Chairman Mao and He Zizhen gave birth to six children that year, but unfortunately the revolutionary environment was very tense at that time, and the Kuomintang people have been arresting Chairman Mao and He Zizhen, so most of He Zizhen's children have passed away, and only his daughter Li Min has remained with her parents.
Unfortunately, not long after she was born, her mother was sent to the Soviet Union due to illness, and it was not until she was four years old that she went to the Soviet Union to reunite with her mother.
This experience in childhood made Li Min value family affection, and when she grew up, she has always been by her parents' side, sharing worries for her parents, and interpreting filial piety in her own way.
In 1972, Li Min found herself pregnant again, because the state financial situation at that time was very bad, everyone's life was very difficult, and she had already given birth to a child, so she was also very entangled in the question of whether to have children.
After hesitating, Li Min told his father about this matter and asked for his opinion, and after Chairman Mao learned of this matter, he immediately replied to his daughter, saying, "We must give birth to this child, no matter how difficult life is, we must have a child, and the child has not done anything wrong." Under the encouragement of Chairman Mao, Li Minshi was pregnant and gave birth to this lovely girl.
What made the family feel happy was that Li Min's daughter actually had a mole on her chin like Chairman Mao's, and Li Min was very happy after seeing her daughter's appearance, and quickly took a photo and sent it to her father, asking him to name the child.
When he saw the child in the photo, Chairman Mao's heart could not stop rejoicing, and he decided to give her the word "Dong" in his name.
What is the story between Chairman Mao and his daughter Li Min? What kind of name did he give his granddaughter?
The revolutionary environment is complex
Li Min's mother, He Zizhen, was a woman with extremely high ideological consciousness, and at that time the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was very sharp, He Zizhen's brother He Minxue and others all joined the Communist Party, and under the influence of his brother, the young He Zizhen also joined the revolutionary ranks and went up Jinggangshan with his comrades-in-arms.
In 1927, He Zizhen and Chairman Mao first met in Jinggangshan, as soon as the two met, this short-haired and capable girl left a deep impression on Chairman Mao's heart, and after a period of getting along, Chairman Mao also faced his own heart, confessed to He Zizhen, and came together with her.
The period from 1927 to 1937 was a decade in which Chairman Mao and He Zizhen fought each other, and this decade also happened to be the most turbulent decade in Chinese society.
In the past ten years, the two have experienced the Long March of the Red Army and the White Terror together, and the friendship between them is incomparable to ordinary people.
Before and after the Long March and during the journey, He Zizhen gave birth to a total of six children for Chairman Mao, but unfortunately, the environment at that time was really too bad, and the Kuomintang people had been hunting down Communist Party members, so these children born to He Zizhen basically did not stay.
Every time He Zizhen gave birth to a child, he had to tearfully send it to the local people to raise, and only He Zizhen himself knew how uncomfortable the pain of being separated from his own flesh and blood was.
Once, He Zizhen, who was pregnant, was found by the enemy in the vast snow, and she was about to be in the basin, but in order to avoid the pursuit of the soldiers behind, she still endured severe pain and ran on the snow.
Fortunately, she found a thatched hut and escaped the pursuit of the soldiers, and in such a difficult situation, He Zizhen gave birth to a girl.
He Zizhen knew that this child could not live well with her, so she left 30 silver dollars, two handfuls of tobacco soil and a note that said, "This child will be placed in your home after that, live with you, he can do some work for your family when he grows up" to the villagers, and after doing all this, she waved goodbye to the child.
Of the six children he gave birth to, only Li Min was fortunate to stay with her parents.
Later, He Zizhen was sent to the Soviet Union to study and see a doctor, and in order to alleviate He Zizhen's longing for his homeland, Chairman Mao sent his daughter Li Min to her side.
At that time, the Soviet Union was fighting wars everywhere, and the lives of He Zizhen, Li Min, and Mao Anqing were also very difficult.
It was not until the summer of 1949 that Li Min went to Beiping and returned to her father, although Li Min had been living abroad and had never met Chairman Mao in those years, but she often read his father's pictures in the pictorial newspaper.
After seeing his father, Li Min was very happy, and directly pounced on his father, looking at his daughter who had not been seen for many years, Chairman Mao was also very happy in his heart, and called Li Min's little name Jiaojiao.
What a joy to give birth to a child
Although Chairman Mao had a lot of official affairs to be busy with at that time, he still paid close attention to his daughter's study and life, and in order to cultivate Li Min's good moral character, Chairman Mao often instructed the people around him that they must not engage in special things and must act in accordance with the rules.
When recalling this past, Li Min said that during that time, his father had been educating himself that he must have more contact with ordinary people's children.
Chairman Mao was very fond of Li Min's fiery personality, and he often told the people around him that Li Min was what a new Chinese girl should look like.
Many years later, Li Min grew into a young girl, and married his beloved man Kong Linghua, after the two married, Li Min had the idea of moving out of the southeast sea and standing upright, at that time Chairman Mao also married his fourth wife, there are many busy things in work and life, after making up his mind, Li Min deliberately found Chairman Mao and solemnly told him his thoughts.
Hearing his daughter's words, Chairman Mao was both happy and sad, he was happy that his daughter had finally grown into a big girl, he was sad that he did not want his daughter to leave him, Chairman Mao knew his daughter's intentions, so he did not do any more to keep.
Li Min's idea at that time was very simple, she felt that she was going to live in Beijing anyway, whether she lived in Zhongnanhai or lived in another place, the relationship was not big, as long as she thought of her father, she could go home to see her father.
What she did not expect was that because Chairman Mao's status was very special and there were many things to be busy politically, after she moved out of Zhongnanhai, it was not so easy to go back to see her father, and when she thought about her father, she could only use the way of sending a letter to his father to ease her thoughts.
In 1964, Li Min and his wife moved into an ordinary house in Terracotta Si Hutong and began to live a real civilian life.
From the time of Chairman Mao's illness to his death, Li Min had only met his father three times, the first time they met at Chen Yi's memorial service, when Chairman Mao was ill and attended Chen Yi's memorial service.
At the memorial service, he saw Li Min in the crowd at a glance, and after finding his daughter, Chairman Mao took three or two steps up, took her hand, and asked her: "Jiaojiao, why don't you come to see me?" You must come to see me more!" ”
Hearing his father's words, Li Min was also very unhappy in his heart, and nodded vigorously.
The second time the two met was when Chairman Mao was seriously ill, when the staff around Chairman Mao called Li Min and told her about Chairman Mao's serious illness and asked her to hurry to the scene to see, after receiving the call, Li Min immediately rushed to his father's side.
Li Min saw his father for the third time a few days before his father's death, perhaps realizing that his illness was already very serious, and at this meeting, Chairman Mao took Li Min's hand and said a lot of thoughtful words to her.
After moving away from Zhongnanhai, Li Min's life has been very simple, sometimes even with the word poor to describe her, Interview Li Min's Wang Xingjuan said: "Li Min and his wife are living on wages, after moving away from Zhongnanhai, they are like ordinary families, they are their own children to cook, pay for life, in the face of such a hard life, Li Min not only has no complaints, but also appears to be very adaptable, she often teaches her children that they must learn the traditional virtues of thrift and thrift."
In Li Min's body, there was an incident that impressed her, once, the president of Indonesia sent coffee and milk to the children to improve their diet, and after getting these foods, several children boiled things and ate them.
After Chairman Mao learned of this, he held a special family meeting and told his children: "The state's financial revenue is very difficult, and there are still many people who do not have enough to eat, and our family's life must not exceed the standard."
Chairman Mao's arduous and simple style also affected Li Min's attitude toward children for a long time, and Li Min would often let his son wear the clothes worn by her husband and let her daughter wear the clothes worn by her brother.
It is precisely because in the 1970s, the state finances were still very difficult, so when Li Min was pregnant, she still struggled for a long time about whether to have this child.
With Chairman Mao's encouragement, she decided to give birth to this daughter, and not long after the daughter was born, Li Min sent a photo of the child to Chairman Mao, and when she saw that the child's chin had a mole exactly like her own, Chairman Mao's heart was also filled with a special emotion.
Take responsibility for passing on culture
When he learned that Li Min wanted to name his child, Chairman Mao fell into deep thought, he knew the importance of a name to a person, and just when he hesitated, he suddenly saw a plum blossom pattern on the cup.
Plum blossoms have always been Chairman Mao's favorite flower, and many years ago, he also wrote a poem about plums, "When the mountain flowers are full, it laughs in the bushes" is from Chairman Mao's pen.
After thinking about it for a while, Chairman Mao decided to take a plum character in his granddaughter's name, but only Mei seemed too monotonous, and he decided to give his granddaughter the word "Dong", so he had the name Kong Dongmei.
After taking the name, the staff immediately told the news to Li Min's family, and Li Min also felt extremely honored to learn that his father was willing to give his eastern character to his daughter.
Although Chairman Mao died when Kong Dongmei was very young, but his influence on his granddaughter is very long-term, Kong Dongmei did not live up to Chairman Mao's expectations of her, in 1992, Kong Dongmei was admitted to the British and American literature major of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics with excellent results, after graduating from college, she embarked on the road of business and entered the newly founded Taikang Life Insurance Company.
After spending some time at the company, she found that this was not the ultimate goal she was pursuing, so she began to look for a broader space for development.
1999 was a crossroads in Kong's life, and after hesitating, she chose to leave her homeland and go to the United States to study.
When studying in the United States, Kong Dongmei found a thing that bothered her very much, that is, the cultural differences between China and the United States, Americans have a very limited understanding of China, although most of them have heard of Mao Zedong's name, but who is Chairman Mao? What kind of country he built, they know very little.
In the classroom, Kong Dongmei would often argue with her classmates because of Chairman Mao's affairs, and when she encountered things that her classmates did not understand, Kong Dongmei would patiently tell them about them, but no one knew that she was Chairman Mao's granddaughter.
When she was studying in a foreign country, she received a memoir "My Father Mao Zedong" sent by her mother Li Min, and when talking about this memory, Kong Dongmei said that she cried as soon as she read the book, from her grandmother to her mother, there was too much history that she did not know, and at that time Kong Dongmei had been thinking about a problem, that is, how to pass on the red classics.
After returning to China, Kong Dongmei began to take the initiative to investigate, visit and learn about the red culture, in 2001, she registered and established Beijing Dongrun Juxiang Book House Co., Ltd., she wanted to study the century-old Mao family and Chinese culture from a cultural point of view, and began to spread and promote the red classics.
As for why she wanted to give such a name to the company she founded, she also replied, Kong Dongmei knew that her name was given to her by Chairman Mao, so when naming the company, she also considered a lot, she said that Juxiang Bookstore is the place where Chairman Mao has lived for more than ten years, Chairman Mao has a deep affection for this place, and the two words Dongherun are also taken from Chairman Mao's name.
After the establishment of the office, Kong Dongmei not only launched many activities to promote the red classics, but also set up the Juxiang Bookstore in such an avant-garde place as the 798 Art District, saying that she had always wanted to do something for the revolutionary cause and leave something for her grandfather.
Kong Dongmei's body has always had a lot of labels, especially after she stepped into the business world, more and more people began to comment on her appearance, everyone said that she looked special like her grandfather Chairman Mao, especially the mole under her mouth, and it was exactly the same as the mole under Chairman Mao's mouth.
For the matter of being called "after the great man", Kong Dongmei is also very distressed, she said that for herself, the mole has become a part of her body, she does not particularly care about this mole, and even can be said not to feel it, she said that she, like others, has been trying to find her own way of life, she wants to be herself first, for this statement, her mother Li Min is also very agreeable.
Of course, as the granddaughter of Chairman Mao, Kong Dongmei also truly shouldered the responsibility of herself, as the chairman of Beijing Dongrun Juxiang Book House Co., Ltd., she is still spreading Chinese culture and contributing her own strength to the development of the motherland and the inheritance of the red spirit.