In 1977, experts decided that the sculpture was not solemn enough and proposed to dismantle it. At this time, a soldier shouted: "If you really dare to demolish it, try it!" "The chairman's sculpture is made of white marble, plus the construction of the memorial hall, which took a total of 6 months to complete.
However, shortly after the completion of this sculpture, some experts put forward their opinions, believing that there were problems with the sculpture of the chairman and affecting the image of our country, and suggested that it be removed immediately. This suggestion was strongly opposed by one soldier.
What's hidden behind the statue? What is the identity of this soldier? Has the statue of the chairman disappeared? **Explore the mystery of the chairman's statue together.
In the early morning of September 9, 1976, the great man *** unfortunately passed away. In the morning, the Military Commission urgently ordered that the whole ** team entered the highest level of combat readiness.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, ** People's Radio and Television announced the sad news, and the whole country was immersed in deep grief.
At 10 p.m., the body of the chairman was removed from Zhongnanhai and temporarily placed in the north hall of the Great Hall of the People. But this is obviously not a long-term solution, and how to properly bury this great leader has become an urgent problem.
According to the president's last wishes, his ashes should be scattered into the sea and returned to all parts of the country. However, the superiors thought that this was not appropriate, and that as the first generation of leaders of New China, the body of the chairman should be kept intact for future generations to pay respects to, and to maintain that solemnity and dignity.
In October 1976, the higher authorities decided to build a memorial hall for the late president, and at the same time make a special sculpture, embalm the chairman's body, put it in a crystal coffin, and store it in the memorial hall.
After the news was released, many engineers were excited, and some even workers volunteered to participate in the construction without compensation. Before construction begins, the first task is to solve the problem of site selection.
Hundreds of sketches were quickly submitted by major designers, which were carefully reviewed by their superiors, but still did not find satisfactory results.
Some experts have suggested that the "sunrise on the water" scheme can be adopted, that is, the construction of a memorial hall and sculpture between the mountains and rivers, symbolizing the chairman's journey over the mountains and mountains in the journey of life, and also symbolizing that the chairman has always guarded the mountains and rivers of the motherland.
The plan was far-reaching, but in China's vast land, there was not a single river that could carry the weight of the chairman, so the "sunrise on the water" plan was rejected.
The first design draft is the "Red Star on the Peak of the Mountain", and the memorial hall is built on the top of the mountain, symbolizing the high status of the chairman in the hearts of the people, just like the memorial hall on the top of the mountain at sunrise, which will always shine on future generations.
However, the plan was rejected because it was considered that the memorial should not be built too high, so as not to give the impression of being on top. Some experts suggested that the site should be located in Zhongnanhai, which is the chairman's perennial office, which is both solemn and practical.
However, in addition to the chairman's office, Zhongnanhai also has other cadres who handle official business here, and if the memorial hall is built here, it will be open to the outside world, which will affect the confidentiality of the official area.
After repeated deliberations, the memorial hall was finally set in Tiananmen Square, where the chairman announced the founding of the People's Republic of China and witnessed his life's achievements. While the address is largely confirmed, there are still a lot of details that need to be carefully considered.
The Monument to the People's Heroes and the expansive Tiananmen Tower are important parts of Tiananmen Square. In these buildings, the design of the memorial hall is demanding, both eye-catching and dignified, and not too ostentatious or rigid.
After several rounds of discussions, the designer decided to design the memorial hall as a cube with a length and width of 1055 meters with a height of 336 meters, sitting north and facing south, can be visited in all four directions.
The design scheme was praised by Deng Gong. On November 24, 1976, the construction of the memorial hall officially began, and at the same time, the statue of the chairman was also being built.
The higher authorities demanded that the construction be completed within a year and open to the public before the 1977 presidential anniversary. In order to complete the task, the workers worked overtime day and night and gave it their all.
No one expected that as soon as the memorial hall was completed, some experts picked out the problem, saying that there was a problem with the chairman's sculpture and suggested that it should be dismantled immediately. So, what are the flaws in the chairman's sculpture?
Will it survive?
At the end of 1976, the foundation of the ** Memorial Hall had been laid, and the production of the statue of the chairman was gradually underway. Before the sculpture began, hundreds of the chairman's ** were submitted and became the blueprint for the statue.
After the unanimous consent of the superiors, a chair was finally selected to sit on a chair, with a smile on his face and his body in a relaxed state. Although it looks very beautiful, if you zoom in on the sculpture according to scale, the effect may not be ideal.
One of the biggest challenges was choosing the right material for the sculpture. Because the ** is colored after treatment, if the sculpture is dyed, it will not be solemn enough. And using ordinary marble to make sculptures will not look beautiful enough.
Only pure high-quality white marble can perfectly show the chairman's demeanor.
To carve a white marble sculpture that is 6 meters high and more than 2 meters wide, the construction team faced a problem. To find such a huge white marble? To solve this problem, engineers launched a nationwide call for help, extensively searching for complete white marble.
In the end, the Fangshan County Party Committee in Beijing had the greatest response. The white marble of Fangshan is famous throughout the country for its beautiful color and complete characteristics. Under the leadership of the Fangshan County Party Committee, tens of thousands of people joined the team in search of white marble.
They were first surveyed by experts and then excavated by workers. At the beginning of 1977, the excavation site was selected in the vicinity of the commune of Nam Chau Le . Despite the harsh winter, thousands of workers still gather here.
However, even if they dug to a depth of more than 20 meters, they could not find a shadow of white marble. Because white marble is usually buried more than 20 meters underground, and if the excavation process is too strong, the slightest carelessness may damage the jade, which makes the work of the workers more difficult.
Seeing that the memorial hall is about to be completed, the construction of the chairman's statue is still stagnant. In order to solve this problem, the construction team worked intensively day and night, mobilizing more than 200 workers and 150 stonemasons to excavate deep into the ground layer by layer.
After more than half a month of hard work, they found traces of white marble underground, but this does not mean that jade can be easily mined.
It was February, and the weather in Beijing was unusually cold, and many workers had frostbite on their hands, which seriously affected the construction progress.
However, when the surrounding masses heard about this, they did not hesitate to come and volunteer to come and assist in the excavation, they did not want any wages, they did not want any payment, just to excavate the best raw materials for the statue of the chairman.
With the joint efforts of everyone, a huge piece of white marble was finally excavated, with a width and thickness of 2 meters, and a height of more than 6 meters, which is extremely rare in the entire Fangshan County.
When this piece of high-quality white marble was unearthed, the common people felt deeply favored by God, and they believed that the late chairman had been secretly protecting them, and even the engineers who were patrolling on the side shed tears of emotion.
This piece of white marble with the sweat of the workers was quickly sent to the construction team. Then, after several months of carving and grinding, in April 1977, the casting of the ** sculpture was nearing completion, and the construction of the memorial hall was completed by three-quarters.
On May 24, the memorial hall and sculpture were completed, with the participation of more than 50,000 construction workers, not counting the thousands who volunteered. With the concerted efforts of everyone, the project, which would have taken one year, was completed ahead of schedule in just six months.
According to the original plan, the memorial and sculpture will be exhibited in September, and the final inspection will be carried out by experts for the next four months. However, during the inspection, some experts found that there was a problem with the sculpture and needed to be dismantled immediately.
The problem lies in the posture of the sculpture, when we chose the sculpture reference**, in order to show the chairman's image of being close to the people, we chose a chair sitting on a stool**, the chairman's legs are naturally overlapped, which looks casual.
However, this is exactly where the problem points out by experts. Once the statue of the chairman is on public display, it may be visited by people from other countries. In the eyes of foreigners, this posture of "stilted legs" is not solemn enough, and may make others mistakenly think that the chairman is high.
Experts recommend dismantling and refurbishing it as soon as it is not yet open to the public. As soon as this proposal came out, it immediately sparked a lot of opposition. A sentry standing guard outside the memorial hall was even more angry and said: Try to dismantle it yourself!
Sentinels resolutely defend the integrity of the chairman's sculpture, which embodies the sweat and hard work of tens of thousands of people, how can it be easily demolished? This is not only disrespectful to the chairman, but also a contempt for the working people of the country.
Despite the sentry's faint voice, he knew that the real decision was in the hands of the sculpture team. What will the sculpture team decide? The future of the chairman's sculpture is undoubtedly exciting.
As the date for the statue of the chairman approaches, the urging of experts to reconstruct the sculpture is becoming more and more urgent. However, the sculpture team never started construction, mainly because Han Fuyu, the director of the sculpture creation team, has been opposing the reconstruction.
Han Fuyu once served as a security guard and had a deep friendship with the chairman. After much deliberation, he sided with the soldiers and firmly opposed the demolition and reconstruction.
Despite this, his opposition was not well received and controversy remained.
Han Fuyu showed a firm attitude in dealing with the issue of the chairman's sculpture, he believed that the demolition of the statue would damage the chairman's image, and the rebuilding would consume a lot of manpower and material resources, once rebuilt, the domestic economic pressure will further increase, and the previous efforts will be in vain.
While his decision has upset some, his views are not unreasonable, and the experts' advice is not vexatious. It is true that the sitting posture of the chairman's sculpture is not very solemn and needs to be modified in time, but this is not an easy task.
Han Fuyu was so anxious that he couldn't sleep for several days, and every day he would come to inspect the sculpture and look for any possible hands-on solutions. After much deliberation, he finally came up with a clever idea: to fill the sculpture with flowers.
These flowers represent the hearts of the masses for the chairman, and at the same time cover the chairman's legs and feet, making the sitting posture of the "stilted legs" not easy to detect. In this way, even if a foreign guest visits, it will not be considered impolite to sit.
Han Fuyu proposed an improvement plan and presented his ideas through the report. After Deng Gong carefully audited, he immediately rushed to the statue for inspection. He first bowed to the sculpture, and then affirmed Han Fuyu's idea.
After this improvement, the problem of sculptural sitting posture has finally been solved. On September 9, 1977, the first anniversary of the President's death, the memorial hall and statue were opened to the public for the first time, attracting a large number of people and foreign guests to Tiananmen Square.
Whenever people look at the *** statue standing among the flowers, they can't help but be moved to tears. Since the opening of the memorial hall, more than 200 million people have come to pay their respects to the President's remains.
Despite the large number of people, there are some ** voices, especially gossip about the preservation of the chairman's body. In 1988, some people questioned the high cost of maintaining the chairman's body, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
For example, Lenin's body needs to be maintained at millions of dollars a year, and the chairman's body is housed in a crystal coffin, and embalming technology is expensive, so it must have cost no less than Lenin's care costs.
Surprisingly, some people claim that the chairman of the 80's looks thinner than he did when it was first exhibited in the early 70's, presumably because the staff spent hundreds of millions of dollars on maintenance.
They believe that the maintenance costs of the chairman have been reduced, so it has led to a change in the chairman's appearance.
As this claim became widespread, the team that had been responsible for the protection of the chairman's remains had to come forward to clarify that those who claimed that the cost of maintaining the chairman's remains reached hundreds of millions of dollars were all rumors.
In fact, every year the state allocates a special allocation for the maintenance of the crystal coffin and the remains of the chairman, but this fund is mainly used in the early days.
Because the crystal coffin has a high technical content, it needs to filter infrared, ultraviolet rays and various radiation, and the internal and external lights should be evenly illuminated, so that the light cannot be seen from the outside, and at the same time, it is necessary to keep the chairman's remains clearly visible.
Talking about body preservation technology, there are two main types of embalming technology in the 70s: gaseous embalming and liquid treatment.
The protection team adopted the method of liquid-gas switching embalming, and used the crystal coffin as a retention device, which not only protected the chairman's remains, but also avoided soaking in liquid, which was both beautiful and solemn.
Although the production cost of the crystal coffin in the early stage was high, since 1983, the chairman only needs to carry out daily maintenance, and the maintenance cost is far lower than the large amount of 100 million yuan rumored by the outside world.
The statement that the chairman's appearance has become thinner and smaller is actually because of the light plastic surgery technology in the crystal coffin, which will be a little distorted from a certain angle and produce an illusion. The chairman's face and statue are our deep remembrance of *** and cannot be desecrated by anyone.