Memories of Mao Zedong and His Father

By Zhang Jinli

Memories of Mao Zedong and His Father

By Zhang Jinli

Born into a relatively wealthy family, Mao Zedong not only lived a comfortable life but was also exposed to books. We take it for granted that Mao had a happy childhood. However, it is detected in Edgar Snow's interview that Mao felt bittersweet and so much as stifled in his teens. This was somehow associated with his father, Mao Shunsheng. When asked about his feelings of his father as a child, Mao opened up to Snow and said “I have come to hate him.” After all, what kind of anguish caused by his father rankled Mao in spite of so many years being passed？

毛澤東的童年生活，應該是溫暖的，快樂的。然而，從毛澤東對斯諾的講述中，人們發現，他的年少時光，過得并不愉快，甚至有些壓抑。而這一切，都與父親毛順生不無關系。提起兒時對父親的感受，毛澤東毫不避諱地說：“我開始學會了恨他。”究竟怎樣的傷害，讓他多年之后，仍對父親耿耿于懷呢？

Initial Conflict

As Mao described, the initial conflict between his father and him focused on his studies. Mao was expected to be immersed in the works of the classics and history at a private school, which was the dream of his father. “As far as I can remember, my father was defeated in court because his rival defended himself by quoting from the classics.”The loss of a lawsuit deeply hurt his heart. From then on, his father was even stricter on him—pushing his son to memorize all the classics (Four Books & Five Classics) and apply the quotations in practice. Nevertheless, Mao preferred the fascinating “leisure readings” such as The Legend of Yue Fei, Outlaws of the Marsh, Story of Sui & Tang Dynasties, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Journey to the West over the boring and sometimes dull works of the classics.

Unsatisfied with Mao's behavior, rigid pedantic tutors complained to his father about Mao's noncompliance. Whenever these complaints came, Mao Shunsheng burst out with rage and indiscriminately beat Mao unmercifully, which led to an unbridgeable gap between father and son. According to Mao's recollection, the first time that he ran away from home was when he was 10 years old.

“I feared going home and getting beaten, so I headed to the county town. Finally, my family found me after I had wandered for three days. To my surprise, when I was home, there was an improvement in the ‘circumstances.’ My father was a little more considerate and the tutors were a bit gentler as well. What impressed me was that my protest had taken effect. In short, the strike ended in success.”

Besides the divergence of their views in study, Mao was also disgusted by the characteristics of his father, i.e. stern discipline, excessive severity, and meanness. In the eye of Mao, his father was nothing but a severe supervisor.

“He asked me to work around the clock, either keeping accounts or working on our farmland. He was irascible; he often beat my brothers and me. He never gave us any money and fed us poorly. He bestowed favors on the hired hands on the 15th day of each month by feeding them eggs with rice, but pork was never available. However, he didn't give us eggs, and still less pork.”

The father was characterized as callous. This traumatized Mao so deeply as a child, that he still felt distressed recalling the past after so many years.

● Mao Zedong and His Son, Mao Anying 毛澤東與毛岸英

Father's Vision

According to Mao Shunsheng, there was little sympathy for a man in poverty attributable to his laziness and adversity. On the contrary, his mother was endowed with compassion for the disadvantaged.

“My mother sympathized with the poor. She always gave food to them in the years of famine, although not in the presence of father due to his objection. Consequently, the family quarreled over that issue from time to time.” It was because Mao revered mother's mercy and despised his father's callousness that he tended to empathize with the weak and argued with his father about it.

In addition, Mao's philosophy was also a far cry from that of his father. What disgusted Mao most was that father imposed his own roadmap on his sons. Sometimes after having a drink, father would spontaneously formulate his master plan in front of the sons, envisaging “in these years, Runzhi (Mao) shall take over the farmland so that I can focus on business; Runlian (Mao’s brother) shall follow his elder brother to take the farmland afterwards when Runzhi gets started in business. It is my hard work that has turned around the mess from your grandparents and established this family’s solid foundation. In the future, as long as we work together and keep industrious & thrifty, I am confident that we will possess hundreds of acres of farmlands and become a widely known and wealthy family. Then I will enjoy my twilight years and die without any regrets.”

Mao went against father's wish and expressed disdain for his father's so-called brilliant vision, and more distaste for his greed. At that time, Mao yearned to live a true and all-powerful/fruitful life like the Liangshan Heroes and Three Kingdoms Heroes.

● Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek毛澤東與蔣介石

Conflict of Character

The failure of seeing eye-to-eye on many issues led to growing friction between Mao and his father. However, from a profound perspective, their confrontation was rooted in a conflict of character.

Being arbitrary and headstrong, Mao Shunsheng loved others’ compliance with him. In his opinion, father was the boss in this house; it was nature for the children to obey and follow his words and instructions. Unfortunately, Mao was a man of stubbornness and rebellion. No matter how others opposed or compelled, Mao would assert himself. In no sense would Mao surrender to the dark. In the end, it was a conflict of character that brought Mao into the biggest conflicts with his father.

“When I was 13 years old, one day my father invited a lot of guests to our home. We argued in front of them and father scolded me for laziness and uselessness, which provoked me. I talked back to him and ran away from home. My mother anxiously ran after me and tried to persuade me to go back; my father followed, cursing and instructing me to go home. I reached a pond and threatened that I would jump in if he stepped towards me. Father was somewhat frightened but he insisted that I kowtow and make an apology. I told father that I could go down on one knee if he promised not to beat me. Finally, the war came to an end.”

In contrast, Mao had affection for mother. Whenever talking about mother, he was profuse in compliments that she was a noble-minded lady with kindness and generosity. Mao commended his mother in his letter to classmates, saying there were three kinds of men in the world; those who “harm others to benefit oneself,” those who “benefit oneself without harming others,” and those that “harm oneself to benefit others”—the group to which he believed his mother belonged. Likewise, his mother had a place in her heart for the elder son. Whenever fights occurred between father and son, she always supported the son to maintain his dignity.

● Mao Zedong and Henry Kissinger 毛澤東與基辛格

Father’s Influence

It was mother’s mediation that alleviated the antagonism between father and son. To some certain extent, thanks to his father’s bad temper, Mao also learned to become patient and endurable.

“Frankly speaking, I don’t think his severity was for nothing—it pushed me to work harder on the farmland and keep accounts more carefully, lest he have anything against me.”

Although he never stopped fighting for the principle issues, Mao didn’t want to end the relationship with his father at that time. The various struggles Mao conducted were to gain the rights and respects from his father that he felt he deserved.

When telling the story about the pond, Mao said proudly“I am aware of the truth that ifipublicly protest for my rights, father will compromise; otherwise, he will just give me a good beating or perhaps worse.”, which illustrated the notion above.

In view of the attachment to his parents, Mao defied father and loved his mother. However, after pondering over his personality, it eventually came to light that Mao is more affected by his father. Mao was impressed with his father’s characteristics such as diligence and persistence, fortitude and unyieldingness, rationalism and pragmatism, and even his opinionated stubborn temperament.

Nevertheless, different from his father’s cruelty, callousness, inflexibility, and money-driven mentality, Mao had a good imagination and great compassion, and was inclined to be emotional and sentimental, which was reflective of his mother’s disposition.

One scholar on Mao’s life pointed out “Mao is considered to be a romantic poet in possession of the utmost imagination and a vigorous mind as seen through his poetry, while also being a super-rational politician—not only proficient in speculation, but also cautious, calm, and pragmatic, even in the rivalry between him and Chiang Kai-shek. What astonished us is that the two types of personalities that his parents had, in such stark contrast to each other, were unified and harmonized in Mao.”

(From Interpretation of Young Mao Zedong by Central Party Literature Press)

最初的矛盾

從毛澤東的描述中，他和父親最初的矛盾，主要表現在讀書上。當時，父親送他念私塾，是希望他能苦讀經史，“尤其一次打官司，法庭上，由于對方引經據典，導致法官判父親敗訴”，這件事讓毛順生很受刺激。從此，他更加嚴格要求兒子，希望兒子能熟讀四書五經，并引經據典，學以致用。然而，年少的毛澤東對枯燥的經書很不感冒，他更喜歡讀的，是那些引人入勝的閑書，如《精忠傳》《水滸傳》《隋唐演義》《三國演義》《西游記》等等。

毛澤東的這種做法，讓教學死板、抱守經典的塾師們甚是不滿，有時見訓他不靈，就向他父親大告其狀。每當這時，毛順生總是火冒三丈，常常不問青紅皂白，上來就拳打腳踢，父子關系劍拔弩張。據毛澤東回憶，十歲那年，他曾為此第一次離家出走。

“我不敢回家，怕挨打，便朝縣城方向走去。亂跑三天之后，終于被我的家人找到了。我回家之后，想不到情形有點改善，我父親比以前稍微體諒了一些，老師的態度也比較溫和一些。我的抗議行動有了效果，這給我留下深刻的印象，這次罷課勝利了。”

除了讀書上的分歧，毛順生管教粗暴，苛刻摳門，也讓兒子深為不滿。在毛澤東的眼里，他就是一個嚴厲的監工。

“他看不得我閑著，如果沒有賬要記，就叫我去農田干活。他性情暴躁，常常打我和兩個弟弟。他一文錢也不給我們，給我們吃的是最差的。他每月十五對雇工們特別開恩，給他們雞蛋下飯，可從來沒有肉，對于我們，他既不給蛋，更不給肉。”

父親的這種冷酷，給兒時的毛澤東，留下了深深的心理陰影，以至多年后，說起這些往事，他仍顯得憤憤難平。

父親的憧憬

毛順生認為，一個人受窮，是因為他習性懶惰，命運不濟，沒什么值得憐憫的。毛澤東的母親，對弱勢人群，天性中就富有同情心。

“母親可憐窮人，他們在荒年討飯的時候，她常常給他們飯吃。如果我父親在場，她就不能這樣做了，因為父親是不贊成施舍的。家里曾為這件事多次爭吵。”正因敬仰母親的慈悲，藐視父親的冷漠，平時愛動惻隱之心，毛澤東沒少和父親發生爭執。

另外，毛澤東與父親在人生目標的取向上，也相去甚遠。最令他討厭的就是，父親總想按自己的人生模板，來塑造兒子的未來。有時幾杯老酒入肚，毛順生就情不自禁向兩個兒子描繪他心中的藍圖：“潤之這兩年，先把田里的擔子挑起來，這樣爹就能專心做生意。等過兩年，潤之去學做買賣，潤蓮（毛澤民）接替你哥，去管田里的事。想當年，你爺爺留下那么個爛攤子，爹爹我都靠辛勤努力，讓毛家有了這么好的根基。今后，只要咱爺仨齊心協力，勤儉持家，我敢說不出一二十年，毛家就可置田百畝，成為遠近聞名的富戶。到那時，我含飴弄孫，安享天年，死也無憾了。”

聽了父親的幸福憧憬，毛澤東很是不屑，對做一個腰纏萬貫的土財主，更是厭惡透頂。那時的他，向往的是能像梁山好漢一樣，去過有血有肉的生活，渴望能像三國豪杰那樣，擁有叱咤風云的一生。

性格的沖突

毛澤東與父親很多方面觀點不同，摩擦不斷，但從更深層次上看，造成他們父子對立的根本原因，還是性格上的沖突。

毛順生性格粗暴武斷，專橫跋扈，剛愎自用，喜歡別人順從。他總覺得，既然我是一家之主，是當老子的，我說的話，我吩咐的事，做兒女的就應服從，就要執行。而毛澤東性格倔強，非常叛逆，他認為對的事，不管別人怎么反對，怎么阻攔，他都要堅持到底，不達目的誓不罷休；而他認為不對的事，即使再壓再逼，再打再罵，他也決不妥協，更不屈服。正是這種性格上的對立，終于導致他們父子之間爆發一次巨大沖突。

“我13歲的時候，有一次，父親請了許多客人到家里，我倆在客人面前爭論起來。父親當眾罵我懶惰無用，這激怒了我，我回頂了他，就離開了家。母親急著追出來，竭力勸我回去，父親也趕來，一邊罵，一邊命令我回去。我走到一個池塘邊，恫嚇他說，如果他再走近一步，我就跳下去。父親有些怕了，但堅持要我磕頭認錯，我表示如果他答應不打我，我可以跪下一條腿磕頭。戰爭就這樣結束了。”

與對父親的態度相反，對母親，毛澤東則是一往情深。每當和別人說起母親，他總是充滿贊美之辭：“我母親為人慷慨厚道，總是愿意幫助別人，是個心地善良、品格高尚的女性。”在給同學的信中，他還曾這樣說：“世上有三種人：損人利己的人；利己而不損人的人；可以損己而利人的人。而我母親正是這后一種人。”當然，對大兒子，母親也格外偏愛。每當父子倆發生矛盾，她總是站在兒子一邊，極力維護兒子的尊嚴。

父親的影響

正因有母親的斡旋，父子倆的對立情緒，才開始有所緩和，而且在某些方面，毛澤東對父親的壞脾氣，也學會了忍耐和忍受。

“他的嚴酷不能說全沒好處，它使我更勤快地干活，更仔細地記賬，以免有把柄讓他抓住。”

雖在原則問題上，毛澤東從未停止爭斗，甚至以離家出走，要跳池塘相威脅，但總體上看，那時的他，不想與父親徹底鬧僵。他所做的各種抗爭，更多的成分，還是想從父親那里，獲得應有的權益和尊重。

最生動的例子是，當他向斯諾講完跳水塘的故事，曾不無得意地說：“我從這件事認識到，如果公開反抗，保衛自己的權利，父親就軟下來，可如果我仍溫順馴服，他反而打罵我更厲害。”

從和父母的關系看，毛澤東屬于典型的抗父愛母，可縱觀毛澤東的性格，你卻會發現，他反而受父親的影響更多。比如，毛順生的勤奮執著，剛毅果敢，堅強不屈，永不服輸，理性務實，腳踏實地……甚至包括他的剛愎、獨斷、固執這些特點，都在兒子身上，烙下深深的印跡。

當然，與毛順生的吝嗇、冷漠、刻板、只知賺錢、缺乏情趣不同，毛澤東情感豐富，富于想象，有很強的同情心。有時他還很感性，常常睹物思人，多愁善感。這些性格特征，恰恰折射出母親的影子。

一位研究毛澤東的學者指出：“讀毛澤東的詩詞，你會覺得他想象力超強，思維跳躍，是一個浪漫的詩人。可你再研究毛澤東與蔣介石的博弈，又發現他精于算度，非常謹慎，極為冷靜，不抱一絲僥幸，他又是一位超理性的政治家。令人驚奇的是，這反差極大的兩面性格，卻在毛澤東的身上，實現了兼容。”

（摘自《解讀青年毛澤東》中央文獻出版社）

毛澤東與父親

文|張錦力