By Ji Beibei

Li Yinqiao, former bodyguard to Chairman Mao Zedong, passed away peacefully Tuesday morning in Beijing at the age of 82, local newspaper reported.

Suffering for years from a previous condition of blood clots of the brain, Li took a turn for the worst and was hospitalized for recurring of lung infection on September 5 at the Affiliated Hospital to Beijing Aviation Medical Institute, the Beijing Times reported.

Li's memorial will be held next Monday with Mao's daughter, Li Na, and nephew Mao Yuanxin promising to be in attendance to pay their last respects, according to Li Zhuowei, Li's son, a report in Beijing-based Legal Mirror said.

"He is a role model, an excellent bodyguard and a great father," the son said.

News of the former bodyguard's passing inspired messages of deep admiration and sadness on the web, saying Li's legacy and lifelong devotion is a shining example to be passed on to the young generation.

Some called Li the "bodyguard to the People's Republic of China" while also paying their solemn respects to Chairman Mao during the coming days marking the 60th anniversary of the PRC.

Li, a martial artist, joined the army at the age of 11 and spent much of his prime accompanying Mao during hundreds of battles.

Serving 15 years as the designated bodyguard to Mao between 1947 and 1962, Li is believed to be one of the few who knew Mao the best.

In fact, Mao indirectly introduced Li to his wife, Han Guixin, in 1947 during China's War of Liberation.

According to Han, she was the nanny to the former Chairman's children at the time when she fell in love with the dashing bodyguard. The two were married a year later.

In 1962, Li was assigned to serve at the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau as deputy director, then returning to Beijing in 1979 as deputy director of the Great Hall of the People Administration Bureau.

Li attracted public attention after he appeared in a biography about Mao, in which he offered refreshingly different perspectives of the chairman than previously published.

Li's dictated memoirs, Mao Zedong: Man, Not God, offers readers multiple portraits of the leader with chapters such as Mao in Tears, What Plagues Mao and When the Bombers Came. The book, published in 1996, was well received for the intimate details it revealed.

Another book entitled Truth of History: Mao Zedong and His Bodyguard, brought Li even more renown when it revealed that Mao once confided to Li that his marriage to his fourth and last wife, Jiang Qing, was a mistake and was troubled that he couldn't simply end the marriage with a divorce as ordinary people do.