"Mao Zedong was an excellent philosopher, poet, overall strategist, enlightener, and romantic."
These are the words of a memorandum that Kissinger wrote to Nixon before his visit to China.
Nixon's visit to China in 1972 shocked the world and opened a door for communication between China and the United States. Because the two countries have not had exchanges for nearly 30 years, and both sides lack understanding of each other, the United States also made sufficient preparations before visiting China.
Kissinger even provided Nixon with a detailed memorandum for the US president to have a more comprehensive and full understanding of the two outstanding leaders of China. And that praiseworthy sentence also comes from this memo.
During this visit to China, The leaders of China and the United States exchanged gifts carefully prepared for each other. And this special and interesting gift-giving link is still talked about many years later.
The United States racked its brains in preparation for gifts to China's leaders. In addition to the usual return gifts in China, Chairman Mao personally wrote a 12-character ink treasure to give to Nixon. The meaning of this special gift is still unintelligible. Until now, it has often been studied by "Mao Science" enthusiasts around the world.
During Nixon's visit to China, what kind of ink treasure did Chairman Mao send? Let's follow the footsteps of history and take a look at this major event in the history of China and the United States!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="54" > U.S.-China relations before his visit to China</h1>
The stalemate in Sino-US relations has always been a difficult problem after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Therefore, when the news of US President Nixon's visit to China comes out, it will shock the whole world.
No one could have imagined that these two countries, which had once had a lot of relations, would suddenly establish a connection. In fact, as long as you read more history, it is not difficult to find that this visit to China and the subsequent establishment of diplomatic relations have already laid the groundwork.
As early as the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations, the United States was interested in co-opting China to reduce its pressure on the Vietnamese battlefield. At that time, the Soviet Union was preparing to impose "severe nuclear sanctions" on China. Considering that the United States had troops stationed in Taiwan, the Soviet side informed the United States of this news.
Defend Treasure Island
The United States held an emergency meeting, after which on the one hand replied to the Soviet Union, clearly expressing its disagreement with the Soviet plan. On the other hand, trying to get the message to China.
However, due to the bad relations between China and the United States at that time, the United States also considered that directly informing China of the news would arouse China's suspicions. So at Nixon's behest, an American tabloid published the shocking news on August 28, 1969, that the Soviet Union would carry out a surgical nuclear strike against China.
When the Soviet Union scolded the United States as a shameful traitor, the United States replied very lightly: As the world knows, the United States has no secrets.
As a result, Sino-US relations also took a turn for the better, which led to the famous "ping-pong diplomacy" and Nixon's visit to China.
Ping-Pong diplomacy
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="55" nixon visited China > to give each other gifts</h1>
When US President Richard Nixon walked through the long plane steps to the land of China, the first thing that caught his eye was Premier Zhou's upright posture and the cordial smiles of the delegation.
Before he could fully step down the steps, Nixon took the initiative to extend his hand to Premier Zhou, who had come to greet him at the airport. When two pairs of years-honored hands are clasped together, it is doomed that the relationship between China and the United States has quietly changed.
Nixon visited China
"I was across the Pacific to shake hands with Chinese people. When we hold hands, one era is over and another is over. It was also at this time that Nixon spoke of the rather classic dialogue.
At the end of the day's tense itinerary, China prepared a sumptuous state banquet to welcome the arrival of the American delegation. At the state dinner, while american journalists were still clumsily holding knives and forks to concentrate on the Chinese food in front of them, Nixon was already able to skillfully use chopsticks to eat.
This is not because Nixon has any talent, but because he practiced specifically for this visit to China. And his practice has also made reporters inside and outside China marvel.
The week of Nick's visit to China was later dubbed "the week that changed the world" by some Western scholars. In the current complex world situation, it is not easy for the two major powers of China and the United States to make concessions to each other and work together to break the barriers. It is a milestone in the political history of the 20th century.
At the end of the meeting, the two sides also exchanged gifts for this visit to China.
Nixon brought a few gifts, absolutely new, thoughtful, very special. This includes a list of the sinking of the Awa Maru and satellite photographs of Lop Nur satellites. Some people may not understand, why send these things?
The first and most interesting thing is the sunk list of this "Awa Maru". It was a Japanese ocean tanker built in the 1940s and later sunk by the United States. At that time, the ship was loading a large amount of treasure looted from China in a vain attempt to transport the treasure back to its own country. The United States sent such a gift to China, which can also be said to be "in favor of it", which is quite thoughtful.
There is also a special item, which is a satellite photograph of Lop Nur . As everyone should know, China has done nuclear experiments in Lop Nur. The Us side took a photo with a satellite at that time, in addition to illustrating its own scientific and technological strength and playing a deterrent role, it may also be hinting to China that "I am staring at you all the time."
In addition to these, Nixon also prepared a separate gift for Chairman Mao in his personal name. As the saying goes: come and go without being rude. In the face of such a "careful" move by the United States, China has also returned the same "respect".
First of all, Chairman Mao sent out "four or two tea leaves." Don't underestimate this little tea, this precious tea is also very precious in China, and there are only eight or two servings produced every year. Chairman Mao even quipped that this was a half of his own country. Nixon's face, which was not very happy at the beginning, also showed a relieved smile after hearing such an explanation, carefully put away the tea leaves, and brought them back to the United States to taste.
giant panda
Chairman Mao's second reciprocal gift was to send our friendly emissary: the giant panda. When Nixon visited China, Mrs. Nixon, who came with her, was very fond of pandas. In order to show its sincerity, China presented the giant pandas "Lingling" and "Xingxing" to the United States as friendship ambassadors. When the two pandas arrived at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., 8,000 American spectators braved the rain to greet them. In the first month of operation alone, more than 1 million visitors were visited. Later, he became the "star" in the American zoo, which is really a veritable "fortune tree".
The last thing is the 12-character ink treasure that everyone has been studying since then. Before Nixon came to China, he specially read many works on the thoughts and deeds of Premier Zhou and Chairman Mao, and he had some understanding of them, and he also knew that Chairman Mao was good at calligraphy, so he offered to ask Chairman Mao to leave him a copy of the ink treasure.
Chairman Mao also readily agreed to this small request, and wrote with a stroke of his pen that he wrote "Lao Shu Sits on the Stool," "Chang'e Runs to the Moon," and "Walks Around and Watches the Flowers."
12 words ink treasure
Although Nixon had made up his knowledge about the two great men before he came, he still did not understand the history of China and the profound meaning of Chinese characters thoroughly, and at present he could not understand Chairman Mao's meaning. Chairman Mao only laughed at this, and sold a pass without telling Nixon the reason. Therefore, the deep meaning implied in these ink treasures has also been speculated by people so far.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="57" > interpretation of the 12-word ink treasure</h1>
Later, foreign scholars who studied Chairman Mao's literature and thought gave their own understanding of these ink treasures. To this day, these unilateral interpretations from the United States still occupy the mainstream of foreign ideas.
"Old man sitting on a stool" originally meant an old man sitting on a stool. However, some foreign scholars believe that the "old man" in this refers to Nixon himself. It is implied that Nixon is old, but he still sits high in the position of president of the United States, coldly watching the changes in the world. Or that the United States is the "old man", one of the bosses of the world. Sitting on a large territory, watching the wars and changes everywhere, he put himself out of the way and lived in peace.
"Chang'e Running Moon" is a mythical story in China. It refers to the story of Chang'e, who was originally a mortal, because she stole the elixir and flew to the moon to become a fairy. In the eyes of Westerners, these words are a secret foreshadowing of the "Dongfanghong No. 1" artificial satellite that China will launch later, metaphorically showing China's strength and scientific and technological progress, and is demonstrating to the United States.
The final "walking horse and looking at flowers" is a metaphor in Chinese for a rough observation of things. Americans believe that this is Mao Zedong's dissatisfaction with the results of Nixon's visit to China. They felt that China's leader, Mao Zedong, must have thought that the United States did not attach enough importance to this visit to China and did not leave enough time for in-depth discussion and investigation, so they wrote this article to satirize the sluggishness of the United States.
Chairman Mao did not explain the meaning of these inscriptions at that time, but left a space for the Americans visiting China to imagine. After all, Westerners cannot deeply understand the profound Chinese culture, and we may as well analyze the contents of these words from the perspective of Chinese today.
The first is the "old man sitting on the stool", which foreigners feel is a satire on what their own president has done, but this should not be the case. First of all, the president was generally not very young, and at that time, both Premier Zhou and Chairman Mao were much older than Nixon. Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou were born in the 1890s, but Nixon was born in the 20th century, theoretically a "junior", if nixon is called "old man", then how can they call themselves?
Therefore, the author feels that the "lao soo" here should refer to China's past. China experienced a complex revolutionary struggle at that time and achieved independence with difficulty. Before independence, China was an ancient country with a long history, but it did not make full use of its own advantages, and only knew that it was a closed country to develop a small-scale peasant economy, which ended up in a situation of "backwardness and beating".
It's not like the old man who lives every day. Don't think of making progress, just sit on a stool and look at the "acre and three points of land" in front of you? Therefore, the "old man sitting stool" here is a reflection on China's past, not a specific person.
And "Chang'e Benyue" should not refer to the "Dongfanghong I" satellite launched later. Judging by the low-key attitude of the Chinese leaders, how can what has not yet been done be shown off in advance? Moreover, the name of the satellite is "Dongfanghong I", which has nothing to do with Chang'e. According to the law of Chinese high-tech invention naming, the moon-orbiting satellite was later named "Chang'e". Therefore, chang'e running moon here may refer to the development of science and technology in the United States.
The United States has successfully landed on the moon as early as 1969, and is the world's first country to land on the moon. Perhaps it was precisely the thought of such news that made Chairman Mao feel inspired, so he lamented the development of science and technology in the United States. At the same time, it also implies the good wish that China will align itself with the United States and develop its own science and technology as soon as possible. So that China's development is also like Chang'e running to the moon, moving in a higher and farther direction.
As for the final "sloppy viewing of flowers", although it may indeed be a reference to the United States' hasty visit to China this time, it is not derogatory. As a country that maintains friendship and peace with all countries in the world, China also knows that the difference between China and the United States cannot be resolved in one or two sentences. The current visit of the United States to China is also testing the meaning of the Chinese side to see whether the two sides can reach a relatively friendly result and form a win-win relationship of cooperation.
However, compared with the normal visit, the rush of the itinerary and the urgency of the time during this visit to China are not enough for China and the United States to know more about each other. Therefore, Chairman Mao should hope that if there is an opportunity in the future, China and the United States can have a more thorough exchange and build a solid bridge between China and the United States.
This wish was ultimately fulfilled. On January 1, 1979, China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations, ending a 30-year-long abnormal state of affairs.
And China's economy and technology, as previously hoped, have made rapid progress. China not only became the world's second largest economy, but also successfully launched the Chang'e satellite. The beautiful vision is being realized step by step, and China's future will surely move forward.
As for the true meaning of these 12-character ink treasure, since Chairman Mao himself has never talked about it in public, we can only interpret it according to our own understanding, and we cannot fully represent Chairman Mao's own meaning. What do you think of these 12 words? Discussions in the comments section are also welcome.