Jiang Qing (pinyin: Jiāng Qīng; Wade–Giles: Chiang Ch'ing; IPA: [tɕjɑ́ŋ tɕʰíŋ]; 20 March 1914 – 14 May 1991) was the pseudonym that was used by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's last wife and major Communist Party of China power figure. She went by the stage name Lan Ping (Chinese: 蓝苹) during her acting career, and was known by various other names during her life. She married Mao in Yan'an in November 1938, and is sometimes referred to as Madame Mao in Western literature, serving as Communist China's first first lady. Jiang Qing was most well known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and for forming the radical political alliance known as the "Gang of Four". She was named the "Great Flag-carrier of the Proletarian Culture" (无产阶级文艺伟大旗手/無產階級文藝偉大旗手).

Jiang Qing served as Mao's personal secretary in the 1940s and was head of the Film Section of the CPC Propaganda Department in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, she made a bid for power during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), which resulted in widespread chaos within the communist party. In 1966 she was appointed deputy director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and claimed real power over Chinese politics for the first time. She became one of the masterminds of the Cultural Revolution, and along with three others, held absolute control over all of the national institutions.

The Gang of Four (simplified Chinese: 四人帮; traditional Chinese: 四人幫; pinyin: Sìrén bàng) was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The members consisted of Mao Zedong's last wife Jiang Qing, the leading figure of the group, and her close associates Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen.

The Gang of Four effectively controlled the power organs of the Communist Party of China through the latter stages of the Cultural Revolution, although it remains unclear which major decisions were made through Mao Zedong and carried out by the Gang, and which were the result of the Gang of Four's own planning.

The Gang of Four, together with disgraced Communist general Lin Biao, were labeled the two major "counter-revolutionary forces" of the Cultural Revolution and officially blamed by the Chinese government for the worst excesses of the societal chaos that ensued during the ten years of turmoil. Their downfall in a coup d'état on October 6, 1976, a mere month after Mao's death, brought about major celebrations on the streets of Beijing and marked the end of a turbulent political era in China.

Li Jiang (李絳) (764 – March 8, 830), courtesy name Shenzhi (深之), formally Duke Zhen of Zhao Commandery (趙郡貞公), was an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.

Li Jiang was born in 764, during the reign of Emperor Daizong. His family was part of the prominent Li clan of Zhao Prefecture (趙州, in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei) — not part of the same clan as Tang Dynasty's imperial Li clan, but which had been considered one of the five most prominent Han clans of Northern Wei. It traced its ancestry to the prominent Warring States Period state Zhao general Li Mu, and the line included officials of Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Cao Wei, Jin Dynasty (265-420), Northern Wei, Sui Dynasty, and Tang. His grandfather Li Gang (李岡) served as a county magistrate, while his father Li Yuanshan (李元善) served as a prefectural official.

After Li Jiang passed the imperial examinations, including a special examination in grand speech, he was made Xiaoshu Lang (校書郎), a copyeditor at the archival bureau, and later served as the sheriff of Weinan County (渭南, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi). Late in the Zhenyuan era (785-805) of Emperor Daizong's son Emperor Dezong, Li Jiang became an imperial censor with the title Jiancha Yushi (監察御史).

Philip Short (born 17 April 1945) is a journalist and author.

He was born in Bristol on 17 April 1945. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge. After graduation, he spent from 1967 to 1973 as a freelance journalist, first in Malawi, then in Uganda. He then joined the BBC as a foreign correspondent. He worked there for 25 years. He is the author of several books, among them the biographies of Mao Zedong, Mao: A Life, and Pol Pot, Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare.

He presented a TV documentary on Mao Zedong entitled "Mao's Bloody Revolution Revealed" on the UK Terrestrial station Five in May 2007.