On September 9, 1976, the whole of China received a sad news - Chairman Mao passed away, and the people of the whole country were mourning for this news.
In the Zhongnanhai "202" bungalow, an important meeting was held brightly lit inside. After a long discussion, everyone was unanimous, and the final decision never made a decision.
. Chen Changjiang, the guard captain of Chairman Mao during his lifetime, was on duty at the door of the conference room and went in from time to time to send some boiled water to the central leaders to quench their thirst.
Chen Changjiang heard some of the discussions of leaders intermittently. Although the details were not complete, he could probably hear that the core of everyone's discussion was how to arrange the Chairman's funeral, and what was particularly important was how to deal with the Chairman's body. The atmosphere of the
meeting was a bit tense, and everyone's voices were overwhelming. Chen Changjiang understood that this discussion was inevitable that everyone would be excited about the funeral of the great people's leader Chairman Mao.
, and in this meeting, there are mainly two opinions. One opinion holds that Chairman Mao advocated cremation during his lifetime, and even clearly stated that he hoped that he could cremation after his death. At the same time, this also conformed to the central government's policies;
, while another opinion holds that Chairman Mao is a great man who created a new China and a new era, and his body should be kept forever for the world to admire.
Everyone has been arguing for a long time and finally came up with a plan after compromise - whether it is cremation or permanent preservation of the body, funeral and condolence are necessary, so the body should be protected first. After that, we will study and decide how to deal with the Chairman's body. After the consensus reached by
, the central government immediately began to deploy anti-corrosion treatment to ensure that the Chairman's body could last at least a few days of mourning. Who should I give such an important and special task to? You should know that countless people will come to visit Chairman Mao’s body, and there will be no mistakes.
. Liu Xiangping, former director of the Health Center, immediately rushed back to Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and after consultation with the Party Secretary of the Hospital Yang Chun , he finally decided on the main person in charge of the protection of the chairman's body - Xu Jing.
So who is Xu Jing and what is her relationship with Chairman Mao’s body protection work?
1. The candidate for Xu Jing is indeed very convincing. The Party Branch Secretary of the Basic Medical Group of the Medical Academy, the first deputy director of the teaching and research department of morphology, and a graduate student in the Soviet Union in the 1950s, received an associate doctorate degree, and was able to bear this arduous task in terms of identity and ability. So in the early morning, Xu Jing's dormitory door was knocked open by Jiang Huanbo, secretary of the duty room of the Ministry of Health. Seeing Jiang Huanbo's urgent appearance, Xu Jing had learned that it should be an urgent matter. Without asking any questions, she got on the car to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
In the night sky, the car was galloping eastward, and the car was silent, and the atmosphere was extremely dull. What exactly happened? Xu Jing couldn't help but guess, want to go abroad urgently? Or is it a medical record?
Apprehensive, Xu Jing's car arrived at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and transferred to Liu Xiangping's car to the Southeast Sea. The east gradually turned white, and Xu Jing vaguely saw the red walls of Zhongnanhai, and had an ominous premonition in her heart.
After the car entered through the north gate of Zhongnanhai, it stopped in front of a row of gray houses. Under Liu Xiangping's leadership, Xu Jing walked through the corridor and walked into a not-so-large room at the end of the corridor.
In the room, Wang Dongxing of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Xu Jing and Liu Xiangping, he asked Xu Jing, "You are Comrade Xu Jing, right?"
Xu Jing immediately replied, "I am."
Then Wang Dongxing choked and announced the news of Chairman Mao's death to Xu Jing, and told Xu Jing that in order for the world to admire Chairman Mao's remains, the appearance of the chairman's body needs to be protected, which will take about fifteen days.
For a moment, Xu Jing seemed to be like a bolt from the blue, her brain was blank, and tears as big as beans came from the corners of her eyes. But after only a moment of blankness, Xu Jing suddenly felt enlightened.
She heard Wang Dongxing ask, "Do you have any requirements? You can ask."
Xu Jing calmed her thoughts and realized that this problem was both urgent and impossible to make mistakes. So after thinking carefully for a while, she made three requirements to Wang Dongxing:
First, and she needs to study the protection plan for the body with her peers in the Medical Academy;
Second, she wants to see Chairman Mao’s body with her own eyes;
She needs some time to prepare necessary medicines and equipment.
After obtaining permission to watch Chairman Mao’s body, Xu Jing entered Chairman Mao’s bedroom. The indoor temperature was very low, and the light was very dark because of thick purple curtains on the floor. The chairperson's body was lying in the center of the big bed, with the body covering from head to toe, covered with a white towel.
Xu Jing slowly walked to the edge of the bed and carefully lifted the towel on the chairman from the side. What entered her eyes was the Chairman's skin. She carefully checked whether there was any damage on it. She also reached out and touched it gently, feeling the elasticity of the Chairman's skin, and finally moved the Chairman's joints gently.
She took these details one by one in her heart and covered the towel.
Time is urgent, and Xu Jing and Liu Xiangping immediately rushed back to the Medical Hospital from Zhongnanhai. Finally, the hospital decided to form a three-person group consisting of Xu Jing, Zhang Bingchang, deputy director of the Anatomy Department, and Chen Kequan, deputy director of the Morphology Department, and discussed the initial anti-corrosion plan for the chairman's body.
. Xu Jing asked Professor Zhang Jian, a famous anatomy nationwide, about the details of the body treatment of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and then found a professor of pathology to ask for advice.
After she knew it, she and Zhang Bingchang and Chen Kequan arrived in Zhongnanhai on time at 10 o'clock.
At this time, in a large conference room next to the chairman's bedroom, the central leaders are holding a meeting. As soon as Xu Jing arrived, the meeting stopped immediately. Wang Dongxing asked Xu Jing to introduce to everyone the plan for the protection of the Chairman's body.
Xu Jing explained and introduced the plan in detail, and explained the implementation methods and the expected results of this method.
When asked by a leader, "How confident are you?" Xu Jing's answer was that the three of them were experts in the field of corpse preservation, but in the past, they did not pay attention to body shape, face protection, etc.
In other words, the protection of the Chairman's body is very different from the previous corpse protection. The Chairman’s appearance is to be admired by the world, so the appearance must be kept vivid, but how easy is this?
Xu Jing once had three years of postgraduate experience in the Soviet Union and had heard of Lenin's body protection. But what he heard was just some superficial information. The real core information was always the state secrets of the Soviet Union, and she had no way to know it here.
Therefore, their trio needs to ensure that the Chairman's face can be retained to the greatest extent in a short period of time.
It is not difficult to imagine how huge the pressure they face is.
2. Body protection during the condolences
In order to prepare, they immediately entered the workplace, cleaned, disinfected, configured medicines, and placed equipment. They were busy until noon and everything was ready. The first problem they faced was how to put the body posture.
They mainly choose two, one is to let their arms sag, and the other is to imitate Lenin and put their arms on their chest. Xu Jing and the others were only responsible for technical content and did not dare to take the initiative of the Chairman's body without authorization, so they asked for instructions from the higher authorities.
Result The reply they received was "According to the traditional habits of the Chinese people - sagging."
, and anti-corrosion treatment is the strength of these three people.
They cooperate closely and are very close.As an expert in the field of human anatomy, Zhang Bing often deals with corpses in daily life, so she is very skilled in her skills, and he is the main one when dealing with them;
Chen Kequan is young, with quick eyes and quick hands when dealing with them, and flexible hands when dealing with them. Although Xu Jing has less contact with corpses than Zhang Bing, she learns microscopic anatomy, is bold and meticulous in handling, and knows how to cooperate.
So these three people were so busy, they communicated and cooperated closely, and kept paying attention to the details of the process. After two hours of close work, the work was finally completed.
But at this time they cannot take it lightly. They need to pay close attention to changes in the bodies in case of accidents. So from the afternoon of the 9th to the late night of the 10th, they did not dare to blink, and made meticulous observations and records of changes in skin color, toughness and elasticity.
At this moment, they received a new instruction from the central government - the body should be preserved for a long time.
They cannot breathe a sigh of relief, and they must further anti-corrosion treatment of the Chairman's body. Injection of preservation liquid is an indispensable part of the body for a long time, but there is a problem here - once the preservative liquid is injected, the Chairman's body will swell. If the swelling is not eliminated when the people come to watch, it will be troublesome.
Xu Jing was very worried about this and asked Zhang Bingchang. However, Zhang Bing often reassures her that the swelling will automatically subside after 24 hours.
Although he was still a little worried, Xu Jing still felt a little relaxed. By the early morning of the 11th of the same month, I saw that the swelling of the body had been eliminated, and I couldn't help but let go of the hanging heart.
At 3:20 am on the 11th of the same month, the body of Chairman Mao, who had already eliminated the swollen body, was escorted from Zhongnanhai to Great Hall of the People . And a new battlefield for anti-corrosion work has come here. Why do
say so? It turned out that in order to protect the Chairman's body, all the cold air equipment that could be opened was operated in the hall, reducing the temperature in the hall to below 15℃. People still felt the cold air was frozen when they entered the door in their coats.
But even so, it is not enough to protect the Chairman's body. First of all, the mourners who came one after another were "heat carriers", objectively increasing the indoor temperature. The hot air blown from the performer's instruments and the strong lights in the hall all had an adverse impact on the protection of the body.
Faced with this situation, leaders and experts believe that it is not a solution to continue like this. Relying on air conditioning to protect the viewers not only makes the cold feel unbearable, but also not enough to protect the body.
So in addition to reducing the lighting and changing the band's performance to playing sorrow and music, everyone also came up with a way - isolate the body from the outside world. In such an environment, the body can be avoided from being affected by the outside world to the greatest extent.
So at that time, the central government ordered people to urgently make an plexiglass coffin cover, which locally cools down and oxygen isolates the glass coffin, ensuring the protection of the body during the visit.
In this process, leaders and experts overcame one difficulties after another to ensure the smooth progress of the activity. On the other hand, Xu Jing kept reporting the remains to the central leaders.
Later Xu Jing remembered the local events back then and couldn't help but sigh that she was under a lot of ideological pressure at that time.
That's right, she didn't dare to relax at all. During this period, even if something goes wrong in one link, she will become a sinner in history.
On the 13th of the same month, the Party Central Committee decided: In order to further improve the protection of Chairman Mao's body, a special leading group was established with an office called "Nine Office", and Xu Jing was subordinate to the anti-corrosion group (later changed to a health protection group).
3. The body was transferred to the memorial hall
Although the event was successful until the 17th day, everyone ushered in a new problem - Chairman Mao's body had decided to be protected for a long time, but it took a year for Chairman Mao's memorial hall to be completed. How should the Chairman's body be placed during this period?
Xu Jing and team leader Huang Shu took the underground operating room of a hospital together. The conditions of this underground operating room are extraordinary. It was set up for war back then, so it is an excellent place.
Of course, although this place is good, it still needs to be modified to meet the low temperature, sealing and isolation of oxygen environment required to protect the remains. Once the proposal was reported, it was approved by the central government. As a result, only one week later, the freezer and factory built this ideal environment.
This original underground operating room, because of the arrival of Chairman Mao’s body, was called the “769” protection room, because the time of the chairman’s death was September 1976.
After entering "769", the chairman's body was immediately protected 24 hours a day. In order to protect Chairman Mao’s body, the central government has specially established a scientific research team for body protection. In addition to the health protection group where Xu Jing is located, there are also experts and leaders from Beijing Medical College , Beijing Medical College and other colleges. After the establishment of the
group, all members were concentrated in a building in the Xinjiang Office in Erligou, Beijing, and all the work was basically hosted by Wu Jieping .
After rigorous and detailed discussions and experiments by professionals, everyone noticed the research results of the Mawangdui female corpse in Changsha. The female corpse of Mawangdui is a miracle in the field of anti-corrosion. After being treated with anti-corrosion by ancient people, the female corpse maintains a shocking anti-corrosion effect.
From this research result, experts have come up with a very reliable and scientific method of anti-corrosion - combining gaseous and liquid. The combination of
is very particular, that is, the exposed part of the body is in the gas state, and the hidden part is placed in the liquid state; when everyone comes to pay attention, it is more in the gas state, and when it is not pay attention, it is placed in the liquid state; in addition, it is also divided into daily and annual large protection time, and usually it is more in the gas state, and when it is protected by large protection, it is protected by liquid state.
protects the Chairman's body in many ways. While combining liquid and gas, experts have also taken physical and optical protection measures. In short, it is necessary to achieve "six defenses", namely anti-corrosion, anti-mold, anti-bacterial, anti-decomposition, anti-drying, anti-deformation, and anti-discoloration.
After twenty years of practical testing, these solutions are obviously successful, because over the years, the instruments and instruments that detect anticorrosion effects have been running stably and all parameters are ideal.
In August 1977, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was finally completed. So Chairman Mao's body was also transported from the temporary resettlement site of "769", a body transport truck converted into
, a red flag sedan, to the memorial hall.
In order to build this memorial hall, the central government has formed a "Memorial Hall Design Team". The predecessor of this group was the "Mausoleum Design Group" responsible for designing the mausoleum for Chairman Mao, but at this time it was the top priority to build the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, so almost at the same time as the "Nine Office" was established, this "Memorial Hall Design Group" was born.
. In terms of site selection, the members of the design team took great pains to choose. On September 14 of the same year, they conducted a series of discussions and field visits.
After going to many places in Beijing, they formed more than 30 design plans. However, these solutions have their own problems and can never find the most suitable choice.
After careful screening and discussion, the experts finally decided to build the memorial hall in Tiananmen Square .
Tiananmen Square is a place of profound significance. In this square, there is the Great Hall of the People to the west, the History Museum to the east, and in the center of the square is the Monument to the People's Heroes .At the founding ceremony of , Chairman Mao solemnly announced the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Therefore, this place has irreplaceable political significance and is also the favorite place in the people's minds. It complements Chairman Mao's body.
So the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall started construction in full swing, and Chairman Mao’s body was temporarily placed in the “769” protection room as mentioned above.
So how should people pay attention to the Chairman's body after entering the memorial hall? The central government naturally also considered this point. At the same time as the construction of Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall started, the crystal coffin that specifically placed the Chairman’s body also began to be made. The production requirements of this crystal coffin are very high. First of all, in terms of appearance, in order to ensure that the people can admire Chairman Mao’s remains from all angles, they must ensure that there is a considerable clarity.
In order to ensure anticorrosion effect, the crystal coffin also needs to provide a low-temperature, oxygen-free, dust-free and moisturizing environment.
Under the unremitting research of researchers, the world's first crystal coffin made of optical glass has finally been made. In order to test the performance of this crystal coffin, experts tested it with the intensity of a magnitude 8 earthquake, and found that the crystal coffin was still safe and sound, confirming that it could bear the heavy responsibility of releasing the Chairman's body.
So as soon as the chairman's body was transported into the memorial hall, it was immediately put into a crystal coffin for people to admire from generation to generation.
protects the Chairman's body in an endless process. After the Chairman's body enters the crystal coffin, it is immediately protected by the health protection room around the clock.
, and Dr. Xu Jing was appointed as the deputy director of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall Administration. He has always been responsible for managing the health protection room and directly reported the protection of the body to the central government.
In order to better protect the Chairman's body, Xu Jing also served as the director of the Health Protection Room and closely monitored the daily protection of the Chairman's body.
In terms of management, Xu Jing formulated strict rules and regulations. Regarding the protection of the chairman's body, she put forward the "three no-use" regulations: that is, it is not used without scientific experiments, it is not necessary to be used without certainty, and it is not used without approval from the leader.
. On duty, Xu Jing did not dare to be careless. She implemented a 24-hour duty and could not leave the Chairman's body unattended for a moment.
Under her strict and careful management, the Chairman's body protection work has been going smoothly and there are no misunderstandings. Her seriousness and responsibility for her work can naturally be seen, so in 1982, she was finally appointed as the director of the Administration Bureau of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.
This new appointment is both a glory and a new challenge for her. In the past, she was only in charge of part of the content, but now she had to preside over the work from a global perspective. This not only required her to have corresponding technical capabilities—it was naturally qualified in this regard, but also required her to have a considerable degree of leadership skills.
Therefore, she couldn't help but feel the importance of responsibility, and in order to ensure her "morality and ability" she took time to improve her administrative management capabilities.
She often went to Beijing Reading Library to study, and she borrowed almost all the books about administrative leadership and recorded her experiences. She has never been outdated by the times. She can easily learn whether it is a computer or a foreign language. She can be said to have practiced her own words - "To obtain a pass to enter the 21st century."
This spirit of "living until old age and learning until old age" is worthy of the serious study of young people of our generation.
Editor: Xiaoxian
Editor: Lin Hua
