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Mao also made no move to stop Jiang Qing in the spring of 1968, when she turned viciously against me.

The problem began with my wife. Kang Sheng's list of hidden counterrevolutionaries was growing, and he had decided to put Lillian on it. Lillian's past had never been secret, and Kang Sheng had no trouble discovering that she had worked for both the British and the Americans and had relatives who lived on Taiwan. Her past made her triply suspect. Had she been a spy for the British? The Americans? The Guomindang? Perhaps for all three? Kang Sheng called for a thorough investigation of her case.

Jiang Qing wanted me investigated, too. I was also a counterrevolutionary, she said, and no less suspect than my wife. My case was turned over to Wang Dongxing.

Wang naturally came to my defense, assuring both Kang Sheng and Jiang Qing that I had already been thoroughly investigated. Of course he would look into the matter again, but he was certain my problems, if any, were minor.

Jiang Qing persisted but tried a different tack. On July 1, 1968, the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist party, after presiding over an evening of celebration in the Great Hall of the People, the Chairman's wife came down with a toothache. She wanted a doctor to take a look. Wang Dongxing sent for me.

I protested. Jiang Qing needed a dentist, not a doctor. Besides, how could she trust me? She had already accused me of being a counterrevolutionary when I had tried to care for her earlier. I suspected a trap. Jiang Qing's real enemies within Zhongnanhai were Wang Dongxing and Zhou Enlai, and they were her ultimate targets. To declare me a counterrevolutionary was the first step in declaring Wang and Zhou counterrevolutionary, too. Jiang Qing's nearly psychotic behavior was part of her political plot.

Jiang Qing was also Wang Dongxing's ultimate target, and he was determined, finally, to do her in. But Wang Dongxing, for now, preached reconciliation. He wanted me to find her a dentist and use the opportunity both to demonstrate my respect for the Chairman's wife and to smooth over our troubled relationship. Reluctantly, I agreed.

I asked two leading dentists from the 301 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army to move into Diaoyutai, where Jiang Qing was still living, and to prepare to work with the Chairman's wife. Jiang Qing kept them waiting six days before finally consenting to an examination. The dentists discovered that one of her teeth was loose and possibly infected. They thought it should be extracted, and Jiang Qing agreed.

The dentists wanted to give Jiang Qing a shot of antibiotics before performing the extraction and asked her nurse to test for a possible allergy. The skin test proved negative, and the nurse administered the antibiotic.

About half an hour later, Jiang Qing became hysterical. She itched all over. There was poison in that shot, she yelled. Terrified, her young nurse came running to me, pleading for my help. I examined Jiang Qing but could find nothing wrong. Her pulse and heartbeat were normal, and there was no evidence of rash or irritation on her skin. I thought a tranquilizer might help sooth her nerves, but she refused the medication and sent for Wang Dongxing instead.

“Li Zhisui tried to poison me with medicine,” the Chairman's wife exploded as soon as Wang walked in. Wang asked me to leave while he met alone with Jiang Qing.

Then he met with me. Even after listening to my account of the skin test, he still thought that Jiang Qing might be having an allergic reaction. I disagreed. I had examined her skin, taken her blood pressure, listened to her heart. Everything normal. Nothing wrong.

Suddenly, I was struck by the gravity of Jiang Qing's accusations. She was charging me with deliberately trying to poison her. “I have to see the Chairman right away,” I told Wang Dongxing. “I have to tell him about this.”

“It won't work,” Wang responded. “Jiang Qing wants me to report to the Chairman. If you get there first, she will be all the more upset. We have asked the Chairman to come here to Diaoyutai.” Wang wanted me to wait for Mao and explain my side when he came.

I waited alone in the reception room just outside Jiang Qing's living quarters. Jiang Qing's bodyguards and staff had disappeared, so frightened by her outburst that they wanted nothing to do with me.

An hour passed, and still Mao did not come. I felt like a prisoner awaiting a verdict.

Then he walked into the reception room, escorted by head nurse Wu Xujun, her hand on his arm. I rose to greet him, but he just stared at me blankly without a word, not even acknowledging my presence, walking straight into Jiang Qing's bedroom. When Wang Dongxing came out, I asked what he had told the Chairman.

“I told him that Jiang Qing wanted him to come over because she had had an allergic reaction to a shot of medicine.”

I was furious. “But I told you I had examined her and that everything is normal. Why didn't you tell him that? Jiang Qing is trying to ruin me by cooking up a false case against me.”

Just at that moment the door to Jiang Qing's bedroom opened and Mao walked out. Again he stared right past me as though I did not exist, leaving without saying a word.

Even Wang Dongxing was worried then. “Jiang Qing is playing tricks,” he said. “She may try to send one of her people over here to kidnap you. I think it's best if you go back to the textile plant. Once you get there, don't leave. My troops from the Central Garrison Corps are there. They'll try to protect you. It might work. You may be safe.”

I wanted desperately to talk to Lillian, to warn her that I might be arrested or abducted. But she was at work when I returned home, so I could only write her a note, saying that I had to leave and might be away for a while.

I hid at Beijing Textile Factory for two weeks, cut off from any news about my fate. When I could stand it no longer, I left to meet with Wang Dongxing. Only then did I learn what had happened.

Just after I had left Diaoyutai, Jiang Qing gathered all her secretaries, bodyguards, nurses, and chefs together and ordered them to sign a joint statement accusing me of attempting to poison her. Naturally, they complied. That night, Jiang Qing received a visit from Lin Biao and his wife, Ye Qun. Jiang Qing told them that I was a counterrevolutionary—that I had been a counterrevolutionary before 1949 and was a counterrevolutionary now. She gave the unused portion of her medicine to Ye Qun and asked her to have it analyzed, emphasizing repeatedly that the medicine was poisonous and that she expected the analysis to reach the same conclusion.

Ye Qun, in turn, had called Wang Dongxing. Jiang Qing, Lin Biao's wife was certain, would only be satisfied with a report that the medicine was poisonous.

Wang urged Ye Qun to have a genuine evaluation made by qualified lab technicians and to present the results to Jiang Qing just as she received them. The matter was not so simple as Jiang Qing pretended. The medicine, Wang reminded Ye Qun, had not come directly from me but from a pharmacy that was under the supervision of the Central Garrison Corps. Ultimate responsibility for the medicine rested with Wang Dongxing. According to the rules, a physician could prescribe medicine for Mao, Jiang Qing, and other top leaders, but the doctor could not actually pick up the medicine. If there was a problem, the pharmacy was responsible, not me.

Ye Qun had the medicine analyzed by the military's Academy of Medical Science. The report concluded that the medicine in the bottle corresponded with the label. No poison was discovered.

Jiang Qing was furious. When Ye Qun showed her the results, the Chairman's wife snatched both the medicine and the written report and threw them to the floor, asserting that the report had been written by some “bad element” in the Academy of Medical Science.

Ye Qun fought back, defending herself and her husband. She explained to Jiang Qing that she and Lin Biao had considered the matter of the greatest importance. Lin Biao himself had personally delivered the medicine to the president of the Academy of Medical Science. The analysis had been treated with the utmost gravity and care.

Nothing could placate Jiang Qing, and the two women parted unhappily. Ye Qun, however, had the foresight to pick up the medicine and the report and to deposit both for safekeeping with Wang Dongxing. The strains in the alliance between Jiang Qing and Lin Biao had already begun to show. Wang Dongxing was leaning to the side of Lin Biao. I was a helpless pawn in their political tug-of-war.

Jiang Qing's tooth problem persisted—although in fact it was so loose that a gentle yank would have dislodged it. Lin Biao and Zhou Enlai took responsibility for finding her doctors and dispatched Wu Jieping and Bian Zhiqiang to treat her. When she met the two new doctors, she again accused me of trying to poison her and demanded that the two men sign a statement charging me with administering poison. Wu and Bian were dumbfounded and raised the problem with Wang Dongxing. He advised them to tell the truth. They did, defending me, and Jiang Qing sent them away.

But Jiang Qing still had the accusation from her staff. She showed the signed document to Zhou Enlai and asked Zhou to issue an order for my arrest.

Zhou waffled. I was Chairman Mao's personal physician, he pointed out. The order for my arrest would have to come from Mao. Jiang Qing urged Zhou Enlai to meet with the Chairman.

Zhou, too, consulted with Wang Dongxing. Wang suggested that Zhou Enlai explain the whole situation to Mao and ask the Chairman how to handle it. Wang himself did not want to raise the issue directly with Mao. If medicine under his jurisdiction were determined to be poisonous, Wang, too, would be implicated.

Zhou Enlai met with Mao and defended me. Because of my long association with Group One, he said, I was well known to most people in Zhongnanhai. My work might not always be satisfactory, but Zhou was convinced I would never do deliberate harm.

Some two weeks after the event, Mao finally agreed. “Li Zhisui is with me day and night,” he told Zhou. “If he were counterrevolutionary, why wouldn't he harm me instead of Jiang Qing? Wouldn't it be a lot easier for him to harm me? A long time ago Jiang Qing accused the doctors and nurses of trying to harm her because she found out that some of her sleeping pills were fake. I told her that some of my sleeping pills were fake too. They were supposed to be. That way we would take fewer real ones.”

But I was not fully back in Mao's favor. He did not actively intervene on my behalf, and Wang Dongxing was certain that Jiang Qing would persist in trying to get rid of me. I still was not safe. “You can't go home,” he said. “She may still send someone there to abduct you. You have to stay in Beijing Textile Factory. The medic, Li, is there. If there is trouble, send him to tell me.”

I stayed in the factory for more than two months, in constant fear of abduction. Jiang Qing and the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group had almost unbridled power. There was nothing to stop her, not even Mao. Mao did not always know what Jiang Qing was doing then, and she could easily direct others to abduct me and later deny responsibility, claiming not to know.