CCCPC Party Literature Research Office
Chief Editors Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji
Translated by Foreign Languages Press, edited by Sheng-chi Shu
Originally published by CCCPC Party Literature Research Office,
Chief Editors Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Volume I and II in
2011.
More information at
www.cbi.gov.cn/wisework/content/10005.html
Leaving Home
An age- old legend tells us that 5,000 years ago Emperor Shun, while on an inspection tour of southern China, came to the Xiang river. There, while resting on a hilltop, the emperor ordered the playing of a tune called Shao Yue (Melody of Shao).[1] The music is said to have attracted a flock of phoenixes that danced to its lilt. From this, people began to call the hill Shaoshan (Mount Shao), and to call the narrow valley it embraces Shaoshan Chong (Shaoshan Valley), located in what is now Xiangtan County of Hunan Province.
In this same Shaoshan Valley, on 26 December 1893 (19th day of the 11th lunar month in the 19th year of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu), a boy was born to the family of peasant Mao Yichang. The child was named Zedong, also to be known as Yongzhi and later as Runzhi. Two babies preceding this child had died in infancy and, fearing a likely recurrence, the mother took her new-born son to a small temple of the Stone Statue of the Goddess of Mercy
- ↑ Shao has come to mean 'beautiful' from its association with the music of the legendary Emperor Shun. lt was said that Confucius was so transported by the melody's beauty that he could not eat for days.