On September 9, 1976, a sad thing happened in our country: Chairman Mao passed away. Subsequently, the central government held an emergency meeting on Chairman Mao’s death and discussed the issue of handling Chairman Mao’s body.

On September 9, 1976, a sad thing happened in our country: Chairman Mao passed away.

Subsequently, the central government held an emergency meeting on Chairman Mao’s death and discussed the issue of handling Chairman Mao’s body.

During his lifetime, Chairman Mao hoped to cremate himself and throw his ashes into the sea. However, many people disagreed with this approach at the meeting because they were reluctant to leave Chairman Mao.

In the end, Hua Guofeng and others decided: should permanently preserve Chairman Mao's body.

Now we see that Chairman Mao’s appearance in Crystal Coffin is vividly preserved and intact, just like a real person is asleep.

However, this emergency work had many twists and turns at the beginning.

So, how is Chairman Mao’s body protected from corrosion? What is the design and construction process of the crystal coffin?

choice for handling the body

As for life and death , Chairman Mao was very fond of death. In 1965, he once said in a chat with American journalist Snow : "According to dialectics, life is actually limited."

Therefore, Chairman Mao thought that he died in his later years, which proved that dialectics was right.

However, in 1963, Luo Rongheng's death still brought a lot of blows to Chairman Mao. In those days, he was not thinking about food and food, but was just constantly recalling the past.

One day, Chairman Mao suddenly said to the head nurse Wu Xujun who took care of him: "When I die, you must not appear in front of me."

Wu Xujun was shocked when he heard this and asked why.

Chairman Mao slowly told her that his mother had explained this way before she died, hoping to leave a good impression on herself.

Wu Xujun understood that Chairman Mao was not disgusted with him, so he felt relieved, but when he thought of death, he still said a little uneasy: "Let's not talk about death all the time."

but Chairman Mao smiled relievedly: "Life and death are natural laws! I also need to be cremated after death, and this problem cannot be avoided."

Then, Chairman Mao told Wu Xujun that after he died, he cremated his ashes and threw them into the sea . After all, he ate a lot of fish before his death. After these fish ate their ashes, they can grow fat and the fish can better serve the people.

Wu Xujun naturally did not agree to Chairman Mao’s request, but Chairman Mao said seriously: "I have signed the cremation agreement!"

In April 1956, more than 100 leaders including Chairman Mao, Zhu De, Xiaoping signed the cremation initiative, hoping that anyone can cremate their bodies after death, and not build a tomb or leave any body.

Regarding the grave, Chairman Mao believes that dead people should not compete with living people for territory.

Various things seem to be the case that the entire body of Chairman Mao is completely contrary to Chairman Mao’s idea.

However, many people believe that as the founding leader of our country, Chairman Mao’s status is naturally different. He has made a lot of contributions to the people, and the people also hope that after his death, he can look up to his face and miss him.

Therefore, Hua Guofeng agreed to the proposal to build Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and preserve the body intact.

To preserve Chairman Mao’s body intact, two things need to be done well. The first is to avoid the decay of the body, and the second is to have a good coffin to store the body.

The central government handed over the first arduous and glorious task to Liu Xiangping, Xu Jing, Zhang Bingchang and others. Most of them had professional medical backgrounds and formed a group to discuss the preservation of Chairman Mao’s body.

handed over the second task to Han Boping . He was the deputy director of the Beijing Planning Commission at the time and stayed in Beijing for more than ten years. He was very familiar with the factory in Beijing.

Anti-corrosion process of body

The most basic requirement for body protection is long-term anti-corrosion, because this is for future generations to pay homage to future generations. However, anti-corrosion is easy but difficult for a long time. Faced with this task, Xu Jing and others specially discussed it and submitted a report on the protection plan.

While listening to their report, Hua Guofeng asked seriously: "How sure are you in this matter?"

Xu Jing said to this: "Although I have never done such a long anti-corrosion work, I will try my best to complete this task."

For Xu Jing, for completing this work, the first thing to overcome is his own mentality problem.

When she first saw Chairman Mao’s body, she was very excited. She did not expect that the kind Chairman Mao would leave like this. She calmed down for a long time before she could continue her subsequent work.

In fact, Xu Jing’s answer in front of Hua Guofeng is considered realistic. She does have many years of experience in body preservation, but Chairman Mao’s body needs to be preserved for a long time, which is a challenge for her.

Although there are some leaders of other countries in the world who have been preserved for a long time, this is all confidential. No one will know the specific ratio of the preservation of the medicine liquid formula.

Moreover, the long-term preservation of the remains is very difficult. For example, Lenin's body has been preserved in Moscow for a long time since Lenin's death in 1924.

However, the Soviet Union carried out careful anti-corrosion measures on him at that time, and later Russia spent millions of dollars on maintenance work every year, and by 2022, only 10% of Lenin's body remained.

Originally, Chairman Mao’s body was originally scheduled to be preserved for only 15 days, and these times were reserved for funerals, people from all walks of life, relatives and friends to pay their respects.

Medical staff only followed the 15th plan and made corresponding simple medical measures for Chairman Mao, such as injecting formalin and other medicines.

Because the body was changed from cremation to permanent protection, the initial brief treatment, such as not draining blood and dissecting the body within 2 hours of death, has added a lot of difficulties to the later stage.

So after the memorial service held for Chairman Mao on September 18, 1976, his body was quickly transferred to a body protection room.

Body Protection Room is a low-temperature, oxygen-free underground operating room. They temporarily soaked Chairman Mao’s body in antiseptic liquid and monitored the changes in the body every second.

For example, the texture, elasticity and toughness of the skin, because any slight change in detail will have a relatively important impact on the later anti-corrosion work.

When choosing the inert gas to be injected, the first thing that comes to mind is the commonly used nitrogen , because it is suitable for price and is very inert. It will not participate in the body's metabolism and can better preserve the body.

But someone shook his head. proposed helium . Although the cost of helium is much higher than that of nitrogen, it has better functions. At this time, everyone agreed. Yes, cannot pay too much attention to the cost in order for Chairman Mao’s body to be preserved better.

After the basic anticorrosion measures were completed, the later protection of the body was to adopt the principle of combining gaseous and liquid. This method utilized the advantages of gaseous and liquid.

The clothes worn by Chairman Mao’s body placed in the crystal coffin are covered with liquid, which is used to replenish Chairman Mao’s face. Chairman Mao’s face is in a gaseous environment, which can be convenient for everyone to admire, so that the appearance of Chairman Mao’s body will be better in front of the masses.

Overall, this work is very complicated, and the production time of the crystal coffin takes about a year.

During this period, they needed to insist on protecting Chairman Mao's body underground. It was not until August 1977 that Chairman Mao's body was transported from the underground to the crystal coffin.

At this time, the protection of the body has been completed for a stage. As time goes by, a new generation of experts will be responsible for the subsequent maintenance work.

45, body protection experts have attached great importance to this matter, and they will study the changes in the body every year and how to protect the body more effectively.

This is not just a job, but more importantly, it is responsible to the people who love Chairman Mao.

So, what is the production process behind Chairman Mao’s crystal coffin?

The process of making crystal coffin

Han Boping knew that to install Chairman Mao’s body, the first choice of is a glass coffin, not an ordinary wooden coffin.

Although Nanmu also has obvious anticorrosion functions, the top golden nanmu coffin is much better than the anticorrosion effect of the crystal coffin, but the main function of Chairman Mao’s body is for future generations to admire. In this way, the transparent properties of the crystal coffin are more suitable.

Compared to making a crystal coffin now, Han Boping wanted to find a ready-made crystal coffin at first, For example, in 1925, because of Sun Yat-sen's death, the Soviet Union once gave my country a crystal coffin.

Before his death, Sun Yat-sen hoped that his body could be preserved for future generations to pay homage to him, and the doctor also did the corresponding anti-corrosion work.

However, when the Soviet Union sent the crystal coffin, the corpse of had been buried in . Later, due to many factors such as war, Sun Yat-sen's body was not placed in the crystal coffin, but was sealed in the tomb for anti-corrosion, and this crystal coffin was never used.

Han Boping originally went to investigate this crystal coffin with hope. is close to the crystal coffin, but found that due to improper storage, the crystal coffin had cracks and could not be used.

Since this is the case, the crystal coffin can only be made immediately, and it will take a certain amount of time to make it now. After the guidance of experts, Han Boping decided to make an organic glass coffin cover first as a transition.

Plexiglass is a new type of plastic with high transparency. At that time, there was only one factory in Beijing that could make it.

Han Boping found this factory, but found that the existing plexiglass is 1.6 meters long. If you want 2.2 meters long, you can only make it now.

But time is tight. Will what you do now delay the storage of the body?

Han Boping was extremely anxious about this.

Who knew that the workers in the factory knew that it was for the purpose of making glass coffins for Chairman Mao, and they all worked overtime consciously, stayed up and didn’t eat. The production time that originally required more than a day was made, took only 10 hours to make , and the quality of plexiglass plate is very good.

It is not enough to temporarily store Chairman Mao’s body. This is just to complete Chairman Mao’s condolences and funerals. According to experts, the production time for crystal coffins, memorial halls and other projects will take about one year. During this period, a birthday hall with good anti-corrosion functions is still needed.

Therefore, the workers rushed to make a pair of titanium coffins for Chairman Mao to store the body within this year.

However, after Chairman Mao's body was transferred to Titanium Hall , it is still a problem to transport Chairman Mao's body safely from Great Hall of the People to the underground body protection room.

After all, this requires strict confidentiality and you need to find a trustworthy person.

After screening, the matter was finally handed over to Chen Changjiang to arrange it. After all, he was the chief guard beside Chairman Mao during his lifetime and was deeply trusted by Chairman Mao.

Chen Changjiang arranged two transport convoys, one of which was led by Wang Dongxing, which contained the real body of Chairman Mao. The other main function was to confuse some people who wanted to take the opportunity to cause trouble, and the function was to cover up.

Chen Changjiang, Wang Dongxing and others naturally completed this task gloriously.

At that time, there was almost no existing technical data in my country. For reference, we can't even find photos of crystal coffins that are already available internationally.

The crystal coffin sent by the Soviet Union was only 1.75 meters long. The material is an ordinary glass plate and a metal frame made of nickel steel . It is indeed transparent, but the glass is very thin and has poor thermal insulation. It cannot meet the protection requirements, and it is even difficult to be considered a real crystal coffin.

. In order to strive for excellence, our country's technical experts made 5 crystal coffins within one year, and finally achieved satisfactory results. The production process of

crystal coffin involves multiple fields. The raw material is East China Sea crystal transported from Suzhou by National Geological Administration . The final finished crystal coffin is produced. The purity of quartz powder is 99.9999%, weighing about 32.2 tons. Such high purity as

can be said to be unprecedented , so how did the production workers do it?

There is a technician called Shi Weicheng . He has rich experience. He is wearing heavy metal protective clothing. uses crystals to melt at 2000℃ to seamlessly weld into crystal panels with tool to make crystal panels with a width of 1 meter and a length of 2 meters.

During this period, he needed to endure the super high temperature. Someone next to kept watering his body , and his lower body was soaked in water.

The entire process of making the crystal coffin requires fine grinding, and the workers have been working patiently and meticulously through their love for Chairman Mao. After about 10 months, they finally made the crystal coffin.

Moreover, this crystal coffin completely solved the problem of light and shadow resurfacing on Lenin's crystal coffin. There was no heavy shadow on the crystal coffin. also successfully passed the test of the magnitude 8 earthquake.

However, Chairman Mao’s face was not very good. In order to preserve Chairman Mao’s skin, he could not be treated with any makeup. To achieve a lifelike effect, he still needs to work hard on the crystal coffin.

So, after the design of optical experts, the crystal coffin was coated with , and the color photos were used as the negative. When the soft beam was projected on Chairman Mao's face, there was a rosy feeling on Chairman Mao's face.

Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was specifically guided by Hua Guofeng, and Li Ruihuan served as the commander-in-chief. It was built in May 1977. It is grand, solemn and dignified, and has a unique style of our country.

On August 17, 1977, Chairman Mao's body was transferred to the crystal coffin of the memorial hall.

Since the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was opened to the public on September 9, 1977, many people have traveled thousands of miles to see Chairman Mao’s remains with their thoughts. For many people, paying attention to Chairman Mao is a spiritual sustenance.

References:

Tianjin Northern Network: "The secret of Mao Zedong's body protection work"

China Radio Network: "Mao Zedong's "Crystal Coffin" production process: Passing a magnitude 8 earthquake test"