After learning the news of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's death, the Kuomintang immediately nervously prepared for the funeral, because Mr. Sun Yat-sen's funeral was not only an ordinary funeral for them, but also an important moment to show the great achievements of Dr. Sun Yat-sen during his lifetime.
On that day, Wang Jingwei and others held an emergency meeting, and finally Sun Ke, after consulting with the hospital, decided to follow Mr. Sun Yat-sen's will, first embalming the body, and then preparing for the funeral and burial.
However, they encountered a series of difficulties in handling and preserving the remains, and some even tried to destroy them. In the end, Mr. Sun Yat-sen's funeral was huge, causing Soong Qingling to cry in the coffin, and the scene was deeply moving.
So, what happened on the day of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's death? What obstacles did they encounter in the process of handling and preserving the remains?
What happened to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's body? In his will, Dr. Sun Yat-sen stated that he hoped to be admired by posterity like Lenin in a hundred years, so the disposal of his remains became particularly important.
In order to prevent the body from being permanently preserved, the Kuomintang quickly convened a meeting to discuss the disposal of the body. In the *** South Building, the body of Mr. Sun Yat-sen was sent over for preliminary embalming treatment on the day of his death, and it was not until the 15th that the embalming operation officially began.
In order to ensure the embalming effect of the body, the doctors and ** simply smeared and wiped the body with an embalming solution on March 12 to ensure the integrity of the body; On March 15, the doctor performed an antiseptic operation on the body, and after properly disposing of the body and washing it with medicated solution, 40% of the embalming solution was injected into the left leg.
It is worth mentioning that during the operation, the doctor Liu Ruiheng found that Mr. Sun Yat-sen's liver was cancerous, and there were also 6 grains of bile sand in the gallbladder, which also explained that Mr. Sun Yat-sen did not only die of liver disease, but also gallbladder lesions.
After solving the problem of the embalming, the doctor sutured the wound with a thread soaked in the embalming solution, so that the embalming of the body was preliminarily completed. Later, in order to ensure that the body could be buried intact, the relevant personnel specially poured protective oil into an American-style Nanmu coffin, and Mr. Sun Yat-sen's body was embalmed and preserved.
When the funeral was held, Mr. Sun Yat-sen was dressed in a dress, jacket, shirt, top hat, and leather shoes during the ** period, and his image was very decent. However, in order to preserve the body and make it available for posterity to see, the choice of coffin is crucial.
Those who know this history may already know that a total of four coffins were used to ensure the preservation of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's body. When the Soviet Union learned of the death of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, it sent a special commissioner to deliver a crystal coffin.
This crystal coffin is 175 meters, 05 meters, the width of the head and tail of the coffin is 065 meters and 053 meters. However, after a careful inspection, it was found that the coffin was defective during transportation, which did not meet the wishes of Mr. Sun Yat-sen.
Because it could not meet the two requirements of "permanent preservation of the antiseptic effect" and "clear for future generations to see" at the same time, it was discarded. Later, another coffin could not meet the standards of permanent preservation due to the material and sealing, so it was also placed aside.
After many discussions, everyone finally chose an American-style nanmu coffin containing protective oil.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen was an important figure in modern Chinese history, and his death had a profound impact on the Chinese people and world history. In order to preserve his remains permanently, a burial was later carried out and the original coffin was replaced with a copper coffin.
The copper coffin is warm and moisturizing, and the coffin lid is transparent, which has become the resting place of Mr. Sun Yat-sen. However, due to improper preservation, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's body showed discoloration.
In order to prevent further damage to the remains, the coffin was finally sealed with reinforced concrete. At present, we can no longer pay homage to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's remains. As for the reason for the discoloration of the body, it is recorded in the "Secret Story" that it is because the body of Mr. Sun Yat-sen came into contact with the air, which caused the body to change color.
After checking the information, some people believe that it may be because the body of Mr. Sun Yat-sen was hidden in the Shuiquan Cave for 7 months, which caused the body to change color. Although Dr. Sun Yat-sen's body was properly disposed of, the result was not what everyone wanted, and the crisis was staged.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen's body was not buried until 1929, and a lot happened during that time.
In 1927, the "Secret News" once publicly spread rumors that Zhang Zongchang and Zhang Zuolin conspired to burn Sun Yat-sen's body, but this was not groundless, and the report of the Beiping newspaper confirmed this fact, and this incident also became the prelude to the defense of Sun Yat-sen's body.
At the meeting on September 18, 1927, Zhang Zongchang made an astonishing remark that Sun Yat-sen had helped their enemies in the dark, which caused many puzzles and doubts.
Zhang Zongchang used the superstitious words of feng shui to try to incite Zhang Zuolin to do something to Sun Yat-sen's body, so as to achieve his goal. Zhang Zongchang's behavior not only desecrated Sun Yat-sen's body, but also had a bad impact on the political situation at that time.
Yang Yuting was well aware of Sun Yat-sen's influence and understood that if this happened, the Zhang family might be condemned by history for it. With the help of Sun Ke, he passed the news to Zhang Xueliang.
Zhang Xueliang resolutely said that he would protect Sun Yat-sen's body. In fact, as early as April 2, 1925, Zhang Xueliang received instructions from Soong Ching-ling to protect Sun Yat-sen's body.
Although Song Qingling was busy sending the spirit that day and did not talk much with Zhang Xueliang, Sun Ke handed over the task of protecting Sun Yat-sen's body to Zhang Xueliang. Zhang Xueliang understands the importance of this task, so even if Sun Ke does not deliberately remind him, he will resolutely protect Sun Yat-sen's body.
At that time, Zhang Xueliang wanted to contact his father, but to no avail. In the process of searching for his father, he accidentally met Zhang Zongchang in the conference room. Zhang Xueliang has a bold personality, and because it is related to Sun Yat-sen's affairs, after seeing Zhang Zongchang, he asked mercilessly: "Commander Zhang, why do you want to destroy Sun Yat-sen's body?"
Have you lived enough to find death? Zhang Zongchang was arrogant and didn't care about Zhang Xueliang's questioning, which made Zhang Xueliang very angry. He angrily reprimanded Zhang Zongchang and took out a pistol to his head, although Zhang Zongchang later escaped on the grounds of writing a guarantee, but in order to avoid the warlord "going down" to guard the spirit, the soldiers decided to temporarily remove the body of Mr. Sun Yat-sen and place it in the Shuiquan cave, which was released for more than seven months.
On March 27, 1925, the number of Beijing citizens mourning Mr. Sun Yat-sen was as high as 740,000, and there were countless condolence items such as flowers and garlands.
At that time, Mr. Sun was in charge of the aftermath of Mr. Sun and others, which was tedious and busy. On April 2, Sun Yat-sen's hearse passed through West Chang'an Street, West Fourth Pai Lou and other places, and the people along the way were grieving, and even more than 20,000 people followed the hearse to Xiangshan on foot.
At this time, Beijing seemed to be immersed in grief.
Nanjing's Purple Mountain is the burial place that Sun Yat-sen has been looking forward to during his lifetime. Song Qingling also complied with Sun Yat-sen's last wish and chose the southern slope of Maoshan Mountain at the southern foot of the Purple Mountain as his resting place.
After several years of body protection and mausoleum construction, on May 26, 1929, Sun Yat-sen's coffin was raised from Biyun Temple, and in June of the same year, the completion of the Nanjing Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was announced.
June 1, 1929"Bongan Day"In the morning of the same day, a ceremony was held here, which was officiated by Chiang Kai-shek. Before Feng'an, Chiang Kai-shek served as a member of the funeral preparation committee, which accelerated the progress of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum project.
In a sense, Chiang Kai-shek also contributed to the burial process of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Truth be told, other relationships aside, Sun Yat-sen was both a spiritual and a political pillar for Chiang Kai-shek.
When Sun Yat-sen was in a difficult situation, he was moved by Chiang Kai-shek's surrender. However, at this moment, perhaps Sun Yat-sen's widow Song Qingling is the one with more complicated feelings.
Soong Ching-ling understood that as Sun Yat-sen's wife, it was her duty to participate in the ceremony, even though it was good for Chiang Kai-shek. But she still focused on the big picture and eventually attended the ceremony.
Although she is in a foreign land, Song Qingling's feelings for her husband Sun Yat-sen have become deeper and deeper. On May 18, 1929, after arriving in Beijing, she decided to visit the coffin of Dr. Sun Yat-sen at Biyun Temple.
After arriving, she was very emotional, and Sun Ke and his wife, Chen Shuying and others supported and comforted her to stabilize her. When she came to the spirit of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, she pointed to the coffin with her finger, but she could not speak because of her excitement.
At this time, the people on the side understood what she meant, and removed the flag covering the coffin, so that she could see the remains of her well-preserved husband, and said affectionately: "Prime Minister, I am here, have you gone to **?" ”
Song Qingling, a woman whose heart was full of grief when her husband just died, was also a political figure and had to pick herself up to deal with trivial matters. She cried loudly, just mourning her deceased husband as a widow, stroking his coffin, looking at his face through the lid of the coffin, crying silently, moving others.
At that moment, the door of the tomb was closed by her, Sun Ke and his wife, and the Lion Rock Fort fired a 101-gun salute, and the audience observed a 3-minute silence to show their mourning.
In those 3 minutes, I don't know how she and Chiang Kai-shek and others felt in their hearts. On the night of the ceremony, she left Nanjing and began her new journey.
During the Sino-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek considered relocating to protect the body of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and Chongqing was one of the alternative sites. But the idea was eventually abandoned due to the possible harm caused to the remains by using explosives.
When Nanjing was attacked by the Japanese invading army, the guard troops of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum participated in the battle, but due to the outnumbering of the enemy, more than 20 people, the cemetery also suffered some damage.
Fortunately, the main building was not affected much.
In 1982, in order to restore the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, the state allocated more than 2 million yuan for protection work. Dr. Sun Yat-sen's body has been kept in the mausoleum and has received special attention and protection.
Although we cannot pay homage to his legacy now, the nostalgia and admiration in our hearts also reflect our respect and gratitude to Dr. Sun Yat-sen. That doesn't mean we're going against his will.