It was not his last wish that Chairman Mao's body would be placed in a crystal coffin for permanent preservation
Chairman Mao
Chairman Mao's body lay in a crystal coffin, which was carried by Chen Changjiang, Wang Zupei and other four people on a hearse and placed in the memorial hall for permanent preservation for future generations.
It is known that the remains of quite a few great people in the world have also been preserved, such as Stalin, Lenin, Dimitrov ... Did Chairman Mao want to learn from them and preserve his remains forever?
Chairman Mao
As early as 1956, not long after a difficult period of time, Chairman Mao signed the cremation proposal, and he had long thought about his own death, and he never thought about his own body like those great men.
In our eyes, Chairman Mao is a great proletarian revolutionary leader, but in Chairman Mao's own eyes, he always feels that he is a proletarian revolutionary, and the words "great" and "leader" are too heavy.
Although we have long known that Chairman Mao would not put his body in a crystal coffin, many people wondered why he did not want to be buried in the cemetery and chose to be cremated.
Chairman Mao
Today, let us recall Chairman Mao's past.
Proletarian revolutionaries must break feudalism, Chairman Mao did not enter the Forbidden City three times, and he was not buried in Babaoshan after his death
Chairman Mao, born in 1893, stepped onto the stage of history from a flat-headed boy, leading the Chinese people out of their predicament and into a new historical era.
In 1949, a special year, the war finally ended. On January 31, Peiping was liberated, and in March, Chairman Mao and other leaders stationed in Peiping to prepare for the founding ceremony.
Chairman Mao chose his temporary office location in Xiangshan, where the environment was suitable, and there were red maples hanging on the branches in the spring, Chairman Mao originally wanted to stay in the western suburbs of Beijing, but with the increase of affairs, the suburbs were obviously not convenient for office and handling secrets, so some leaders suggested that the office be set up in the Forbidden City.
Chairman Mao
What is the Forbidden City? The place where the power of China's successive emperors was concentrated, it was the highest symbol of status in the entire feudal history of China.
In 1987, the Forbidden City was listed as a world cultural heritage, in the Forbidden City, the status of the Forbidden City can be imagined, where countless historical stories have occurred, carrying countless thrilling power wars, and the Forbidden City also treasures many palace cultural relics collections, with indelible literary and historical value.
Moreover, the geographical location of the Forbidden City is convenient for office, and everyone lists the Forbidden City as Chairman Mao's new office site, but does Chairman Mao really want to go to the Forbidden City to work? No way!
Chairman Mao
First of all, Chairman Mao advocated the idea of Marxist dialectical materialism, he was the representative of the proletariat, and the Forbidden City represented the thousand-year-old feudal autocracy of China, and Chairman Mao's failure to enter the Forbidden City represented the confrontation against the ancient feudal autocracy.
Secondly, he agreed with the suggestions of domestic ancient building conservators and decided to protect this group of buildings.
On September 27, 1949, at the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the capital of the People's Republic of China was Beiping, and Beiping was renamed Beijing. The first thing Chairman Mao did here was to bring in Soviet architectural experts and plan Beijing's urban construction layout.
Chairman Mao
At that time, Liang Sicheng, a famous architect on the mainland, was also involved, and he planned to expand another central administrative region on the basis of protecting ancient buildings, that is, to set up the central administrative region in the western area of the ancient city, but this proposal was contrary to the proposal of Soviet experts.
In order to take care of foreign experts, Chairman Mao agreed to the suggestions of Soviet experts, but after the real implementation, ancient architecture experts could not sit still, many ancient city center buildings were demolished, this scope even extended to the east and west sides of Tiananmen Square Chang'an left and right gates, as well as the Forbidden City north gate, east and west rooms, the front pavilion of the Great High Xuan Hall, archway, these are all witnesses of Chinese history, have an important impact on China's future history and cultural research, how can it be easily demolished?
Chairman Mao
When Chairman Mao learned of this, he personally went to the Forbidden City, and he walked around the outside without alerting the residents, and finally protected the Forbidden City intact.
He always followed the road of communism, strictly forbade the restoration of feudalism, set his office in Zhongnanhai, less than 800 meters from the Forbidden City, and did not enter the Forbidden City to visit.
And burial is the traditional system inherited by the Chinese nation from the feudal era, Chinese advocate entering the soil for peace, future generations can also borrow tombstones for mourning, Chairman Mao in order to break through feudal customs, after his death, he is not willing to enter the place where the national leader is buried after death - Babaoshan Mountain.
Chairman Mao
He was the most loyal proletarian revolutionary.
Chairman Mao advocated cremation to protect production land
On the afternoon of October 1, 1949, Tiananmen Square was crowded with people, and the moment that went down in history happened on that day.
Chairman Mao stood on the tower of Tiananmen Square, surrounded by central leading cadres and 300,000 soldiers and civilians in front of him, singing and dancing, listening to Chairman Mao's announcement: "The People's Republic of China and the Central People's Government have been established today." At that moment, the whole country celebrated, Chairman Mao's announcement resounded the whole world, and the afterglow spread was like the cry of the Eastern dragon, and we finally stood up.
Chairman Mao
However, the newly founded New China is facing great challenges, such as years of war and economic decline, Chiang Kai-shek's government influence in Nanjing, political and cultural development, and the provocation and tiger eyes of some countries in the world...
We urgently need to maintain stability in the whole country, so that China can truly become a major country with international importance, and a reliable place for the people to live in China, and Chairman Mao and his leaders need to make tremendous efforts to this end.
Chairman Mao
With the passage of time, the new China continued to develop, and in order to expand grain production and ensure normal grain planting land, the central leaders carried out land reform in the country, suggesting that burial should be abolished and production land protected.
Chairman Mao signed a cremation proposal with a number of leaders, and if they signed, the deceased must ensure that the deceased first fulfilled his cremation wish.
At this point, Chairman Mao's cremation plan was officially made public, and he even told the staff next to him, hoping that they would scatter their ashes into the Yangtze River in the future, because that is where Chairman Mao grew up, where he came from and where he returned, which is Chairman Mao's vision.
Chairman Mao
Chairman Mao was not afraid to talk about life and death, he once said: "Everyone wants to die, this is a concept!" ”
In 1963, Chairman Mao regretfully sent away Luo Ronghuan, one of the ten founding marshals of the founding country, his comrade-in-arms who had been with him for many years, which made him very sad to write a seven-rhythm poem, one of which was, "Junjin unfortunately passed away, who can the country ask if it has any difficulties?" And tell those around him, "Don't be in front of me when I die." ”
Chairman Mao wanted everyone to see his beautiful appearance, and did not want everyone to be sad about it, and it was such an emotion that made his idea of cremation more and more firm.
After the storm and the loss of a dear friend, Chairman Mao passed away, but the last wish for cremation was shelved
Life and death did not need much to talk about for Chairman Mao, but the deaths of two people made him grief-stricken.
One is Premier Zhou, and the other is Mr. Zhu.
In 1976, at 9:57 a.m. on January 8, Premier Zhou, who had been battling with the disease for several years, passed away due to ineffective medical treatment.
Chairman Mao
Chairman Mao closed his eyes, tears could not stop flowing, silent and did not say anything, decades of fighting side by side, wind and rain, in this night the smoke dissipated, people could not be resurrected, Chairman Mao, who was already physically ill, was repeatedly ill, and could not stand up to participate in Premier Zhou's memorial service.
After the death of Premier Zhou, Chairman Mao was often silent, and on the afternoon of July 6, 1976, he suffered another blow, and President Zhu passed away.
Chairman Mao was silent for a long time when he heard the news, and asked Hua Guofeng: "What kind of disease does the boss have, and why did he leave so quickly?" Then he said: "Zhu Mao and Zhu Mao, you can't separate, now that Mr. Zhu has gone to see Marx, I am not far away." ”
Chairman Mao
The death of his friend dealt a huge blow to Chairman Mao, but he cared for the people and dragged his sick body to continue his work, and in the early morning of July 28, 1976, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Tangshan, Hebei Province, without warning, which buried more than 240,000 lives in the rubble.
On September 9, 1976, Chairman Mao, a great man of a generation, passed away, and he could finally rest with peace of mind.
After Chairman Mao's death, the central leadership held an emergency meeting. Since Chairman Mao had signed the cremation proposal before, Premier Zhou and other leaders had also carried out cremation, Chairman Mao's cremation seemed imperative, but no one wanted to see Chairman Mao's body cremated.
Chairman Mao
So Hua Guofeng made up his mind in the midst of a controversy and said: "No matter what others say, we should protect Chairman Mao's body and preserve it from generation to generation, so that generations of people can admire Chairman Mao." ”
Wang Dongxing, who was present, also pointed out: "Preserving Chairman Mao's body is a solemn task, and we must protect Chairman Mao's body better than Lenin." ”
Finally, at the suggestion of everyone, Chairman Mao's crystal coffin was successfully built, and a memorial hall was built to place Chairman Mao's body in it for future generations to admire.
Chairman Mao's cremation wish was not fulfilled, this is inevitable, he cared for the people's livelihood, paid too much for China and the communist cause, whether before or after the founding of the People's Republic of China, his great achievements cannot be erased, everyone is reluctant to cremate him into the Yangtze River.
Chairman Mao
Chairman Mao was not afraid of life and death all his life, and in the sixties he was able to put forward the law of material immortality, and optimistically told his comrades: "After I die, you can hold a celebration party to celebrate the victory of dialectics." "But for us, his death is the greatest loss.
Now generation after generation Chinese can have a place to admire and remember Chairman Mao, just as the spark of revolution has a place to live.
Chairman Mao
We respect Chairman Mao's decision, but we are reluctant to separate from him, which is why Chairman Mao's body has survived to this day.
The historical memories of Chairman Mao will be discussed here today, and we will see you in the next issue.