In 1972, when US President Richard Nixon visited China, at the welcome dinner that evening, he quoted chairman Mao's famous sentence "Ten thousand years is too long, only to seize the day" at the welcome dinner, expressing his determination to establish friendship with the Chinese people.
This is the first time in history that a U.S. president has visited China. In order to be able to successfully complete the visit, the US president has obviously done his homework.
First, Nixon consulted an assistant, the famous Dr. Kissinger. Then, Nixon watched a lot of video recordings of Chinese leaders such as Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou. In the end, Nixon even memorized several poems of Chairman Mao.
On the second day of his visit to China, Nixon and his wife went to the Badaling Great Wall for a tour and excursion. When they reached the beacon, it suddenly snowed heavily in the sky.
Seeing such a situation, Nixon recited Chairman Mao's poem "Qinyuan Spring snow" on the spot. Subsequently, Nixon expressed to our diplomats that he wanted an English version of Mao Zedong's Poems.
Later, the relevant departments of the state, to this end, also specially organized experts and personnel to publish a set of "special fine armored varieties" "Mao Zedong's Poems" in the form of the most advanced three-color overprinting technology and the comparison between Chinese and English.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >, why is this song "Manjiang Hong AnswerIng Comrade Guo Moruo"? </h1>
Before Nixon visited China, it should be said that his mood was still relatively nervous. After all, the cultures of the East and the West are actually very different. At the same time, they belong to each other, socialism and capitalism, two camps that are incompatible.
This time, Nixon decided to come to "Red China," and he, like the rest of the U.S. delegation, was a little nervous. They also proposed to the Chinese side that members of the mission need to carry weapons with them.
Still, Nixon couldn't feel reassured. So he asked Dr. Kissinger, who was well versed in psychology, in what tone and tone he should use to communicate with Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou.
Faced with Nixon's problems, Dr. Kissinger wrote him a long report. In this report, Kissinger told Nixon that Mao was a good strategic thinker, but at the same time he was a romantic poet.
It was probably this that caught Nixon's attention. So he went to read Chairman Mao's writings, including Chairman Mao's poems. Finally, he selectively recited several of them.
When Nixon was able to visit the Badaling Great Wall, he recited "Qinyuan Spring and Snow" in full, which is not surprising at all, because this poem was chairman Mao's most famous poem in the early days, and the scope of praise was also very wide.
However, the phrase "Comrade ManJiang Hong and Comrade Guo Moruo" was filled in by Chairman Mao after the founding of New China, so why did it attract Nixon's attention? Probably because it is all "fast people and fast language", which is in line with the characteristics of American character.
The poem "Manjiang Hong and Comrade Guo Moruo" was a poem that Chairman Mao felt and reconciled after reading Guo Moruo's "Manjiang Hong and The Vicissitudes of the Sea" around 1963.
At that time, China was facing a very major international crisis. At the same time, Chairman Mao himself and the Chinese Communist Party were also under wanton attack by foreign media at that time. So Chairman Mao filled in the words and fought back.
"Man Jiang Hong and Comrade Guo Moruo"
A small globe, with a few flies hitting a wall. Buzzing, a few mournful, a few sobs. The ant edge is exaggerated, and the grasshopper shakes the tree. The westerly wind is falling under the leaves of Chang'an, flying and singing.
How many things, never urgent; the heavens and the earth turn, time is pressing. Ten thousand years is too long, only to fight for the day. The four seas churned with clouds and water, and the five continents shook and thundered. Sweep away all pests and be invincible.
In this poem, Chairman Mao likens those hostile forces to nasty buzzing flies, and at the same time to their actions as grasshoppers shaking trees without self-control.
At the welcome party of his first visit to China, Nixon quoted chairman Mao's poem at the beginning of the poem —how many things are never urgent; the heavens and the earth are turning, and time is pressing. Ten thousand years is too long, only to fight for the day.
The meaning of these poems is: Things in this world change very quickly, how do we judge the right and wrong of a thing? Ten thousand years to draw conclusions would be too slow. We're going to see you now and argue.
So, China and the United States, the two countries, should become friends, can they become friends? Until Nixon's visit to China, there were still skeptical voices in the United States.
But Nixon felt that there were some big things that should not be delayed or tested in the future. Since the two sides want to cooperate, they should be decisive and start now.
From this point of view, Nixon's understanding of Chairman Mao's words is actually quite in place. Therefore, the homework and preparations he did before his visit to China actually had a certain effect.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="57" > NIX, Nixon, and Chairman Mao's friendship</h1>
Chairman Mao and Nixon established a personal friendship after their first meeting. Later, after Nixon stepped down because of the Watergate incident, Chairman Mao still regarded him as an old friend and corresponded with him from time to time through the diplomatic service.
In 1975, Mao Zedong originally wanted to invite Nixon to visit China, but Nixon was unable to do so for physical reasons. So Nixon asked his daughter Julie to visit China first.
Julie brought a handwritten letter from Nixon, when Chairman Mao's eyesight had deteriorated due to cataracts, but Chairman Mao immediately read it under the lamp and read the date of the letter in English.
Afterwards, Chairman Mao also inquired about nixon's leg thrombosis. When Nixon visited China for the second time in February 1976, he had long since left the presidency and had long been forgotten by the US political scene.
However, Chairman Mao still did not forget Nixon. The second time they met, they chatted for up to 1 hour and 40 minutes. When he was leaving, Chairman Mao presented him with a hardcover English version of Mao Zedong's Poems.
This is a collection of Chairman Mao's poems that Nixon wanted to get during his first visit to China. However, at that time, there was no ideal English version in China.
Therefore, the relevant leaders of the Foreign Language Publishing House later specially found the famous translator Ye Junjian, the scholar Qian Zhongshu, Yuan Shuipai and others, and asked them to help sort out the English version of Chairman Mao's poems, and a total of 39 English poems were sorted out.
In order to be foolproof, the leaders of the publishing house later spent a lot of time and personally went to Changsha, Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to find teachers and students of the Department of Foreign Chinese and solicit opinions.
Finally, after repeated deliberation and review, it took four years to publish two sets of "special fine armored editions" of Mao Zedong's Poems through three-color overprinting and weaving letter sleeves.
After the two sets of Mao Zedong's poems were printed and published, the publishing house gave one of them to Nixon, and the other to Chairman Mao himself.
When Nixon visited China, he also brought Chairman Mao rich and valuable gifts, such as porcelain swans and crystal glass vases. In the end, Chairman Mao handed them all over to the treasury, leaving only a Nixon business card and a glass for the banquet.
Nixon later said in his memoirs that he greatly appreciated Chairman Mao's writings and said that Chairman Mao's writings changed the world and was a profound philosopher.
After learning of Chairman Mao's death, Nixon issued a statement in the American newspaper praising Chairman Mao for his extraordinary courage and firm thinking. The establishment of the new sino-US relations depends entirely on Chairman Mao's decisiveness in handling affairs and his far-sightedness.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="60" > conclusion</h1>
Ten thousand years is too long, only to fight for the day. When we make decisions about something, it is impossible to really predict the ultimate outcome of an event. However, how can a person who wants to achieve great things miss an opportunity because he is afraid of failure?
So at this time, we must rely on our own experience, intuition, and more importantly, with self-confidence and courage, to choose the most suitable path for us to move forward.
In 1972, Nixon represented the United States and Chairman Mao represented China, and they invariably took a crucial step toward each other and began the "Ice-Breaking Journey between China and the United States"!