On July 14, 1949, people's dailys, Tianjin daily, xinmin bao, dazhong daily, guangming daily and other newspapers published a solicitation notice, namely "Solicitation of national flag and national emblem patterns and national anthem dictionary notice".
After the notice was published, Hong Kong and overseas Chinese newspapers also reprinted it one after another, which caused a strong response in the society, and people from all walks of life, men, women and children, from all walks of life, both men, women and children, enthusiastically participated in it and contributed their own strength to the founding of New China.
Photo: People's Daily published "Notice on Soliciting the National Flag, National Emblem and Lyrics of national lyrics"
Zeng Liansong, the secretary of the Shanghai Modern Economic News Agency and only 32 years old, also saw the notice in the newspaper, although Zeng Liansong studied economics during his studies and the work he was engaged in was not design, but he had a good foundation in art, and he also liked calligraphy and painting, and worked in a woodcut club during the War of Resistance.
Therefore, he decided to participate in this design, in order to express his sincere admiration for the party and the country, and also to express his most sincere respect for the new China.
Founded in 1946 as a news enterprise directly led by the underground Communist Party of China, the Magazine Modern Economic Newsletter is a professional publication engaged in publishing Shanghai market information and economic commentary, and it gathers many knowledgeable professionals.
The present economic society can not only provide you with new information and rich contents, but also come into contact with many progressive books and periodicals, such as Chairman Mao's "On Protracted War" and "On New Democracy." Zeng Liansong read many of Chairman Mao's works at the present economic society, which greatly enriched Zeng Liansong's thinking.
After the liberation of Shanghai, the current economic society completed its one-stage task, and immediately announced that the task was closed and cleared, and in the process of handling the end, all the staff of the current economic society had a transitional leisure time, the work was much easier, and there was also a lot of leisure time.
It was at this stage that Zeng Liansong saw the flag solicitation notice from the newspaper, and he decided to use his leisure time to design the flag well. He carefully studied the national flag solicitation notice and copied the design requirements in it:
It should be noted that: (a) Chinese characteristics (such as geography, ethnicity, history, culture, etc.) ;(b) political characteristics (people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants) ;(c) form is rectangular, the ratio of three to two long and wide, mainly solemn and concise; (D) the color is mainly red, and other colors can be used.
Pictured: Zhou Enlai's instructions on the "Notice on Soliciting the National Flag and National Emblem Pattern and the National Anthem Dictionary (Draft)"
He repeatedly studied these four requirements more than ten times, and various ideas flashed in his mind, but when he really fell into the pen and entered the specific idea, Zeng Liansong knew that design is not an easy task, and it is not easy to design a plan that meets the requirements and is satisfactory, but Zeng Liansong naturally will not give up.
He sometimes imagined, sometimes he drew pictures, and after drawings were drawn and discarded, after more than ten days, he still did not find his own design direction.
One day, when he was painting on the motion, there was a Shanghai opera singing voice floating outside the window: "Hoping for the stars, hoping for the moon, hoping for the Chinese Communist Party..." Zeng Liansong repeatedly silently read: "Stars, stars..."
He finally found inspiration, the Chinese Communist Party is the savior of the Chinese people, he decided to use the big five-pointed star to symbolize the Chinese Communist Party, and four small stars to symbolize the broad masses of the people (including the working class, the peasant class, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, inspired by Mao Zedong's "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship").
With the idea of five stars, the next step is the overall design. How the five stars should be arranged, where to be placed on the flag, how to match the colors, etc., all need to be repeatedly deliberated and designed.
On the basis of fully considering the requirements of the national flag design, he took into account the traditional style of Chinese painting and the aesthetic psychology of the nation, paying attention to "simplicity and complexity", "small and large", "guest and lord", "quiet and moving", "long than wide", and strived to be solemn and gorgeous, concise and not monotonous, graceful and imposing, clear and not sparse, this is not a simple thing, for this reason, Zeng Liansong spent a long time designing.
He went to a paper shop and bought a large bundle of colored glossy paper: red, yellow, blue, green, purple. I also bought special scissors, paste and ruler.
With these tools, he conceived, compared and drew pictures when he went to work during the day, and cut and pasted at home to make the national flag after work, and that summer, Zeng Liansong, who should have been very leisurely, spent all his time designing the national flag.
Photo: Zeng Liansong
In order not to be disturbed, he shut himself in the attic every day after work, busy can not take care of anything, is to eat need the family several times three times called, the family does not know which step he designed, do not know when he can be busy, but every day when sweeping the floor will sweep out a lot of colored glossy paper.
Pieces of discarded paper made Zeng Liansong get closer and closer to the ideal in his heart.
He thought that the broad masses of the people, under the leadership of the Party, united in battle, struggled hard, and successively won victories, so he considered designing each small star with a pointed point facing the center of the big star, expressing the intention of hundreds of millions of people to the Communist Party, which is the characteristic of the regime.
The oval shape formed by the five stars, such as the leaves of begonias, symbolizes the territory of the continental territory, which is a geographical feature.
The stars are yellow, because the Chinese nation is a yellow race, which is a national characteristic, and the base map is red, symbolizing revolution.
He also embedded a sickle axe in the big star to show that the Chinese revolution has international significance and that the Chinese revolution is part of the world revolution (inspired by Mao Zedong in On New Democracy).
After having such a general design, the last consideration is the placement of the five stars on the flag, Zeng Liansong cut out the stars and placed them one position at a time, when he placed the five stars in the upper left, the momentum of the flag came out at once.
That solemnity and magnificence, simplicity and grandeur were well expressed, zeng Liansong was very excited, he knew that this was his best plan.
After nearly a month of busyness, Zeng Liansong finally completed his national flag design and then sent it to the preparatory meeting for the New Political Consultative Conference before august 20, the deadline for soliciting notice requirements.
Pictured: On August 11, 1949, Zeng Liansong submitted a design for the national flag
After completing this design, Zeng Liansong also ushered in a new job, and he was organized to work in the East China Supply and Marketing Cooperative Business Administration. New work, new beginnings, he became very busy again, did not have so much time to pay attention to the submission of the flag, but in the dead of night, he would also wonder if his design would be selected. What happens if it is selected? If not, what design patterns will be selected?
Where did he know that the national flag pattern he designed almost did not have the opportunity to appear in front of the world.
Since the release of the national flag pattern solicitation notice, people all over the country and even many patriotic overseas Chinese have devoted themselves to designing the national flag pattern. In just one month, the Preparatory Committee for the New Political Consultative Conference collected a total of 1,920 national flag designs and 2,992 designs (some say 3,012), and future national flags will be selected among these designs and patterns.
The sixth group under the Standing Committee of the Preparatory Committee of the Preparatory Committee for the New Political Consultative Conference was initially responsible for drawing up the national flag, national emblem and national anthem, and the leader of the sixth group was Ma Xulun, the deputy leaders were Ye Jianying and Shen Yanbing (later added), and the other members were: Zhang Xiruo, Tian Han, Ma Yinchu, Zheng Zhenduo, Guo Moruo, Zhai Bozan, Qian Sanqiang, Cai Chang, Li Lisan, Zhang Lan, Chen Jiageng, Ouyang Yuqian, Liao Chengzhi, and so on.
At the first meeting of the Sixth Group, it was decided that Ye Jianying, Liao Chengzhi, Tian Han, Li Lisan, Zhang Xiruo, Cai Chang, Zheng Zhenduo, Zhai Bozan, etc. would form the National Flag and National Emblem Pattern Preliminary Selection Committee.
After the manuscripts were sent from all over the country, the sixth group hired Xu Beihong, Liang Sicheng and Ai Qing as expert consultants for the National Flag and National Emblem Design Preliminary Selection Committee.
At the same time, the Preparatory Committee for the New Political Consultative Conference set up a temporary selection room for the national flag pattern in the no. 413 reception room of the Beijing Hotel, and all the candidates' design drafts were displayed in the temporary selection room, which was selected by the members of the selection committee and expert consultants, which was a great workload.
On August 22, the First Meeting of the National Flag and National Emblem Design Preliminary Selection Committee was held, and the preliminary selection of the national flag pattern was made according to the requirements of the national flag pattern listed in the original solicitation notice.
Two days later, the sixth group held a third plenary meeting at the Beijing Hotel to further discuss and deliberate on the initially selected national flag pattern, and the meeting initially had a relatively unanimous opinion, and at that time, one design pattern was generally approved, that is, the design pattern of the eleventh national flag.
Figure: The first national flag pattern modification of the primary election is compound number four
The top third of the design drawing is white, symbolizing the light, the bottom two-thirds is red, symbolizing the revolutionary regime, and there is a red star in the upper left, representing the leadership of the Communist Party, simple and generous.
However, Chen Jiageng later objected to this, believing that it was similar to the Indonesian flag, and that the white on it could not be seen a little farther under the sun, and could not indicate the alliance of workers and peasants, and later the white part of the design was modified to yellow, and some other designs that looked good were also selected for partial modification.
The time soon came to September 14, and the fourth plenary meeting of the sixth group was held at the Beijing Hotel, and the meeting selected the revised maps of the national flag pattern No. 11 and No. 17 for the reference of the Standing Committee.
The meeting also decided that Tian Han, Zheng Zhenduo, Ai Qing, Xu Beihong, and He Luting would be responsible for sorting out the national flag patterns, selecting the better patterns and printing them into pamphlets, distributing them to all the CPPCC deputies, discussing them in groups, and producing fourteen national flag patterns to put in the conference lounge.
On September 22, the sixth group selected 38 drafts from the flag pattern applications, including the original manuscripts of the applicants, and some of them were revised according to the opinions of the review, and these manuscripts were accompanied by text descriptions and unamed names to compile and print the "Reference Materials for The National Flag Pattern".
Because at the second plenary meeting of the preparatory meeting of the new CPPCC held on the 17th, the work on the national flag and national emblem was handed over to the first plenary meeting of the CPPCC. Therefore, the "Reference Materials for the Pattern of the National Flag" compiled and printed was also submitted to the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that was just held for review, and then a new round of discussion, revision and selection was carried out.
Zeng Liansong's design draft was also included in the "Reference Materials for the National Flag Pattern", but it was not the original draft of Zeng Liansong's design, but the revised draft after the review opinions, and the sickle hammer pattern in the original draft was removed and numbered as compound character 32.
After all, the national flag pattern designed by Zeng Liansong is indeed very beautiful, but there are many people who do not like it, and the points of dislike mainly focus on its description: "The big five-pointed star represents the Chinese Communist Party, and the four small five-pointed stars around it represent workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie." ”
In the eyes of many people, the statement that the four small stars around them represented four classes was inappropriate at the time, so the compound thirty-two did not get much recognition, but there were still people who loved it, so it still stood out from about three thousand patterns and became one of the thirty-eighths of the "Reference to the National Flag Pattern".
On September 23, more than 600 delegates to the first plenary session of the Chinese National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference divided into 11 groups to participate in the discussion of the national flag, national emblem and national anthem.
Pictured: The flag pattern no. 17 in the primary election is compound no. 3
Perhaps influenced by the Sixth Group, two of the patterns in this discussion received the highest voice, namely Compound Character No. 3 (Primary No. 17) and Compound Character No. 4 (Revised Figure of Primary No. 11), which have attracted much attention since the primary election, and Chairman Mao also preferred compound character No. 3: a large five-pointed star in the upper left corner, and a yellow bar below representing the Yellow River.
However, these two pictures were not recognized by everyone, and there was still a fierce opposition, so the specific pattern of the flag was not determined, and after the meeting, the sixth group held the sixth plenary meeting to summarize the results of the daytime meeting.
Secretary Peng Guanghan reported the summary to Zhou Enlai in the form of a written report after sorting it out, and Zhou Enlai specifically asked Peng Guanghan before reading the report: "You have come into contact with so many national flag patterns, which pattern represents the same opinion?" Which pattern do you think is better? ”
Peng Guanghan first mentioned the compound word no. 3 that everyone likes it, saying that there are many people who like it, but people who do not like it have a great opinion on this pattern, if it is reluctantly passed, there must be follow-up opinions; and the pattern of the compound word 32 has won the likes of many people, but many people are not optimistic about its explanatory words, relatively speaking, the compound word 32 is relatively easy to accept.
Zhou Enlai listened carefully to Peng Guanghan's opinions, and deliberately looked at the two patterns, pointed to the compound character No. 32 and said to Peng Guanghan: "Well, you can draw a bigger one according to this pattern, and make a big flag, and hand it to me the afternoon after tomorrow." ”
On the evening of the same day, Chairman Mao and Zhu De invited Cheng Qian, Zhang Zhizhong, Fu Zuoyi, Cheng Xingling, Chen Mingren, and 26 other Kuomintang generals in the uprising, with the intention of celebrating the kuomintang generals' meritorious deeds in holding the uprising and responding to the people's peace movement.
During the banquet, when Chairman Mao and Zhang Zhizhong were talking, Zhang Zhizhong took the initiative to ask Chairman Mao: "Now everyone is discussing the pattern of the national flag, what is your opinion?" ”
Chairman Mao said directly: "I agree with a big five-pointed star plus a Yellow River, what do you think?" Chairman Mao knew that Zhang Zhizhong's inquiry was not aimless, so he asked Zhang Zhizhong's opinion on this, and Zhang Zhizhong did not hide it, saying bluntly:
"I am against the use of this flag pattern, don't you mean to carry the revolution through to the end?" Adding a horizontal bar in the middle of the national flag and splitting the country in half does not become a split country? Besides, it is not scientific to use a bar to represent the Yellow River, and the people will think of Sun Monkey's golden hoop stick. ”
Pictured: Zhang Zhizhong and Mao Zedong in Yan'an
Chairman Mao was not unaware that some deputies really did not like this pattern, and they were still fiercely opposed, but he really did not expect Zhang Zhizhong to have such an explanation, and he was both shocked and felt that it was justified, and immediately said solemnly: "This is a serious problem." However, there are many people who advocate using this painting, and there are also reasons for it. Well, I'll talk to a few more people. ”
On the evening of 25 September, Chairman Mao convened a consultation forum in Zhongnanhai on the issue of the national flag, national emblem, national anthem, chronology, and national capital, which was attended by Zhou Enlai, Guo Moruo, Contradiction, Huang Yanpei, Chen Jiageng, Ma Xulun, Tian Han, Xu Beihong, Liang Sicheng, and others.
The symposium went very smoothly, with a lot of work before, most of the topics can easily reach agreement, but when it comes to discussing the issue of the national flag, around the question of whether the compound number three is used or not, everyone's opinions have always been unanimity, as if no one can convince anyone, although most people hold a "usable" attitude, but the fierce opposition of a small number of people can not be ignored.
Chairman Mao summed up everyone's discussion and explained the reasons for Zhang Zhizhong's opposition, and when Chairman Mao finished speaking, many people also realized the problems that Zhang Zhizhong considered, and for a while they did not know whether to use it.
In fact, Tian Han has long liked the compound character thirty-two, especially after the pattern was enlarged, Tian Han felt that the national flag of new China should be like this, he always seriously looked at this pattern, always could not help but be hot, so he seriously recommended the compound word thirty-two to Chairman Mao.
Chairman Mao took the compound character no. 32, looked at it seriously, and the more he looked at it, the more he liked it, and he said to everyone seriously:
"In the past, we always wanted to paint Chinese characteristics on the national flag, so we drew one to represent the Yellow River, in fact, the national flags of many countries do not necessarily have any characteristics of the country... Our five-star red flag pattern shows the great unity of our revolutionary people. There must be great unity now, and there will be great unity in the future, so it is good to be now or to be in the future, and it is unity and revolution at the same time. ”
Pictured: The revised compound character No. 32 flag pattern
Chairman Mao's explanation was agreed by everyone, and indeed, ignoring the explanatory words of compound character 32, which in itself is a very good national flag pattern.
The next day, on the afternoon of September 26, the first meeting of the National Flag, National Emblem, National Anthem, and National Capital Chronicle Review Committee was held in the East Restaurant of Beijing Hotel. With regard to the opinions on the national flag, everyone carefully studied the compound character No. 32, because it was solemn, beautiful, concise, easy to make, and in line with the conditions sought, except for Su Jing and Jian Yujie, who did not express their opinions, the rest of the deputies agreed to adopt the compound character no. 32 figure and amended its explanation as follows:
- (a) Red symbolizes revolution
- (b) The star symbolizes the great unity of the Chinese revolutionary people
On September 27, the first plenary session of the Chinese National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted four resolutions, one of which was: Unanimously adopted: The national flag of the People's Republic of China is the Red Earth Five-Star Flag, symbolizing the great unity of the Chinese revolutionary people.
Two days later, the People's Daily published a pattern of the national flag and an explanation of the production method.
Pictured: On September 30, 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference was successfully concluded
Zeng Liansong saw the five-star red flag pattern from the newspaper, and when he saw that pattern, he was very excited, but at the same time he also had questions in his heart: "How is it similar to my pattern?" ”
Yes, the five-star red flag pattern on the newspaper made him feel strange and familiar, he did not know that the national flag pattern he designed had been adopted, after all, in his original design, the big star also had a sickle axe inside, and the five-star red flag pattern published in the newspaper did not have a sickle axe, which was the only difference, but It made Zeng Liansong unable to confirm whether it was his own design.
But in fact, he did not care whether it was his own design or not, he only knew that new China was about to be established, the national flag of new China was about to be raised, and the people of Chinese were about to usher in a new life, which was enough for him to burst into tears.
At three o'clock in the afternoon of October 1, Lin Boqu, secretary general of the Central People's Government, announced the opening ceremony of the People's Republic of China, the military band played the national anthem, Chairman Mao personally pressed the electric button, and the first five-star red flag of New China was rising, floating over Tiananmen Square and also fluttering in the hearts of the people.
This is the most exciting moment in Chinese history, from then on, the end of the old, the beginning of the new. Under the leadership of the party, Chinese people threw themselves into the construction of new China and rushed to a beautiful and happy life.
Zeng Liansong also continues to serve the people in his work, and he seems to have forgotten about the design of the national flag, but the people of the motherland have not forgotten Zeng Liansong's contribution to the design of the national flag.
Pictured: Zeng Liansong and his original design of the national flag pattern
A year later, during the National Day in 1950, he was invited to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to attend the ceremony of the first anniversary of the founding of New China, which was the first time he climbed the Tiananmen Tower, and the excitement of that moment was unprecedented, and he could not help but burst into tears when he saw the rising five-star red flag.
Soon after, he received a letter from the General Office of the Central People's Government Committee, marked "Document No. 1137", which read:
Mr. Zeng Liansong: The national flag of the People's Republic of China that you designed has been adopted. I hereby present a volume of the commemorative magazine of the CPPCC, rmb 5 million, which will be sent to the Post Office and the People's Bank of China respectively as a reward for your contribution to the country, and to express your deep respect. This salute. Central People's Government Committee.
The rmb5 million here refers to the old currency used before 1955, which is equivalent to the five hundred yuan after 1955.
This is an honor that belongs to Zeng Liansong.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China in 1979, Zeng Liansong was again invited to Beijing to participate in various celebrations.
Regarding the design of the national flag pattern, Zeng Liansong once modestly said: "In fact, the success of the design of the national flag is not the credit of me alone, but through the collective wisdom of the vast number of CPPCC members, it has been modified, so that the entire pattern is more simplified and clear, and the theme is prominent." ”
Today, Mr. Zeng Liansong has been ill for more than 20 years, and the five-star red flag has long become a symbol of our great motherland.