Luo Yixiu
| Luo Yixiu | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 October 1889 Shaoshan, Hunan, China |
| Died | 11 February 1910 (aged 20) Shaoshan, Hunan, China |
| Spouse(s) | Mao Zedong (m. 1908–10) |
| Parent(s) | Luo Helou |
| Luo Yixiu | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 羅一秀 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 罗一秀 | ||||||||||
|
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Luó Yīxiù |
| Wade–Giles | Luo2 I1-hsiu4 |
| IPA | [lwǒ í.ɕjôu] |
Luo Yixiu (simplified Chinese: 罗一秀; traditional Chinese: 羅一秀; October 20, 1889 – February 11, 1910), a Han Chinese woman, was the first wife of the later Chinese communist revolutionary and political leader Mao Zedong, to whom she was married from 1908 until her death. Coming from the area around Shaoshan, Hunan, in south central China – the same region as Mao – her family were impoverished local landowners.
Most of what is known about their marriage comes from an account Mao gave to the American reporter Edgar Snow in 1936, which Snow included in his book Red Star Over China. According to Mao, he and Luo Yixiu were the subject of an arranged marriage organised by their respective fathers, Mao Yichang and Luo Helou. Luo was eighteen and Mao just fourteen years old at the time of their betrothal. Although Mao took part in the wedding ceremony, he later stated that he was unhappy with the marriage, never consummating it and refusing to live with his wife. Socially disgraced, she lived with Mao's parents for two years until she died of dysentery, while he moved out of the village to continue his studies elsewhere, eventually becoming a founding member of the Communist Party of China. Various biographers have suggested that Mao's experience of this marriage affected his later views, leading him to become a critic of arranged marriage and a vocal feminist. He would marry three more times throughout his life, to Yang Kaihui, He Zizhen and Jiang Qing, the last of whom was better known as Madame Mao.
Born on October 20, 1889, Luo Yixiu was the eldest daughter of Luo Helou (罗合楼; 1871–1943), a shenshi (绅士) – or rural intellectual who earned his living as a farmer – and his wife (1869–1912), whose surname was Mao and who was a distant great-aunt of Mao Zedong. Although historian Lee Feigon stated that the Luo family was locally important, Mao biographers Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine claimed that they had fallen into poverty. Luo Helou and his wife had five sons and five daughters, but seven of these children died, leaving them only three daughters. The couple's lack of adult sons diminished their social status, for in Chinese society at the time, only sons could continue the family lineage.
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