preface
He Zizhen was Chairman Mao's third wife, and the two had a total of 6 children, including 3 boys and 3 women. In the war-torn era at that time, the husband and wife who devoted themselves to the revolution could not put their children around well, nor did they have much time to take care of and accompany them to grow up, and even in He Zizhen's later years, only her daughter Li Min could accompany her.
01
Li Min was born in the winter of 1936, when he was still in the period of the War of Resistance, so when the child was born, he was particularly petite because of malnutrition, hence the name Mao Jiaojiao. When Li Min was very young, the chairman sent him to the Soviet Union to accompany He Zizhen, and it was this experience that made her the only one of He Zizhen's 6 children who explicitly survived.
In 1947, Li Min accompanied her mother back to China and was reunited with Chairman Mao. Because Li Min has been with her parents since she was a child, the chairman has high hopes for her, and has deliberately taken the meaning from "a gentleman is sensitive to words and sensitive to deeds" and renamed her "Li Min".
Probably out of guilt for the children who died and lost their voices before, the chairman and He Zizhen were particularly caring for Li Min. And Li Min did not live up to the ardent expectations of her parents, not only with excellent results into the Beijing Normal University, but also inherited the revolutionary spirit of her parents, and her husband Kong Linghua devoted their lives to the construction of new China.
02
In the later years of He Zizhen's life, he often felt remorse and sadness because of the loss of several children before, and Li Min was often accompanied by his mother's side, fully comforting the many tribulations and losses experienced by his mother in the first half of her life.
In fact, He Zizhen had 4 children before Li Min, but due to the turbulent years, these 4 children either lost their voices or unfortunately died. He Zizhen and the chairman's first child, a daughter, was born in 1929 in Longyan, Fujian Province, and was named Mao Jinhua.
Because the child was young and it was difficult to take good care of him in the revolutionary movement, the chairman and He Zizhen, although they did not give up, decided to put him in a local family after consultation, and promised to come and pick up the child after the success of the revolution. In 1932, the couple came to Longyan again and got the news that Mao Jinhua had died prematurely.
03
He Zizhen endured the pain of losing his daughter and turned around to continue to devote himself to the revolutionary cause. Also in this year, He Zizhen had a second child, and the chairman personally named him Mao Anhong. However, the domestic situation at that time was more severe, and when Mao Anhong was only two years old, the Red Army was forced to embark on a long march.
In order to protect the child, the couple decided to entrust the child to his cousin Mao Zeqin to raise. However, in a revolutionary battle, Mao Zeqin was unfortunately killed, and the child lost his voice.
After the situation stabilized, He Zizhen also repeatedly tried to find Mao Anhong, but unfortunately several searches were fruitless.
04
At the end of 1933, He Zizhen's third child was born, but the boy died before he could take his name because he was born prematurely. In 1935, He Zizhen gave birth to another baby girl, but this child was born during the Long March, how could such a young child survive the arduous Long March?
Forced by the severe situation, He Zizhen did not have a good look at the child, so he sent it to the homes of local people. And this difference is a lifetime, and the mother and daughter will never meet again.
It was not until The birth of Li Min in 1936 that the grief in He Zizhen's heart was slightly soothed. In 1937, He Zizhen, who was suffering from war and injury, came to the Soviet Union to recuperate and study, and it was here that He Zizhen gave birth to his 6th child with the chairman and named him Yuwa.
But Eva didn't even get a chance to see her father, and she died of a pneumonia at 10 months. This made He Zizhen physically and mentally devastated, and he could not get out of the huge grief of losing his beloved son again. It was also because the chairman sent the only surviving daughter between the two to the Soviet Union, Li Min, that He Zizhen slowly walked out of the shadow of losing his son in the company of his daughter.
epilogue
Although He Zizhen's life was full of ups and downs and she also owed a lot to her children, she spent her whole life unremittingly fighting for the revolution, placing her love for her children behind the great righteousness of her family and country, and thus bearing pressure and pain that we cannot imagine, which is really admirable.
However, it is gratifying that In her later years, He Zizhen has always been accompanied by her daughter Li Min, which is also a kind of ordinary happiness for her revolutionary life. It is worth mentioning that Li Min is 85 years old this year, and we wish Li Min a long and healthy life and pass on this revolutionary spirit forever.