Jiang Qing at a meeting in Beijing in 1973.
During the Qingming Festival this year, the Communist Party authorities opened the grave of Mao Zedong’s wife Jiang Qing to the public, causing a public outcry. Jiang Qing was arrested and imprisoned right after Mao’s death, and eventually committed suicide at the age of 77. Jiang Qing’s secretary and chef once disclosed some details of her life to the outside world, which were mind-boggling.
“After the start of the Cultural Revolution, members of the powerful Central Cultural Revolution Group stayed at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Diaoyutai, built in the Jin Dynasty as a palace for the emperor’s pleasure, was built in 1958 as a residence for foreign guests by the Communist authorities. It is a quiet and elegant garden villa-style complex with more than a dozen villas in the garden, each building, surrounded by woods, birdsong and flowers.
Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
The office of the Cultural Revolution Group was located in Building 16, with Chen Boda, the leader of the group, living in Building 15 and Kang Sheng, the advisor, living in Building 8. Jiang Qing lived first in Building 6, then in No. 11, and then in Building 10. Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan shared Building 9.
Yang Yinlu, one of the longest-serving secretaries of Jiang Qing, wrote a book entitled “Deep in the Courtyard at Diaoyutai: I was Jiang Qing’s secretary”, which describes some details of Jiang Qing’s life at Diaoyutai.
Jiang Qing doesn’t sleep at night and has a peculiar lifestyle
According to Yang Yinlu, Jiang Qing’s habits were very peculiar, she did not sleep at night, stayed up late, stayed up with people, had fun and passed the time.
Jiang Qing gets up every day around one in the afternoon (this is called morning wake up).
Throughout the year, every day, morning, noon and night, the staff had to ask her for good morning. Before Jiang Qing got up, she rang the bell to inform the nurse. When the nurse heard the bell, she brought the prepared mouthwash and cereal porridge on a tray to Jiang Qing’s bedside and placed them gently on her bedside table.
When she got up, she did not sit up hard for fear of hurting her heart, so the nurse gently lifted her up. All her clothes from inside to outside, including her shorts, had to be put on by the nurse in front and back order and flattened. After she was dressed, she was given the wind direction, wind power and weather temperature.
When Jiang Qing put on her shoes and socks, she didn’t even bother to lift her feet, so the nurse had to kneel on the floor to put them on her. When she put them on quickly, she said the nurse’s action was rough, making her nervous and sweaty, so she cursed, saying there was no tender feelings for her; when she put them on slowly, she said the nurse deliberately dawdled, intentionally making her anxious and sweaty, also cursed, saying it was killing with a soft knife.
Jiang Qing wore a robe half lying on the bed, the nurse helped her rinse her mouth, eat porridge, put on another robe, by the nurse to help the bathroom to relieve urine and stool, wash their hands, wash their faces. After washing, she took off her robe, put on her clothes and went to the office to read documents.
On September 8, 1973, French President Pompidou visited Beijing and met with Jiang Qing and others.
Jiang Qing hijacked the movie film and Zhou Enlai did not dare to watch it
During office hours, Jiang Qing also ate fruit once. The office hours were as long as an hour and as short as a few minutes. Then, he rang the bell to inform the guards to prepare for a walk. In addition to walking, car and horseback riding are also considered. After the walk, he went to Building 17 and either played poker, watched movies, or sometimes played ping pong.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. About 8 o’clock back to the residence building to eat dinner.
After dinner, Jiang Qing usually went to Building 17 to watch foreign movies with Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan. Sometimes she also asked directors, cameramen and famous actors from the film industry to accompany her, saying that she wanted them to learn the art of foreign photography, lighting and acting.
When watching foreign films with original sound, a foreign language interpreter was asked to translate for her while watching. In the large auditorium, there were often only four or five people watching the film, sometimes only Jiang Qing was watching it alone. Sometimes she watched one film, sometimes two films, sometimes a few of the films.
It is recorded in the “Party History Expo” that Jiang Qing was known as the overlord of Diaoyutai at that time. At that time, there was an unwritten rule that whatever Jiang Qing often used, other CCP leaders were not good enough to use, could not use, or dared not use. If she knew about it, she would be unhappy, making everyone very unhappy.
Jiang Qing not only occupied two buildings for a long time, but also had four military horses for her exclusive use. Even when she went to Beidaihe to rest and Badaling to play, the horses went with her on a special train. The screening room was occupied by her, and no one dared to watch it without her consent, including Zhou Enlai, Chen Boda, Kang Sheng and Ye Jianying.
When Jiang Qing was walking in Diaoyutai, if a car passed by and the driver saw Jiang Qing walking at a distance, he would immediately stop, turn off the engine and wait quietly for Jiang Qing to walk past; if pedestrians found Jiang Qing, they would immediately go around to avoid it, and if there was no way to avoid it, they would walk back, not daring to meet Jiang Qing.
The Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
If Jiang Qing went out to attend a meeting, no matter how late he returned to his residence, he would go to Building 17 to watch a movie or two before going back to bed. If you don’t want to sleep, you can play poker for an hour or two. He went to sleep at around 4 a.m.
Before going to bed, the nurse helped Jiang Qing to take off all her clothes, shoes and socks, put on her robe and slippers, and carefully helped her to go to the bathroom, where she sat on a special wooden pier in the bath tub to take a shower. The way to take a bath is to let the nurse hold the water spray snake tube, spraying evenly over her body. Requires the water temperature is not cool and not hot, the water flow is not too fast and not too slow. If the water speed is fast, she said the prickly skin pain, the water speed is slow that is deliberately make her anxious sweating, fast and slow she cursed.
It was hard to wait for Jiang Qing to get into bed, the nurse had to give her a flat robe. The nurse had to drag her body little by little to lightly pull the robe, pulling it slowly and quickly she lost her temper.
The fish that Jiang Qing ate was not seen by ordinary chefs
Jiang Qing is very picky about what she eats, the food has to be light and nutritious. Stir-fried dishes and soup are not allowed to use bones, nor are they allowed to put MSG, saying that bone broth is high in cholesterol and that MSG is a chemical product containing harmful substances. However, she also requires that the dishes and soups must have the fresh taste of bone broth and MSG.
Eggs only need to have egg whites, not a little yolk, saying that the yolk has high steroids. Chickens should be half a pound, and old hens should be seven to ten pounds. The fish should be cut at the head and remove the tail, and eat only the middle. Crab as long as the male not the female, she said the female crab cholesterol high. Spinach should be made into a vegetable puree, celery should be taken out of the shreds, peas should be peeled from the old skin, and mung bean sprouts should be pinched off the head and tail. The temperature of the meal is required to be moderate, neither too hot nor not too hot.
Not only to eat Chinese food, but also to eat Western food. Eating dim sum should be French, German and Russian style.
Drinking water should neither be slightly colder nor hotter. Once, Jiang Qing wanted water to be anxious, the water temperature is a little higher, on the nurse cursed, said deliberately scalded her, the water sprayed the nurse’s face, but also force the water cup smashed.
Eat fruit also requires a certain temperature. Apples and pears, to be cut into long strips, soaked in warm water, soaked to a certain temperature Jiang Qing then eat, the temperature is slightly uncomfortable mouth cursing.
On September 8, 1973, French President Pompidou visited Beijing and met with Jiang Qing and others.
Jiang Qing’s full-time chef Cheng Ruming said, “To tell the truth, no one wants to cook for Jiang Qing.” Jiang Qing is not a good cook, she has a lot of things to do, she is a mother-in-law, and everyone knows her situation.
Jiang Qing likes to eat baked shad, shad is more expensive than shark fins, more than a thousand a catty, this fish only Yangtze River and Qiantang River out, other places are not out, now no longer. The average chef has never seen this kind of fish.
Jiang Qing to the General Assembly Hall meeting, to eat grilled anchovies, the General Assembly Hall chef always do not do well, do not work once, and then do not work. Finally had to ask Cheng Ruming to do it himself.
Cheng Ruming said: “Once I heard that ‘let the master of the Assembly Hall to Jiang Qing cooking’, the master of the Assembly Hall also ‘turn waist’. They always say that they can’t do Jiang Qing’s rice well.”
Jiang Qing often took Cheng Ruming with him whether he went to Zhongnanhai for meetings or to the Assembly Hall, and if he didn’t go, the masters of Zhongnanhai or the Assembly Hall always called to ask Cheng Ruming about Jiang Qing’s tastes – Cheng thus got a nickname: “remote control”.
There are many rumors about how Jiang Qing eats. Some people say that when Jiang Qing eats, she doesn’t eat this, she doesn’t eat that, she doesn’t like this dish, she doesn’t like that dish. The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of the size of the fish.
Once, Jiang Qing proposed to drink chicken soup, the cooks were busy to make her chicken soup and let the waiter send it to her, but she didn’t drink it at all and lost her temper with the waiter, saying, “I drink chicken soup, how can there be shredded chicken inside, bring it back to me.”
There is another story, Jiang Qing to a university in Beijing, in order to eat, every day to send a car from dozens of miles away can not lose a piece of scales of Wuchang fish. For each meal, a hen had to have five eggs from the same day, with an indication of when they were laid. Rice had to be steamed in small bowls and selected grain by grain. Each meal also had to have peanuts and an apple after the meal. She was sometimes not satisfied with such a sumptuous meal, and had to ask the senior chef who came with her to make a small stove meal.
Jiang Qing changed her underwear a dozen times a day
The clothes of Jiang Qing were many and varied, including Chinese, Western and ancient ones, and were often renovated. The coat alone is long, short, medium, single, clip, cotton, and also divided into casual and military uniforms. She does not know how many underwear, a slight sweat stains on the body to immediately replace, a dozen times a day to change. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, every day.
It was hard enough to change her underwear. After the nurse helped her take off her clothes, she had to use a towel to dry her body, and it was not possible to wipe the strength of the small. The towels for her use were four or five hundred, all of which had to be very fluffy. The nurse always had to carry a large satchel wherever Jiang Qing went, which contained all the clothes and towels.
Jiang Qing paid special attention to the dressing of world celebrities. On TV, she saw the special clothes of Mrs. Marcos, the president of the Philippines, and became very envious. Once, when Mrs. Marcos came to China for a visit, Jiang Qing asked the costume research department to make a black embroidered dress and a pair of cloud-headed shoes for her around the clock, modeled after “Tang Sancai”, and also asked the relevant units to make her three kinds of hair wigs and headgear.
Jiang Qing’s housing requirements were tall and spacious, with large bedrooms, offices, bathrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, and large screening rooms and entertainment rooms. Whether in the north or south, the house she lived in had to be heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, requiring a constant temperature. Any place inside where she could move around required carpeting, and even the bathroom required carpeting. She said, “Walking on the carpet has a sense of footsteps, and if you accidentally fall down, you won’t break it.”
The windows of Jiang Qing’s living room and office had to have four layers of glass and three layers of curtains (gauze curtains, silk curtains and thick velvet curtains). The color of the walls, roof, curtains, lights, carpets and various furniture were required to have a soft feeling. Before living in, ultraviolet light disinfection is required.
(Sources in the text: Yang Yinlu: “I Worked for Jiang Qing as a Secretary”; Zhong Bo “Mao Zedong’s Falsehood and Truth”; “Cheng Ruming, a Full-time Chef, Talks about Jiang Qing” published by People’s Daily Online; Beijing: “Hundred Years of Tide” magazine, No. 5, 1998, p. 56, No. 6, 1998, pp. 65, 66.)
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