In 1979, a guest came to the home of Chairman Mao's daughter Li Min, and Li Min was full of surprise after pushing open the door and seeing the visitor, and then hurriedly beckoned the other party to come into the house and sit down.
At this time, Li Min's daughter Kong Dongmei also walked out of the room, and she couldn't help but ask her mother timidly after seeing the visitor: "Mom, who is this aunt?" ”
I saw Li Min correcting her daughter with a smile: "This child, you have to call her sister." ”
"Ahh Kong Dongmei was very surprised, because she saw that the guest in front of her was clearly about the same age as her mother, how could she be the same generation as herself?
But looking at her mother's affirmative eyes, Kong Dongmei also hurriedly greeted. So, who is this strange "sister"? How is she involved with Chairman Mao's family?
The visitor was none other than Wang Hairong. At first glance, you may not know much about this name, but when it comes to her life experience and past, it has a lot of origins.
Wang Hairong comes from a scholarly family, and both her grandfather and father are engaged in education, especially her grandfather Wang Jifan, who is a famous scholar in the modern education industry. And Wang Jifan's special is not limited to this, in fact, he is also Chairman Mao's cousin.
Speaking of which, everyone understands why Li Min said that Kong Dongmei should call Wang Hairong her sister, her cousin's granddaughter and her cousin's granddaughter, aren't they equals.
However, the story of the Wang family and Chairman Mao is not as simple as a distant relative, there have been many connections between them, and it is even said that Wang Jifan is still Chairman Mao's great benefactor.
Chairman Mao's mother is called Wen Qimei, from the Wen family in Xiangxiang, and her family is a large family in the local area, and later married the Shaoshan Mao family.
On top of Wen Qimei, there is another sister, and she later married the Wang family in Nanxun Township and gave birth to Wang Jifan. Chairman Mao was born in 1893, while Wang Jifan was born in 1885, and the difference between the two is almost eight years.
Although it is not a family, because Chairman Mao's father Mao Shunsheng joined the army and went to Shandong during the First Sino-Japanese War, Chairman Mao's mother and son also returned to their parents' house to live, and they have been gone for seven or eight years. It was in the Wen family that Chairman Mao met a group of cousins in his childhood and studied with them in the school run by his uncle.
It was also at that time that Chairman Mao first showed an interest in learning, which surprised his uncle and regarded this nephew as a malleable talent.
But when Chairman Mao was nine years old, his father Mao Shunsheng went home, and then took Chairman Mao's mother and son back to his hometown in Shaoshan.
After wandering outside for many years, Mao Shunsheng did not earn military merits, but he learned to do business, so he wanted to do business, and he also wanted to train his son to become a businessman. This is hard for Chairman Mao, his ideal is to be a teacher, and he is not interested in business matters.
More importantly, Chairman Mao was influenced by Wen Qimei, a mother who believed in Buddhism, and was very kind-hearted, and he couldn't see the poor suffering or others suffering. As the old saying goes: "Compassion is not in charge of soldiers, righteousness is not in charge of wealth", and Chairman Mao, who is so heartfelt, will not be able to read the business experience.
But Mao Shunsheng is a very stubborn person, in the words of Chairman Mao, he is the "autocratic patriarch", he forcibly let Chairman Mao withdraw from the school, and sent him to the rice shop as an apprentice. If this happens, it will be a great loss for China's future revolution.
In order to be able to return to the school, Chairman Mao had a lot of awkward encounters with his father, and he finally returned to the school. The reason why Mao Shunsheng was willing to change his mind was thanks to Chairman Mao's teacher and cousin Wang Jifan, who persuaded Mao Shunsheng together and told him about the benefits of reading.
It was when he said that he could earn money after studying that Mao Shunsheng changed his mind. Because of this incident, Chairman Mao has always been very grateful to his cousin.
Later, Chairman Mao graduated from Dongxiang High School and went to Changsha No. 1 Normal School to continue his studies. Not only did he help him in life, Wang Jifan also provided a lot of support to Chairman Mao when he participated in the student movement.
Including in 1925, Chairman Mao returned to his hometown to engage in the peasant movement, but was pursued by the warlord Zhao Hengxi, and it was thanks to Wang Jifan's cover that Chairman Mao was able to transfer in time.
In the past, it was more than 20 years. In 1949, when the People's Liberation Army marched into Hunan, Wang Jifan, a well-known figure in Hunan's educational circles, actively responded to the call for a peaceful uprising, welcomed the People's Liberation Army into Changsha, and assisted the party organization in managing the local area. Here, Wang Jifan is not only a celebrity in the education circle and a relative of Chairman Mao, but also a devotee of the revolutionary cause.
After learning the news of Wang Jifan, Chairman Mao took him to Beijing in 1950, and arranged for him to be a counselor of the Government Affairs Yuan, so that he could continue to shine for New China.
In the Spring Festival of 1952, Chairman Mao invited Wang Jifan's family to a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and said with emotion at the dinner table: "This is my ninth brother, my aunt and cousin." Without him, there would be no me! At that moment, Wang Jifan was so moved that he almost fell into tears.
In the days that followed, Wang Jifan has been conscientiously contributing to the cause of New China, and his life is industrious, simple and sincere. In 1972, Wang Jifan, who had become ill from hard work, finally died in Beijing at the age of 85. At that time, Chairman Mao laid a wreath for him and wrote: Nine brothers through the ages!
Wang Jifan's life has come to an end, but the story of the two families of Mao and Wang is not over. In fact, Wang Jifan's family is not entirely democratic, his son Wang Deheng, that is, Wang Hairong's father, is a Communist Party member.
As the son of Wang Jifan, Wang Deheng himself is also a good material for reading, he graduated from the Department of Economics of Hunan University that year. However, despite being born in a scholarly family, Wang Deheng did not want to continue to engage in the education industry like his father, and he hoped to join the wave of anti-Japanese salvation as a young man.
So after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Wang Deheng said to his father: "I want to go to Yan'an? ”
Wang Jifan was very surprised, and he asked, "Why do you want to go to Yan'an?" ”
Wang Deheng replied: "There is democracy, freedom, and brightness, and the military and people of Yan'an insist on resisting Japan!" ”
Hearing this, even though he cherished his only son very much, Wang Jifan did not want to extinguish his patriotic enthusiasm, so he agreed to this matter and personally arranged for his son to go to Yan'an.
At that time, the person in charge of the Eighth Route Army's office in Changsha was Xu Teli, and he and Wang Jifan were colleagues in the early years, so Wang Jifan asked Xu Teli to arrange for his son to go to Yan'an with other young people, and he also wrote a letter to Chairman Mao.
After Wang Deheng arrived in Yan'an, he found Chairman Mao with his father's letter. Chairman Mao expressed his appreciation for Wang Deheng's enthusiasm for saving the country, but at the same time he was worried about whether he could endure hardships, so Wang Deheng said to Chairman Mao: "Uncle Cousin, don't worry, I am not afraid of hardship." Father asked me to learn from you and endure hardships for the happiness of the toiling masses of the world! ”
So, Chairman Mao left Wang Deheng behind and arranged for him to study at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. After completing his studies, Wang Deheng joined the southbound detachment to go to the occupied areas and participate in the work of creating an anti-Japanese base area, and his destination was his hometown Hunan.
After returning to Hunan, Wang Deheng went to the front line of the revolution for a long time and was active in the Yiyang area. Although it is very close to his hometown, Wang Deheng has never returned home for several years, and he has the spirit of "the Huns have not been destroyed, why should they be at home".
In this way, until 1942, Wang Deheng had grown into the backbone of the base area, and he had a good future. But he didn't want to expose his identity when Wang Deheng was on a mission that year, and was finally shot dead by Kuomintang agents.
Soon after the incident, Chairman Mao learned the bad news, which shocked and grieved him. After pondering for a long time, Chairman Mao decided to hide the truth from his cousin, lest he be too sad.
Therefore, it was not until 1950 when their brothers reunited that Chairman Mao said to Wang Jifan: "Brother Jiu, you handed over Deheng to me, but I didn't take good care of him, and I can't escape the blame!" ”
Although Wang Jifan, who reacted, was a little depressed, he still endured his grief and said: "Deheng died well, heavier than Mount Tai, and he should smile at Jiuquan." The family is also proud of him, what a regret for the husband! Since then, Wang Jifan has also turned his grief into strength, devoting the rest of his life to the cause of the republic, and at the same time raising his granddaughter to become a talent.
As an orphan of martyrs, Wang Hairong has lived with his grandparents for a long time. Later, Wang Jifan became a counselor of the Government Council, and Wang Hairong was taken to live with her grandfather, and she grew up in Beijing after that, so she became familiar with Chairman Mao.
In fact, before entering Beijing, Wang Hairong had already communicated with Chairman Mao, and she wrote a letter to Chairman Mao, asking Chairman Mao to give her a basketball. However, Chairman Mao did not reply in time after reading the letter, and he did not send the basketball.
Later, Wang Hairong and his grandfather went to see Chairman Mao, Chairman Mao was not nervous at all when he saw her, he kept looking left and right, and seemed very excited, so he asked her: "Aren't you afraid of seeing me for the first time?" ”
Who knew that Wang Hairong replied: "Why are you afraid, you won't eat me!" ”
Chairman Mao saw such a lovely girl for the first time, so he said to her again: "You wrote to me, I'm busy, I don't have time to reply to you." ”
Wang Hairong replied again: "I also asked you for a basketball, and you didn't give it to me!" Chairman Mao immediately laughed and praised Wang Hairong for being an interesting child.
Later, Wang Hairong grew up, and after graduating from high school, she fell into Sun Shan and failed to be admitted to college, so she was very depressed. After Chairman Mao found out, he wrote a letter to encourage Wang Hairong and suggested that she go to the factory for employment. So, after graduating from high school, Wang Hairong went to a chemical factory in Beijing and worked as a worker there.
However, Wang Hairong does not want to submit to fate, and he still has a college dream in his heart. So in 1960, Wang Hairong took the college entrance examination again through self-study, and this time she was admitted to Beijing University of Foreign Chinese and chose English and Russian majors.
At that time, it was still very possible to enter the diplomatic field to study foreign language majors at Beijing Foreign University, and Wang Hairong was also transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1965 and served as a secretary under the arrangement of Premier Zhou.
Compared with other staff members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although Wang Hairong's position is not high, she has a special advantage, that is, her relationship with Chairman Mao, which gives her the space for many high-ranking cadres to operate. Therefore, in the turmoil of the following ten years, Wang Hairong worked for Chairman Mao at the same time, mainly to convey words for him.
Because of this, Wang Hairong has become a special figure in the diplomatic department, and he is called the "Five Golden Flowers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" together with Tang Wensheng, Qi Zonghua, Luo Xu and Zhang Hanzhi, which has attracted great attention.
In the early seventies, Wang Hairong was promoted to deputy director of the protocol department, and just five years later she became vice minister for the Americas and Oceania, the only woman among the 53 vice ministers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.
When Nixon visited China that year, Wang Hairong also translated the dialogue between the two leaders, and Nixon's daughter Julia also specially asked her: "Are you a relative of Chairman Mao?" ”
And Wang Hairong was not chaotic on the spot, and replied: "Someone said so. ”
In fact, not only foreigners have speculation, but also some voices in China have doubts, Wang Hairong's nephew Wang Yuqing said: "Slanderers and rumor-makers use some nonsense to make up some lies, but my aunt has never thought so." ”
Regarding this matter, in fact, everyone can figure out that Chairman Mao has never used his power to seek special benefits for his relatives, and how many people have been politely rejected from him for job applications, so why did he make an exception for a distant cousin.
And the reason why Wang Hairong treats him differently may indeed have the contribution of his father as a plus, and his own ability is also very important, and the most important reason is probably that in a special historical period, Chairman Mao just chose a relatively more trustworthy person to convey his voice, but it just happened that Wang Hairong met the conditions.
From 1965 to 1976, Wang Hairong accompanied Chairman Mao for 11 years and experienced major historical events with him. These eleven years have been of great significance to Wang Hairong and have changed her life.
Later, Wang Hairong retired, and she spent all her energy on raising cats, she raised more than a dozen cats at home, and lived a very quiet and low-key life.
If there is anything worth Wang Hairong to worry about at this time, I am afraid that it is relatives and friends, including Chairman Mao's children, which is why there is the scene we mentioned at the beginning. In 2017, Wang Hairong passed away in Beijing at the age of 79.
Chairman Mao's cousin's family is very worthy of our respect, starting from Wang Jifan, three generations in a row have been contributing to the cause of the country, and one of them has dedicated his life, such deeds are undoubtedly nostalgic.
Wang Hairong is the most accomplished of them all, having reached the pinnacle of his career by becoming vice minister of foreign affairs at the age of 36. But for Wang Hairong, status is just a temporary honor and disgrace, and this experience is a lifelong wealth for her.
Especially Wang Hairong's eleven years of working by Chairman Mao's side made her feel the most nostalgic later, and she also put her nostalgia for Chairman Mao in her dealings with the descendants of the Mao family, so that the family story could continue