Mao Zedong

=== Literary works ===
{{main|Poetry of Mao Zedong}}
As did most Chinese intellectuals of his generation, Mao's education began with [[Chinese classics|Chinese classical literature]]. Mao told Edgar Snow in 1936 that he had started the study of the Confucian [[Analects]] and the [[Four Books and Five Classics|Four Books]] at a village school when he was eight, but that the books he most enjoyed reading were ''[[Water Margin]]'', ''[[Journey to the West]]'', the ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' and ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]''.<ref name="Barnstone">Barnstone, Willis (1972; rpr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1SCD3xwYwJ0C&pg=PP1 The Poems of Mao Zedong]''. pp. 3–4. {{ISBN|0520935004}}.</ref> Mao published poems in classical forms starting in his youth and his abilities as a poet contributed to his image in China after he came to power in 1949. His style was influenced by the great [[Tang dynasty]] poets [[Li Bai]] and [[Li He]].<ref>Ng, Yong-sang (1963). "The Poetry of Mao Tse-tung". ''The China Quarterly'' '''13''': 60–73. {{doi|10.1017/S0305741000009711}}.</ref>

Some of his best known poems are "[[Changsha (poem)|Changsha]]" (1925), "[[The Double Ninth]]" (October 1929), "Loushan Pass" (1935), "The Long March" (1935), "[[Snow (1936 poetry)|Snow]]" (February 1936), "[[The PLA Captures Nanjing]]" (1949), "[[Reply to Li Shuyi]]" (11 May 1957), and "Ode to the Plum Blossom" (December 1961).