 Most of what is known about their marriage comes from an account Mao gave to American reporter Edgar Snow in 1936 , which Snow included in his book Red Star Over China . According to Mao , he and Luo Yixiu were the subject of an arranged marriage organised by their respective fathers , Mao Yichang and Luo Helou . Luo was eighteen and Mao just fourteen years old at the time of their betrothal . Although Mao took part in the wedding ceremony , he later stated that he was unhappy with the marriage , never consummating it and refusing to live with his wife . Socially disgraced , she lived with Mao 's parents for two years until she died of dysentery , while he moved out of the village to continue his studies elsewhere , eventually becoming a founding member of the Communist Party of China . Various biographers have suggested that Mao 's experience of this marriage affected his later views , leading him to become a critic of arranged marriage and a vocal feminist . He would marry three more times throughout his life , to Yang Kaihui , He Zizhen and Jiang Qing , the last of whom was better known as Madame Mao . 
