news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

chairman mao, the leader of the people, has always been an image of being impartial, frugal and fair in the hearts of the people. after the founding of new china, he has always emphasized the opposition to privileges and the specialization of issues. he himself has practiced this sentence for decades. during his political career, he asked his family not to bother the country or the government with everything, so as not to lose his original intention of establishing communism.

however, such a great man actually allowed the central committee to arrange a "secret group" for him in his later years. what unknown secrets were hidden in this that made chairman mao, who firmly opposed privileges, willingly accept it?

1. the martyrs were still ambitious in their old age

from 1971 to 1972, it was an important period when then-us president nixon visited china. chairman mao, who was nearly 70 years old, had been busy all his life and his health was gradually weakening. in order to help the chairman solve various affairs, the central committee arranged zhang yufeng to serve as his confidential secretary and personal secretary.

when zhang yufeng arrived at the chairman's residence by train, she saw an old man with a haggard face and constant coughing. when the chairman smiled warmly and greeted her, zhang yufeng felt inexplicably sad and tears welled up in her eyes. after helping chairman mao sit down and talk, she finally understood that this great man who had fought on the battlefield was at the end of his life. what she had to do was to serve this hero wholeheartedly in his last journey. during the days of taking care of chairman mao, zhang yufeng clearly noticed that the wrinkles on the chairman's face were growing slightly. every year, the chairman would inevitably suffer from some serious illness.

during one of their outings, premier zhou enlai specially arranged a minibus for chairman mao to travel, but when chairman mao tried to get on the bus, he couldn't get on after lifting his legs several times. it was not until zhang yufeng came over to help him that he finally got on the bus. afterwards, after a checkup at the hospital, it was found that chairman mao had no strength to get on the bus because of his swollen legs, and the doctor said that this had been going on for some time, but chairman mao thought it was a minor injury and insisted on not going to the hospital.

as time went by, and because he often had to go out to work, the chairman's injuries became more serious. he tossed and turned in bed at night. zhang yufeng, who was standing by, was very anxious when she saw the chairman's painful face. the chairman kept his illness to himself and didn't want to cause trouble to others. but others didn't know, but zhang yufeng saw it clearly. once by chance, she told premier zhou about this situation.

after learning the news, premier zhou felt deeply guilty. as the founding leader of new china, he not only had to deal with all the government affairs, big and small, every day, but also had to endure such tremendous torture. thinking of this, premier zhou immediately recruited a group of top medical experts to be responsible for chairman mao’s medical work, and this became the first "secret group" established in chairman mao’s later years.

at the beginning, chairman mao was also strongly opposed, because he thought that this behavior was undoubtedly giving himself privileges, so he was unwilling to accept treatment and even refused to cooperate with the doctor's examination. seeing this, zhang yufeng knelt down in front of chairman mao with a plop, and cried bitterly to the chairman, saying that she only knew how to do service work and didn't know how to treat a disease. if the chairman still refused to accept the doctor's treatment, she really didn't know how to serve the chairman in the future. she advised the chairman to let the doctor check him anyway! seeing this, chairman mao knew everyone's good intentions.

finally, under the persuasion of zhang yufeng and other old comrades, chairman mao, who was suffering from illness, finally put aside his worries and began to slowly accept medical examinations. after a comprehensive examination and care, chairman mao's condition gradually improved. on february 21, 1972, chairman mao, who had recovered initially, successfully met with nixon who came to visit china.

during the talks, mao zedong used his humorous tone to win nixon's favor on sino-us diplomatic issues. although chairman mao was in poor health at the time, according to mr. tang wen, the translator at the time, the originally scheduled 15-minute talk lasted for more than an hour. when nixon heard chairman mao mention his illness, he thought the chairman was still joking with him because he thought mao was in very good condition today.

however, chairman mao shook his head and said frankly: "we must not only look at the appearance of things, and we must not be confused by the appearance. i have just recovered from a serious illness." after hearing chairman mao's words, nixon nodded silently with a heavy face. later, chairman mao's condition gradually recovered and his mental outlook became better and better.

therefore, he immediately decided to disband the medical team. at the chairman's strong request, all the nurses and experts in the medical team returned to their original positions. at this time, sino-us relations were also developing in a friendly direction, and chairman mao was very happy about this. but what made him even happier was that he could finally light a cigarette again.

before leaving, the "medical team" repeatedly reminded chairman mao not to smoke, because it would affect his subsequent recovery. however, since chairman mao's recovery was going smoothly, he said to everyone in a slightly joking tone: "now no one can interfere with my freedom to smoke."

what was unexpected was that at this moment zhang yufeng suddenly said, "chairman, for the sake of your health, i have to stop you from smoking!" chairman mao was stunned at first, then he slowly lit a cigarette, and said with a smile, "if you continue to stop me, i will transfer you back to be a waiter!" as soon as chairman mao finished speaking, everyone present burst into laughter.

however, the cigarettes chairman mao liked to smoke in his later years were very unique. they were a kind of cigars produced only in sichuan. therefore, chairman mao had to send people to sichuan a few days in advance every month to get cigarettes, and then transport them back to beijing. this round trip was time-consuming and costly at the time.

chairman mao did not smoke only this kind of cigarettes. he switched to cigars when he long suddenly introduced this kind of cigarette to chairman mao during a chat in 1956. after hearing he long's praise for this cigarette, chairman mao lit one curiously. after taking a deep breath, chairman mao immediately felt a refreshing feeling in his throat. then he decided to smoke this kind of cigar produced by sichuan shifang cigarette factory.

over time, zhang yufeng felt that it was inconvenient to send someone to get cigarettes every time, so she secretly informed premier zhou about this.

2. selflessness and the will of the people

after research, premier zhou selected several technical backbones from the shifang cigarette factory to form mao zedong's second secret group in his later years: "group 132". the time was march 1972. when several sichuan masters heard that they were going to make cigarettes for the chairman, they moved their families to beijing without hesitation. the reason why it was called "group 132" was because the willow and raw tobacco used in cigars were model 13 and 2 respectively.

when the group was first established, chairman mao knew nothing about it. gradually, he found that the cigars were coming faster and faster, and the quality was constantly improving. after chairman mao's repeated questioning, zhang yufeng finally told him about it. although chairman mao was dissatisfied with this, he accepted it silently when he thought about the difficulty of the cigar makers moving.

afterwards, chairman mao personally visited the cigarette factory and told the workers that if he wanted to smoke good cigars in the future, he would have to rely on these workers. upon hearing this, several masters immediately laughed and said that they would definitely complete the task assigned by the chairman. at that time, the factory was filled with laughter.

however, the good times did not last long. after reading books and documents many times, chairman mao's two eyes developed cataracts of varying degrees, which had a great impact on his life and work. moreover, according to the doctor who examined chairman mao at the time, chairman mao's condition needed to wait until the later stage of the disease before he could undergo surgery. during that time, chairman mao often frowned because he could not see the words in the books clearly.

even if there were staff around to read the contents of documents and books for the chairman, this method was very troublesome. especially when reading ancient books, it was easy to have misunderstandings. after the central committee learned of this situation, they discussed and decided to set up a third secret group for chairman mao: the large-print group. the so-called "large-print" group is an editing and publishing group that specially annotates the books that chairman mao wants to read and arranges them in "large fonts".

this group was established in the fall of 1972, and the main people who undertook this task were professors and experts from fudan university and the institute of history of the shanghai academy of social sciences. when chairman mao saw the "large-print edition", a long-lost smile appeared on his face. after many days, he could finally see the words on the book clearly again, and he didn't have to bother others to read to him.

however, new problems soon emerged. chairman mao was old after all, and his ability to understand ancient books was far less than before. especially when reading ancient poems, he could hardly feel the artistic conception of the poems and the ideas they wanted to convey. with this in mind, the central committee quickly arranged a new "secret group" for chairman mao: the chanting group, and secretly recorded the chanting videos of ancient poems.

according to the "mao zedong life archives", the government specially opened a recording studio in beijing, and occasionally went to the recording studio of the central people's broadcasting station to record. many of the singers and performers were celebrities in the literary and artistic circles, and there were also many celebrities who participated in succession. in order to allow the singers to better interpret the images and artistic conception created by the poems, the central government selected four professors of classical literature from peking university to explain to the singers. the most famous of them was the song "man jiang hong" played when mao zedong had cataract surgery in 1975.

chairman mao was very impressed after listening to the poem, and he couldn't let it go. he often forgot to eat because he was immersed in the melody of the poem. zhang yufeng often had to heat up the food several times. because of this, zhang yufeng was very curious about chairman mao's chanting tapes. once, when she played a tape for chairman mao, she couldn't help muttering, "it would be great if i could record a poem on this tape like they did." chairman mao smiled and joked, "when you can figure out the front and back of this tape, it will be great."

faced with chairman mao's ridicule, zhang yufeng was also unconvinced. after pressing the tape button, she snorted and left the room. seeing this, chairman mao couldn't help laughing. however, not long after, a sudden bad news caused chairman mao's old illness to relapse.

premier zhou enlai became seriously ill due to long-term overtime work. however, he did not take the time to carefully check his condition. instead, he worked day and night while sick, which made his condition worse.

by the time the news reached the chairman, premier zhou had already fallen ill in bed. after that, chairman mao was even more worried about premier zhou day and night. with more problems facing chairman mao, his physical condition also deteriorated.

3. chairman passed away, work ended

during this period, zhang yufeng took care of chairman mao all the time, but his condition never improved. in desperation, zhang yufeng had to ask the central government for instructions. the central government immediately thought of the previous "medical team" and immediately issued an order to recall the previous doctors and experts. in addition, several returned doctors were selected in shanghai to form a second "medical team".

because of their previous experience in treatment, the experts quickly found out the cause of chairman mao's illness. later, under the careful treatment of the doctors, chairman mao's health gradually returned to normal. during his convalescence, chairman mao stayed in the hospital. in order to help him pass the time, the central committee equipped a tv in his room. at that time, chairman mao especially liked to listen to and watch opera to relax his body and mind. when chairman mao was discharged from the hospital in hunan, chairman mao asked to watch some local opera.

this idea immediately attracted the attention of the central government, because chairman mao at that time mainly watched opera through television broadcasts, but hunan did not have complete equipment to complete the broadcast, which meant that the broadcasting equipment in beijing had to be transported to changsha.

it was also for this reason that the central committee established chairman mao’s fifth “secret group”: the opera group, which was solely responsible for the broadcasting of opera. most of the members of the opera group were veteran opera artists from hunan. although it was the first time to record opera on the screen, the work went smoothly. not long after, chairman mao saw the opera they recorded. as expected, chairman mao was very satisfied with everyone’s results and watched it on tv. during this period, he also collected a lot of opera. after receiving chairman mao’s recognition, everyone was very excited.

on a certain day in july 1975, the weather in beijing was very sunny, and it was the day for chairman mao to have cataract surgery. after a restful night, chairman mao was full of energy and exuded a healthy atmosphere. however, when he walked to the door of the operating room, he felt uneasy. then he asked zhang yufeng to play a song "man jiang hong" to ease his mood. a few minutes later, chairman mao walked into the operating room. when the doctor gave the chairman anesthesia, zhang yufeng immediately turned off the tape recorder for fear of affecting the operation.

everyone prayed for chairman mao outside the operating room, and the operation went smoothly. afterwards, when chairman mao was watching the ancient poem "man jiang hong", he suddenly remembered an important matter. he called wang dongxing and told him a few words in person. wang dongxing nodded repeatedly and promised to complete the task. it turned out that chairman mao remembered his wish to let zhang yufeng complete the recording of the poem that day, but later due to some reasons, zhang yufeng did not record the chanting in the end, which made her very sad.

but what made her even sadder was that chairman mao's illness broke out again in 1976. at the same time, with the death of some old friends including premier zhou and the tangshan earthquake, chairman mao also closed his eyes after being deeply shocked. on september 9, 1976, chairman mao died in beijing at the age of 83. not long after that, several groups were disbanded.