Jiang Qing (1914-1991) was a Chinese Revolutionary. "The Gang of Four" was the name given to Jiang Qing, wife of Mao Zedong, and her three allies, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen, who led the attack on traditional Chinese culture during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China; Jiang Qing attempted to succeed her husband as the leader of China.

Jiang Qing, the leader of The Gang of Four, was born in Tsucheng (Zuzheng) in Shantung (Shandong) province, China, in March of 1914. At the time of her birth, her father Li Te-wen was 60 years old. A poor man who frequently drank, he beat Jiang's mother, a concubine who was almost 30 years younger and deserted the family when Jiang was about six years old; her mother may have been forced into prostitution by poverty during Jiang Qing's youth. The difficulty of her early years...