Mao's legacy
After the death of her father, the person who made Li Min worry about her stomach in this world was her mother. The mother was half paralyzed and bedridden, which was exactly what she needed to do when she was asking for her daughter's greetings and serving soup medicine, but Li Min could not be by her mother's side, which made her feel very uneasy inside.
Li Min was unable to live in Shanghai for a long time to take care of her mother for various reasons. The son is in college and the daughter is in elementary school and needs her care, and that's one reason.
Picture 丨He Zizhen
Kong Linghua was not in good health, often had stomach attacks, and had been hospitalized, which was the second reason.
The third reason was that she herself was ill. She first found that her heart was not good, her chest was tight, then she found that her lymph nodes were swollen, and then her arms were painful and she could not lift them.
She originally had a nervous breakdown, she did not sleep well, she did not eat well, so that her originally rich body was becoming emaciated day by day, and the original military uniform was worn on her body, dangling, and she could not stand up. She was a little overwhelmed.
Li Min's life is not rich, and the travel expenses to see her mother back and forth are also a heavy burden for her. She and Kong Linghua both eat on a salary, and the cost of going to school for their two children is still very large.
Although Kong Linghua also had an official and a half-position in the army, his monthly income was also limited, and they always felt that their hands were tight.
In the past, they sent their children to He Zizhen, symbolically sending a little money every month, but in fact the children were raised by their mothers, reducing their financial pressure.
Since He Zizhen was hospitalized, although her medical expenses were reimbursed by the public, her personal expenses increased greatly, and she also had to give gifts to the staff around her who had worked hard for a year every New Year's Festival, and there was very little left every month. Li Min also couldn't bear to use her mother's money.
Pictured He Zizhen who changed his outfit
Before his death, Chairman Mao repeatedly admonished his sons and daughters to be hard and simple, for fear of spoiling themselves around them and not being able to adapt to the lives of ordinary people in the future.
Since Li Min moved out of Chairman Mao's residence and set up another residence in Zhongnanhai, she cooked her own food, and when she had a job and a salary, she stopped receiving the allowance given to her by her father and lived like an ordinary cadre on her salary.
The frugality of Li Min's life is unimaginable to ordinary people. After eating one, two, or three meals of boiled cabbage in winter, she was reluctant to pour it out, and the next meal was hot and then eaten.
Dongmei is growing a body, needs to have sufficient nutrition, how to save money and let Dongmei eat well, this is difficult for Li Min. She goes out to buy vegetables, often going around the vegetable stall several times and picking up cheap ones to buy.
In the winter, in order to change the taste of Dongmei, she bought cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse, and selected the cucumber heads and green-colored tomatoes that were processed.
Li Min's dress is also not exquisite. Inside and outside the house, it is a set of cloth military uniforms all year round. The sweatshirt that my daughter did not wear, she picked up and put on.
Once, a relative looked at her from Anshan and found that Li Min was not wearing a pure wool sweater on the cold day of Sanjiu, but was woven of acrylic, and the cuffs and edges of the clothes were torn. Li Min explained: "I have good clothes, but I usually don't want to wear them, and I only wear them when I go out or when I come to visit. ”
Indeed, every year, december 26, the anniversary of Mao Zedong's birth, is the day Li Min dressed best. As soon as the guest left, she immediately took it off and folded it up. Collect it.
Pictured: Li Min (left) with He Zizhen and Kong Dongmei
For several years, Kong Linghua specially bought Li Min a beautiful new dress every year to wear on the chairman's birthday. After she crossed it, she collected it, pressed it into the bottom of the box, and never wore it again. These clothes have become older, and she is reluctant to take them out to wear.
These are all spiritual treasures inherited from Dad. These spiritual wealths make them content with the poor life of ordinary people. Seeing their simple lives, people can't help but ask: Did Chairman Mao not leave them a legacy?
Chairman Mao's monthly salary is fixed. These salaries, which he used to cover the living expenses of the whole family, including the tuition and miscellaneous expenses of his three children.
In addition, when the old people visited, their expenses in Beijing, the travel expenses to go back and the gifts they brought back all had to be spent from here. Chairman Mao's wages must be carefully calculated in order to achieve a balance between revenue and expenditure, otherwise there will be a deficit.
In the 1950s, Chairman Mao had to check the income and expenditure accounts of his family every month, that is, to avoid overspending. He handed over all his manuscript fees to the Central Special Accounting Office, where they kept them and disposed of them.
The Special Accounting Office is a unit of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and is responsible for managing the expenditure of party fees and party activities.
Part of the fee was used to buy books for Chairman Mao. Mao Zedong loved books and collected them widely, especially in line-bound books. When he was older, his eyes were out of place, and it was very difficult to read the trumpets. After a cataract removal, the books he read were replaced with large prints and typeset into thread-bound books.
Pictured chairman Mao and Li Min
Another use of Chairman Mao's writing fees is to conduct investigations and studies. Mao Zedong often lamented that he went down to conduct investigations, and people only gave him good things, not bad ones, and he could not understand the real situation.
Later, he suggested organizing a mobile cadre unit, with personnel transferred from various localities and counties, on the one hand, to serve as guards, and on the other hand to go back to conduct investigations and studies, and the results of the investigation were sent directly to Chairman Mao.
He said, "I'll pay for these people's travels. "He paid for the investigation with the fee.
Chairman Mao's personal life was very simple and he was very strict with himself. In addition to his monthly salary, he never used public money for personal life. His food allowance was issued by the person in charge of the CPC Central Committee Office and approved by Chairman Mao and paid from the manuscript fee.
Because of his work relationship, he often had to keep people to eat. He never let the family invite him to the average guest; he did not use the public money except for the guests. Always use the fee to entertain guests.
Chairman Mao's manuscript fee was also used to buy medicine for He Zizhen. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Zizhen was not in good health and was sick from time to time. After Chairman Mao learned from Li Min, he was very anxious, inquired about the cure for the disease, and after inquiring about it, he did not hesitate to spend money to buy medicine and send it. Once, Chairman Mao specially sent someone to send He Zizhen a thousand yuan.
Pictured| Mao Zedong and He Zizhen
Chairman Mao's manuscript fee, which he himself used, was less than 10,000 yuan a year, and the interest alone could not be spent. After his illness in his later years, he lived in seclusion and spent less on it.
For several years after Chairman Mao's death, no one raised the issue of Mao's legacy. Until 1981, the CPC Central Committee sent someone to find Li Min to understand the life and requirements of the land. When Li Min heard about this issue, tears couldn't help but burst out of her eyes.
When she left Zhongnanhai in 1961, Chairman Mao had said that she would be given a monthly living allowance of 60 yuan. In 1963, Li Min had a job, and after receiving his salary, he automatically stopped receiving the money.
Over the years, her finances have been difficult, and it was her mother who helped her share the child's maintenance costs. She said to the comrades of the Central Office: "I have no luxury, if possible, I only want the share that my father originally wanted to give me." ”
Thus, in 1981, Li Min received 8,000 yuan in cash from the CPC Central Committee, a 20-inch color TV, and a refrigerator.
At this time, Li Ne had moved out of Zhongnanhai. The CPC Central Committee sent her a 20-inch color TV and a refrigerator. In 1975, Chairman Mao granted her eight thousand yuan. Mao Anqing also got the same share.
He Zizhen has returned to Shanghai. She herself said that the CENTRAL OFFICE sent her 20,000 yuan, and she used the money to buy a 20-inch color TV and a high-end tape recorder to use in the ward.
Pictured he Zizhen with Li Min and Kong Jining
Li Min knew that my mother only received 20,000 yuan, and said: "My mother should get more than us, and now she has got too little My father once said to me before he died: "Many of the things I wrote during the Jinggangshan period and the agrarian revolution period were copied by your mother for me, and some were revised according to her opinions." Half of the fee for what I wrote during this period is your mother's. But He Zizhen never made any demands, which was her noble character.
After Li Min got 8,000 yuan, he did not use it, nor did he let his family use it. She said: "My mother is sick, I don't know when to use money, I can't always trouble the public family, this money is left for my mother to use when she is in urgent need." ”
He Zizhen did not use the money, but her daughter's intentions were expressed.
The whole family sent off mom
On April 15, 1984, when Li Min was resting at home due to illness, the Central Office suddenly came to a phone call, saying: He Zizhen is seriously ill and has prepared a plane ticket to Shanghai, and asks Li Min's family to go to Shanghai immediately.
Li Min barely got up, and Kong Linghua simply packed his luggage, and the car that picked them up to the airport had arrived. Kong Linghua helped Li Min into the car.
Li Min originally had a heart-wrenching problem, and when he heard the news that his mother was seriously ill, his heart was heavy, and his heart beat faster. On the plane, she looked pale and covered her chest with her hands, trying to calm herself down.
Pictured he Zizhen and daughter Li Min
The family gave her heart medicine and comforted her not to worry too much. Daughter Dongmei said: "My grandmother will be fine." Li Min's two children both callEd He Zizhen as grandma.
After the plane arrived in Shanghai, a car was already waiting at the airport, taking them directly to Huadong Hospital.
The doctor accompanied them to He Zizhen's ward. Li Min saw that her mother was short of breath, her cheeks were red, emaciated and haggard, and she was so sad that she was about to cry.
Li Min leaned closer to her mother and said softly, "Mom, how are you?" We'll see you coming. ”
He Zizhen nodded. At this time, He Minxue's family also arrived from Fujian. They heard their daughter He Xiaoping, who lived in Shanghai, call and report the news that He Zizhen was seriously ill, and they were afraid of something unexpected, so they rushed to them immediately.
For the next two days, they went to visit He Zizhen every day, but because of his serious illness, on the afternoon of the 19th, He Zizhen left forever at the age of 75.
He Zizhen and his daughter and son-in-law take a group photo outside the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall
Li Min hugged her mother and cried bitterly, a few days ago her mother also told herself that she felt that her body seemed to be a little better, her spirit was better, and she was still happy for her mother.......
She was so sad, she still had a lot of things to say to her mother, she had not yet honored her mother well, she hated herself for not spending more time with her mother, not chatting with her mother, the more she thought about it, the more sad she was, and her tears couldn't stop flowing...
From He Zizhen's serious illness, death, and farewell ceremony to the placement of ashes, Li Min has been in a state of mourning, and her tears cannot be dried. She reluctantly supported her sick body and finished her mother's affairs, after which her own body was weaker and sicker.
Inherited from my mother
What made Li Min most sad was that her mother did not leave a last word. She said remorsefully: "I saw that my mother had a fever and my mood was better, I thought my mother had passed the dangerous period, I didn't seize the time to ask my mother what else to say, I didn't expect that the condition suddenly changed, my mother was in a coma, and I couldn't say anything." I regret it! ”
According to a cadre of He Zizhen's level, the inheritance she left to Li Min was very thin. Among her relics, the most valuable things are large color televisions and portable tape recorders bought from Chairman Mao's inheritance.
Pictured| He Zizhen and Li Min
Both of these things, Li Min donated to the hospital. All of He Zizhen's relics were packed in three boxes, one of which she had brought back from the Soviet Union.
Of the three boxes, half were clothing. A set of tweed uniforms, this is the best dress. The other half were miscellaneous items, political books issued by the unit, letters, photos, and invoices for daily necessities purchased on her behalf by the old cadres of the municipal party committee after she was paralyzed. The cash she left for Li Min was only 3,000 yuan.
And this 3,000 yuan, Li Min is still useless. She said: "When my father and mother were alive, they both wanted me to find my brothers and sisters. If I find it, I'll give them the money.
Today, in the living room of Li Min's house, on the cabinet on the east wall, there is a huge portrait of He Zizhen. He Zizhen in the photo, white hair, cheerful, smiling, and rich face.
This portrait was brought back from Shanghai by Li Min after He Zizhen's death. At the farewell ceremony of the body, it hangs on the spiritual hall.
Picture 丨 Li Min's civilian life photo
On the west wall of the room hangs a large photograph of Chairman Mao in Yan'an. Chairman Mao in the photo, wearing a liberation hat, with an open collar, is also full of smiles, both wine and health.
These two old men, who failed to fulfill their wishes to grow old together, after their deaths one after another, in the home of their daughter Li Min, their photos stood guard day and night, looking at each other and laughing.