Chairman Mao's body bid farewell to the scene
At 00:10 on September 9, 1976, the great leader Chairman Mao Zedong died in Beijing at the age of 83. At 4 p.m. on the same day, the xinhua news agency announcer broadcast with great sorrow the "Letter to the Whole Party, the Whole Army, and the People of All Nationalities throughout the Country" issued by the CPC Central Committee, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission. In the Letter to the People, it is described as follows:
The passing away of Chairman Mao Zedong is an immeasurable loss to our Party, our army, and to the people of all nationalities in our country, to the international proletariat and the revolutionary people of all countries, and to the international communist movement. His passing away will certainly cause great sorrow in the hearts of our people and the revolutionary people of all countries.
When the news of Chairman Mao's death spread, the whole country was grieved and the whole world was shaken. Countless Chinese people have lost their voices and wept bitterly, and they cannot believe that Chairman Mao has just left us like this, and they can no longer hear his teachings. After Chairman Mao's death, praise and mourning for him poured in from all over the world.
A foreign journalist once wrote: "At this sad moment of 4 p.m. on September 9, it seems that the earth has also stopped rotating. On September 16, the Politburo met at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai to discuss chairman Mao's eulogy and decided to hold a memorial service in Tiananmen Square on September 18.
At 3 p.m. on September 18, Chairman Mao's memorial service was held in Tiananmen Square, with millions of people attending. In order to show respect for Chairman Mao, everyone at the scene stood, and even those who were in wheelchairs with inconvenient legs and feet let others help them stand up. However, on the upper floor of Tiananmen Square, there is an old woman sitting quietly, what is her special status, and why can she enjoy such a privilege on such a major occasion?
Memorial service for Chairman Mao in Tiananmen Square
This old woman is Soong Ching-ling, vice president of the state who was honored as "sir" by Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou during his lifetime. When Chairman Mao died, Soong Ching Ling was far away in Shanghai, and her sad mood could not be relieved, and she shed tears many times. Soong Ching Ling was the same age as Chairman Mao, and one was born at the beginning of the year and the other at the end of the year.
This year, Song Qingling was very sad and attended the memorial service of Premier Zhou and Zhu De, which made her physical condition very unoptimistic. In fact, when the news of Chairman Mao's death came, Soong Ching Ling rushed back to Beijing by train at the first time regardless of his physical illness and stayed at the Beijing Hotel.
On September 11, 12 and 17, Soong Ching-ling participated in the farewell of the body three times, insisted on guarding the spirit, and also served as a member of the funeral committee at the age of 83. Soong Ching Ling and Chairman Mao have different identities, but the friendship between the two for more than half a century has long become a good story. In the decades of revolution, Soong Ching-ling fought side by side with Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai and other CCP leaders and was respected by the CCP.
The friendship between Chairman Mao and Soong Ching Ling began in January 1924 at the Kuomintang "First Congress" held in Guangzhou, and Chairman Mao attended the meeting as a representative of Hunan. During the meeting, Chairman Mao spoke many times and was appointed as one of the members of the Charter Review Committee. Because of Chairman Mao's various performances in Hunan work and congresses, he attracted the attention of Sun Yat-sen.
At this meeting, Chairman Mao and Soong Ching Ling did not have much exchanges, but the friendship between the two laid the groundwork. In April 1927, after Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, the counter-revolutionary behavior of the Wang Jingwei clique within the Wuhan Kuomintang government began to be exposed. On the evening of July 14 of that year, Wang Jingwei held a secret meeting to determine the plan of "dividing the communist party" and the massacre.
Group photo of Song Qingling and kuomintang elders
On the same day, Soong Ching-ling, an outstanding representative of the Kuomintang's left, publicly issued a "Statement in Protest against The Violation of Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Principles and Policies" in Hankou, exposing the acts of Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei, and others in betraying the revolution. In fact, as early as when Chiang Kai-shek rebelled against the revolution, 39 people, including Soong Ching-ling, Chairman Mao, Deng Yanda, He Xiangning, and Tan Pingshan, jointly sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek in the name of the Kuomintang Central Executive Supervisory Committee and alternate executive supervisor, calling on the people and revolutionary comrades throughout the country to unite to overthrow "the traitors of the prime minister, the scum of the party, and the cockroaches of the people." ”
On July 17, Soong Ching-ling sent a letter to the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee, reprimanding the Wang Jingwei clique for "wantonly misinterpreting Mr. Sun's ideas and ideals" and declaring that he would withdraw from the Wuhan Nationalist Government from this moment on. At the critical moment of the defeat of the Great Revolution, Song Qingling resolutely ran around for the CCP side regardless of his personal safety, which greatly touched Chairman Mao, and the friendship between the two deepened day by day.
As Chiang Kai-shek raised his butcher's knife directly at the Communists, Soong Ching-ling's opposition did not stop. In August 1931, Song Qingling returned from overseas. Soon, when Deng Yanda, the leader of the Kuomintang's left wing, was killed by Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Ching-ling was so outraged that he issued a statement that "the Kuomintang is no longer a political force" to denounce it.
This statement was published in the Shanghai "Declaration" that year, and when it was published, it was renamed "Declaration of Song Qingling". Soong Ching-ling concluded his statement rebuking Chiang Kai-shek's authoritarian government:
I cannot but declare bluntly that since the purpose of organizing the Kuomintang is to make it a revolutionary machine, and since it has failed to accomplish the tasks it has so created, we need not regret its demise. I firmly believe that only a revolution based on and in the service of the masses can crush the power of the warlords and politicians, shake off the yoke of imperialism, and truly practise socialism. I am convinced that, although the reactionary forces in power today are carrying out terrorist activities, millions of true revolutionaries in China will not give up their responsibilities; on the contrary, due to the crisis of the current situation in the country, they will intensify their work and march triumphantly towards the goals set by the revolution.
Chairman Mao
Soong Ching-ling's statement had a great impact, and Mao Zedong, who was far away in the Central Soviet Region, also saw it, and he knew that Soong Ching-ling was a true friend of the CCP. In October 1924, the Central Red Army was forced to start the Long March due to the defeat of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign. Song Qingling, who was far away in Shanghai, was anxious to learn about the Situation of the Red Army, and she asked for help from her New Zealand friend Louis Eli.
Ai Li was living in an apartment on Yuyuan Road in Shanghai, and after receiving a plea for help from Song Qingling, he quietly set up a secret radio station in a small room on the top floor of his home. It was this radio station that enabled Soong Ching Ling to keep in touch with the Red Army during the Long March. In October 1935, the Central Red Army successfully arrived in northern Shaanxi, and the telegram came, and Song Qingling was very excited.
Prior to this, the CCP issued the "Letter to All Compatriots for Resisting Japan and Saving the Country" (the "August 1st Declaration"), which denounced the Kuomintang's policy of non-resistance and called on the people of the whole country to take immediate action, stop the civil war, and unite to resist Japan. Song Qingling, He Xiangning, Liu Yazi, Sun Ke and others responded at the first time, so that the CCP gradually won the initiative in the public opinion war.
Soong Ching Ling's support for the CCP made Chairman Mao very moved. In January 1936, Soong Ching Ling found the "Red Priest" Dong Jianwu and entrusted him with delivering a letter to northern Shaanxi and handing it over to Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai. After Chairman Mao received the letter, he immediately replied to the letter and gave song Qingling several silver and cloth coins of the sickle axe minted in the Central Soviet Region that year.
Chairman Mao's letter to Soong Ching Ling
On September 18, 1936, on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the "918 Incident". In order to promote the cooperation negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communists as soon as possible, Chairman Mao once again wrote a letter and sent Pan Hannian to forward it to Soong Ching-ling. The full text of the letter reads as follows:
Mr. Qingling left and right: Wuhan separately, suddenly nearly ten years. Every time we learned from the newspapers and the mouths of foreign comrades that Mr. Li's revolutionary words and actions to save the country aroused our infinite admiration. After 1927, the only people who could really continue Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary spirit of saving the country were Mr. Sun Yat-sen and our comrades. At present, although the call to stop the civil war and unite against Japan has spread throughout the country, Chiang Kai-shek, who commands the large army, and the Kuomintang Central Committee have so far shown no remorse. This kind of behavior, which violates the Three People's Principles and the Three Principles of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolution, should not be allowed by the majority of the Kuomintang members but should be immediately corrected. Therefore, I thought of awakening the responsible personnel of the Kuomintang center. Realizing the horror of the subjugation of the country and the inability of the will of the people to be insulted, and to quickly change its erroneous policies, it is still up to Mr. Yu to use the qualifications of the Kuomintang Central Committee to do concrete and practical activities. Comrade Pan Hannian is hereby sent to express his opinion on the concrete organization of the united front, and to discuss with him the method of public activities, and then respectfully ask for contact and guidance. Attached is our letter to the Kuomintang Central Committee for reference. At the same time, I asked Mr. Han Nian to introduce the central personnel of the Kuomintang who were relatively close to him, such as Wu Zhihui, Kong Xiangxi, Song Ziwen, Li Shizeng, Cai Yuanpei, and Mr. Sun Kezhu.
The fifth anniversary of Mao Zedong's "9/18"
At this time, Chairman Mao had great respect for Soong Ching-ling and regarded him as the closest comrade-in-arms of the CCP, and Soong Ching-ling also supported the CCP with practical actions. In the autumn of that year, Chairman Mao once again wrote a letter to Soong Ching-ling, in which he hoped that Soong Ching-ling would allow Soong Ziwen to borrow a sum of money to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, amounting to $50,000.
As we all know, soon after the arrival of the Central Red Army in northern Shaanxi, it entered a severe winter, and the troops faced serious economic difficulties, not to mention cotton clothes, and even food and clothing became a problem. In order to cope with the immediate difficulties, Chairman Mao held the attitude of trying it out and borrowed 2,500 pieces of ocean from Xu Haidong, commander of the Red 15th Army.
Xu Haidong
Xu Haidong did not say a word, and directly asked his subordinates to send 5,000 pieces of ocean, plus a lot of guns, cotton clothes, quilts and other materials, which was a real charcoal in the snow and solved the urgent needs of the Central Red Army. However, with the expansion of the Red Army and the Kuomintang blockade of the Shaanxi-Gansu base area, the CENTRAL Committee of the Communist Party of China was still in difficulty, so the idea of asking Song Qingling to help borrow money came up.
Soong Ching Ling knew very well that if Chairman Mao had not really encountered difficulties, he would never have opened his mouth to borrow money from her. However, Song Qingling had already broken up with Song Ziwen at that time, where did he raise so much money? Soong Ching Ling decided to raise the money herself, and she first took out Sun Yat-sen's pension from the bank and mortgaged the Shanghai Moli Ai Lu Apartment.
After raising $50,000, Song Qingling asked someone to send it to Yan'an for the first time. Regarding Song Qingling's borrowing of money, she did not tell the truth behind it until 1969, when she wrote to He Xiangning's eldest daughter Liao Mengxing, she mentioned this matter. Coincidentally, in 2007, the fifteenth volume of the Communist Party (Brazzaville), the Communist International and the Chinese Soviet Movement (1931-1937) published by the Communist Party History Publishing House published a secret letter from Soong Ching-ling, which had been in the dust for 70 years.
The letter was written by Song Qingling on January 26, 1937, and the recipient was Wang Ming. In the letter, Soong Ching Ling mentioned that he had sent a sum of money to Chairman Mao not long ago, "In response to Comrade Mao Zedong's letter requesting help with the provision of funds, I sent him a sum of money three months ago, and only one person here knows about this matter, he (referring to Pan Hannian) played the role of a liaison, through whom I received letters and forwarded money. ”
Song Qingling and Snow
Before that, Song Qingling also tried to find a way to send the American doctor Ma Haide and the American war correspondent Snow to northern Shaanxi. After returning to Beiping after a few months of interviews in northern Shaanxi, Snow wrote the sensational "Red Star Shines on China" (that is, "Journey to the West"). Ma Haide remained in Yan'an, where he later became a pioneer in the health industry of New China and the first foreigner to join the new Chinese nationality.
Before Ma Haide set out, Song Qingling also gave a special explanation: "After you arrive in northern Shaanxi, you must understand the lack of medical treatment and medicine there, so that we can try to support." On September 22, 1937, the Kuomintang Central News Agency issued the Declaration of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for promulgating the Cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. The next day, Chiang Kai-shek delivered a speech at Lushan, saying that he would unite with the imperial insults, which meant the formation of the Kuomintang-Communist anti-Japanese united front.
This made Song Qingling very excited, and she immediately issued a "Speech on the Reunification Movement of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party". In the text, Song Qingling wrote:
"Reading the declaration of the Communist Party of China on going to the national disaster and the talks of Chairman Jiang, the leader of the Chinese Kuomintang, who united the royal insults, made me extremely excited and moved. Recall that the two fraternal parties, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, have opposed and killed each other in the past decade, which was unexpected by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the former prime minister who pioneered the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. In the end, these two fraternal parties actually reconciled their words and started from a new one to struggle for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation, and the CPC Manifesto and Chairman Chiang Kai-shek's speech solemnly pointed out the necessity of sincere unity between the two parties. When I heard the news, I was moved to the point of tears. ”
After the fall of Shanghai, Soong Ching Ling initiated the formation of the League for the Defense of China (the "League of Protection") in Hong Kong, and served as its president. The goal of the "Alliance" is to mobilize the international community to provide assistance to China in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and to "encourage all peace-loving and democracy-loving people around the world to make further efforts to supply China with medicine and relief materials." ”
Song Qingling has a very important goal, that is, to send the various materials collected to the places where they are most urgently needed. Therefore, at that time, the aid targets of the "Baomeng" were very targeted, mainly sent to the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and the guerrilla areas behind enemy lines.
Some members of the Central Committee of the "Bulgarian Alliance" are in Hong Kong
For example, at that time, the treatment of the wounded in Yan'an was in urgent need of X-ray machines. When Song Qingling learned of this situation, he immediately found a way to raise an X-ray machine and sent it to Yan'an with all his hardships. According to incomplete statistics, in the four years from the establishment of the "Bao League" to the fall of Hong Kong in 1941 and its withdrawal to the mainland, more than 120 tons of medical supplies were sent to the anti-Japanese front alone.
On August 28, 1945, Chairman Mao went to Chongqing to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek with "great courage". The day after arriving in Chongqing, Chairman Mao personally visited Soong Ching-ling, the second time the two had met after an 18-year hiatus. During this period, Chairman Mao expressed his gratitude to Soong Ching-ling on behalf of the CPC.
On the evening of September 6, Soong Ching Ling, in his capacity as chairman of the "BaoMeng," hosted a banquet for Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, Wang Ruofei, and other Communists. During chairman Mao's more than 40 days in Chongqing, he met with Soong Ching Ling many times, and the two sat together like old friends for many years and worked hard for peace.
Every time Soong Ching Ling came to Guiyuan, chairman Mao's place of residence, Chairman Mao would greet him at the door in advance, and when the talks were over, he would personally send Soong Ching Ling to the door and watch him leave by car. On October 11, Chairman Mao returned to Yan'an from Chongqing, and he and Soong Ching-ling met again on the eve of the founding ceremony.
On April 30, 1948, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a slogan to commemorate Labor Day, which immediately received a positive response from various democratic parties. Among the democrats, Li Jishen, Shen Junru, Zhang Bojun, Huang Yanpei, and others went north to Beiping, and they also called Song Qingling in Shanghai. Logically, Song Qingling was the most honored guest of the CPC, and she should have arrived in Beiping long ago to attend the first plenary session of the CPPCC.
Song Qingling arrived in Beijing
However, for various reasons, Song Qingling did not immediately go north. Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, and others discussed that song Qingling must be invited north, so they decided to let Deng Yingchao go to Shanghai with a handwritten letter to invite her to go north to participate in the creation of a new China. The full text of the letter reads as follows:
"Mr. Qingling: Chongqing violated religion for nearly four years. The sincerity of looking up is accumulating day by day. With the victory of the national revolution imminent, and the grand plan for construction urgently needs to be discussed, Comrade Deng Yingchao was specially dispatched to wait forward and sincerely welcome Mr. Deng Yingchao to the north. Jing Xi ordered him to ride ping, so that he could consult the nearest one, but he prayed for it in a hurry! ”
In a few words, Chairman Mao used "disobeying religion," "looking up," "moving forward to wait," "respecting Xi's fate," "asking for advice nearby," and "praying for help but hoping for the sake of hope." These modest words once again demonstrated Chairman Mao's respect for Soong Ching-ling. Deng Yingchao lived up to his mission, and finally Song Qingling agreed to go north.
Before leaving, Song Qingling asked everything to be simple and not to engage in a welcome ceremony. In addition to ensuring the absolute safety of the special train, Chairman Mao led more than 50 people to the Qianmen Railway Station an hour in advance to wait. When the special train stopped, Chairman Mao even walked into the carriage and shook hands with Song Qingling warmly.
With such a high standard of treatment, Song Qingling was moved to tears. Soon, Song Qingling was elected vice chairman of the New China and ascended the Tiananmen Tower at the founding ceremony. Chairman Mao pressed the national flag button, and the first five-star red flag of New China was raised in Tiananmen Square.
Song Qingling (second from right) ascends the Tiananmen Tower
At that moment, Song Qingling shed tears. Sun Yat-sen's unfinished business until his death, which was also the goal he pursued all his life, has finally been achieved. After the founding of New China, Song Qingling engaged in state affairs as a state leader, and she had a high prestige in the hearts of the masses throughout the country.
1976 was the saddest year of Chinese, with the deaths of Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Chairman Mao, and the death of more than 240,000 people in the Tangshan earthquake before Chairman Mao's death, and Soong Ching Ling almost dried up in tears. On the afternoon of September 18, Song Qingling was helped to ascend the Tiananmen Tower.
At first, Song Qingling barely stood on crutches. As the eulogy session began, Song Qingling's overly sad body shook and fell directly. The party and state leaders present hurriedly asked someone to move a chair and let Soong Ching Ling sit on it. In this way, Soong Ching Ling became the only person sitting at Chairman Mao's memorial meeting, and no one at the scene had any opinion on this privilege.
On December 26, 1977, Chairman Mao celebrated the 84th anniversary of his birth. Song Qingling wrote the article "Remembering Chairman Mao", in which she reviewed in detail the experience of many contacts with Chairman Mao and wrote affectionately:
"Looking back, he was a far-sighted, unparalleled leader and mentor, he was the guide of the great cause, and Commander-in-Chief Zhu and Premier Zhou were the right-hand men of the great cause."
Chairman Mao visited Soong Ching-ling
After Chairman Mao's death, Soong Ching Ling remained busy with state affairs despite his advanced age. In the spring of 1981, Song Qingling suffered from chronic leukemia and was in poor health. Soong Ching Ling has always had a wish to join the Chinese Communist Party. On May 15 of that year, the Politburo held an emergency meeting and passed a resolution to accept Soong Ching-ling as a full party member.
The multi-faceted long-cherished wish has finally come true, and Song Qingling has no regrets. At 20:18 on May 29, 1981, Song Qingling died of illness in Beijing at the age of 88.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and from the founding of the Party in 1921 to the founding of New China in 1949, there were very few people outside the Party who always supported our Party's cause, and Soong Ching Ling was the one with the strongest stance.