Wen Qimei


Wen Suqin, also called Wen Qimei was the mother of Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Early life

Wen was born in 1867 in the town of Jincheng on the island of Kinmen. Her father, Wen Qifu, was a poor shoemaker who was a heavy drinker. Her mother was a 14 year old concubine of Qifu's when Suqin was born. Suqin had two brothers and two sisters. She attended the local Buddhist nunnery for education until she was 10. Her father would beat her mother, so they fled to Shaoshan, Hunan. There, Suqin's mother remarried a 60 years old landowner, which was quite unusual in China at that time. Suqin attended a Baptist school there and passed with honours. At the age of 13, her stepfather arranged her marriage to 10 year old Mao Yichang, who came from a long line of peasants. At the age of 26, Suqin gave birth to Mao Zedong.
After the birth of Mao Zedong, his parents were presented with a rooster, as was the local custom. Wen was concerned for her baby's health, having had two sons previously died in infancy. She took the baby to see a Buddhist monk who was living in the mountains, and asked her to take care of him. The nun refused, believing that baby Zedong appeared healthy. From there, she traveled to her father's house in a neighbouring district, along the way stopping at a temple devoted to the bodhisattva Guan Yin, where she prayed that the deity would become Zedong's foster mother.

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