Mao Zedong’s pursuit of study
2022-06-24
Mao Zedong admired a local teacher Li Shuqing at that time, from whom he got a lot of advice and learned the history of the Reform of Hundred Days. Despite an age difference of nearly 20 years, Mao Zedong and Li Shuqing shared everything. Li Shuqing tried again and again to persuade Mao Yichang, the father of Mao Zedong, to support Mao Zedong’s study so that he could shoulder the mission of saving country in the future. However, Mao Yichang just wanted his son to take over his practice and make a fortune.
One day, Mao Zedong offended the patriarch as he was in favour of Li Shuqing’s plan to open a school. For fear that his son might make any trouble, Mao Yichang sent him to the Kuanyu Grain Shop in Xiangtan as an apprentice, which was run by Mao Yichang’s cousin. Mao Yichang engaged in grain industry in Shaoshan. And the Kuanyu Grain Shop handled the sale and provide agricultural supplies for him, such as cakes made of dry hay, soybeans and so on. Mao Yichang hoped that he could also open such a grain shop in Xiangtan someday.
At the grain shop, Mao Zedong learned that giving up study and running business would be a dead end and felt extremely depressed. There was a dock called the Yuanyuan Dock near the sandbar of the Xiangjiang River, along which sat the Kuangyu Grain Shop. Mao Zedong was touched by the scene and wrote a poem to express his frustration of unrequited ambition.
Mao Zedong had no interest in being an apprentice or a merchant but only wanted to continue his studies out of hometown. Every day after finishing his work, he went upstairs to a small room and read books with the door closed. One day, his cousin Wen Yunchang told him that there was a “new style school” in Xiangxiang where he could learn a lot of new knowledge. Mao Zedong was very glad to hear the news. Before long, he left the grain shop and returned to Shaoshan.
Mao Zedong told his father that he wanted to go out for further study but met with a rebuff because his father was eager to cultivate a successor and was reluctant to spend money. Then Mao Zedong asked his mother to prepare a feast and invited relatives from Xiangxiang as well as his teachers Mao Luzhong and Li Shuqing, and his uncle Mao Zhongchu to have dinner together. Such behaviour puzzled his parents and it was not until the dinner that Mao Zedong clarified the reason: “I’m sorry to make much ado here. I have to make it clear to my father that I still want to continue my study and go to Dongshan School.”
His parents laughed. “If you want to continue the study, you can just say it. Why take the trouble to do that?” Mao Zedong explained that he just wanted to tell all the relatives and friends that as long as he could go on his study, he wouldn’t fight over the property any more. Everyone then persuaded his parents to send Mao Zedong to the new style school for further study and maybe someday he would make something of his life. After much persuasion, his father finally gave in.
Mao Zedong felt extremely excited by realizing his dream. Before he left, he wrote a poem to his father and put it in his father’s account book.
Since then, Mao Zedong had begun his pursuit of study out of hometown, ushering in a turning point in life.
