Familial Proliferation and Political Viscounty
Lineage Research On Mao Zedong’s Descendants
Abstract:
The paper aims to depict a holistic flow chart for Mao Zedong’s male descendants by integrating the new materials and previous researches ranging from Mao Zedong to his great-grandson, Mao Dongdong, as a holistic picture. Mao’s first two wives gave birth in a time of hardship due to battles against KMT and thus most of the children were missing or died. Mao’s first son, Anying perished of cooking food that attracted UN bomber. His death not only drove Mao to despair of having descendants, but also caused the purge of General Peng Dehuai as an underlying cause at Lushan Conference in 1959. Moreover, Anying’s death precluded the possibility of hereditary monarchy ruled by Mao’s descendants in Post-Mao China. It altered China’s history to a great extent. Mao’s sole remaining son, Anqing, was beaten into mental illness by a communist’s ex-wife in 1930s. Anqing’s family endeavored to proliferate by all means, not only for the sake of continuing Mao’s family line, but also preserving their political viscounty after Mao’s death. Mao Xinyu, the sole grandson of Mao, was given birth by artificial insemination with the rumor of mental retardation centering on him. His promotion in the Army and status in political system are the evidence of political viscounty bringing by an existence of male descendants in Mao’s family line. This was why Mao’s family made effort on familial proliferation and machinated Mao Dongdong’s intended caesarean birth corresponding with Mao Zedong’s birthday. However, compared with descendants of other founding fathers of the PRC who control over high-level political, military or business positions and snatch personal benefits in China nowadays, Mao’s descendants were one of the harmless and piteous princelings. Associated with Mao’s previous supreme power, this is a historical sarcasm.
Key words:
Mao Zedong, Anying, Anqing, Xinyu, Descendants
“The initiator of evil won’t have male offspring to continue the family line (始作俑者，其无后乎). Am I destined to have no male offspring? According to Chinese tradition, only male descendants are deemed as offspring, the female don’t count. I have two sons; one is killed in the Korean War, the other is a madman. I believe I have no offspring.” (Li, 1992: 172)
Mao Zedong, the top leader of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said this at the Lushan Conference taking place on July 23, 1959. “The initiator of evil won’t have male offspring to continue the family line (始作俑者，其无后乎)” comes from Mencius written around 2500 years ago. Its original connotation is that the person whose job is making tomb figure will have no descendants1. Later, the meaning extends to a present one. Even though Mao thought he was sine prole superstite, we do know that in 1949 when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) founded, Mao had 2 sons and 2 daughters alive. But one year later, his first son died in the Korean War. The other son Anqing suffered from schizophrenia. Nevertheless, as per Chinese tradition, his family lineage declined.
By reviewing the literatures in reference to Mao’s male descendants, I find few formal publications cover the history of post-Mao’s death. Moreover, a salient absence is the latest disclosed materials on detailed plots, such as Mao Anying’s perish of cooking food that attracted UN bomber, a communist’s ex-wife beat Mao Anqing into metal illness instead of KMT police, Mao Xinyu’s birth resulting from artificial insemination, Mao Dongdong’s intended caesarean birth corresponding with Mao Zedong’s birthday, to name but a few. These new materials are found in a variety of recent news reports, TV programs, magazines, memoir, or Internet forums, formally or informally contributed by relatives of Mao’s family, senior communist officials, and columnists.
The paper aims to depict a holistic flow chart for Mao Zedong’s male descendants by integrating the new materials and
