In 1949, one day ago, on the occasion of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Political Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of China decided to build a monument to the people's heroes in Beijing to commemorate the great soldiers who died in the Chinese revolution.
At the meeting, the committee members discussed the content of the inscription on the monument.
It was proposed that the inscription state the contribution of the Communist Party of China to the country and the people in the revolutionary process, but *** immediately and seriously rejected this proposal.
** emphasized: "The Communist Party of China must not appear on the Monument to the People's Heroes!”。
Although everyone felt strange, they were moved after listening to ***'s explanation.
First of all, the preparatory work for the monument included solving the problem of site selection.
Initially, there were three opinions on the site: Babaoshan, Dongdan Square, and Tiananmen Square.
After discussion, it was finally decided: "The May Fourth Movement in 1919 took place in Tiananmen Square, and the road of the Chinese revolution began at that time, so I think the monument to the people's heroes should be built here."
After the site was decided, the CPPCC Committee decided to solicit proposals for the design of the monument from all over the country.
There are three main architectural style proposals: giant sculptures, floor-level designs, and upright towering stelatures.
After discussion and comparison among experts and scholars, it was finally decided to adopt the design scheme of Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, in their design, the main body of the monument is an upright stone stele, which is several times higher than the ordinary stone stele, and uses relief carvings to depict the stories of the heroes.
After solving the problem of where to build and what to build, the leaders of the first class came to Tiananmen Square to hold a groundbreaking ceremony.
At the ceremony, ** announced the plan to erect a monument to the people's heroes in Tiananmen Square, he said: "I hope that everyone will never forget those heroes who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the country, and encourage themselves with this!."", followed by a speech.
**In a solemn atmosphere, he personally recited the inscription of the monument written by him, that is, the famous "Three Immortals": "The people's heroes who sacrificed their lives for the People's Liberation War and the People's Revolution will be immortal in three years!".Immortal in 30 years!Going back to 1,840 years, the people's heroes who sacrificed their lives to resist internal and external enemies and fight for national independence and people's happiness and freedom will never die.
Rotten!These impassioned words made everyone present very excited, and some even recalled the hardships on the road of revolution and shed tears of emotion.
Then, the chairman personally buried the foundation stone of the monument in the earth, and the groundbreaking ceremony was successfully completed.
** He devoted himself to the construction of the monument, not only writing the inscription himself, but also visiting the construction site to comfort the construction workers during the construction.
He inspired the workers: "The martyrs are fearless heroes, and you are unsung heroes!"”。
The President and Prime Minister then wrote the inscription for the monument in his own hand.
Nowadays, we see the eight big characters inscribed on the Monument to the People's Heroes "The People's Heroes Are Immortal", but at that time, it took a lot of twists and turns to decide what to inscribe on the monument.
When *** was troubled by this, someone suggested: "Chairman, the victory of the Chinese revolution was achieved under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and I think that the monument should give some praise to the party's contributions."
But *** immediately and seriously rejected this suggestion: "The Communist Party must not be mentioned on the monument to the people's heroes."
The chairman's decision was very puzzling, because they thought that the proposal was quite reasonable, neither exaggerating the merits nor ignoring the leading role of the party, but simply stating the facts.
Seeing that everyone was confused about their thoughts, he solemnly explained, "What are we going to build?".It is a monument to the people's heroes, a monument used to commemorate the great dedication of the people in the Chinese revolution.
Tens of thousands of martyrs have not even been named, and we cannot hide their glory in the name of the party.
Moreover, the success of the Chinese revolution does not depend on our party fighting alone, but on the united struggle of all the Chinese people!After listening to ***'s explanation, everyone understood his good intentions and felt ashamed of his narrow thinking.
Therefore, under the guidance of ***, everyone began to work on the preparation of the content of the inscription, excluding the name of the Communist Party.
** Attached great importance to the task of inscribe the inscription, he went to great lengths to write three characters.
However, the Chairman couldn't make a decision by looking left and right, so he decided to give the three pieces to the experts of the selection committee and let them decide which one was the most suitable.
The Chairman also specifically instructed the staff to tell them to rewrite a new word if no suitable option was available.
In this way, several powerful characters on the monument came into being.
The experts sensed the importance of the task from the chairman's apprehensions, and after careful selection, they finally chose the eight words "the people's heroes are immortal".
At the same time, someone in the expert group thought of the amazing Yan font, so he suggested to the prime minister: "Prime Minister, the chairman has written the inscription, or you can write the inscription."
After accepting this important task, ** began to concentrate on practicing calligraphy, determined to show his best font to commemorate the heroes of the revolution.
Like ***, ** couldn't decide which one was better, so he found Liu Kaiqu, director of the monument design department, with these more than 40 words, and asked his opinion: "Director Liu, I can't choose it myself, which one is better?"
After carefully reviewing each word, Liu Kaiqu couldn't hide his excitement and said excitedly: "Prime Minister, it's the first time I've seen so many of your calligraphy works, and I think each one is outstanding!."However, the prime minister was still not satisfied and decided to take it back and continue to revise it.
A few days later, ** took out a few works that he was satisfied with again, and Liu Kaiqu selected the most perfect one and handed it to the craftsman for carving.
Eventually, the inscription was carved into what we see today.
This reflects the difficult selection of materials and carving of the monument.
In 1952, the design of the monument was finally completed and officially handed over for construction.
The main stele is made of a huge stone weighing 300 tons.
In order to transport it, the craftsmen first processed it to 280 tons, and then put several logs under it before "rolling" it to the nearest Qingdao station.
With the concerted efforts of hundreds of workers, this huge piece of stone was finally successfully transported to Beijing.
The next problem to be solved is how to wrap the material around the periphery of the monument.
After careful selection and processing by craftsmen, the more than 20,000 stones required for the monument were all selected from tens of thousands of stones.
These fine stones are carefully processed into neat stone bricks and eventually shipped to Beijing.
With the preparation of materials, the production of relief decorations on the monument also entered the schedule.
The design office announced the recruitment of craftsmen and sculptors from all over the country, and many craftsmen and sculptors came to the museum in the hope of contributing to the commemoration of the people's heroes in this solemn building.
After a selection process by the design office, more than 100 enthusiastic craftsmen were eventually retained for further training and mentorship.
This instruction lasted two years, followed by another three years of engraving.
During these five years, not a single one complained of being tired, and they all devoted themselves to presenting the most beautiful pictures on the monument.
Finally, on May 1, 1958, the Monument to the People's Heroes, which lasted for eight years, was inaugurated in Tiananmen Square.
This monument carries the heroic souls of the martyrs and will be immortalized as it stands.
Everyone who comes to Tiananmen Square can pay homage to this monument and pay tribute to the people's heroes!