Mao Zedong visited a farmer's family in Shaoshan, Hunan province, in June 1959. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Tracing the history of the family, the book, which he took three years to complete, recounts the time in 1921 when Mao Zedong returned to his hometown Shaoshan, in Hunan, for a brief reunion with younger brothers Mao Zemin and Mao Zetan. He then persuaded them to leave Shaoshan and move to Changsha to get involved in the revolutionary cause.

The book also talks about how Mao Zemin first improved the canteen of the school that his older brother was managing in Changsha, and how he later began to do publishing work for the Party in Shanghai, and also helped with the financial operations at the Red Revolutionary Base in Jiangxi, and then worked in Xinjiang, where he was murdered in 1943 at the age of 47.

As for Mao Zetan, the book tells how he joined the army and was killed in Jiangxi in 1935, at the age of 29.

The book also dwells on how the three Mao brothers interacted at different stages of their lives, their marriages and their children, besides dealing with Mao Zedong's decisions when he was leading the Chinese to liberation.

Explaining how he went about doing research for his book, he says: "Besides the archives, I also learned about the family's history from relatives and my grandfather's peers."

Some of Mao's extended family were present at the book launch.