers, peasants, and soldiers. In regards to education, almost all were of that kind. In addition to that, they added some views of Soviet revisionists. Thus we nurtured some youthful but old-fashioned artists in our literary and art circles.
  • Finally, I want to briefly talk about the education of our children. We should not treat our children as our private property; we must treat them as the wealth of the people, the descendants of the people. If one treasures one's own children as the treasures of heaven, he inevitably ignores children of other people, the children of the working class, and views them as if they were nothing. This is very wrong. People with such an attitude are only a minority; the majority of the people are not like that.

Talk at the Peking Forum on Literature and Art (9 and 12 November 1967)

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To carry on the great revolutionary alliance, all organizations should conduct more self-criticisms, and conduct more investigations and studies and self-criticisms in one's own organization.

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  • I feel very sorry that for a very long time I have not had hearings of opinions of comrades. I can well understand it if comrades should have some opinion against us; for comrades know about our conditions.
  • The establishment of troops in the cultural circles has this problem: the class element is relatively complicated. But, while a person cannot decide his own origin, his performance and attitude still count.
  • To carry on the great revolutionary alliance, all organizations should conduct more self-criticisms, and conduct more investigations and studies and self-criticisms in one's own organization. This would facilitate the alliance. Otherwise, the enemy can easily exploit our weaknesses.
  • We should be steady, accurate and harsh — towards our enemy; towards ourselves we should not wage civil war all the time, nor should we wage civil war all the time against our friends. If we engage in civil war, we are apt to be exploited by the enemy; sometimes the enemy manipulates behind the scenes so that wage civil war, then he takes the opportunity to sneak away. You should recognize this trick.
  • There is a question of popularization versus elevation. Some one just said that we should organize small detachments and send them down to produce fragments and minor items for the viewing of workers, peasants and soldiers. This of course can be done. But, the central task now is still to combat self-interest and repudiate revisionism, and to organize the revolutionary troops.

Speech at the Reception for the Representatives of the Beijing Workers Propaganda Team and the People's Liberation Army Propaganda Team (14 September 1968)

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I am an ordinary Communist, a little pupil of Chairman Mao, and a little pupil of the broad masses. I have to learn from my dear comrades.

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  • I am an ordinary Communist, a little pupil of Chairman Mao, and a little pupil of the broad masses. I have to learn from my dear comrades.
  • Comrades, to do some good for the people is the duty of a Communist. If one has done something wrong, one must sincerely correct one's mistakes. If something has been achieved, the achievement should be attributed to our great leader Chairman Mao, the Party Central, the Central Cultural Revolution Group, the broad masses of the revolutionary people, and the Red Guard little generals.
  • I am only a small screw. The working class has stepped onto the stage of struggle-criticism-transformation of the superstructure. In fact, the working class had already stepped onto the political stage in 1964 on the literary line. This was an epoch-making achievement in the international Communist movement as well as a tremendous contribution of our great leader Chairman Mao to Marxist-Leninism.
  • Because of the nature of my work and because I was suffering from a grave ailment, my doctors advised me to take part in cultural activities to improve the balance of my sense of hearing and sense of sight. Thus, I came into contact with some literature and art.
  • For many years, Chairman Mao has repeatedly instructed us. We should unite with the absolute majority, with the more than 95 percent of the people of the whole country. After the editor's note of the September 5 issue, our comrades should think about this question. After distinguishing right from wrong, we should consolidate more than 95 percent of the working class. The working class also fights! Do not think that you do not fight! You have fought enough, and have worked out the great alliance and revolutionary three-in-one combination before you moved into the schools. Otherwise, you would still have to fight. Consolidate over 95 percent of the poor and lower-middle peasants; consolidate over 95 percent of armed forces—the P.L.A.

Quotes about Jiang Qing

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  • More significant than developments in the Middle East, the death of Mao Zedong in September 1976 was not followed by any abandonment of China’s American alignment. As so often during the Cold War, rivalries within Communist parties played a major role in international developments. The attempt by the radical ‘Gang of Four’, including Mao’s widow, to gain power was thwarted by Hua Guofeng, the Premier, who became Chairman of the Central Committee. He, in turn, became less powerful as his rival, Deng Xiaoping, rose. Deng had been dismissed as Vice-Premier of the State Council earlier in 1976 as a result of the influence of the Gang of Four. Deng was reinstated in July 1977 and, while supporting control by the Communist Party, outmanoeuvred the more ideological Hua by emphasising pragmatism. Deng’s leadership was confirmed in December 1978 at the Third Plenum of the 11th CCP Congress. He remained in power until 1997.
  • The 20th century produced a communist equivalent of the figure of Empress Wu, in the form of Jiang Qing, a.k.a. ‘Madame Mao’, ambitious, ruthless and dogmatic. An only child and the daughter of a concubine, Jiang became an actress after leaving university, acquiring an enduring belief in the importance of the arts. In the late 1930s, however, she met Mao Zedong, future founder of the People’s Republic of China, after joining the Communist side in China’s civil war, becoming his fourth and final wife in 1939 (see page 264). Since Mao was still married at the time, she had to keep a low profile for many years.
  • In 1966, however, Mao appointed her deputy director of the Cultural Revolution, a vast revolutionary terror, in partnership with Zhang Chungiao (a one-time journalist), Yao Wenyuan (a literary critic) and Wang Hongwen (a former security guard) — the so-called Gang of Four. She zealously directed the repression, manipulated by Mao. Her call for radical forms of expression, instilled with 'ideologically correct' subject matter, escalated into an all-out assault on the existing artistic and intellectual elites. Renowned for her inflammatory rhetoric, she manipulated mass communication techniques to whip young Revolutionary Guards into a frenzy before sending them out to attack — verbally and physically — anything 'bourgeois' or 'reactionary'. In an orgy of denunciation, terror and murder, the Communist Party, including moderates like President Liu Shaogqi and General Secretary Deng Xiaoping, was purged, The real victims were ordinary citizens — around three million of whom were killed white countless others were imprisoned or brutalized.
  • Though Mao hated her, Jiang remained powerful. On his death in 1976, his successor Deng ended her ascendancy and arrested Madame Mao in a palace coup. In 1981 Jiang was found guilty of 'counter-revolutionary' crimes. Her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment but she committed suicide in 1991. A hated figure, she was described by one biographer as a 'vicious woman who helped dispose of many people'; the 'white-boned demon' who, in her own words (when on trial), was 'Chairman Mao’s dog. Whomever he asked me to bite, I bit.'
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