[BlueDragonMagik]

I say the following on a trivia web site. On this day, in the year 1981 - " ... Jiang Qing, Mao Tse-tung's widow, was tried for treason and received a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. ..." I remember this event when I was a kid. I heard my uncle that there was a power fight between the key members of the central committee and that she was framed. ... Can anyone tell me if that is true?

[jiangji]

I don't think she is framed and she deserves for what she did. Jiang Qing played a central role in time of Communist China's greatest upheavel as China cultural's dictator and Chief advocate of hard line revolutionary policies.


During the trial, she still believes his action during Cultural revolution is right by saying it has the approval of mao and shouts at the judge:"You are revisionists and criminals", "Making revolution is no crime ! It is right to rebel".

The New York times concluded in an obituary that "few people have been so hated in moden of Chinese history. She becomes the symbol of the excesses and brutality of Cultural revolution" Biographer like Roxanne witke call her as the most powerful woman in the world.

This post has been edited by jiangji: 25 January 2006 - 04:22 PM

[BlueDragonMagik]

jiangji, on Jan 25 2006, 01:13 PM, said:

I don't think she is framed and she deserves for what she did. Jiang Qing played a central role in time of Communist China's greatest upheavel as China cultural's dictator and Chief advocate of hard line revolutionary policies.
During the trial, she still believes his action during Cultural revolution is right by saying it has the approval of mao and shouts at the judge:"You are revisionists and criminals", "Making revolution is no crime ! It is right to rebel".

The New York times concluded in an obituary that "few people have been so hated in moden of Chinese history. She becomes the symbol of the excesses and brutality of Cultural revolution" Biographer like Roxanne witke call her as the most powerful woman in the world.

jiangji, ... I think you are right. ... I need to check on a few books for final confirmation. ... The more I learn the more I don't know. ...

[General_Zhaoyun]

Jiang Qin was one of the "Gang of 4" trialed largely because of her excessive crime and brutality during the chinese cultural revolution that turned China upside down.

[Koolasuchus]

General_Zhaoyun, on Jan 27 2006, 03:13 AM, said:

Jiang Qin was one of the "Gang of 4" trialed largely because of her excessive crime and brutality during the chinese cultural revolution that turned China upside down.

A minor correction... many people considered Jiang Qin to be the leader of the Gang of Four, and not just some member like Yao Wenyuan.

[jwrevak]

General_Zhaoyun, on Jan 27 2006, 12:13 AM, said:

Jiang Qin was one of the "Gang of 4" trialed largely because of her excessive crime and brutality during the chinese cultural revolution that turned China upside down.

Of course, in her self-defense she succinctly stated, "Mao said bite, and I bit."

[l0ckx]

Jiang Qing was unbearable to all. When Mao married her, the party made him promise that she never be given any type of political power because of her obnoxious attitude. She didn’t have any power until the Cultural Revolution in 1966. There is some debate over how and why she was eventually given power.

I've read that she was terrible to her entire staff of nurses claiming they purposely made her life difficult. She would complain about everything such as the temperature of her bath water. If it was too hot, her nurses were trying to hurt her, if it was too cold they were trying to make her sick. If her room was too hot it was because the windows weren't open enough, and if they were open too much, the breeze was too cold. She was sensitive to light and claimed too much light hurt her eyes. Her physician Xu Tao was given the grand responsibility to choose the movies she was to watch, and if she didn’t like the selection she blamed him for trying to “psychologically” hurt her.

When she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the early 50's, she was sent to the USSR for treatment. she was successfully treated but rejected the reports on her mental and physical health. She constantly complained about everything and was never subjected to any type of hard labor that other members of "group one" participated in. Other than supporting ALL of Mao’s views, she was the epitome of the anti-party. She received more treatment, service, and pampering than anyone else in the party.

She was EXTREMELY jealous of Mao's interest in other women and was always worried that Mao would leave her (this is quite a justified worry considering she was nothing without him). She eventually accepted Mao's womanizing and realized there was nothing she could do. Her demands were absolutely absurd and she was totally rotten.

Another fun Jiang Qing tid-bit: She had 6 toes on each foot

[ahxiang]

l0ckx, on May 9 2006, 09:54 AM, said:

Jiang Qing was unbearable to all. When Mao married her, the party made him promise that she never be given any type of political power because of her obnoxious attitude. She didn’t have any power until the Cultural Revolution in 1966. There is some debate over how and why she was eventually given power.

I've read that she was terrible to her entire staff of nurses claiming they purposely made her life difficult. She would complain about everything such as the temperature of her bath water. If it was too hot, her nurses were trying to hurt her, if it was too cold they were trying to make her sick. If her room was too hot it was because the windows weren't open enough, and if they were open too much, the breeze was too cold. She was sensitive to light and claimed too much light hurt her eyes. Her physician Xu Tao was given the grand responsibility to choose the movies she was to watch, and if she didn’t like the selection she blamed him for trying to “psychologically” hurt her.

When she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the early 50's, she was sent to the USSR for treatment. she was successfully treated but rejected the reports on her mental and physical health. She constantly complained about everything and was never subjected to any type of hard labor that other members of "group one" participated in. Other than supporting ALL of Mao’s views, she was the epitome of the anti-party. She received more treatment, service, and pampering than anyone else in the party.

She was EXTREMELY jealous of Mao's interest in other women and was always worried that Mao would leave her (this is quite a justified worry considering she was nothing without him). She eventually accepted Mao's womanizing and realized there was nothing she could do. Her demands were absolutely absurd and she was totally rotten.

Another fun Jiang Qing tid-bit: She had 6 toes on each foot

Jiang Qing was allowed to enter politics as a tradeoff for Mao's freedom to pursue other women. The two had no sexual relationship since the 50s when majority folks had a change of wife after entering the cities. That was a predictable behavior of the entire leadership. It happened in late 1930s in Yenan as well. Otto Braun had his turn of replacing the peasant woman wife from Jiangxi Soviet.

Per Feng Zhijun, Mao had an internally-stamped divorce right after July 7th 1937, which was not published to the outside world. That's why people had seen He Zizhen crying in Xi'an in late 1937 and refused to go back to Yenan.

As to Jiang Qing, there was a good chace that she was in deed recruited by Dai Li, but she lost the contact with KMT spy agency after Dai Li died in plane crash in 1946.

[Genghis_Khan]

Didn't know much about her..
what happen to her in the end ??
Did she start the cultural revolution which destroy much of the Chinese precious culture and history ??

[Centaur]

Genghis_Khan, on May 10 2006, 01:59 PM, said:

Didn't know much about her..
what happen to her in the end ??
Did she start the cultural revolution which destroy much of the Chinese precious culture and history ??

1. She died in 1991
- She was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1981, and the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. She was released for medical reasons in 1991. She died soon after. Later the government claimed that she committed suicide in her apartment, ten days after her release.

2. As for her role

- She was appointed as the deputy director of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and formed the Gang of Four with Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen. From that point on, she was the most powerful figure in China during Mao's last years and became a controversial figure of Mao's regime.

source: Wikipedia

[Genghis_Khan]

Centuar, on May 10 2006, 02:08 PM, said:

1. She died in 1991
- She was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1981, and the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. She was released for medical reasons in 1991. She died soon after. Later the government claimed that she committed suicide in her apartment, ten days after her release.

2. As for her role

- She was appointed as the deputy director of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and formed the Gang of Four with Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen. From that point on, she was the most powerful figure in China during Mao's last years and became a controversial figure of Mao's regime.

source: Wikipedia

What happen to the other 3 ?? Death pernalty or life imprisonment ? And are they still alive now ?
And who started the Cultural Revolution ?? It seem to be a stupid idea to wipe off your own culture and history...

[Centaur]

Genghis_Khan, on May 10 2006, 02:14 PM, said:

What happen to the other 3 ?? Death pernalty or life imprisonment ? And are they still alive now ?
And who started the Cultural Revolution ?? It seem to be a stupid idea to wipe off your own culture and history...

The Gang of Four:
1. Jiang Qing
- She was released for medical reasons in 1991. She died soon after. Later the government claimed that she committed suicide in her apartment, ten days after her release
2. Zhang Chunqiao
- In May 2005 it was announced that he had died of cancer the previous month
3. Yao Wenyuan
- he died of diabetes on 23 December 2005, aged 74
4. Wang Hongwen
- He died of liver cancer in a Beijing hospital in 1992

The author of the Cultural Revolution

It was launched by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 to secure Maoism (known domestically as Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought) in China as the state's dominant ideology. - Note: best to recheck this statement as I understand that the article in Wikipedia has been 'attacked'

Source: Wikipedia

[Genghis_Khan]

Centuar, on May 10 2006, 02:35 PM, said:

The Gang of Four:
1. Jiang Qing
- She was released for medical reasons in 1991. She died soon after. Later the government claimed that she committed suicide in her apartment, ten days after her release
2. Zhang Chunqiao
- In May 2005 it was announced that he had died of cancer the previous month
3. Yao Wenyuan
- he died of diabetes on 23 December 2005, aged 74
4. Wang Hongwen
- He died of liver cancer in a Beijing hospital in 1992

The author of the Cultural Revolution

It was launched by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 to secure Maoism (known domestically as Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought) in China as the state's dominant ideology. - Note: best to recheck this statement as I understand that the article in Wikipedia has been 'attacked'

Source: Wikipedia

Last time I use to thought that the Culturer Revolution was the work of Gang of 4 because everyone seem to blame and label them being bad!!
So, I guess the real culprit should be Mao Ze Dong himself?

[Howard Fu]

Genghis_Khan, on May 10 2006, 01:02 AM, said:

Last time I use to thought that the Culturer Revolution was the work of Gang of 4 because everyone seem to blame and label them being bad!!
So, I guess the real culprit should be Mao Ze Dong himself?

Mao is the tiger, but a tiger can't harm anyone without his claws and teeth. Gang of 4 are his claws and teeth.
Gang of 4 also purged many people for their personal reasons.

[l0ckx]

ahxiang, on May 10 2006, 12:12 AM, said:

Jiang Qing was allowed to enter politics as a tradeoff for Mao's freedom to pursue other women. The two had no sexual relationship since the 50s when majority folks had a change of wife after entering the cities. That was a predictable behavior of the entire leadership. It happened in late 1930s in Yenan as well. Otto Braun had his turn of replacing the peasant woman wife from Jiangxi Soviet.

All these excerpts are from The Private Life of Chairman Mao by his personal physician, Dr. Li Zhisui.

Jiang Qing made her first public appearance on September 29, 1962 with a meeting of the wife of Indonesia's president Sukarno. The first public photograph of her was taken at the meetings and appeared in The People's Daily. This was the beginning of the end.

She started to gain minor power in early 1963 as “overseer of culture”. She based herself in Shanghai and claimed, "I am just a plain soldier, a sentry of the Chairman patrolling on the ideological battlefront," and, "I am keeping watch and will report what i find to the Chairman".

In one of Jiang Qing's early reports states, "We have established a socialist foundation in our economy, but the superstructure -- literature and arts -- has not changed so much. Dead people are still in control of literature and the arts. We should not belittle our achievements in film, plays, folk songs, art, and novels. But problems still exist, and those problems are especially serious in the field of theater. We have to study this problem. Even party members are enthusiastically promoting feudal and capitalist art but ignoring socialist art. This is absurd."

Following this report, and several months later, Mao attacked the All China Federation of Literature and Art, saying, "they act like overlords, shying away from close contact with the workers, peasants, and soldiers. They don't reflect the socialist revolution."

However, it wasn't until 1966 where Jiang Qing's real power as first deputy director of the Cultural Revolution Small Group, came to be. Jiang Qing and Lin Biao had teamed up in Feb 1966 to discuss the ideology of armed forces-supported literature and art...They later reported, "The literary field and most professors have stood as a black force trying to dominate our politics." By Lin Biao teaming up with Jiang Qing, he would win over the Chairmans trust and eventually be named his successor. His political move also "catapulted" Jiang Qing's power.

I think Jiang Qing was among Mao's most valuable and trusted comrads who would follow out his ridiculous revolution. i don't think she gained power in compensation for his sexual desires with other women. If anything, her coming to the spotlight would only accentuate Mao's relations with the large entourage of women that traveled with him.

Howard Fu, on May 10 2006, 12:07 PM, said:

Mao is the tiger, but a tiger can't harm anyone without his claws and teeth. Gang of 4 are his claws and teeth.
Gang of 4 also purged many people for their personal reasons.

Essentially it was Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution but he placed other like Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng in positions of power to carry out "purges". here is another excerpt:

"[Mao] called upon the politburo standing committee to criticize leading bourgeois intellectuals. At the same time, he was going outside the standing committee and the party hierarchy to foster a rival group centering around his closest allies -- Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng in particular -- whose task was to attack Mao's enemies within the standing committee and the central secretariat of the party."

True, many high level officials were attacked and purged....but i have different feelings on Mao's true intentions....those soon to come!!

This post has been edited by l0ckx: 10 May 2006 - 08:06 PM