Wen Qimei

Wen Qimei
Born	12 February 1867
Died	5 October 1919(1919-10-05) (aged 52) Shaoshan, Hunan Province
Occupation	Farm labourer
Spouse(s)	Mao Yichang
Children	Mao Zedong Mao Zemin Mao Zetan Mao Zejian (adopted)

Wen Suqin (Chinese: 文素勤, also called Wen Qimei (Chinese: 文七妹 or Chinese: 文其美)) was the mother of Chinese political theorist Mao Zedong.

Early life

Suqin 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 14. Her father would beat her mother, so they fled to Shaoshan. There, Suqin's mother remarried a 60 year old landowner, which was quite unusual in China at that time. Suqin attended a Baptist school there and passed with honors. At the age of 17, her stepfather arranged her marriage to 14 year old Mao Yichang, who came from a long line of wealthy farmers. Three years later, Suqin gave birth to Mao Zedong.

Raising Mao Zedong

After the birth of Mao Zedong, his parents were presented with a rooster, as was the local custom.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[1]

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