ABSTRACT

Liu Shaoqi 1 was born in Huaminglou village, Ningxiang county, Hunan, on November 24, 1898. He was the youngest in a family offour boys and five girls. His father and grandfather were educated rich peasants (not landlords, as alleged by Red Guards, but certainly not poor peasants either). Only a mountain range separated his hometown from Shaoshan Cun, Xiangtan, where Mao Zedong was born. Very little is known ofhis childhood, though a scattering ofletters suggests he maintained a more amicable relationship with his nata1 family than did Mao, a notorious problem child. Liu's ancestral horne had a hundred-year history, during which it was gradually expanded to its final twelve-room size. In 1958 it was designated an important historical site and the house opened as a museum, with the original furniture and particularly the room in which Liu was born preserved intact.When Liu discovered this on areturn visit to his hometown in 1961, however, he asked the secretary of the local Party branch to rescind these arrangements and allow poor peasants to live in the house.2 Because this was done the house was spared from marauding Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution; local villagers also took care to conceal the location of the graves of Liu' s ancestors.3 Following Liu's verdict reversal in March 1980 the local commune engaged in repairing the house and access road for tourists.