Qigong’s wife Zhang Baochen died of illness in 1975.
In 1975, Zhang Baochen became ill due to overwork and became ill. Zhang Baochen felt that his days were numbered. One day, after whispering to Qi Gong for a while, Qi Gong was shocked and hurried home immediately. As soon as he reached the backyard, he picked up a shovel and dug into the corner of the wall as Zhang Baochen said. Finally, I dug out a large vat in a very deep layer of soil. When I took it out, I found four sacks in one vat. Inside the sacks, wrapped in layers of thick paper, were pieces of Qi Gong’s early calligraphy and painting works. This manuscript collection is all well preserved, and not a single Qigong work from 1930 to 1960 is missing. Holding his hard work, Qi Gong's heart trembled violently, and he felt like he was reunited after a disaster. He had no idea that Zhang Baochen, a weak woman with no knowledge of writing and writing, would dare to take such a big risk to collect his works. How much courage it took! It is enough to have Baochen as a confidant in your life.
In his last days, Zhang Baochen said to Qi Gong: "After I die, you must find someone to take care of you." Qi Gong said: "I am so old, how can anyone follow me again? "A few months later, Zhang Baochen still passed away, and Qi Gong's grief was beyond words. In front of his wife's grave, Qi Gong said: "You never lived a good life with me. I should suffer more to be worthy of you." After saying that, Qi Gong knelt down and kowtowed deeply to Zhang Baochen.
After his wife died of illness, Qi Gong was immersed in endless grief for a long time and wrote the tear-jerking "Twenty Heartbroken Poems", expressing in extremely simple language the life-and-death dependence between him and his wife. Deep feelings: "They have been married for forty years, and there has never been any quarrel. An old couple, they love each other as if they were young. They have been together for forty years, half poor and half sick. Although two people only have one life."