On September 14, 1988, the Central Military Commission held a grand ceremony to confer the rank of general in Huairen Hall, Zhongnanhai. Party and state leaders issued orders signed by Deng Xiaoping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, to 17 generals, including Hong Xuezhi and Liu Huaqing. Since October 1, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has officially implemented a new military rank system, awarding a total of 405,000 military rank to lieutenant officers, 180,000 military rank to colonel officers, and 1,452 military rank to general officers.
This is the second time that our army has used the military rank system since the abolition of the military rank system in 1965. Different from the 1955 award, this award abolished the two major military titles of "marshal" and "general", and made "first-class general" the highest military rank. This decision was made by Deng Xiaoping, then chairman of the Central Military Commission, after comprehensively considering various factors. Why did Deng Xiaoping abolish the two major military titles of "marshal" and "general", and what was the reason behind this?
One
The implementation of the military rank system is one of the important measures for the regularization and modernization of the armed forces. During the war years, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) failed to implement the rank system due to the historical conditions at that time. Therefore, after the founding of New China, in order to meet the needs of the regularization of the armed forces, the issue of implementing the military rank system was also put on the agenda.
In September 1950, at a meeting of the General Cadre Department, Zhu De for the first time clearly raised the issue of establishing a military rank system in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and asked the General Cadre Department to seize the time to evaluate the ranks of officers and men in the PLA.
In 1952, the work of grading cadres in the whole army was basically completed, and the platoon of officers from the chairman, vice chairman, and deputy platoon level of the General Commission to the rank of deputy platoon was ranked at the level of 9 and 21, thus creating favorable conditions for the implementation of the military rank system.
On January 9, 1953, the Central Military Commission issued the "Instructions on Preparations for the Implementation of the Military Rank System", requiring the whole army to complete the preparatory work for the implementation of the military rank system in an organized and planned manner. Subsequently, the Central Military Commission set up a military rank implementation committee headed by Nie Rongzhen, acting chief of the general staff, Huang Kecheng, deputy chief of the general staff, and Xiao Hua, deputy director of the General Political Department, to begin preparations for the implementation of military ranks.
On January 23, the Central Military Commission issued the "Instructions on the Work of Assessing Military Ranks," pointing out that the assessment of military ranks should be based mainly on the rank of cadres, and at the same time, comprehensive evaluation should be carried out with reference to the regulations on the establishment of military ranks. For example, at the rank of regular corps, he can be rated as a general, at the level of deputy corps or quasi-corps, he can be rated as a lieutenant general, and at the rank of a full company, he can be rated as a captain, and so on.
After a great deal of meticulous preparations, the People's Liberation Army officially implemented the rank system in the autumn of 1955. From October 1, 1955, officers and men of the army, navy and air force of the People's Liberation Army began to wear rank epaulettes and collar badges, and wore "55-style" military rank clothing.
Two
In 1955, more than 644,000 cadres of the whole army were awarded the rank of warrant officer and above. Among the senior generals, ten people, including Zhu De and Peng Dehuai, were awarded the rank of marshal, and ten people, including Su Yu and Xu Haidong, were awarded the rank of general. By 1965, before the abolition of the military rank system, a total of 1,614 generals and commanders above the rank of major general were awarded.
At the time of this award, the marshals of our army were originally divided into two ranks, generalissimo and marshal, and even Article 9 of Chapter II of the "Regulations on the Service of Officers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army" stipulated: "The rank of generalissimo of the People's Republic of China shall be conferred on the supreme commander who has made outstanding meritorious contributions in the creation of the national people's armed forces and the revolutionary war of leading the national people's armed forces."
As can be seen from the above regulations, the rank of generalissimo can only be awarded to the supreme commander of the armed forces of the whole country, which also means that the military rank of "generalissimo" is intended for Comrade Mao Zedong, and even the generalissimo's epaulettes and collar badges have been prepared. But Chairman Mao himself resolutely refused to accept it.
In order to let Chairman Mao accept the rank of generalissimo, Peng Dehuai, Luo Ronghuan and others also borrowed Zhongnanhai to persuade Chairman Mao when they reported the military rank evaluation plan to Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and other leaders. But Chairman Mao said: "Your evaluation of titles is a very big job, and it is also a very difficult job. Based on international and domestic experience, I don't want to be a generalissimo, and let me wear the generalissimo's uniform, how uncomfortable it is! It is also inconvenient to go to the masses to speak and move. In my opinion, the comrades who are now working in the localities are not evaluated for their military ranks!"
After speaking, Mao Zedong turned around and asked Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai, who had been transferred to work in the local area: "Do you still want to evaluate your military rank?" The two of them waved their hands: "Don't evaluate." Li Xiannian, Tan Zhenlin, Deng Zihui, and Zhang Dingcheng, who were present, also said: "Don't comment, don't comment." ”
Due to Mao's clear attitude, the exquisite generalissimo's dress was eventually sent to the military museum. This set of generalissimo uniforms was carefully embroidered by hand by the female workers of the Tianjin Quartermaster Factory designated by the General Logistics Department, and has now become a precious revolutionary historical relic.
Under the example of Chairman Mao and other leading comrades, the work of conferring titles in 1955 went smoothly, and even though there were some phenomena of "high posts and low ranks", the vast majority of comrades were not in a mood.
It is worth pointing out that in 1955, a total of 4,665 female officers were awarded the rank of second lieutenant or above, accounting for 0.82 percent of the number of officers awarded. Among them, Comrade Li Zhen was awarded the rank of major general, becoming the only female general in this award.
The military rank system, which was introduced in 1955, gave a powerful impetus to the regularization and modernization of the armed forces. However, due to some historical reasons, there are also some people who believe that the military rank system is a dogmatic thing that does not conform to the reality of our army, and suggest abolishing the military rank system.
Three
In the summer of 1964, He Long, who presided over the daily work of the Central Military Commission, and Luo Ruiqing, chief of the General Staff, proposed to cancel military ranks in the People's Liberation Army when they reported to Chairman Mao that the Military Commission was considering reducing the salaries of military cadres, and Chairman Mao immediately agreed. Soon after, the General Office of the Central Military Commission issued a circular holding that there were many unfavorable factors in the implementation of the rank system in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and demanded that it be abolished.
Objectively speaking, the military rank system of our army at that time was not perfect, and the actual military rank of most officers was lower than the establishment rank, and there was even a strange incident that a small number of regiment commanders and deputy regiment commanders were only awarded captains. In addition, for various reasons, the rank promotion system is not perfect, and it is extremely difficult to promote the rank, plus the military rank and the position are two relatively independent and interrelated hierarchical systems in the officer system, and the military salary is still based on the job grade as the standard, and has little to do with the military rank, so the role of the military rank has also been weakened a lot.
Another important reason is that our army has always emphasized the equality of officers and soldiers, and many people believe that overemphasizing the hierarchical system is not conducive to the principle of equality between officers and soldiers. Therefore, on 1 May 1965, the Ninth Session of the Standing Committee of the Third National People's Congress adopted the "Decision on Abolishing the Military Rank System of the Chinese People's Liberation Army," deciding that from 1 June 1965, the PLA would completely abolish the military rank system.
Since then, our army has entered a "no-title period" for more than 20 years. After the abolition of the military rank system, because there was no obvious mark of rank distinction among military personnel, many problems gradually appeared in the growth of officers, the command of the army, and the interaction with foreign armies, which attracted the attention of the Central Military Commission. During the self-defense and counterattack against Vietnam, when all arms of the armed forces coordinated operations and the original establishment of the army was broken up, the drawbacks of not having a military rank were fully exposed. The lack of military ranks to indicate the relationship between superiors and subordinates has led to an extremely chaotic command system of our army, and the troops have suffered considerable losses.
In November 1979, the General Political Department officially submitted a report to the Central Military Commission on the "restoration of the military rank system", which was supported by Deng Xiaoping and other leaders. Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out that the military still has to practice a military rank system. Since then, the PLA has entered the countdown to the implementation of a new military rank system.
In May 1983, the Central Military Commission (CMC) set up the "Leading Group for the Restoration of the Military Rank System in the Whole Army" to be responsible for preparations for the implementation of the military rank system. In just one year, the preparatory work was preliminarily completed.
Unfortunately, in 1985, the Central Military Commission (CMC) made the PLA's decision to "disarm one million people," and the plan to restore the military rank system had to be postponed.
In the second half of 1986, the Central Military Commission unified its understanding on the restoration of the military rank system and renamed the work "Implementing a New Military Rank System." This is mainly because our army has embarked on the track of peacetime construction, and the ranks of officers under the new situation are very different from the military rank system implemented in 1955, and after the implementation of the new rank system, the army's salary system will also be reformed accordingly.
Four
On 1 July 1988, the Second Session of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress passed the Regulations on the Ranks of Officers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which was promulgated and implemented by decree of the President of the People's Republic of China. The promulgation of the regulations on military ranks is an important symbol of the formal legislation of the new military rank system of the People's Liberation Army.
On 2 July 1988, the Central Military Commission promulgated the "Instructions on the Work of Assessing and Conferring Ranks to Officers on Active Duty," which made specific provisions on the scope, basic principles, methods and steps, time arrangements and evaluation criteria for the conferral of military ranks on officers.
A major difference between the new military rank system and the first military rank system is the formation of a civilian cadre system, which separates a large number of cadres from the officer ranks.
At the time of the first conferral of titles, there was essentially no difference between civilian officers and command officers. However, when the title was conferred in 1988, a large number of technical cadres and logistics personnel were converted into civilian cadres, that is, servicemen on active duty who were not awarded military ranks for professional and technical posts at or above the junior level or clerk or above. They are also part of the contingent of military cadres, and are divided into professional and technical civilian cadres and non-professional and technical civilian cadres according to the nature of their work. This kind of setup not only saves a large number of officer staff, but also extends the service life of these cadres, and plays a role in stabilizing the technical backbone contingent.
In line with the military rank system, our army has also established a complete system of reserve officers. Reserve forces are divided into branches of the armed forces and reserve forces of the armed forces, which are composed of reservists and a small number of servicemen on active duty, equipped with a certain amount of weapons and equipment, and carry out military and political training in a planned manner in peacetime, and can be quickly converted into active-duty units in wartime and carry out combat missions. It not only saves money for the country, but also preserves considerable strength.
Historically, for the first time, our army implemented the rank system, which basically took the Soviet military rank as a model, and there were heavier traces of the Soviet Union, but the new military rank system in 1988 was different from the Soviet Union and the United States and Britain, but was a set of military rank system with distinctive characteristics of our army. It is simpler than the first military rank system, with a total of only three classes and eleven grades, and the three senior military ranks of generalissimo, marshal, and general have been abolished, and the two lieutenant ranks of captain and warrant officer have also been abolished.
The abolition of these ranks was a deliberate decision made by Deng Xiaoping. He had clearly instructed: "In peacetime, the rank of general is set up to the rank of general." ”
Deng Xiaoping thought it through. Because the vast majority of the active officers of our army at that time had grown up under peaceful conditions, even the high-ranking generals at that time did not contribute as much as those founding generals when they were awarded the title in 1955. It would be unacceptable to confer on these high-ranking officers who had grown up in peacetime a rank that surpassed that of the highly decorated founding fathers.
When the new military rank system was implemented, our army had abolished corps posts, deputy platoon posts, and "quasi-ranks" for corps, divisions, and regiments, and the rank of officers had been reduced from 21 in 1955 to 15 grades. Correspondingly, we should also streamline the setting of military ranks to meet the needs of the troops in the new era.
Five
Why did Deng Xiaoping emphasize that "in peacetime, military ranks are set up to general"? This sentence actually has a profound meaning. We can understand that once a war breaks out, it is possible for the PLA to have generals above the rank of general. This is the great wisdom of Deng Xiaoping, who used this instruction to give our military rank a certain degree of flexibility, and to retain the room for the promotion of the rank of the generals in wartime. That is to say, once a major war breaks out in the future, our army will not rule out the possibility of re-establishing the ranks of marshal and general, which will boost the fighting spirit and morale of the PLA generals and enhance the combat effectiveness of the troops.
In addition to the absence of marshals and generals, why should our army abolish the rank of "captain"? General Jia Ruoyu, former vice president of the Military Academy and "member of the leading group for the restoration of the military rank system and director of the office of the whole army," recalled in an interview that this was also a decision made by Deng Xiaoping in consideration of the law governing the growth of grassroots officers in peacetime.
According to the traditional practice of our army, the corresponding to the rank of lieutenant is a battalion officer. There is no rank of first lieutenant, and officers with the rank of principal battalion and some officers with the rank of deputy battalion can enter the ranks of school officers, which is conducive to stimulating the enterprising spirit of young officers.
Jia Ruoyu recalled that at that time, the leading group of military ranks agreed that the new military rank system should set a rank between major generals and colonels, but there were differences between brigadier general and colonel. At first, most people advocated the establishment of brigadier generals, but after a "trial suit" of the investigation units, it was found that there would be nine brigadier generals in one management office of a certain organ of the headquarters alone. According to the data of a number of "trial sets" of units, the whole army can produce about a few thousand brigadier generals, and such a large number of generals is too much for China, which emphasizes peace. Therefore, the "Leading Group for the Restoration of the Military Rank System in the Whole Army" decided to abandon the plan of appointing brigadier generals and to establish colonels instead, and most officers with division rank were awarded the rank of colonel.
At that time, the secretary of the provincial party committee concurrently served as the first political commissar of the provincial military district, the secretary of the prefectural party committee concurrently served as the political commissar of the military subdistrict, and the secretary of the county party committee concurrently served as the political commissar of the armed forces. If the title is to be conferred, the secretary of the provincial party committee should confer the title of major general and lieutenant general, the secretary of the prefectural party committee should confer the rank of colonel, and the secretary of the county party committee should confer the rank of colonel.
After the "All-Army Leading Group for the Restoration of the Military Rank System" reported this issue to Deng Xiaoping, Comrade Xiaoping made a decision and said: No local cadre will be awarded a title or wear a military uniform; he may not be a political commissar but only the first secretary of the army's party committee, and will be responsible for coordinating and resolving local party, government, and military work problems. In this way, this thorny problem is solved.
On September 14, 1988, the Central Military Commission held a grand ceremony in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, to confer the rank of general, Deng Xiaoping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the ceremony, and Yang Shangkun, president of the state and executive vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, issued military rank orders to 17 senior officers who were awarded the rank of general by Hong Xuezhi and others.
Among the 17 generals, Hong Xuezhi is the only general who has been awarded the title of general in 1955, so he is also called "six-star general" by the Chinese people. In addition, two generals, Zhang Zhen and Qin Jiwei, also received the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
Since then, all general departments, branches of the armed forces, military regions, and other major units of the armed forces have held ceremonies for conferring the ranks of lieutenant generals, major generals, and some colonels and lieutenants.
A total of 1,452 generals, 180,000 colonels, and 405,000 lieutenants were awarded the ranks. The re-implementation of the military rank system marks a new stage in the modernization and regularization of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Resources:
"Centennial Tide" Magazine: "The Development of the Military Rank System in New China"
Jia Ruoyu: "Behind the Scenes of the People's Liberation Army's Restoration of the Military Rank System"