In 1981, when Hua Guofeng retired from his leadership position, he was 60 years old.
In the next 27 years of life, in addition to studying the cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables, and working properly in the yard, his greatest hobbies were practicing writing and reading newspapers.
In the past 27 years of life, whether Elder Hua is practicing words, celebrating his birthday, going out, or even ordering food for the last time in his life, he is inseparable from the three words of "Chairman Mao".
After Hua Lao retired, he lived in simplicity, did not ask about political affairs, did not talk about current affairs, and immersed himself in practicing his favorite Yan body calligraphy.
Different from the previous italics, Yan body calligraphy was modified by the Tang Dynasty calligrapher Yan Zhenqing, its structure is square and dense, the strokes are horizontal and light and vertical, the pen strength is strong and round, and the momentum is solemn and majestic.
This is the reason why many people like the face body.
Elder Hua liked the face body since he was young, and during the revolution, he had no conditions to practice writing, and could only use his fingers and small wooden sticks to draw on his legs and on the ground, and developed a habit and habit of practicing words at any time.
In his later years, he had time, and in the quaint courtyard where he lived, he specially vacated a study of 40 or 50 square meters and devoted himself to practicing his face.
His writing, steady penmanship, stretched glyphs, momentum open, grand, steady and atmospheric, the more you look at the more energetic.
The calligrapher commented on his characters: "Evolved from the Yan body, rigid but not weak, clumsy but not lagging, cultivation has reached its peak." ”
Anyone who has been to his Beijing courtyard can see that in his special study, there is a wall with all the poems of Chairman Mao that he wrote in Yan style.
It is conceivable that in his more than 20 years of practicing chinese writing, he wrote many poems of Chairman Mao.
Although he loved Chairman Mao's poetry and calligraphy, Hua Lao never deliberately imitated Chairman Mao's techniques to write.
A pen pal who often consulted with him said that in fact, Chairman Mao's calligraphy is Hua Lao's favorite work, which is bold and bold, imaginative, and imposing.
And his own face body, steady and dignified, and the hair body are completely two styles, although he likes it, but it is not something that ordinary people can cultivate.
"Even if I practice for another hundred years, [I] will not be able to practice at chairman Mao's level." He said.
Words are like their people, and people are like their words.
Hua Lao's life is also regular and orderly, indifferent and calm, and open-minded.
He himself lived frugally, and educated future generations on frugality.
Once, his niece Su Fengxian wanted to come to Beijing to celebrate his eightieth birthday, and Hua Lao, after hearing about it, hurriedly stopped, and for so many years, he had not allowed others to come to him to celebrate his birthday.
However, the niece quietly came to Beijing, stayed in a hotel near his home, and on her birthday on February 16, she came uninvited, brought cake, and suddenly knocked on the door of her uncle's house.
Elder Hua was surprised and delighted, and before he could prepare, he simply ate a home-cooked meal.
During the meal, he said to the children:
Now that reform and opening up are so good and the economy is developing so fast, the future of the country lies in you young people. "You have to be thrifty, don't be extravagant."
Niece Su Fengxian recalled that at the end of the birthday party, her uncle suddenly stood up and recited a poem by Chairman Mao on the spot.
There are many poets in "Bu Operator Yong Mei" who have made words with different contents, but only Chairman Mao has depicted a different plum blossom with the image of self-confidence, calmness, and smile.
Especially in the last few sentences, "Pretty don't fight for spring, only report spring." When the mountain flowers were full of flowers, she laughed in the bushes. Elder Hua recited at this time, and he sighed.
In the 27 years of retirement, Hua Lao has a fixed outing twice a year.
One was the birthday of Mao Zedong on December 26, and the other was chairman Mao's death on September 9.
In the past two days, the Chinese elderly will prepare early in the morning, accompanied and cared for by their families, and come to Chairman Mao's memorial hall on Tiananmen Square to remember the chairman and pay respects to his remains.
Chairman Mao's memorial hall, several gilded characters, is exactly what he wrote with yan body.
Here, many of the Chairman's guards, veteran subordinates, and staff members can reunite and greet each other.
Everyone commented on Hua Lao, "Approachable, always talking and laughing with us in private, always like this." ”
And every time everyone began to pay respects to the chairman's remains, it was Elder Hua who solemnly presided over the ceremony next to him.
Every time, his password with a Shanxi accent will sound in the memorial hall:
"Bow one, two, and three times to the great leader Chairman Mao!"
"Chairman Mao" has never left the life of Hua Lao.
In his later years, he liked to eat the dishes of a restaurant called Sawara Restaurant.
It was opened after the retirement of Chairman Mao's guards.
The restaurant's meals, created by Chairman Mao's former chefs, have become local specialties, and many people come to visit for the taste of chairman Yipin.
According to Chef Xie, a chef in hualao's later years, in June 2008, hualao was admitted to the hospital for health reasons.
A month before his death, he suddenly proposed to eat a dish from the Sawa Garden restaurant: "radish shredded shortbread".
This dish is made with old Beijing sesame sauce and noodles, which Hua Lao usually likes to eat the most, and often asks people to buy it and send it home.
This time, the hotel immediately arranged, accompanied by small dishes, etc., for him to be sent to the hospital bed, to meet the old man's last wish.
A month later, Hua Lao closed his eyes forever...
Presumably, over there, from the "radish shortbread" to the national event, he will make a detailed report to the old man for more than 30 years.