Zhou Enlai was born in Huaian, Jiangsu Province. His family, although of the educated scholar class, was not well off. His grandfather, a minor civil servant of the Emperor, was poorly paid. His father repeatedly failed the Imperial examinations, and throughout his life would be employed in low-paying minor clerkships. Lady Chen, his adoptive mother, began to teach him the Chinese ideograms as soon as he could toddle. By the time he was four years old he could read and write several hundred words.