Mao Yichang

Who was Mao Yichang?

Mao Yichang was a Chinese farmer and grain merchant who achieved notability as the father of revolutionary political theorist Mao Zedong. The nineteenth generation of the Mao clan, he was born and lived his life in the rural village of Shaoshanchong in Shaoshan, Hunan Province.

The son of Mao Enpu, he was raised into a poverty-stricken family of farmers. Marrying Wen Qimei when he was ten, he subsequently served for two years in the Chinese army. Returning to agriculture, he became a moneylender and grain merchant, buying up local grain and selling it in the city for a higher price, becoming one of the wealthiest farmers in Shaoshan, with 20 acres of land. He and Wen had four surviving children, Zedong, Zemin, Zetan, and Zejian, the latter of whom was adopted.