Last week, Lao Qin wrote an article entitled "During the Beiping Negotiations, Zhang Zhizhong Privately Interceded on Chiang Kai-shek's Behalf and Asked Chairman Mao to Let Chiang Kai-shek Go on a Horse," which tells that as the smoke of the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Pingjin dissipated, the five ace armies on which Chiang Kai-shek relied for his life have vanished. In order to win a respite, he announced that he would go to the field, pushed Li Zongren to the forefront, and played the trick of fake peace talks and real preparations. That is, on April 1, a peace talk delegation composed of Zhang Zhizhong, Shao Lizi, Liu Fei, Zhang Shizhao, Huang Shaohu and others was sent to Beiping for negotiations.
With the deepening of negotiations, Zhang Zhizhong became more and more aware of the true face of Chiang Kai-shek, a dictator and war criminal. After the negotiations were broken, he, Together with Shao Lizi, Liu Fei, Zhang Shizhao, and others, chose to stay in Beiping and attended the First Plenary Session and the Founding Ceremony of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference.
The first plenary session of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference was held on September 21, 1949, at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai.
On September 22, the day after the meeting, Dong Biwu put forward the name of the new China, the "People's Republic of China," in his report on the drafting process of the Organic Law of the Central People's Government and its basic contents.
Lao Qin briefly talked about the origin and development of this country name.
As early as July 1927, when our Party held the Second National Congress, it clearly pointed out: "Unify the headquarters of China as a truly democratic republic." ”
That is to say, the historical starting point of our thought on the founding of the party is the establishment of a "truly democratic republic."
On October 23 of that year, our Party also issued the Declaration of the Communist Party of China and the Communist Youth League of China on The War Against the Warlords, which further proposed: "Unify China and create a new China - the China of the Workers, Peasants, Soldiers, Labor, and Poor People's Congress (Soviets)." ”
Under the guidance of this slogan, on November 7, 1931, our Party established the "Chinese Soviet Republic" in Ruijin, Jiangxi.
The Constitution of the Chinese Soviet Republic defines the nature of the "Chinese Soviet Republic": "a state under the democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants. ”
Since the nature of the "Chinese Soviet Republic" is a workers' and peasants' republic, it can also be called a "Soviet workers' and peasants' republic".
After the end of the Long March, in December 1935, at the Wa Yao Fort Conference, the Central Committee adopted the Resolution of the Central Committee on the Present Political Situation and the Tasks of the Party, which pointed out: "The Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Republic and its Central Government declare that they have changed themselves into a Soviet People's Republic. ”
From this time on, the "Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Republic" was renamed the "Soviet People's Republic".
On August 25 of the following year, our Central Committee changed the term "Soviet People's Republic" to "Democratic Republic" in the "Letter of the Communist Party of China to the Kuomintang of China", claiming that "we sponsor the establishment of a democratic republic for the unification of all of China".
It is not difficult for us to see that from the establishment of the "Chinese Soviet Republic" to the formulation of the slogans of "People's Republic" and "Democratic Republic", they are all products of the background of great historical development and are the needs of our Party to constantly adapt to the situation at different stages of development of the new-democratic revolution.
At the same time, it is not difficult for us to see that the goal of "democracy" is becoming more and more clear; The task of achieving true "democracy" is becoming more and more urgent.
On January 9, 1940, chairman Mao mentioned in his speech at the first congress of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Cultural Association that "the Chinese Democratic Republic to be established now can only be a democratic republic under the joint dictatorship of all anti-imperialist and anti-feudal people under the leadership of the proletariat."
After experiencing the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, on June 15, 1949, Chairman Mao said at the opening ceremony of the Preparatory Meeting for the New Political Consultative Conference: In the past, the Republic of China also claimed to be "democratic," but its "democracy" was false and unworthy of its name. Now we want to build a veritable People's Democratic Republic of China!
He shouted three slogans after his speech, the first of which was "Long live the People's Democratic Republic of China!" ”
The Preparatory Committee therefore included "proposing a plan for the establishment of a Government of the People's Democratic Republic of China" as a central task of the Preparatory Committee.
In the ensuing panel discussion, Professor Zhang Zhirang and Mr. Huang Yanpei, chair of the Law Department of Fudan University, believed that the name "People's Democratic Republic of China" was too long and cumbersome to use.
They wrote an abridgement advocating the use of "People's Democratic Republic of China" ("People's Democratic Republic of China".
They believe that the Chinese word for "republic" is translated from the English "Republic". There is no substantial difference between "Republic" and "Democracy" in English, i.e. "Republic" can also be translated as "democracy". The difference between the two is only that the former refers to a democratic country and the latter refers to a democratic political system. Therefore, the listing of "democracy" and "republic" together is wordy and repetitive.
Mr. Zhang Xiruo, a jurist and professor at Tsinghua University, thought that it was better to use "People's Democratic Republic of China" than "People's Republic of China".
Zhang Xiruo also felt that the name "People's Democratic Republic of China" was too long and cumbersome to use, but his opinion was to "remove the word democracy."
His basis was: "If there is 'people', the word 'democracy' can be used without the word 'people'. ”
Zhang Xiruo also pointed out that the word "democracy" comes from the Greek Democracy, which originally meant the people.
Needless to say, the statements of Zhang Zhirang, Huang Yanpei and Zhang Xiruo and others are all reasonable.
But is it better to use the name of the new China as "People's Democratic Republic of China" or "People's Republic of China"? Dong Biwu, who was in charge of presiding over the discussion, did not draw conclusions, but only circulated the above-mentioned opinions to the chairman, vice chairman, members, and leaders of the preparatory committee for the discretion of the drafting committee of the government's organic law.
On the evening of August 16, Chairman Mao invited people from all walks of life to a discussion in Zhongnanhai.
He specially introduced the opinions of the experts at the preparatory meeting on the name of new China, and let everyone express their own views.
Zhang Zhizhong attended the forum.
He spoke actively at the meeting and boldly made his views clear.
He said: "The People's Democratic Republic of China" is not as good as the name "People's Republic of China."
That is to say, he agreed with Zhang Xiruo's conclusion.
But he disagrees with Mr. Zhang's explanation that the term "democracy" comes from Greece's Democracy.
He said: "Sima Qian's record in the "Records of History" that 'Li Wang ran to Yu Yan, chaos began in the Capital Division, and the republican administration', that is, China had the concept of 'republic' in the Western Zhou Dynasty. And this concept itself contains the meaning of democracy, and calling 'democratic republic' is indeed a repetition of the meaning, so it is better to call it 'People's Republic of China'. ”
Chairman Mao attached great importance to Zhang Zhizhong's explanation and suggested that everyone adopt this opinion.
The plenary meeting of The 4th Group of the Preparatory Committee then adopted a preliminary draft on August 17, referring to the new China as the "People's Republic of China".
Thus, on September 22, 1949, Dong Biwu reported at the first plenary session of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference on the drafting process and basic contents of the Organic Law of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, and declared the name of the country of New China as "The People's Republic of China".
In addition, having said that, on August 16, the staff of the 6th Group of the CPPCC Preparatory Committee, headed by Ma Sulun, screened more than 3,000 national flags and national emblems in the reception room of No. 413 Beijing Hotel at the intersection of Wangfujing Road, selected 38 national flag patterns, and compiled them into a "Reference Materials for National Flag Patterns" and distributed them to every member attending the CPPCC meeting.
The time came to September 23, and Chairman Mao and Zhu De held a grand banquet on this evening to entertain the insurgents concerned.
During the banquet, Chairman Mao talked about the selection of the national flag pattern, and he said that he had taken a fancy to the pattern of "five stars and one Yellow River."
Zhang Zhizhong objected on the spot, saying: "The horizontal bar in the middle does not give people the feeling of representing the Yellow River, but divides the red flag into two halves, which makes people easily think of splitting the country." ”
Chairman Mao listened, clasped Zhang Zhizhong's hand tightly, and praised him for "a good reminder."
The flag of new China did not appear this horizontal bar later.