At the founding ceremony 73 years ago, the first five-star red flag was raised over Tiananmen Square, which was the pride of each of our Chinese, and the whole country cheered warmly. Today we will tell the story behind the five-star red flag.
In April 1949, the heroic soldiers of the People's Liberation Army went through all kinds of hardships to liberate Nanjing, the seat of the Kuomintang reactionary government, and the "blue sky and white sun and red earth" flag was taken down.
On June 15, 1949, at the preparatory meeting of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the task of formulating the national flag of the new China was entrusted to a group composed of Ma Sulun, Ye Jianying and others.
Due to the tight time and heavy tasks at that time, after the group discussion, it was decided to select the national flag pattern by means of extensive solicitation, so the design of the national flag was openly solicited at home and abroad in newspapers and periodicals such as the People's Daily.
The design requirements were also clearly published in the newspaper: the pattern should contain Chinese characteristics, political characteristics, and the overall graphic of the design was rectangular, mainly red, requiring the pattern to be solemn and concise.
The news quickly received a response from people from all walks of life at home and abroad, who believed that it was a very honorable and proud thing to participate in the design of the national flag.
Even the soldiers on the front-line battlefield used their short spare time to discuss their own ideas, and although they did not receive the order to withdraw their troops, they already clearly felt that victory was at hand, which was really a very happy thing for the people of the whole country.
Overseas Chinese compatriots heard the news, were also proud of the motherland, and actively participated in the design of the national flag pattern.
In just one month, 2992 design patterns were received. A man named Zeng Liansong, the five-star red flag designed by him is also among them.
Zeng Liansong was born in 1914 and is a native of Ruian, Zhejiang. When he was young, he witnessed the destruction of the country's mountains and rivers at that time, and the people were not happy. The seeds of patriotism have been planted in the heart since childhood.
When he was young, he often drew on the ground with branches, he would draw all the thoughts he saw and thought, very seriously, his parents saw that he was a piece of learning material, so they sent him to school, no matter how difficult it was, they had to provide him with reading.
When Zeng Liansong was in school, he was fortunate to meet two teachers, which brought many enlightenments to Zeng Liansong's painting and laid the foundation for his painting. One teacher, Kim So-ho, was a painting teacher in his junior high school, and the other was Professor Zong Baihua when Zeng Liansong was studying in the Department of Economics at Chuo University.
During his time in college, Zeng Liansong's ability was recognized, coupled with his good handwriting, he also became the secretary of the party branch of the Central University.
In 1947, he was assigned to the Shanghai Modern Economic News Agency. He also has another identity as a Communist.
At that time, Shanghai had not yet been liberated, and he also used his position many times to provide a lot of economic information for the organization. Zeng Liansong's excellent work ability perfectly covers his special identity.
In June 1949, Zeng Liansong saw the news of soliciting the national flag pattern in the newspaper, and in order to express his deep patriotism, Zeng Liansong immediately decided to participate in this activity to design the pattern.
When Zeng Liansong began to create, it was the hottest time in Shanghai, he shut himself in the attic, thinking about design plans all day, and the number of straw paper thrown away every day was uncountable.
One night, Zeng Liansong fell into contemplation, because these days he closed himself up and designed none of the patterns that he was satisfied with, and he always kneaded them shortly after the painting.
How exactly is it designed? Looking at the moonlight outside the window, his eyes unconsciously looked at the moon, and at this moment an inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind!
Isn't there a saying that looks to the stars and the moon? Isn't the Communist Party of China the great savior of our people?
He directly picked up a pen and paper to outline the prototype of the five-star red flag, and I have to say that sometimes creative inspiration is really like lightning, suddenly appearing.
Zeng Liansong also used the aesthetic angle to make the five stars from complex to simple, and the four small stars formed an oval shape around the big star, and the small star and the big star echoed each other, and the picture was harmonious. In order to show the beauty of the flag when it moves and is quiet, five stars are placed in the upper left corner.
I have to say that Zeng Liansong is well thought-out, which is inseparable from his art skills.
However, the participants in the design pattern must also have their own unique design concepts, and after receiving these design patterns, the central government took a vote to determine the final national flag pattern in order to show fairness.
In the end, the design pattern of a big star and a bar passed the preliminary examination with 185 votes, while the five-star red flag lost with 15 votes. The final choice we all know, the five-star red flag was elected, but what happened at that time?
Among these works, some are modeled after the flags of other countries, and can be roughly divided into four categories, one is the sickle axe class, one is the five-pointed star class, and the other two are sickle axe gears and other mixed together and sandwiched with horizontal strips.
Through the preliminary screening, 38 patterns were finally selected, made into templates, and displayed in front of everyone.
Everyone believes that the pattern should highlight the Yellow River or the Yangtze River to represent the characteristics of the country. So everyone's eyes are focused on this horizontal line. The golden five-pointed star represents the Communist Party, and the yellow crossbar represents the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.
At this time, Zhang Zhizhong had a different opinion, and how he looked at this horizontal line was not pleasing to the eye. This horizontal line seems to divide the territory into two, and in the center of Zhang Ji, peace and reunification are the most important.
Zhang Zhizhong, a native of Chao County, Anhui Province, graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and was reused by Chiang Kai-shek for many years, and in the Battle of Songhu, Zhang Zhizhong served as the commander of the Fifth Army and fought against the Japanese army in Shanghai. Zhang Zhizhong was very much in favor of the Three People's Principles, and he repeatedly wrote to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to oppose the civil war.
Among the people that Chiang Kai-shek reused, most of them were people who could brag about patting horses, but Zhang Zhizhong was an exception.
On the eve of the victory in the War of Liberation, in the spirit of conscientiousness and responsibility for his post, he also wrote a letter entitled "Review and Suggestions on Current State Affairs" and handed it to Chiang Kai-shek, criticizing Chiang Kai-shek's leadership misconduct, and even boldly writing out such words as Chiang Kai-shek's one of the few bad tempers in the world.
Zhang Zhizhong was really bold, and I don't know how many people offended Chiang Kai-shek because of one sentence and one thing, and he was directly dismissed from his post and even lost his life. It is also enough to see Chiang Kai-shek's recognition of Zhang Zhizhong's ability and personality.
In April 1949, Zhang Jizhong was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to come to Beiping as the chief representative to conduct peace negotiations with the Chinese Communist delegation and jointly drafted a "Domestic Peace Agreement".
Chiang Kai-shek refused the agreement, expelled him from the party, and arrested Zhang Zhizhong, Who was very helpless, originally loyal to the Kuomintang, who knew that Chiang Kai-shek's spearhead would suddenly point at him. Chiang Kai-shek is really cloudy and uncertain.
Soon after, the helpless Zhang Zhizhong issued a "Statement on the Current Situation", which also indicated that Zhang Zhizhong threw himself wholeheartedly into the cause of the Communist Party, and later when he liberated Xinjiang, he took the initiative to call with the General Director of Tao Zhiyue in Xinjiang, and finally Xinjiang was peacefully liberated, zhang Zhizhong was indispensable, so he was also known as a peace general.
He sincerely thinks about the country, does not covet pleasure, and has also been highly praised by the central authorities as a person who specializes in doing good deeds, has done many good things, and is a true patriot.
On September 23, 1949, Zhang Zhizhong took advantage of a banquet to come to the leader's side, and he euphemistically expressed his views to Chairman Mao, a horizontal line drawn on the national flag, it seems to divide the pattern in two, and then using a line to represent the Yellow River or the Yangtze River is also easy to misinterpret, it looks like a golden hoop stick.
Hearing the leader nod his head in agreement, Zhang Zhizhong was relieved.
On September 25, the central government summoned the relevant responsible persons to discuss the selection of the national flag, at which time Tian Han, the lyricist of the "March of the Volunteer Army", took out a design drawing, which was the original drawing of the five-star red flag, and there were sickles and axes on the big star of the pattern at that time, and everyone looked at the pattern seriously.
The Central Committee has also given the five-star red flag the meaning: red symbolizes the revolution, and also represents the victory of the revolutionary martyrs who threw their heads and spilled their blood in exchange for victory, and we must bear it in mind.
The five stars in the red flag, the large five-pointed star on the left represents the Communist Party of China, and the four small five-pointed stars each have a tip facing the center of the large five-pointed star, representing the working class, the peasant class, the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie.
The four-star circle also represents the close unity of the people of the whole country under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the yellow color not only has a sense of harmony with the red flag, but also represents the color of our Chinese.
On September 27, 1949, the Political Consultative Conference of the Chinese passed a resolution designating the national flag of the People's Republic of China as a five-star red flag. The officially adopted five-star red flag was slightly changed, removing the scythe and axe from the big star.
Zeng Liansong was thrilled when he saw that the five-star red flag was finally selected as the national flag in the Liberation Daily.
Subsequently, Zeng Liansong also received a letter from the General Office of the Central Committee, which was given to Zeng Liansong
The PEOPLE's Political Consultative Conference commemorative magazine has a volume and rewards five million yuan in cash (about 500 yuan).
With only three days left before the founding ceremony, the central government quickly sent people to a silk cloth shop in Beijing and entrusted the task of making the national flag to a female worker named Zhao Wenrui.
Zhao Wenrui did not dare to have a trace of slackness, immediately bought red and yellow silk cloth, and spent three days and three nights to finally produce the first five-star red flag.
According to her recollection, when the last stitch of the five-star red flag was made on the afternoon of September 30, she burst into tears with excitement, which was also the most glorious moment of her life, this five-star red flag with a length of 460 centimeters and a height of 338 centimeters, at the founding ceremony, shined and became one of the focus of the world's attention.
Whenever the national anthem sounds, we see the five-star red flag slowly rising, there is always unspeakable excitement and pride in our hearts, we can live in such a beautiful era, how happy, the five-star red flag also witnessed the glorious moments created by our country's economy, military, science and technology and other fields.
Under the national flag, we have grown healthily and vigorously from generation to generation, running in all directions and contributing our own strength to the country.