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On August 18, 1977, the crystal coffin , which took more than 10 months to complete, was carried to the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall by workers' representatives. This treasure that cost countless people's efforts was unveiled and was admired by the world.
In order to properly preserve Chairman Mao's body, the crystal coffin was put forward to very high requirements. The purity reached 99.9999%, the hardness could withstand an eight-magnitude earthquake, and the chairman's face was ensured to be vivid through light beauty.
Chairman Mao’s body
How is such a high-standard crystal coffin made? Why is there nothing left to do now?
Preserving the body
On September 9, 1976, Chairman Mao passed away in Beijing. The white jade pillar of New China fell down. For the sake of the overall situation, the central leaders rejected Chairman Mao’s will to be cremated during his lifetime and planned to keep the body.
From a technical point of view, there are many ways to preserve the remains, including chemical and physical means. However, it is a big problem to ensure the appearance of the remains and preserve the details vividly.
According to the technical level at that time, the use of chemical reagent can effectively preserve the body, which is also known as formalin . However, there is a big problem in using the reagent, that is, it is not conducive to the public viewing and is harmful to the appearance.
Chairman Mao
Then we can only use physical methods to completely isolate oxygen , ensure low temperature, and avoid light. From these three angles, by keeping Chairman Mao’s body in a closed space without being disturbed, we can preserve the body intact in advance.
But there is another problem. The central government wants to preserve Chairman Mao’s body so that more people can pay respects to it and stabilize the overall situation. There is no way to put the body alone in a small room. This goes against our original intention of preserving the body.
So we designed a coffin that can effectively preserve Chairman Mao’s body and avoid interference from outsiders. This is a solution to the problem. The next question is how to build a coffin and how to control the details.
There were many ways to preserve remains in ancient China. For example, golden nanmu is an excellent medium. Most princes, generals and ministers used funeral utensils made of golden nanmu, which have lasted for hundreds of years without problems. There are still many craftsmen among the people who can build nanmu coffins.
However, the golden nanmu has a flaw, that is, the whole is sealed in a small space and cannot be admired by the public. Therefore, after long consideration, this plan was rejected, and another more suitable plan was proposed.
That is to use crystal coffins to preserve the body. Leaders of socialist countries such as the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and North Korea all used crystal coffins to preserve their bodies. When Dr. Sun Yat-sen passed away, we also received a crystal coffin as a gift from the Soviet Union.
The crystal coffin is cool in nature, and the body can be preserved for a long time when placed in it. Although it cannot be compared with the golden nanmu in terms of effect, it is still a very good material. As long as the technical level is up to standard, it can meet the requirements.
What’s even better is that the crystal coffin allows the public to pay their respects. It is transparent enough and is suitable for storing Chairman Mao’s body. Although high-purity crystal coffins are very rare, the cost is even higher and requires sufficient manpower and material support.
At that time, China and the Soviet Union were at odds with each other. We were unable to obtain technical support from the Soviet big brother and had to start from scratch. The time and energy required could not be estimated, and everyone's heart was weighed heavily.
However, after discussion, the central government decided to make a crystal coffin as a vehicle to preserve Chairman Mao's body, and assigned the task to all levels, organizing personnel and supporting materials across the country, and this work must be completed.
Task No. 1
I mentioned before that when Mr. Sun Yat-sen passed away, the Soviet Union once presented a crystal coffin, which should have certain reference value. However, when the staff found the coffin, they found that the situation was completely different from what they expected.
When Mr. Sun Yat-sen passed away, science and technology had not yet ushered in great development. The technology used to make the crystal coffin at that time was completely incomparable with that of today. Moreover, due to poor preservation, the crystal coffin had been damaged and had no repair value.
In desperation, the technicians could only design and manufacture it from scratch. The central leadership group specially gave this project a special code name "Mission No. 1". The confidentiality level was very high, and the personnel and material rationing were at the highest level.
First, a teacher from Central Academy of Fine Arts drew the overall structure of the crystal coffin and determined the shape and structure. After obtaining the approval of the central leadership group, they began to consider the remaining technical details and implement the idea.
In the technician's imagination, the crystal coffin was composed of five large glass plates. This was a big challenge, because at that time, few countries in the world could manufacture quartz glass plates, especially the height and thickness had to meet the standards.
Shanghai Wujing Brick and Tile Factory has relevant technical reserves, so the technicians went there to learn from the experience. After the master craftsmen worked day and night, the rough glass plate was finally made, and it was still rare 99.9999% pure.
From the perspective of materials and , every time the purity increases by one order of magnitude, the cost and difficulty of production will increase geometrically, let alone 99.9999% almost completely transparent glass, which can be said to be a rare treasure in the world.
After the glass plate blank is completed, factory workers have to start polishing it and merging several small plates together. The plates are fixed with chemical adhesive. However, experts have put forward better suggestions, which can change the angle of the glass plate and automatically align the glass gap.
The advantage of doing this is that it can avoid the aging problem of viscose and make it more beautiful in appearance. Why can't we just use large glass panels? This is because our country's optical processing technology was not in place at the time. Even if the purest Donghai crystal was used, it could not meet the technical standards of the crystal coffin, so it could only be spliced with a few small glass plates. The splicing process of
needs to be extremely meticulous, because if you are not careful, the glass plate will break, and even a slight change in temperature will cause cracks on the glass plate. Every detail must be paid attention to and taken precautions against.
There is another problem here. Ordinary industrial equipment cannot cut optical glass . You need to find professional machine tools to do the work. The details are a bit slow and you have to go through every step, which is a waste of time.
Moreover, the melting point of high-purity crystal is very high. Workers need to splice the two crystals together the moment they melt. Under high temperatures, even wearing protective clothing is not safe. Someone needs to water him next to him. You can imagine the hard work.
However, the workers involved in this project all held a fearless spirit and did not complain about the hardship of the environment. They concentrated on completing the work at hand, finding ways to speed up the project progress and complete the tasks assigned by the organization.
crystal coffins
In order to test the effect, the engineers planned to build a sample coffin first. In March 1977, the crystal coffin was initially completed. This was the first product under the blessing of a new process, and it placed everyone's hope.
The workers brought a human body model and put it into the crystal coffin to test the effect, but they were not optimistic. Due to the refraction of the crystal, ten "red suns" could be seen from the perspective of bystanders, and the portrait did not look very clear.
Of course this is not possible. The first crystal coffin failed completely. The technical staff quickly adjusted their mentality and prepared to solve this key problem. They specially mobilized hundreds of relevant experts from across the country to discuss and investigate, and finally gave two solutions.
The first solution is to coat the crystal coffin and use technical means to eliminate refraction. The second option is to re-adjust the angle of the crystal coffin and project the reflected image where the people who are paying homage cannot see it, which will naturally have an effect.
The No. 2 crystal coffin redesigned based on these two plans has not yet been completely completed. The central government suddenly issued new instructions. Due to the influence of formalin, Chairman Mao's body has undergone some changes, so it is best to add an optical beauty effect to the coffin.
Therefore, Crystal Coffin No. 2 was abandoned, and Crystal Coffin No. 3 was improved on the original basis. Optical experts combined multiple lenses together and added an internal light source that does not emit heat to avoid the possible effects of light and temperature changes.
The central leadership is very satisfied with the effect of the No. 3 Crystal Coffin. However, since this construction is only experimental in nature, the workers will weld large pieces of crystal together and will conduct several more comparative tests in the future. The No. 4 Crystal Coffin is the final attempt.
The crystal coffin we see now in the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is No. 4. Of course, there is also the No. 5 crystal coffin processed just in case, which is also stored in the memorial hall.
A total of 5 crystal coffins were built before and after, and there were at least hundreds of large glass panels used for assembly. Not only the glass manufacturing factories in Beijing participated, but also the glass factories in Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu and other places received the task and put into production one by one.
For more than 10 months, the workers worked all night long, forgetting sleep and food. Some people never even went home. Several key technicians even suffered from malfunctions, and finally lived up to expectations and completed this great project.
In addition to reaching the 99.9999% standard in terms of purity, this crystal coffin can also meet other index requirements, including waterproofing, fireproofing, earthquake resistance, and hardness. It can survive intact in various harsh environments.
It is understandable that it is waterproof and fireproof. The reason why it is necessary to add an earthquake-resistant one is mainly because the rare Tangshan earthquake occurred at that time, and the earthquake was also clearly felt in Beijing. Just in case, earthquake-proof measures must be used to insure Chairman Mao's crystal coffin.
At this point, the construction of the crystal coffin is completed. Since the death of Chairman Mao, the staff have been working hard on this crystal coffin. Now they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. They have lived up to the trust of the party and the people.
An unreplicable miracle
On September 9, 1977, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was officially unveiled to the public, and the crystal coffin also began to accept the public's respect. From a distance, Chairman Mao was lying there quietly, with a peaceful face, as if he had just fallen asleep.
This is the special effect achieved by the crystal coffin. After the body is treated with chemical means, it is immediately placed in a crystal coffin that has been completely evacuated. All light sources and temperature facilities are removed, and optical angles are used to achieve beauty effects.
In the solemn atmosphere, the people's admiration and respect for Chairman Mao will become more intense in this space, as if people are returning to that magnificent era and witnessing the great achievements of Chairman Mao in creating a new China.
So far, Chairman Mao’s crystal coffin is still intact. Various unexpected situations were taken into consideration when it was originally designed. It even has a backup energy device that can keep running even after a power outage.
And every once in a while, the engineers who participated in the design of the crystal coffin would take a close look at the condition of the coffin. Once minor problems were discovered, they would be solved in time to nip all possible situations in the cradle.
Regarding the craftsmanship of the crystal coffin, the older generation of technicians have passed down the craftsmanship, but it is almost impossible for future generations to replicate such a miracle, and there is no way to build such a technical and innovative crystal coffin.
Why is this happening? Mainly because of the special craftsmanship and high price. A high-level crystal coffin requires not only knowledge in optics and materials science, but also physics, chemistry, and mathematics.It is very rare for
to have engineers with these different attributes at the same time. Many advanced processes during the production process need to be coordinated with other factories. This is a big project, which sounds a bit overwhelming.
Let’s talk about the Donghai crystal that serves as the raw material for the crystal coffin. This is the crystal with the highest purity in China. It has been featured in many precious jewelry exhibitions . The value of each piece is extremely precious, and it is not a price that ordinary people can accept.
An adult-sized crystal coffin must meet the standards in terms of thickness and length. This requires several small crystals to be spliced and polished, which may cause losses due to various unexpected situations. The cost of the entire process is really not small.
Moreover, since Chairman Mao’s crystal coffin was built, this technology has not been used for decades. The country has no need in this regard. Everyone has signed the cremation initiative, and the crystal coffin has lost its use.
Of course, if the country issues a call again and invites many technical masters and outstanding workers to gather together and re-excavate details from historical data, then the miracle of the crystal coffin can also be replicated, but it is no longer necessary so far.
Decades have passed since the construction of the crystal coffin was completed. Every year, millions of people come to pay homage to the Chairman's remains. The masses use this opportunity to express their longing for him, strengthen patriotism education and improve their own moral cultivation.
The group of people who originally built Chairman Mao's crystal coffin have grown old. They are always proud of being able to participate in this great project. It is enough to be able to do something for Chairman Mao and the people of the country.
We should learn from the spirit of the older generation of doers, regardless of effort, work tirelessly for a common ideal, strive to improve ourselves, gain our own position in the wave of the times, and push forward the dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!
What else do you know about the preservation of Chairman Mao’s body? Have you been to Chairman Mao Memorial Hall? Please leave your opinions in the comment area.
