On September 9, 1976, the great leader Chairman Mao died in Beijing. The revolutionary teacher who rescued the suffering Chinese people from the quagmire closed his eyes forever. For a time, the hearts of the people of the whole country were filled with infinite shock and grief.
The great leader Chairman Mao
"Task No.1"
On September 13, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an emergency meeting. The theme of the meeting was also very clear, that is, to determine the problem of handling Chairman Mao's funeral. He left no last words and did not explain his own funeral.
As a result, serious disagreements arose at the meeting. There are mainly two views: One view is that Chairman Mao called for cremation and he himself took the lead in signing the proposal, and Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and others before him The remains were also cremated. This time, there is no reason for Chairman Mao not to comply with cremation, otherwise, it would not only violate Chairman Mao's original intention but also take the lead in "changing customs".
Another point of view is that Chairman Mao not only occupies an extremely important position in the hearts of the people of the whole country, but he is also a symbol of an era and the belief of the Chinese people. Therefore, Chairman Mao's body should be like Lenin, Ho Chi Minh , etc. People are also permanently reserved for future generations to admire and commemorate.
Lenin and Ho Chi Minh
are at odds with each other.
In September, Beijing was still unbearably hot, and the medical experts who were waiting for the results of the meeting were anxious.
After all-night discussions, the results of the meeting finally came out!
The meeting decided to keep Chairman Mao's body permanently for future generations to pay their respects. also decided to set up the "Leading Group for the Protection of Chairman Mao's Remains" headed by Comrade Hua Guofeng. This group is specially responsible for tasks related to the protection of Chairman Mao's remains, the deployment and overall planning of decisions, and these tasks and decisions must be highly confidential. Call "task number one" .
Comrade Hua Guofeng
"Task No. 1" mainly includes three aspects of work: 1. preservation of Chairman Mao's remains; 2. production of crystal coffins; 3. Construction of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.
Preservation of Chairman Mao's body
On the afternoon of September 10, just after medical workers measured the size of Chairman Mao's body and reported the data, Hongdu Garment Factory immediately produced two sets of Chinese tunic suits for Chairman Mao, one thick and one thin. , the thick set is dark gray, and the thin set is light gray. decided to use the light gray set after research.
On September 11, Chairman Mao's body was transferred by the staff to the Great Hall of the People for a week of condolences. The number of lights in the hall and the temperature in the hall were strictly controlled. In addition, embalmed medical workers are also waiting 24 hours a day beside Chairman Mao's body.
The scene of the condolence conference
The condolences began. All those who came to pay their respects silently expressed their love and reluctance to Chairman Mao in the sound of mourning. They either covered their faces and cried, or groaned.
At that time, Chairman Mao's body was open. Although the insulation measures in the hall were strictly controlled, as the condolence time went on and the number of condolences increased, the temperature emanating from the continuous stream of people caused the temperature in the hall to exceed The original preset 15 ℃!
Seeing this, the anti-corrosion medical staff immediately adjusted the number of lights and strengthened the force of the cold wind. Even so, a good cooling effect is still not obtained.
After learning about the situation, the relevant technical personnel decided to store Chairman Mao's body in a plexiglass coffin, and then use high-purity nitrogen and a refrigerator to take partial cooling effect to control the temperature.
The masses offered their condolences to Chairman Mao
Soon, the temperature of Chairman Mao's body was lowered, and the overall temperature was controlled below 10°C.
On September 17th, the condolence activity was successfully concluded. Although Chairman Mao's body received a total of 300,000 condolences in those 7 days, the temperature of Chairman Mao's body was very stable, always below 10°C.
On September 18, which is the second day after the condolences ended, Tiananmen Square held a memorial meeting for Chairman Mao, and millions of people expressed their remorse and grief for the passing of this great man . After the conference, Chairman Mao's body was immediately transferred to a secret base code-named "769" for proper placement.
The production of Chairman Mao's crystal coffin is imminent!
Chairman Mao's crystal coffin made
For the issue of the permanent preservation of the remains, there have long been international precedents, such as Lenin of the Soviet Union and Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, whose remains are all preserved permanently. At that time, our country could be said to have zero foundation in the technology of body preservation, and we had no experience at all. What should we do? Only learn from the experience of other countries!
First of all, the Soviet Union was excluded, because at that time, China and the Soviet Union were at odds, and the diplomatic part was almost cut off, so people could only send people to Vietnam to study the protection technology of Ho Chi Minh's body, but there were no people sent. See the remains of Ho Chi Minh.
The remains of Ho Chi Minh
As the saying goes, "It is better to rely on others than to rely on yourself." Since there is no hope for outside help, you can only rely on your own research.Coincidentally, at that time, someone brought up the corpse of a thousand-year-old woman in the of the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Changsha, 4 years ago, in 1972, and suggested that it be used as a reference. The staff was stunned. In order to keep the body permanently, the body must be kept in a stable anaerobic, constant temperature and humidity environment.
In September 1976, Chairman Mao's crystal coffin group officially started work. The specified production period is less than one year, that is, it must be completed before the 1st anniversary of Chairman Mao's death!
Leaving aside the topic of tight construction schedule and heavy tasks, making a crystal coffin is indeed a arduous and complicated task, especially the crystal coffin made for our great leader Chairman Mao must be sealed, oxygen-insulated, low-temperature, The properties of anti-ultraviolet and other aspects are optimized.
In addition, the central government also made it clear that Chairman Mao's crystal coffin should not only look solemn, generous and beautiful in appearance, but also in terms of quality, its crystal purity must reach 99.9999%, in addition to being durable, it must also be resistant to grade 8. earthquake ! The so-called "crystal coffin" of
is actually made of optical glass , because there is no truly pure and flawless large-size natural crystal , at least not yet found.
Natural crystal rough
Although it is optical glass, it is still not easy to manufacture this kind of "glass" of large size and thickness with the domestic technical level at that time, because the top domestic technicians at that time spent a lot of money The crystal glass produced by force is only 10 mm thick, which is still a long way from the 30 mm required by the standard. The most fatal thing is that the crystal material used for testing at that time was seriously insufficient!
This is the case, only on the one hand to overcome technical difficulties, on the other hand, arrange for factories that meet the requirements to work overtime to produce crystal raw materials.
After repeated experiments, the factory finally decided to use to combine crystals to achieve the desired thickness. Easier said than done, not only grinding, but also splicing, which are all time-consuming processes. At the time of , these two processes alone took the staff 10 months, and they were still 24 hours a day!
The staff is making Chairman Mao's crystal coffin
On November 25, 1976, the first crystal coffin was born! The hard work and hard work from all sides behind is indescribable for a while.
This crystal coffin has passed the test of all the basic performances, and even withstood the earthquake of magnitude 8 simulating Yunnan . However, after repeated tests, the flaws of the coffin were found, that is, when the body was placed in There is a phenomenon that reflects images, which is obviously not conducive to the public's admiration.
1977 2, the second crystal coffin is finished! In order to perfectly solve the problem of the reflection image that occurred last time, the design of this crystal coffin changed the inclination angle of the side wall of the coffin to ensure that the viewers cannot see the weight of the coffin wall mapping at a distance of 2 meters and an eye height of 1.5~1.8 meters. At the same time, a layer of optical anti-reflection coating is coated on the side wall to reduce the reflectivity of light.
Crystal board
Therefore, the reflection image problem is easily solved.
In July 1977, the third crystal coffin was also completed! The crystal coffin not only avoids all the previous problems, but also innovates! That is, when looking at Chairman Mao's appearance, even with the precipitation of the years, the admirers can still feel that Chairman Mao's appearance has always been in a full and natural state, which is "light plastic surgery"!
In August 1977, less than a month was left until the 1st anniversary of Chairman Mao's death. 's 605 factory in Beijing officially completed the overall assembly of Chairman Mao's crystal coffin!
At the same time, the construction of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is also in full swing.
The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall under construction in the 1970s
Construction of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall
In fact, less than a week after Chairman Mao's death, 8 provinces and cities across the country, including Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. A total of more than 40 elites in the fields of architecture and fine arts were all summoned to the Qianmen Hotel. Everyone gathered together, using their own industry knowledge, to try their best to discuss an site selection and design plan suitable for the construction of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.
At that time, the site selection of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was also a big problem. First, there were more than 30 design schemes, and then several sites were selected, including Zhongnanhai , Tiananmen North (the Duanmen needed to be removed), Xiangshan , Jingshan , etc. And these schemes and site selection are the results after layers of screening, not including those that were eliminated before!
Finally, the plan and site selection (south end of Tiananmen Square) were finalized.
Tiananmen
The reason why Tiananmen Square is located at the southern end of Tiananmen Square is because it was the birthplace of the "May 4th" Movement. In front of it there are the immortal Monument to the People's Heroes and the glorious and solemn Tiananmen Gate Tower .
Everyone will never forget that on October 1, 1949, our Chairman Mao shouted to the world the declaration that resounded throughout the world:
"The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was established today. It's gone!"
Now that Chairman Mao is gone, his body should sleep here. Hidden behind the hero is the hero behind.
From laying out the line to digging the foundation, to the construction of the main body of the memorial hall, and finally to the decoration, every step of the construction of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall has condensed the blood, sweat and hard work of countless people.
Chairman Mao Memorial Hall
After the completion of the Memorial Hall, the central government decided to create a white marbled Chairman Mao seated statue before the body of Chairman Mao entered.
was another gathering of elites in the field, and finally, a statue of Chairman Mao sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed was selected.
On August 10, 1977, the carving of the seated statue of Chairman Mao in white marble was completed. At the same time, the assembled Chairman Mao's crystal coffin was also transported into the memorial hall.
At about 1:40 am on August 20, 1977, a black car with a red flag brand set off from "769" and headed towards the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. Chairman Mao's body, which had been kept underground for nearly a year, entered the worship hall at 11:00 a.m. that day.
Leaders pay tribute to Chairman Mao's remains
From 1977 to 1984, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall used invoices for the masses to pay their respects.In order to make it easier for more people to pay their respects to the appearance of the great leader, the state issued a message on July 1, 1984 through the "People's Daily" :
The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall canceled the tickets, and people could look at Mao Zedong's remains by queuing up. .
As soon as this news came out, the whole country was boiling, everyone can more easily see the person who is the most respected and admired in your heart!
The masses are laying wreaths for the white marble Chairman Mao.
Chairman Mao's charisma not only affects the Chinese people, but is also widely respected and loved by people all over the world!
On August 31, 1977, the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Tito, became the first foreign head to pay tribute to Chairman Mao's remains!
It is worth mentioning . In 1988, a delegation from , Pakistan came to visit our country. When the escorts asked them what else they wanted, they said:
"We just want to see the remains of Chairman Mao. ."
heard this, the Chinese side immediately met their requirements!
We will always miss Chairman Mao.
It is this great man who pulled the Chinese people out of the feudal quagmire in the past.
Long live Chairman Mao
Today, Chairman Mao has been transformed into an eternal spiritual monument that has been with you and me. He always believed in the people and served the people. He quietly slept in Tiananmen Square, witnessing the rapid changes in this lovely and hopeful country.
This prosperous world, as he wished!
