The Early Life of Mao Zedong Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hunan

Mao was born in the farming community of Shaoshan, in the province of Hunan. His father, Mao Yichang, was from a family that had been wealthy farmers and landowners for several generations. His father sent him to the local Shaoshan Primary School to study Confucianism. His hunger for knowledge, however, led him to develop political ideas from modern literature.

Answer: Soldier

In 1911, Mao began his middle school education in Changsha. Due to the influence of Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary sentiment was very strong. The people in favour of a Chinese republic formed a rebel army forcing the Changsha's governor to flee the city, leaving the city in republican control. Inspired by the revolution, Mao became a private soldier in the rebel army, but did not see any action during his six-month stint.

Answer: Beijing

After his training to be a teacher, he left for Beijing with his mentor, Yang Changji, to work in the University library as an assistant to Li Dazhao. Li wrote articles on the Russian October Revolution, and later added Marxism to the doctrine of the Chinese revolutionary movement.

Mao was greatly influenced by Li's doctrine on Marxism. In 1921, Li became a co-founder of the CCP with Chen Duxiu supported by the Russian communist party. Mao became a CPC founding member in the same year and returned to Changsha to set up a branch there.

Answer: Changsha

In April 1927, the purging of the communists led by Chiang Kai-shek was known in the Chinese history as "White Terror". By May, an estimated number of 15,000 to 25,000 communists were killed.

In September 1927, Mao led the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Changsha against the KMT, but his peasant army was easily crushed. He lost 90% of his troops, forcing them to retreat to Jinggang Mountains of Jiangxi. At Jingggang City, he set up his base and he unified five villages as a self-governing state. He implemented the confiscation of lands from the rich land-lords to spread among the peasants. He set up strict rules to ensure that nothing was to be confiscated from the peasants and established a strong and efficient fighting force.

Answer: Jiangxi

In the spring of 1929, realizing that Jinggang mountains could not sustain enough food supply, they moved their armies of about 2,000 men to Jiangxi. Mao had to leave his infant daughter Mao Jinhua for adoption by another family.

In February 1930, Mao moved to Jiangxi, and established the South-west Jiangxi Provincial Soviet Government. Jiangxi was considered a safe haven by the CCP Central Committee. In November 1929, Jiangxi was proclaimed by the Soviet Republic of China as an independent communist-governed state.

Although he was the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, due to major disagreement of the strategies with key CPC leaders, Mao lost his authority and his control of Red Army to Zhou Enlai. Mao favored a peasant movement, but the key CPC leaders under the influence of the Soviet advisers wanted to focus their efforts in the urban areas.

Answer: Wife

Mao had an arranged marriage by his father in 1907 when he was only 14-years old. He refused, however, to acknowledge his 17-year old wife named Luo Yixiu, who died in 1910.

In 1920, he married his second wife, Yang Kaihui, the daughter of his mentor Yang Changji. Yang had three children with him - Mao Anying, Mao Anqing, and Mao Anjong. In 1927, Yang actively supported her husband's activities organizing many peasant movements in Shaoshan.

In the same year, she returned to Bancang alone to organize underground activities against the KMT in Changsha. In October 1930, she and her eldest son, Mao Anying, were captured by the local KMT warlord, He Jian. She refused to denounce communism and was executed on 14 November 1930 at the age of 29 in front of her 8-year old son.

Answer: Long March

In October 1934, Mao led troops to Yan'an to escape when they were surrounded by close to 1 million Nationalist troops. Over the next 12 months, about 100,000 Red Army troops and their families walked west and north across the Chinese mountains and swampland to Yan'an, Shaanxi, located in northern China. By the time they reached the destination in October 1935, only 8000 survived the 10000 km journey. By late 1936, with the arrival of other units, led by Zhu De and others, their strength rose to about 30,000.

It was at Yan'an where he regrouped and inspired volunteers to faithfully join his cause as he emerged the top communist leader. Inspired by this event, many young people came forward to join the CPC. Yan'an became the headquarters of the CPC from late 1936 to early 1947. The city is acknowledged by the CPC as the birthplace of the revolution.

Answer: 1936

Stalin proposed to Mao that the Red Army form a military alliance with Chiang Kai-shek's KMT to fight against the Japanese. Although he personally despised Chiang, Mao telegraphed a proposal to KMT military council in Nanjing.

His proposal was ignored by Chiang. During the Xian incident, Chiang was arrested by one of his top generals, Zhang Xue-liang, who forced him to agree to unite with the communists. The United Front was formed on 25th December 1936, recognizing Chiang as the chief commander of the united force.

Answer: Protracted Warfare

"Protracted Warfare", aka "People's War" is a book of Maoist military strategy. The strategy was developed by Mao to win the support of the people and draw the enemy deep into the countryside. Using mobile warfare and guerrilla tactics, the book explained how the people army could stretch and cut the supply lines of their enemies.

The strategies were adopted during the war against the Japanese from 1937 to 1945 and the Civil War from 1945 to 1949 against the KMT.

Answer: Chongqing

During the Chongqing negotiation, the CPC and KMT held meeting from 29th August to 10th October 1945 to strike an agreement to form a joint government. The meeting concluded after 43 days of meeting and both sides signed the Double Tenth Agreement.

The Agreement did not progress as planned, as both sides refused to give up the territories they held. This led to the resumption of the Civil War in 1946. In 1949, the Communists captured the last KMT's strong hold in Chongqing and Chengdu, forcing the KMT to flee to Taiwan.