In the hall of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, in the middle of the seat is a seated statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, which is 4.6 meters high and carved from marble.
I saw that The gentleman was dressed in a traditional robe and horse coat, his feet were close together, a pair of unfolded scrolls were spread out above his knees, his waist was straight, he looked ahead, his expression was very focused, and he exuded a natural spirit
When people see it, they can't help but think of the forerunner of the Chinese revolution a hundred years ago.
Seated statue of Sun Yat-sen in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
And in the whole Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, not only this statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in the burial chamber behind the Hall of Enjoyment, there is a marble sarcophagus, above the coffin, lying on the back of another statue, this statue is carefully carved by the Japanese sculptor Gao Qi, is a reclining statue, the same white marble material, and if there are careful friends to the scene will find,
Unlike the seated statue of Xiangtang, who wears a robe and a horse's coat, this reclining statue wears a Zhongshan suit.
Sun Yat-sen reclining statue in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
Two statues in the same mausoleum, but dressed in different costumes
At first glance, this matter sounds nothing, but it is very unreasonable under careful consideration.
The mausoleum, especially the mausoleum of a great man like Dr. Sun Yat-sen, pays the most attention to solemnity, unity and harmony, and the same costume can better reflect the personality or deeds of the owner, which helps to deepen its image, rather than like a fashion exhibition, a statue and a costume, which is not solemn.
So why does such a clear flaw appear in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum?
"Robe and horse coat" or "Zhongshan suit"?
On March 12, 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen died of gallbladder cancer in Beijing. The day before his death, mr. Li had made a request for his posthumous affairs,
He wanted to follow Lenin's example and asked to be buried in Nanjing.
As the seat of government of the Republic of China at that time, Sun Yat-sen had a deep affection for Nanjing, and he had proposed that he be buried in Nanjing after his death as early as March 1912.
At that time, Sun Yat-sen and Hu Hanmin were hunting in the Purple Mountain, and he saw that the land in front of him was carrying green mountains, facing the Pingchuan River, and the momentum was very majestic, so he said:
"When I die one day, I would like to beg the people of my country for this piece of soil to settle the shell."
Nanjing Purple Mountain Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
On his deathbed, Sun Yat-sen once again said to Soong Ching Ling, Wang Jingwei and others:
"After my death, I can be buried at the foot of the Purple Mountain in Nanjing, because Nanjing is the place where the provisional government was established, so we must not forget the Xinhai Revolution."
Therefore, after sun Yat-sen's death, according to his last wishes, the body was embalmed in the Union Hospital, and on the other hand, the Kuomintang set up a funeral preparatory committee to be responsible for the construction of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, and before the construction of the mausoleum was completed,
Sun Yat-sen's body is temporarily stored in the stone niches of the Vajradhara Pagoda at the highest point of the Biyun Temple in Xishan, Beijing. At the same time, a spiritual hall was set up in the Puming Myōjue Hall in the courtyard below the pagoda.
Biyun Temple, Xishan, Beijing
During the construction of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, there was one incident that caused controversy within the Kuomintang. There will definitely be a statue of Sun Yat-sen in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, and on the issue of the dress of the statue, the people of the Sun Yat-sen Funeral Preparatory Committee have different opinions and are very different.
There are two main opinions,
The right wing of the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Hanmin, Tan Yanmin, and others put forward the retro proposition, demanding that the statues be dressed in robes and coats in accordance with the regulations on the costumes of civilian officials of the Republic of China, and they believed that only such clothing would conform to the "essence of the country"; while the Leftists of the Kuomintang, such as Liao Zhongkai, Soong Ching Ling, and He Xiangning, vigorously opposed it, and in their view, the most appropriate costume for the statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen was Zhongshan clothing.
As we all know, Zhongshan clothing is designed by Mr. Sun Yat-sen, this kind of clothing on the basis of European and American clothing, the combination of Japanese clothing and Chinese clothing characteristics, simple and capable, deeply liked by Chinese men, Chairman Mao often wears Zhongshan clothing in public, and there is no doubt that as the designer himself, Sun Yat-sen is also very fond of this set of clothing, and Sun Yat-sen was very opposed to wearing a robe and coat before his death, so when carving statues, respect for the hobbies and wishes of the deceased himself is definitely the first.
Sun Yat-sen in a Zhongshan suit
And in Song Qingling's view,
Compared with the traditional robe and horse coat, Zhongshan suit also embodies Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary spirit of advancing with the times and firm and resolute.
Therefore, she advocated that the statue wear a Zhongshan suit.
The two factions disagreed, argued endlessly, and neither of them would budge; at that time, Lin Sen, the leader of the Kuomintang's Xishan Conference and later chairman of the Nationalist Government, was in charge of the preparations for Sun Yat-sen's funeral.
Since there are two opinions, build two statues, build a seated statue in the hall, wearing a robe and a horse coat, and build a reclining statue in the tomb, wearing a Zhongshan costume.
In this way, both parties' ideas were satisfied, and they were all happy.
Now it seems that this method does have some meaning and mud, but it also stopped the debate between the two parties at that time.
Song Qingling's regret
However, the disagreement over the issue of dress was not only reflected in the sculpture, but also in the dress of Sun Yat-sen's body, and became a microcosm of the internal struggle of the Kuomintang at that time.
At the time of Sun Yat-sen's death, because the "three major policies" were still being implemented, the national workers' and peasants' movement was in full swing, and the Kuomintang left forces had the upper hand. Therefore, at that time, sun Yat-sen's body was buried in accordance with the opinion of the leftists, dressed in yellow tweed Zhongshan.
In 1929, the Completion of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, the Kuomintang decided to hold a Feng'an Ceremony to welcome Sun Yat-sen's body back to Nanjing from Beijing for burial, and the Funeral Preparatory Committee sent commissioners to Beiping Biyun Temple, where the people first moved Sun Yat-sen's body from the King Kong Throne Pagoda to the spiritual hall below, and then changed their clothes and changed into bronze coffins.
Since the body has been parked at Biyun Temple for four years, the relevant parties have left the clothes worn by the former body in Biyun Temple, put it back in the previous Nanmu Hall, and sealed in the stone niche of the King Kong Throne Pagoda, as "Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Crown Tomb", so that the people of Peiping can talk about mourning.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen is dressed in a crown tomb
As we said earlier, when Sun Yat-sen died, he wore Zhongshan into the funeral according to the opinion of the Leftists, so what kind of clothes were worn after the funeral was changed and changed?
In fact, this is closely related to the struggle within the Kuomintang. After Sun Yat-sen's death, Liao Zhongkai, the leader of the Kuomintang's left wing, was assassinated shortly after. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup, soong Ching-ling, Deng Yanda and other Kuomintang leftists went into exile overseas, Yang Xingfo and others were dismissed from their posts, and the leftists lost all their strength.
Therefore, at the time of the Feng'an Ceremony in 1929, the Kuomintang was already completely in power headed by Chiang Kai-shek, and it was precisely for this reason that when Changing his funeral clothes before Feng'an, Sun Yat-sen's Zhongshan costume was changed, and according to the meaning of the Kuomintang rightists, he wore a blue satin robe, a black satin coat, white silk gloves, white stockings, black satin shoes, and a top hat.
At this time, in the face of this situation, Song Qingling, who hurried back from abroad, also had to make compromises.
Song Qingling
It is worth mentioning that at the time of the Feng'an Grand Ceremony, the seated statue of Sun Yat-sen in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Hall had not yet been made. After determining the dress of the statue at that time, the funeral preparatory committee began to bid for a worldwide bid to select a master sculptor to carve a seated statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
In the end, this matter fell to the famous French sculptor Paul Lanchosski, who, under the commission of the National Government, worked hard for two years and finally completed the sculpture in Italian white stone in Paris, France.
During this period, Sun Yat-sen's eldest son, Sun Ke, sent him a large number of photos and materials for his reference, and went to his studio every afternoon to sit for several hours for him to speculate on Sun Yat-sen's appearance through the similarities between father and son.
In this creative spirit, the statue of Sun Yat-sen carved by Randowski is vibrant, very Chinese personality, and can also show the perseverance and charm of the founder of the Republic of China.
Sun Ke
Nine months after the Feng'an Ceremony, this elaborate statue was finally completed and met with the public in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Hall.
Song Qingling also admitted that the statue itself is actually very satisfactory, but the robe and coat worn by this sitting statue still make her uneasy and become a lingering knot in her heart, so that many years later, she is still haunted.
Three things about Song Qingling
In 1953, Soong Ching Ling proposed to Li Jishen, chairman of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, to do three things.
The first is to set up a "Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall" in Beijing; the second is to issue a standard statue of Sun Yat-sen; and the third is to adjust the seated statue in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing.
As we all know, Song Qingling is a person who does not like to trouble others very much, let her take the initiative to raise these things in her personal name, which can be seen in her heart, except for the third thing we have already explained, what are the other two things?
The first is the establishment of the "Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall", as we said earlier, before the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was built,
Sun Yat-sen's body was parked for four years in the King Kong Throne Pagoda of Biyun Temple in Beijing, and a spiritual hall was set up in the Puming Miaojue Hall in the zhangyuan under the pagoda, and many corresponding ceremonies and activities including public sacrifices were also held in the spiritual hall, so Song Qingling believed that the Biyun Temple had special significance for Sun Yat-sen, so he proposed to set the Puming Miaojue Hall, which was then a spiritual hall, as a permanent Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
The second is the issuance of the standard portrait of Sun Yat-sen, which is actually very easy to understand, at that time, within the Kuomintang, there was a huge disagreement about Sun Yat-sen's clothing, let alone the people.
At that time, including after the founding of New China, Sun Yat-sen printed in various places was like a variety of colors, some wearing Zhongshan suits, some wearing suits, some wearing Chinese clothes, and some wearing fur collar coats. Song Qingling was very dissatisfied with this. She suggested issuing a uniform standard portrait of Sun Yat-sen.
Needless to say, the third piece, Song Qingling hopes to change the seated statue wearing a robe and horse coat in the Hall of Enjoyment to wear a Zhongshan suit.
After the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee learned of These Three Demands of Soong Ching Ling, it also attached great importance to them and immediately sent special personnel to report and implement them.
In March 1955, the "Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall" transformed from the Puming Miaojue Hall was officially unveiled, and the door plaque was personally inscribed by Soong Ching Ling.
A bust of Dr. Sun Yat-sen was also built inside the museum.
Biyun Temple Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
The second thing was also quickly implemented, and Premier Zhou personally approved it and submitted it to the Publishing Administration of the Ministry of Culture. In order to provide a better blueprint for the unified standard portrait of Sun Yat-sen, Soong Ching-ling specially took off the statue in Zhongshan suit hanging on the wall of his home and handed it to the relevant departments, after which it was repainted and printed by the People's Fine Arts Publishing House.
Almost at the same time as the "Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall" was unveiled, the standard portrait of Sun Yat-sen was also distributed in major cities across the country.
The first two things were implemented very quickly, almost without dragging their feet, but the third thing was not so smooth.
After Song Qingling put forward the request to replace the seated statue of Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, he quickly got the consent of Premier Zhou Enlai, and the Secretariat Office of the State Council notified the Nanjing Municipal Government to make a preliminary assessment and design, but due to various reasons, the matter was delayed and the trip has not been carried out.
Until the death of Song Qingling in 1981, she could not see the seated statue of Sun Yat-sen in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum wearing a Zhongshan costume, which became one of Song Qingling's biggest regrets.
Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling
Since then, Wu Maosun, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang who was in charge of these three events at the time, has repeatedly run for the replacement of the statue of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, but to no avail.
Today, the statue in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Has been standing quietly for more than 90 years, witnessing most of China's modern revolutionary history, and I am afraid that it is difficult to replace it easily, but Soong Ching Ling's deep affection for Dr. Sun Yat-sen will continue to be passed on.