Xia De-hong, who survived persecution and torture as an official in Mao Zedong’s China and was later the central figure in her daughter’s best-selling 1991 memoir, “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China,” died on April 15 in Chengdu, China. She was 94.

夏德鸿曾是毛泽东时代的一名中国干部，经历迫害和酷刑后得以幸存。后来她成为其女1991年出版的畅销回忆录《鸿：三代中国女人的故事》(Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China)中的核心人物。她于4月15日在中国成都去世，享年94岁。

Ms. Xia’s death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her daughter Jung Chang.

夏德鸿在医院去世的消息由她的女儿张戎证实。

Ms. Chang’s memoir, which was banned in China, was a groundbreaking, intimate account of the country’s turbulent 20th century and the iron grip of Mao’s Communist Party, told through the lives of three generations of women: herself, her mother and her grandmother. An epic of imprisonment, suffering and family loyalty, it sold over 15 million copies in 40 languages.

张戎的回忆录在中国遭禁，这本书通过她自己、她母亲和她姥姥这三代女性的生活，对中国动荡的20世纪以及毛泽东领导的共产党实施的铁腕控制进行了开创性的、细致入微的描述。这部关于监禁、苦难和家族忠诚的史诗之作已被翻译成40种语言，销量超过1500万册。

The story of Ms. Chang’s stoic mother holding the family together while battling on behalf of her husband, a functionary who was tortured and imprisoned during Mao’s regime, was the focus of “Wild Swans,” which emerged out of hours of recordings that Ms. Chang made when Ms. Xia visited her in London in 1988.

张戎的母亲性格坚忍，在为她丈夫——一名在毛泽东时代遭受酷刑和监禁的干部——奔走抗争的同时，努力维持着整个家庭，这个故事是《鸿》一书的核心。这本书源于1988年夏德鸿在伦敦看望张戎时后者录制的长达数小时的录音。

Ms. Xia was inspired as a teenager to become an ardent Communist revolutionary because of the mistreatment of women in the Republic of China, as well as the corruption of the Kuomintang nationalists in power. (Her own mother had been forced into concubinage at 15 by a powerful warlord.)

由于目睹中华民国时期女性遭受的不公待遇以及执政的国民党民族主义者的腐败，还是个青少年的夏德鸿受到感召，成为热忱的共产主义革命者。（她自己的母亲15岁时被迫成为一名权势显赫的军阀的妾室。）

In 1947, in Ms. Xia’s home city of Jinzhou, the Communists were waging guerrilla war against the government. She joined the struggle by distributing pamphlets for Mao, rolling them up inside green peppers after they had been smuggled into the city in bundles of sorghum stalks.

1947年，在夏德鸿的家乡锦州，共产党人对政府发起游击战。她投身斗争，分发毛主席的传单，把传单藏进大捆的高粱秆里偷运进城，然后塞进大甜椒里。

Captured by the Kuomintang, she was forced to listen to “the screams of people being tortured in the rooms nearby,” her daughter later wrote. But that only stiffened her resolve.

在被国民党俘虏后，她被迫听着“隔壁刑讯室不停传出的惨叫声”，她的女儿后来写道。但这只是让她的意志更加坚定。

1949年，新婚的夏德鸿和丈夫张守愚身着共产党军装，踏上了前往四川的漫长旅程。

She married Chang Shou-yu, an up-and-coming Communist civil servant and acolyte of Mao, in 1949.

1949年，她嫁给了张守愚，他是一位前途无量的共产党干部，也是毛泽东的追随者。

It was then that disillusionment began to set in, according to her daughter. The newlyweds were ordered to travel a thousand miles to Sichuan, her husband’s home province. Because of Mr. Chang’s rank, he was allowed to ride in a jeep, but she had to walk, even though she was pregnant, and suffered a miscarriage as a result.

根据她女儿的记述，正是从那时起，幻灭感开始滋生。这对新婚夫妇奉命前往千里之外丈夫的家乡四川。由于张守愚的职级，他获准乘坐吉普车，她却只能步行，尽管当时她怀有身孕，并因此导致了流产。

“She was vomiting all the time,” her daughter wrote. “Could he not let her travel in his jeep occasionally? He said he could not, because it would be taken as favoritism since my mother was not entitled to the car.”

“她向父亲提出，要他偶尔让她搭吉普车，她说自己累得不得了，又经常呕吐，”她的女儿写道。“父亲说他不能这样做，按规定母亲没有资格乘车，坐他的车就是‘夫贵妻荣’。”

That was the first of many times that her husband would insist she bow to the rigid dictates of the party, despite the immense suffering it caused.

那是她丈夫第一次坚持要她屈从党的死板规定，在那之后还有很多次，这给她带来了巨大的痛苦。

When she was a party official in the mid-1950s, Ms. Xia was investigated for her “bourgeois” background and imprisoned for months. She received little support from Mr. Chang.

在20世纪50年代中期担任党内干部时，夏德鸿因其“资产阶级”背景而受到调查，并被监禁了几个月。她几乎没有得到张守愚的支持。

“As my mother was leaving for detention,” Ms. Chang wrote, “my father advised her: ‘Be completely honest with the party, and have complete trust in it. It will give you the right verdict.’ A wave of aversion swept over her.”

“母亲离家时，”张戎写道。“我父亲对她叮嘱道：对党要忠诚老实，相信党会作出正确的结论。我母亲顿觉一阵委屈。”

Upon her release in 1957, she told her husband, “You are a good Communist, but a rotten husband.” Mr. Chang could only nod in agreement.

1957年她获释后，她对丈夫说：“你是个好党员，不是个好丈夫。”张守愚只能点头表示同意。

He became one of the top officials in Sichuan, entitled to a life of privilege. But by the late 1960s, he had become outraged by the injustices of the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s blood-soaked purge, and was determined to register a formal complaint.

他成为了四川省的高级干部之一，享有特权生活。但到了20世纪60年代末，他对文化大革命（毛泽东发动的充满血腥的清洗运动）中的不公正感到愤慨，决心正式提出申诉。

Ms. Xia was in despair; she knew what became of families who spoke out. “Why do you want to be a moth that throws itself into the fire?” she asked.

夏德鸿陷入了绝望；她知道那些敢于发声的家庭的下场。“你这不是飞蛾扑火，自取灭亡吗？”她问。

Mr. Chang’s career was over, and both he and his wife were subjected to physical abuse and imprisoned. Ms. Xia’s position was lower profile; she was in charge of resolving personal problems, such as housing, transfers and pensions, for people in her district. But that did not save her from brutal treatment.

张守愚的政治生涯结束了，他和妻子不仅遭受身体虐待，还遭到监禁。夏德鸿的职位比较低调，负责解决她所在地区群众的个人问题，比如住房、调动和养老金。但这并未能让她逃脱残酷对待。

Ms. Xia was made to kneel on broken glass; paraded through the streets of Chengdu wearing a dunce’s cap and a heavy placard with her name crossed out; and forced to bow to jeering crowds.

夏德鸿被迫跪在碎玻璃上；戴着高帽，脖子上挂着写有她名字、上面还打了大叉的沉重牌子，在成都游街示众；并被迫向嘲弄她的人群鞠躬。

Still, she resisted pressure from the party to denounce her husband. And unlike many other women in her position, she refused to divorce him.

尽管如此，她还是顶住了党要求她批判丈夫的压力。而且与许多处境相同的女性不同，她拒绝与丈夫离婚。

Twice she journeyed to Beijing to seek his release, the second time securing a meeting with the prime minister, Zhou Enlai, who was considered a moderate. Ms. Xia was “one of the very few spouses of victims who had the courage to go and appeal in Peking,” her daughter wrote in “Wild Swans.”

她曾两次前往北京寻求让他获释，第二次更是争取到与被视为温和派的周恩来总理会面的机会。夏女士是“极少有妻子像母亲这样大胆来京替丈夫伸冤”，她的女儿在《鸿》中写道。

But Ms. Xia and her husband never criticized the Cultural Revolution in front of their children, checked by the party’s absolute power and the fear it inspired.

但是，夏德鸿和丈夫从未在孩子面前批评过文化大革命，党的绝对权力以及由此激发的恐惧限制了他们。

“My parents never said anything to me or my siblings,” Ms. Chang wrote. “The restraints which had kept them silent about politics before still prevented them from opening their minds to us.”

“这些事父母从没对我们孩子们提起过，”张戎写道。“他们从来就不和我们谈政治斗争，现在更不可能开口了。”

She was held at Xichiang prison camp from 1969 to 1971 as a “class enemy,” made to do heavy labor and endure denunciation meetings.

1969年至1971年，夏德鸿作为“阶级敌人”被关押在西昌的干校，被迫从事繁重的体力劳动，并忍受批斗会。

The camp, though less harsh than her husband’s, was a bitter experience. “She reflected with remorse on the pointlessness of her devotion,” her daughter wrote. “She found she missed her children with a pain which was almost unbearable.”

这个干校虽然条件比她丈夫所在的干校要宽松一些，但也是一段痛苦的经历。“现在我母亲悔恨地想着她的一片忠心似乎毫无意义，”她的女儿写道。“她以一种无法忍耐的心疼想念着孩子们。”

Xia De-hong was born on May 4, 1931, in Yixian, the daughter of Yang Yu-fang and Gen. Xue Zhi-heng, the inspector general of the metropolitan police in the nationalist government.

夏德鸿于1931年5月4日在义县出生，母亲名叫杨玉芳，父亲是北洋政府京师警察总监薛之珩将军。

When she was an infant, her mother fled the house of the general, who was dying, and returned to her parents, eventually marrying a rich Manchurian doctor, Xia Rui-tang.

在她还是婴儿的时候，她的母亲从病危将军的家中逃出来，回到自己父母身边，最终嫁给东北一位富有的医生夏瑞堂。

夏德鸿（左），照片中她还是个小女孩，站在母亲身旁，旁边是她的继父及其家中的两位亲属。

Ms. Xia grew up in Jinzhou, Manchuria, where she attended school before joining the Communist underground.

夏德鸿在东北锦州长大，在那里上学，后来加入了共产党地下组织。

In the 1950s, when she began to have doubts about the Communist Party, she considered abandoning it and pursuing her dream of studying medicine, her daughter said. But the idea terrified her husband, Ms. Chang said in an interview, because it would have meant disavowing the Communists.

据其女儿所述，20世纪50年代，她开始对共产党产生怀疑，曾经考虑脱离党，去追求自己学医的梦想，她的女儿说。但张戎在一次采访中表示，这个想法吓坏了她的丈夫，因为这意味着与共产党划清界限。

By the late 1950s, during the Mao-induced Great Famine that killed tens of millions, both of her parents had become “totally disillusioned,” Ms. Chang said, and “could no longer find excuses to forgive their party.”

张戎说，到了20世纪50年代末，在毛泽东引发的导致数千万人死亡的大饥荒期间，她的父母都“彻底幻灭”，并且“再也找不到任何借口来原谅他们的党”。

Mr. Chang died in 1975, broken by years of imprisonment and ill treatment. Ms. Xia retired from her government service, as deputy head of the People’s Congress of the Eastern District of Chengdu, in 1983.

张守愚于1975年去世，多年的监禁和虐待摧垮了他。夏德鸿于1983年从政府职务上退休，退休前担任成都市东城区人民代表大会副主任。

Besides Ms. Chang, Ms. Xia is survived by another daughter, Xiao-hong Chang; three sons, Jin-ming, Xiao-hei and Xiao-fang; and two grandchildren.

除了张戎，夏女士的遗属还包括另一个女儿张小鸿；三个儿子京明、小黑和小方；以及两个孙辈。

Jung Chang saw her mother for the last time in 2018. Ms. Chang’s criticism of the regime, in her memoir and a subsequent biography, made returning to China unthinkable. She told the BBC in a recent interview that she never knew whether her mother had read “Wild Swans.”

张戎最后一次见到母亲是在2018年。张女士在回忆录以及后来的一部传记中对政权的批评，使她返回中国变得不可想象。她前不久接受BBC采访时说，她一直不知道母亲是否读过《鸿》。

But the advice her mother gave her and her brother Xiao-hei, a journalist who also lives in London, was firm: “She only wanted us to write truthfully, and accurately.”

但母亲给她和同样居住在伦敦的记者弟弟小黑的忠告却十分坚定：“她只希望我们如实、准确地写作。”