Mao Zedong was born on 26 December 1893 in a small village in Shaoshan, Hunan Province, into a wealthy farming family. His father, Mao Yichang, was an authoritarian and strict father who never failed to discipline little Mao, while his mother, Wen Qimei, had a gentler nature and was a devout Buddhist.

Mao spent his childhood working in agriculture with his family and attending the local primary schools, where he learnt the traditional Chinese Confucian classics. From a young age, however, Mao showed a rebellious spirit and, contrary to popular belief, was always quite hostile to rigid rules and social norms. At the age of 13, he was forced to leave school to help his family in the fields, but his curious spirit led him to secretly continue reading Chinese classics and pursue his studies independently.

At the age of 16, he moved to Changsha, the provincial capital, where he again devoted himself to full-time studies. It was during this period that he first came into contact with the political ideas of the time, which spoke of social revolutions, progress and modernity, in stark contrast to the general perception of decadence of the Qing dynasty. A few years later, the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 would put an end to the thousand-year old Chinese Empire, which was eventually reorganised into a republic.

During this period, Mao, who was eighteen years old at the time, briefly joined the revolutionary army, also making his small contribution to the fall of the Qing. After the revolution, he enrolled at the Changsha Normal School, where he furthered his studies and became increasingly interested in the West. His favourite authors included Darwin, Rousseau and Montesquieu, as well as Marxist thinkers.

The turning point came when he started working at his university's library: this experience allowed him to come into contact with key figures of the nascent Chinese communist movement who attended the same university and library where the young Mao worked.