Figure | Premier Zhou and his wife Deng Yingchao
preface:
After Zhou Enlai's death, the famous diplomat Li Shengjiao wrote a poem to commemorate Premier Zhou:
Wuhou Xingluo, Jiangshan is still the same, Qianqiu lonely sage. Throw in lanshan, strategize Whampoa, and have a difficult life. Morality shoulders the burden, the protection of the country is determined early, and the world is chang'an. The sun and the moon are menstruating, and the great luan Xiangyu yu Haoran. The boat does not avoid the fierce waves, there is a pillar in the middle, which can be compared to gold. Eight arrays of pictures are broken, three points of dreams are shattered, and there is no empty talk in slander. Long tears filled the green shirt, sighed the noon gate shock, rain covered the clouds. The love remains, and the cultivators go to the empty garden.
In the speech, he likened Premier Zhou to Zhuge Kongming, expressing his infinite admiration for the premier and great sorrow for the death of Premier Zhou. Reading this poem again, it seems that time has returned to the heart-wrenching days of Premier Zhou's later years before 1976.
Figure | Premier Zhou
Premier Zhou was seriously ill and continued to work
On May 25, 1974, Zhou Enlai dragged his seriously ill body and, as usual, kindly brought British Prime Minister Edward into Chairman Mao's study. At this time, Chairman Mao's physical condition was not very good, and when he saw the foreign guests coming, he quickly stood up to greet him with the support of the nurses, and Zhou Enlai introduced several people who accompanied Edward to Chairman Mao one by one, and he stood outside the camera as always.
Chairman Mao and Edward Heath saw each other as they were, like old friends who had been reunited for a long time, and talked happily. Premier Zhou knew that Chairman Mao was not in good health, and was worried that the long conversation time would affect the chairman's rest, so he consciously or unconsciously looked at his watch three times during their conversation, and Edward understood it in his heart, and after talking with Chairman Mao for an hour, he got up and said goodbye.
After Edward hurriedly left, Chairman Mao immediately got up from the sofa, and a rare smile appeared on the old man's face. Under Premier Zhou's arrangement, Chairman Mao was allowed to go back to his room to rest, while he himself sent the foreign guests away. Chairman Mao, who had already entered his old age, couldn't help but choke up a few times when he saw Premier Zhou, who was working day and night.
Four days later, Premier Zhou took Malaysian Prime Minister Razak to meet chairman Mao, and after this conversation, Premier Zhou seemed to see Chairman Mao's expression and was a little reluctant. On leaving, Premier Zhou turned back and shook Chairman Mao's hand tightly. This action seems to tell Chairman Mao, don't worry, I can still handle the work. At this moment, the accompanying photojournalist immediately captured this historic scene. The handshake between Premier Zhou and Chairman Mao seems to make people see two young people who were struggling for the revolutionary cause more than 40 years ago. This time, the two comrades-in-arms in their later years once again looked at each other, and once again they both clasped together, great, tearful eyes.
Figure | Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou in 1974
But who would have thought that this would actually become the last public handshake between Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou.
At 9:57 a.m. on January 8, 1976, our beloved Premier Zhou passed away at the 301 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army in Beijing at the age of 78. Before Premier Zhou's death, he was still working non-stop, constantly caring about the size of his work. When Chairman Mao heard the news of Premier Zhou's death, he burst into tears. On the same day, Zhang Yaoci, director of the Security Bureau, told Chairman Mao the bad news to the nurse on duty at the door and did not dare to tell Chairman Mao. The nurse wrote the matter down on a piece of paper and placed it on a table in the hall. At that time, Meng Jinyun took the note, and the tears brushed down, because she knew that Chairman Mao would not believe this fact. Meng Jinyun's eyes were red, and he quietly walked to Chairman Mao's bedroom, where Chairman Mao was taking a nap, and Meng Jinyun consulted with the staff and waited until Chairman Mao woke up.
After lunch, Chairman Mao rested for two hours, and when he woke up, Meng Jinyun read the telegram to Chairman Mao as usual, and Meng Jinyun planned to tell Chairman Mao the bad news at this time. Meng Jinyun paused for a moment while reading, and then read: Comrade Zhou Enlai, a great proletarian revolutionary and an outstanding communist fighter of the Chinese, died on January 8, 1976 because of cancer and ineffective medical treatment...
When Chairman Mao heard this news, his closed eyes suddenly opened, and after pondering for a long time, he finally reacted to the meaning of "resignation from the world." Suddenly, Chairman Mao's nose was sour, tears kept flowing from his eyes, and he nodded his head at Meng Jinyun heavily, indicating that he knew. Meng Jinyun did not know how to comfort Chairman Mao, who was crying into tears, and he couldn't help but cry with it.
Figure | Premier Zhou passed away
In fact, as early as 1972, Premier Zhou's health was already unwell, during that time Nixon's visit to China, although it was only a short week, but Premier Zhou has been accompanying, Premier Zhou worked day and night, "exhausted heart", Nixon left China two months later, doctors found out that Premier Zhou's urine test has problems. At that time, the doctor Zhang Zuoliang made five "possibilities": the first may be hardening of the blood vessels; the second is the urinary tract stones; the third is the inflammation of the bladder; the fourth is the malformation of the urethra vessels; the fifth is that there is a tumor in the blood vessels; the sixth is that he did not say it, which is the most frightening - cancer!
At that time, the situation was critical, and Zhang Zuoliang had to report to the Central Committee, in which Chairman Mao instructed: We should rest, work hard, and not be careless. At that time, Ye Jianying also felt that Premier Zhou's condition could not be sloppy, and whenever a document came, he gave Chairman Mao a treatment proposal at the first time, and Chairman Mao quickly approved it.
In February 1974, Premier Zhou's condition deteriorated, he often had blood in his stool, and was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and Chairman Mao was very worried, so he sent people to inquire about the condition every day. In order not to worry Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai did his best to write a handwritten letter to Chairman Mao, in which he said:
Bladder cancer has been slightly controlled after two surgeries and 3 electric burns... And the location of the tumor in the large intestine is exactly where I got liver abscess disease after the Shawo conference 40 years ago. ...... Because the chairman was very concerned about my illness, and now I suddenly reported the chairman with a new lesion, I was uneasy, so I explained the history of the illness and the historical cause of the illness clearly, and I asked the chairman to rest assured.
Ten million words are not to let Chairman Mao worry.
After Chairman Mao saw the letter, he sent Premier Zhou a sofa, which was the sofa that the staff had changed for Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao was very satisfied, thinking that Premier Zhou was also suffering from illness, so he ordered the staff: Send one to the premier too!
In May, Premier Zhou's condition became more serious, and Deng Yingchao saw premier Zhou rolling back and forth on the bed in pain and unable to sleep due to a coagulated blood clot blocking the urethra. Looking at this scene, Deng Yingchao had no way but to keep crying. At the end of the month, under the persuasion of Deng Yingchao, Premier Zhou finally agreed to the operation and was admitted to the 301 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army in June.
Figure | Premier Zhou in his later years
In fact, premier Zhou's condition was already obvious even earlier, but he was so busy with work that he even worked more than 18 hours a day for a week. An ordinary person may not be able to bear it under such a high-intensity work, let alone an old man in his 70s. Sometimes, Premier Zhou often works until one or two o'clock in the evening or even longer, and sometimes he has to stay up all night and work tirelessly. In a language textbook in the 1990s, there was an article entitled "One Night's Work", in which premier Zhou wrote:
He read it sentence by sentence, and after reading a sentence, he drew a small circle behind the sentence with a pen. Instead of browsing it all, he thought about it as he watched, sometimes stopped and thought about it, and sometimes asked me a word or two. ...... After drinking tea for a while, I heard the rooster crowing. The Prime Minister stood up and said to me, "I'm going to rest." Get some sleep in the morning and participate in activities in the afternoon. Go back to sleep too. "This is our prime minister. I saw him at work all night. How hard he was, how simple he was!
In November 1975, Premier Zhou's condition worsened, and it was difficult to urinate in bed, and it was very difficult to eat. The doctors and nurses who accompanied Premier Zhou did not shed tears for a day, they could not imagine how much physical suffering Premier Zhou suffered in his later years, they wanted to share the burden for the premier, but only the premier was alone in the duel with the disease. In order to alleviate Premier Zhou's pain, in Premier Zhou's last days, doctors gave him sleeping pills and painkillers, and his suffering can be imagined.
Figure | Photo of Premier Zhou's work
On New Year's Day 1976, Chairman Mao published two poems, "Re-entering Jinggangshan" and "Bird Questions and Answers.", and after learning about this, Premier Zhou deliberately asked his secretary to buy the newspaper and read it to him. When he heard "Don't fart, try to see the heavens and the earth turn upside down", a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and even a small laugh. He muttered, "What does the chairman's body look like?" ”
"Not much has changed." The doctor said.
"As long as the chairman is alive, I am relieved." Premier Zhou said.
On January 7, Premier Zhou woke up from his coma and saw the doctors who accompanied him day and night at the bedside, and Premier Zhou left the last words of his life: You have worked hard, I have nothing to do here, you still have to take care of other sick comrades, where you are more needed...
At the last moment of his life, Premier Zhou still had someone else in mind, and the staff present all shed tears when they heard these words.
On January 8, in the morning, Zhang Zuoliang came to Premier Zhou's hospital room to check as usual, but suddenly found that Premier Zhou's breathing was accelerated, and his lips were purple, Zhang Zuoliang immediately rang the emergency call bell at the head of the bed, and the medical team also rushed to enter the rescue state. After a few tens of minutes, the ECG became a straight line, which meant that Premier Zhou's heart stopped beating, and our beloved premier left us forever. The doctor then announced: The prime minister is dead, take these things away. Before the things were withdrawn, Deng Yingchao rushed to the hospital, she pounced on Premier Zhou's bedside and caressed Premier Zhou's face, teardrops kept falling on the ground, she bent down and gently kissed Premier Zhou's forehead, crying and saying: Enlai, you are gone...
At that moment, Deng Yingchao collapsed, and the staff at the scene kept crying. At noon, Deng Yingchao endured grief and announced Premier Zhou's last wish to everyone, hoping that everyone would not handle a memorial service for him, and would not save the ashes, but sprinkle the ashes to the sea.
Figure | Premier Zhou's memorial service
Li Xiannian was the first to disagree, saying: "If we don't hold a memorial service, we can't answer to the people of the whole country." Finally, after consultation, it was decided to hold Premier Zhou's memorial service as scheduled, and chairman Mao was asked for instructions on the issue of ashes.
When Chairman Mao learned that his comrades-in-arms who had experienced decades of ups and downs had died, he burst into tears, and as for Premier Zhou's last wish, Chairman Mao followed Premier Zhou's wish and sprinkled his ashes into the sea.
The secretary once asked Chairman Mao if he wanted to attend the premier's memorial service. Chairman Mao tried hard to step on his leg but could not get up at all, so he patted his leg hard with one hand and said with difficulty: I can't walk. When he finished, he cried bitterly. At that moment, as Premier Zhou's closest comrade-in-arms, the chairman was also very sad in his heart.
At 11 a.m. on January 8, Premier Zhou's body was secretly taken to a morgue in a Beijing hospital, and in the evening, Zhu Dianhua, a hairdresser, was invited to give Zhou Enlai one last haircut. According to Zhang Zuoliang's recollection, Zhu Dianhua saw Premier Zhou's remains suddenly burst out of his eyes, because Premier Zhou's appearance of being tormented by illness was unimaginable, his body was so thin that only skin and bones were left, his cheeks were sunken, his hair was sparse and disheveled, his face was full of beards, and his pale face was full of brown spots of old age. After Zhu Dianhua's sorting, Premier Zhou became much cleaner and immediately made preparations for the memorial service.
Figure | Deng Xiaoping at Premier Zhou's memorial service
On January 15, Zhou Enlai's memorial service was held as scheduled, and Deng Xiaoping delivered a eulogy. At the top of the memorial hall is a large banner reading, "Deeply mourn Comrade Zhou Enlai, the great proletarian revolutionary and outstanding communist fighter of the Chinese people!" In the middle hangs a huge portrait of Zhou Enlai, and the urn below is covered with a party flag. Headed by Chairman Mao, the Funeral Committee consisted of 107 members.
At the scene of the memorial service, Zhu De, Ye Jianying, Jiang Qing, and Deng Xiaoping all came to bid farewell to Premier Zhou, who was a close comrade-in-arms of Zhu De and also an introducer to the party. Jiang Qing followed behind Zhu De, and he was also very sad. Someone reminded Jiang Qing: Comrade Jiang Qing, please take off your hat. The hat removal ceremony is the basic etiquette at the memorial service, and Zhu De also said to Jiang Qing after hearing it, take off the hat. Jiang Qing said: I have a cold. Commander-in-Chief Zhu De missed the premier deeply, and he also had a temper with Jiang Qing: If you have a cold, don't come.
Subsequently, Deng Xiaoping read out the eulogy, and during the process of reading it, he choked up and finished reading it with tears:
Today, it is with great sorrow that we mourn Comrade Zhou Enlai, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a great proletarian revolutionary, an outstanding communist fighter, and an outstanding party and state leader who has Chinese the people for a long time. Since Comrade Zhou Enlai suffered from cancer in 1972, under the often cordial care of the great leader Chairman Mao and the CPC Central Committee, medical personnel have carried out meticulous treatment in many aspects. He has always persevered in his work and fought tenaciously against the disease. Due to the deterioration of his condition and the ineffectiveness of medical treatment, at 9:57 on January 8, 1976, Comrade Zhou Enlai's heart stopped beating. The whole Party, the whole army, and the people of the whole country are deeply saddened by the loss of our Prime Minister...
Figure | Deng Yingchao held Premier Zhou's urn
The ashes were scattered into the sea and returned to the arms of their mother
According to the prime minister's wishes, his ashes were scattered into the sea. After the memorial service, Deng Yingchao personally packed the ashes in four document bags, followed comrades Luo Qingchang, Guo Yufeng, Zhang Shuying, and other comrades sent by the party Central Committee to the airport to complete the task of scattering the ashes.
At 7 p.m., Deng Yingchao escorted the ashes to Tongxian Airport in the eastern suburbs of Beijing, and after boarding the plane, Deng Yingchao waved to everyone on behalf of Premier Zhou, bid farewell to Premier Zhou's comrades-in-arms, and to the people of the whole country.
Premier Zhou's ashes were scattered in four places: over Beijing, Miyun Reservoir in Beijing, haihe estuary in Tianjin, and estuary of the Yellow River in Binzhou, Shandong. For Premier Zhou, this is very meaningful. The first was scattered in Beijing because in 1918 Zhou Enlai and his comrades-in-arms left revolutionary footprints here. The second place was sprinkled on the Miyun Reservoir because Premier Zhou presided over the construction of the reservoir before his death and solved the problem of the people's draft in Beijing. The third place was sprinkled in Tianjin because it was the place where the premier was most involved in dangers in his youth, and it was also the place where he and Deng Yingchao knew each other. The most profound meaning is the fourth ashes, sprinkled at the mouth of the Yellow River, which has two meanings, one is that the Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese nation, which means that it finally returns to the embrace of the mother and repays the mother's nurturing grace. Another meaning is that Premier Zhou was very concerned about the Taiwan compatriots before his death, and he hoped that after scattering his ashes into the sea, he could take him to Taiwan against the current of water, live with the Taiwan compatriots, and hope that the motherland would realize reunification at an early date. Premier Zhou was a great patriot who took the "rise of China" as his responsibility since he was a child, and he was still concerned about the Taiwan issue after being seriously ill.
After Premier Zhou's affairs were handled, according to custom, the urn should be returned home for the night, but Premier Zhou also left a will, that is, to spend the urn in the Taiwan Hall of the Great Hall of the People, in order to make up for his wish that he had not been to Taiwan before his death and hoped that Taiwan would return to the motherland at an early date. On the evening of the 15th, Premier Zhou's urn was placed in the Taiwan Hall, surrounded by six pots of blooming daffodils, and the turquoise leaves set off the pale yellow flower buds, symbolizing the noble purity of Premier Zhou's life, symbolizing the selfless dedication of the premier's life, and the high wind and bright festival for the people all the time in his life.
After Premier Zhou's death, the staff searched the prime minister's relics, but did not find a new thing, and the clothes he wore were all intact in the box, full of patches, and still reluctant to throw them away. Premier Zhou's life is high and powerful, but the relics left behind make people cry bitterly.
In fact, after Premier Zhou's death, Chairman Mao could not come out of his grief for a long time, and he did not see a smile on his face for a long time. It was also in this year that President Zhu also died, and in September, Chairman Mao also passed away. This year was the most extraordinary year, three great men passed away one after another, and the whole country mourned.
Figure | Premier Zhou and Deng Yingchao
Today, 45 spring and autumn have passed since this year, and perhaps for this world, decades are a blink of an eye, but Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou, as well as the revolutionary predecessors of the last century, have devoted most of their lives to the most difficult period in our country, so that our descendants can live a happy and peaceful life, which is not easy to forget in any way. With this article, I would like to remember the beloved Premier Zhou, and I believe that you have also seen the prosperity of this moment in the Spirit of Heaven, as you wish.