Twenty-one years the junior of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang was born in 1888 in Chekiang province.[12] His family was of a class intermediate between the truly eminent landlord-official or merchant families, and the farmers. They had been farmers, but also minor gentry, and had been connected with the salt-revenue system. His grandfather attained considerable renown as a scholar, but Chiang's own father died when Chiang was eight years of age. The child had few special advantages. His family background is one which is of common occurrence among political leaders; his widowed mother, mastering and managing for the family, inculcated a sharp morality, an unrelenting frugality, and a persistent drive of industriousness in her children. To such a person, who rises from poverty and hardship by his own efforts, the failure of others to do likewise becomes a personal problem. By his own case he has proved that opportunities are there. He is impatient with the poor, the stupid, or the shiftless; instead of re-arranging society to give them a chance, he expects them to improve themselves to meet existing realities. Chiang has not explicitly stated all these points; many of them are qualified by the fact that the _status quo_ in modern China is the _status quo_ of perpetual revolution. [Footnote 12: Biographies of Chiang are: Chen Tsung-hsi _et al._, _General Chiang Kai-shek, the Builder of New China_, Shanghai, 1929; Tong, Hollington K. (Tung Hsien-kuang), _Chiang Kai-shek, Soldier and Statesman_, 2 vols., Shanghai, 1937, the authorized biography and a model of its kind; Berkov, Robert, _Strong Man of China_, Boston, 1938; and Hedin, Sven, _Chiang Kai-shek, Marshal of China_, New York, 1940. _Who's Who in China_ is, as usual, useful for Chiang and for the members of his family. Almost every book on modern China, or magazine dealing with Asiatic materials, has discussions of Chiang. Among the most noteworthy writers on his career and personality are Gustav Amann, whose account remains the most carefully detailed; Edgar Snow and John Gunther, the reporters mentioned above; and Harold Isaacs. The Generalissimo's own diary and speeches, together with Mme. Chiang's writings, are unconsciously rather than deliberately revelatory.]