1976 was a year that had a great impact on the history of New China.
In this year, in addition to the sensational Tangshan Da** that caused countless people**, our great people's leader *** also passed away in this year.
After the news of his death was announced, thousands of people came to Beijing to mourn deeply.
Many people wept and grief-stricken in front of the body.
Time has passed, and today, there is still an endless stream of people going to the memorial hall every day to express their admiration for the memorial hall.
Many people are curious after visiting the shrine:It has been 47 years since his death, but how has his remains been so well preserved? How exactly does this work?
1976 was a year full of sorrow for the Chinese people.
During the year, China lost three great leaders: the prime minister and the marshal.
The deaths of these three founding leaders sparked national mourning and mourning.
**After the death of the prime minister, according to his last wishes, his body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered on the plane to the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, symbolizing that he will always be with the mountains and rivers of the motherland.
* The marshal's body was buried in the Babaoshan Cemetery in Beijing, where it became an object of remembrance.
However, after ***'s death, the handling of his posthumous affairs sparked controversy.
On September 9, 1976, ** urgently convened a meeting of **leaders to discuss the funeral arrangements.
**Before his death, he advocated cremation and signed the "Initiative to Implement Cremation", expressing his hope that the ashes would be scattered into the river and sea after death.
But at the meeting, some leaders believed that the remains of *** should be preserved, as Lenin did, as a symbol of faith and inheritance.
After discussion, it was finally decided to preserve the remains of *** permanently, and this decision was also unanimously agreed by the participants.
But the task of preserving the remains is not easy.
The responsibility fell to Liu Xiangping, then China's minister of health, and Xu Jing, deputy director of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
In the early morning of the day of ***'s death, they were urgently summoned to Zhongnanhai and accepted the responsibility of protecting ***'s remains.
Here, they met Wang Dongxing, the chief butler of ***, who told them straightforwardly about their mission: to ensure that ***'s remains were properly protected.
After receiving the task, the two experts went to the body of *** with tears in their eyes and under the guidance of Wang Dongxing. Lying calmly, covered with a blanket, looking very peaceful.
Xu Jing gently lifted the blanket, carefully checked whether there was damage, elasticity, skin color changes and joint mobility, and then carefully covered the blanket.
Realizing that the time was pressing, Xu Jing immediately asked Director Wang to contact his colleagues in the medical academy and inform them that they had an urgent task and needed to rush to the unit immediately for a meeting.
After speaking, Xu Jing hurriedly left Zhongnanhai and went straight to the Medical Academy.
In the Academy of Medical Sciences, after some discussion, it was decided to set up a three-person expert group composed of Xu Jing, Zhang Bingchang, deputy director of the Anatomy Teaching and Research Department, and Chen Kequan, deputy director of the Morphology Teaching and Research Department, to jointly be responsible for the initial protection of the body. All three are experienced experts in embalming remains.
Xu Jing studied anti-corrosion technology in the Soviet Union, Chen Kequan graduated from Shanghai Medical University, majored in anti-corrosion knowledge, Zhang Bingchang worked in the Medical Department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for many years, and was familiar with anti-corrosion technology.
After urgent deliberation, the expert group quickly formulated a preliminary plan for the protection of the remains, and hurriedly returned to Zhongnanhai with the necessary medicines and equipment.
The trio meticulously embalmed ***'s body, and they injected a special embalming solution into its blood and muscles to keep it intact.
This preservative liquid can penetrate deep into tissue cells and react with proteins in cells to form a protein that effectively inhibits the growth of bacteria.
Throughout the process, the team closely monitored the condition of the body to ensure that it returned to normal after minor puffiness, followed by careful plastic surgery and makeup.
On September 11, 1976, the body of ** was moved to the Great Hall of the People and mourning activities began.
Thanks to the professional embalming treatment, the remains were well preserved throughout the ceremony.
Thousands of people came to pay their respects to this great man, and many of them burst into tears.
The general's convoy stood aside, holding wreaths, expressing deep mourning.
In addition, countless Chinese and foreign journalists rushed to record this historic moment.
The commemoration ended on 17 September.
Subsequently, on September 20, **'s body was secretly transferred to the basement of "769" in the underground air-raid shelter of a hospital to ensure its safety and privacy.
At that time, considering that the body of *** needed to be permanently visited by future generations, the leadership decided to build a special memorial.
However, the project will take at least a year and will not be completed in a short period of time.
Therefore, until the *** memorial hall is completed, the remains can only be stored temporarily.
During this period, the "769 Protection Room" became a temporary resting place for the remains of ***.
Although an official memorial service has been held in the Great Hall of the People, the memorial service for the general public has not yet begun.
**After the body was transferred to the "769 Protection Room", a mass memorial meeting of one million people was held in Tiananmen Square.
For this large-scale event, the organizers have specially prepared a medical team and security personnel to ensure the safety and health of everyone involved.
Tiananmen Square welcomed more than a million people, who took up their seats according to the pre-arranged arrangements and brought their own lunches.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, as the sad music sounded, the audience fell into a solemn silence.
In just twenty minutes, the square was filled with the weeping voices of countless people.
Due to the strong atmosphere of grief, tens of thousands of people need medical assistance, and nine guards on duty faint due to excessive fatigue, which shows the preeminent position of *** in the hearts of the people.
When the memorial service ended, one of the major challenges facing the country was how to preserve the remains of *** for a long time, a task that was named "Project 769".
While early remains can be preserved temporarily, long-term preservation requires more sophisticated strategies.
In order to ensure the integrity of the body, the experts quickly placed it in a closed laboratory and protected it with low-temperature nitrogen.
To this end, ** quickly convened experts in related fields to rush to Beijing to discuss feasible plans for long-term preservation of the remains.
In fact, the long-term preservation of corpses is not a new technology; Ancient humans have long mastered this technology.
At the relevant meeting, Wang Pengcheng, an expert from Hunan, proposed the preservation technology of the female corpse of the Mawangdui Han Tomb, and recommended a more advanced preservation method based on this-layered protection.
In this technique, the ** and internal organs of the body are treated separately, the exterior is protected with an inert gas, and the interior is preserved with a special liquid.
In response to Professor Wang Pengcheng's suggestion, in order to achieve the long-term preservation of the chairman's body, everyone decided to immerse the body of the chairman in a special agent to achieve the purpose of permanent embalming.
However, in the face of the question of the presentation of the President's body on a major occasion, solutions are once again crucial.
In order to protect the remains of the great man and give the Chinese people the opportunity to remember the great man from generation to generation, it was decided to make a new crystal coffin.
This crystal coffin not only has high transparency and beautiful appearance, but also adds a solemn beauty to the remains through built-in colored lights.
However, at that time, the technology to make such a large crystal plate was not yet mature, which made the development process extremely difficult. In the face of tight time and major tasks, the leading group quickly organized an advanced R&D team composed of top optical glass manufacturers in China.
The team includes multiple units in Shanghai, Beijing, Jinzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu and other places, and they have gathered the wisdom of many experts to work together to solve this problem.
In order to ensure the feasibility of the scheme, the leadership team decided to use a simulated plaster cast for the experiment.
However, there is a significant difference in reflectivity between the plaster cast and the real person**, which results in a rougher texture when illuminated by the internal light source.
The expert team borrowed a human head specimen from Beijing Medical University to carry out lighting experiments.
Although the specimen had a darkened and wrinkled face due to its age, the facial muscles appeared rosy and wrinkles were significantly reduced under professional lighting.
After trial and error, this expert-designed inner glow color facelift solution was finally recognized.
In August 1977, the crystal coffin was assembled, and the body was placed in it on August 18 and transferred to the memorial hall, where it was well preserved for a long time.
Over the years, conservation efforts have benefited from the combined efforts of countless professionals.
Time passed, and rumors began to circulate about the "shrinkage" and "discoloration" of the chairman's body.
To this end, Ms. Xu Jing, the main person in charge of the body, revealed the preservation details to the public when celebrating the centenary of the chairman's birth, refuting these rumors.
She also introduced to the public the various methods of current body preservation, such as low temperature, protection from light, oxygen isolation, etc., and scientifically explained the phenomenon of "shrinkage" and "discoloration", pointing out that this is due to the light and angle problems in the coffin.
In 1999, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Ms. Xu Jing published an article pledging to the people of the whole country to continue to fulfill the important task of protecting the human remains and to cultivate a new generation of health protection forces to ensure that the protection of the remains is passed on from generation to generation.
In an instant, 47 years have passed like a white horse, and despite the passage of time, the figure of the chairman seems to have always been with us. His spirit is deeply rooted in the heart of every Chinese son. There, he watched quietly, witnessing the prosperity of the motherland and the tranquility of the mountains and rivers.
The people will always cherish the thought and spirit of the people, which are endlessly alive in the hearts of the people, like an inextinguishable flame that illuminates our way forward.
Reference: **The Beginning and End of the Preservation of Remains
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