Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing (March 1914 (1914-03) – 14 May 1991 (1991-05-15); also spelled as Chiang Ch'ing), born Li Yunhe, also known as Li Jin, and briefly known by her stage name Lan Ping in the 1930s Shanghai, was a Chinese revolutionary, actress, and political figure. The fourth wife of Mao Zedong, she played a major role in the Cultural Revolution and led the Gang of Four. Born to an abusive father and a mother who worked as a domestic servant and sometimes a prostitute, Jiang joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1933. She pursued an acting career in Shanghai before going to Yan'an, where she married Mao in 1938. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, she wielded considerable influence over the arts while engaging in party power struggles, orchestrating campaigns against the film The Life of Wu Xun and the Peking opera Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, and promoting revolutionary operas. Jiang reached the height of her power in late 1960s. A Politburo member at the Ninth and Tenth Central Committees and de facto leader of the Cultural Revolution Group, she was arrested following Mao's death and expelled from the party. Blamed for the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, she was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in a televised trial, before her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. She committed suicide in May 1991.