Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, died on 9 September 1976 at the age of 82, following a period of ill health. The government ordered a week of national mourning following his death.
The party knew that Mao was unwell since at least May, with him suffering a heart attack on 11 May 1976, and his health gradually declining over the next few months. By June, planning for the construction of his memorial hall began, and a notification was issued to senior party officials across China stating that Mao was "seriously ill." Mao's last public appearance – and the last known photograph of him alive – was on 27 May 1976. Frail and barely able to speak or walk, Mao met the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto during the latter's visit to Beijing. At around 17:00 on 2 September 1976, Mao had a heart attack, far more severe than his previous two earlier that year which affected a much larger area of his heart, leaving him bedridden. On the afternoon of 7 September, Mao's condition deteriorated severely; he experienced rapid multiple organ failure, fell into a coma shortly before noon, and was put on a ventilator and life support machines.
On 8 September, when it was clear the comatose Mao was beyond recovery, Chinese government officials decided to disconnect his life support machines at midnight. Mao died ten minutes later at 00:10 local time on 9 September 1976 at age 82. When Mao died, many top CCP officials were noted to be very emotional, with Hua Guofeng being "rendered inarticulate." A general sense of panic was the most prevalent reaction. Wang Dongxing took charge of the situation and made arrangements to notify the Politburo of Mao's death, instructing them to schedule a meeting on what to do next. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) delayed the announcement of his death until 16:00 later that day, when a radio message broadcast across the nation announced the news of Mao's death while appealing for party unity.
The Chinese government ordered a week of national mourning with flags at half-staff. All entertainment and music activities were suspended and theaters were closed.
Mao's embalmed, CCP-flag-draped body lay in state at the Great Hall of the People for one week. During this period, an estimated one million people, including diplomatic envoys, leaders of foreign communist parties, and foreign nationals in China, filed past Mao to pay their final respects. Chairman Mao's official portrait was hung on the wall, with a banner reading: "Carry on the cause left by Chairman Mao and carry on the cause of proletarian revolution to the end", until September 17.
On September 17, Chairman Mao's body was taken in a minibus from the Great Hall of the people to Maojiawan to the 305 Hospital that Li Zhisui directed, and Mao's internal organs were preserved in formaldehyde. Mao had signed a pledge to be cremated, consistent with the principles of the Communist Party. The historical consensus is that there are not reliable records demonstrating how Party leadership reached the decision to preserve his body.
The preserved body is displayed in Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.
Following the death of Mao Zedong and his state funeral, a mourning period was to be held, with September 18 officially designated as a National Day of Mourning. There would be mourning services held at the Great Hall from September 11 to September 17, with September 18 hosting a mass ceremony at Tiananmen which would be broadcast to all of China.
Public opinion in the immediate aftermath was divided. Many older Chinese citizens, who would have held memories of a China before Maoist rule, believed that things would begin to improve once Mao had died. For some, there was little to no reaction, with many villages, factories, and military facilities containing no mourning peasants. For others, it was a catastrophe. Many citizens had a firm belief that Mao was selfless, that he spent his entire life thinking of nothing but the people.
Politics of commemorating Chairman Mao
Upon the death of Mao, political maneuvering intensified. The ideological aspect that past leadership conflicts had throughout history, such as the anti-Deng Xiaoping narrative, the previous ten years of bitterness, and individual animosities within the current Politburo – all of them stoked fears of the upcoming maneuvering escalating beyond control. Political maneuvering over Mao's death was first apparent in the establishment of a funeral committee that consisted of 377 members, representing the central Party and state, as well as the military and provincial organizations of the regime. For individuals being appointed to the committee represented a recognition of their personal loyalty to Mao, as well as validation over their life's work to furthering the CCP's cause. Certain members were deliberately excluded from being included in the committee due to politics.
Prominent targets included those that were a suffering as a result of the anti-Deng movement, with Hu Qiaomu, Zhang Aiping, Wan Li, Hu Yaobang, Deng Liqun, Yu Guangyuan, and Mao's niece, Wang Hairong, all being excluded from the committee. Certain members, such as Deng Liqun, Yu Guangyuan, and Hu Qiaomu, were not allowed to pay their respects to Mao's body, instead having to stand with the crowds in Tiananmen in order to mourn Mao.
For the committee, the most important task was how to represent Mao and his career now that he was dead. Of which, the representation would also include how to present the surviving leadership's ideological line going forward. This was established through two documents: a message given to the nation on September 9, and Hua Guofeng's memorial speech at Tiananmen on September 18. Both documents had similar messages, with a focus on consolidating the themes of the Cultural Revolution, party unity, as well as continuing the criticism and struggle against Deng.
For Mao specifically, the documents covered his entire career and portrayed him as “the greatest Marxist of the contemporary era.” The documents spanned his career from the 1920s and the struggles against Chen Duxiu, to the more recent anti-Deng movement which was described as a “victory over the ‘counterrevolutionary revisionist’ Deng.” Mao’s different approaches and leading styles throughout the Party’s history were also included, with the September 9 message including Mao’s emphasis in the 1960s on “the three great revolutionary movements of class struggle, the struggle for production and scientific experiment.” Attention was also paid to Mao's role in international politics, to his leadership and struggles against modern revisionism amongst the shadow of the Cold War and two global hegemons. Furthermore, Mao was also praised for his role in devising military theories and army building.
There were little incidents among the committee on portraying Mao in this manner, with any kind of division between Hua or the Gang of Four, or in the party as a whole between radicals and establishment beneficiaries, being put mostly to the side. There were minor incidents however, with one account detailing an encounter involving Jiang Qing, where she was critical of the drafts for not mentioning the campaign against Lin Biao and Confucius or the criticism of Deng, of which the final documents did contain, but also claimed that efforts were made to reverse the verdict on the Cultural Revolution. Another issue came from the inclusion of the “three do’s and three don’ts,” which held negative implications against the Gang of Four and was an injunction aimed at them. There was little pushback from the radicals however, and despite some protests over the length of the speech, the key consideration was that these words came from Mao, and as such were beyond challenge.
Other incidents involved the discourses that happened over the issue of what arrangements should be made for Mao's corpse. With an account from Wu De asserting that the Gang of Four avoided involvement in the issue, instead allowing Wang Dongxing organized experts to study how best to preserve the body. While Wu also asserts that there was a sinister intent behind the actions of the Gang of Four and the radicals, that they would attack Hua if the body were not preserved; the issue ultimately did not result in any kind of sharp clash.