Excerpt from "Picking up the Salary of the Founding Leader", by Zhen Jiang, originally published in National Humanities History, No. 3, 2014
Mao Zedong: "Money is a very nasty thing... Got it all in all."
In 1955, the state civil servants ended the two-track system of supply and wage system in the past and began to implement the hierarchical wage system. The leading group headed by Zhou Enlai began to draw up a salary plan and implemented the "four determinations," that is, "fixing posts, grading, titles, and salaries." According to the salary plan drawn up by the State Council for the first time, the administrative level ranges from level 1 to 24, with Mao Zedong (Grand Marshal), chairman of the Central Military Commission, paying 600 yuan; the second level being vice chairman and premier, 550 yuan, including Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhou Enlai; the third level being marshal, including Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping, and all the marshals; the fourth level being a general, 450 yuan; and the fifth level being a general and a full-time official post at the level of the grand military region, province, and ministerial level, 400 yuan. The plan was submitted to Mao Zedong, who said after reading it: "I don't think it is appropriate, this is not conducive to unity, and the gap between the rich and the poor should be narrowed!" Later, at a meeting, Mao Zedong said, "You made me a grand marshal by putting me on the stove and roasting me!" The first-level cadres are mao zedong alone, you are all second-level and third-level, I Mao Zedong is too uninteresting, too not enough friends! We ceded the first level to Marx and Engels, and the second to Lenin and Stalin, and I, like you, are cadres of the third level. ”
Therefore, Zhou Enlai and others came up with a compromise plan, the original division of 24 administrative levels has not changed, and the salary has been slightly changed. The final plan is: 594 yuan for the first level, 536, 478, 425 and 387 yuan for the second, third, fourth and fifth levels. The difference between the level and the level is at most more than 50 yuan, and the difference is at least 5 yuan. Due to the different regional categories (the whole country is divided into 4-11 categories), the difference between local cadres at the same level is 10-40 yuan. According to the principle of "blood is worth more than sweat", military cadres are on average about 30 yuan higher than local cadres.
This hierarchical wage system was learned from the big brother soviet union, and Mao Zedong was not satisfied, but he was also helpless. After the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, the shortcomings of the Soviet model were increasingly exposed, and Mao Zedong criticized the hierarchical wage system at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee: "The salary of senior cadres is now too big compared with the people's living standards, and in the future we can consider reducing some salaries." According to this, the State Council quickly formulated a salary reduction plan: a comprehensive salary reduction for senior party and government cadres, that is, cadres at or above the administrative level of the tenth level. After the salary cut, the administrative level was reduced to 504 yuan; the second level was reduced to 454 yuan; and the third level was reduced to 405 yuan.
Ratings and titles involve personal interests and often require balance adjustments. In order to take care of those who are senior and have great military achievements, but have lower positions and ranks, specific people are also given "low rank, low rank, and high administrative level" treatment. For example, Cheng Fangwu, the former president of Shandong University, was rated as five levels in the administrative level, which is equivalent to the general and the provincial level. For the targets of the united front, non-party personages holding important positions, some care is given, and the treatment is even slightly higher. The most prominent example is Song Qingling, who was rated first-class in the administration, and at that time, only she and Mao Zedong were rated as first-class in the country. Others, such as the famous overseas Chinese leader Chen Jiageng, was rated as the third grade; Zhang Bojun was appointed as the minister of transportation, and the salary was the third grade of administration.
However, in this title rating, there are also active requests for downgrade. The general Xu Guangda twice wrote letters and telephones to Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai of the Central Military Commission, applying for demotion and demotion, although it was not approved, but it became a good story in the whole army.
During the three years of economic hardship, the domestic economy was depressed and there was famine. As vice chairman of the CPC Central Committee, Chen Yun took the lead in proposing to demote himself and reduce his salary, and Chairman Mao clapped his hands and said, "If we want to demote, let's demote together!" Ride out the difficulties with the people of the whole country! "On September 26, 1960, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a notice: 12% of the third level, 10% of the fourth level, 8% of the fifth level, 6% of the sixth level, 4% of the seventh level, 2% of the eighth level, and 1% of the ninth to seventeenth levels. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others took the initiative to reduce their wages to three levels and uniformly adjusted them to 404.8 yuan, and from then on until the death of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and others, this standard has not been moved.
Mao Zedong's family is a "moonlight family"
At that time, the average monthly living expenses of urban residents were only eight or nine yuan, and the monthly salary of thirty or forty yuan could support a family of five. According to this standard, the salaries of leaders are not low, but for various reasons, their lives are not rich.
Wu Liandeng was an administrator at Mao Zedong's house from 1964 to 1976. According to his recollection, Mao Zedong's monthly fixed expenses included 10 yuan in party fees; his house, including furniture, was all rented, costing 84 yuan in January; the tuition fees for two children, which were originally 15 yuan per person, were raised to 30 yuan per person as prices rose; Jiang Qing also had a sister who lived here, and the monthly living expenses of 30 yuan were also paid by the chairman; and the heating fee in winter was also more than 30 yuan. The fixed cost is about 200 yuan.
Mao Zedong's family's expenses, about 100 yuan a month for meals, Wu Liandeng said: "Even if you get back a vegetable from the Zhongnanhai Supply Department, you have to pay." The chairman also has many friends of the democratic parties, and asked Huang Yanpei and Zhang Shizhao to pay for them, and the chairman also paid for it himself. ”
The only things Mao Zedong demanded in his life were cigarettes and tea. Smoking costs 100 yuan, and dozens of yuan of tea. Wu Liandeng said: "Tea, the chairman has been drinking Longjing. But smoking makes us think hard. "The chairman smoked dry tobacco during the war years, smoked paper cigarettes and other miscellaneous brands of cigarettes captured from the Kuomintang. After liberation, he also smoked three or five brands of cigarettes for several years. I have also smoked Chinese and pandas. In 1969, the Chairman became interested in cigars. Once, the chairman called a meeting of the leaders in the swimming pool, and Li Xiannian, who was sitting next to him, smoked a cigar. The Chairman always looked at him and watched with his eyes glazed over. Usually, no one handed the chairman a cigarette at the meeting, and Li Xiannian gave the chairman one that day. The Chairman then said, 'Read on, you smoke such a good cigarette, and you don't tell me.' ’”
According to Wu Liandeng's recollection, Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing practiced the AA system in spending money, each spending their own money and recording their own accounts, and Wu Liandeng said that Jiang Qing's biggest expenditure was to buy photographic equipment and rinse film. "Jiang Qing often asked me to change some clothes for her. When she didn't have money, she would dye her white clothes gray and then black later. Some people say that Jiang Qing took the milk to bathe, I was responsible for purchasing, and I did not buy so much milk. The more luxurious thing that Jiang Qing used in those years was hairspray, which only the Friendship Store could buy. ”
According to a January 1968 account of Mao Zedong's family income and expenditure, his daily expenses were listed in a column: "Monthly rent 125. 02 yuan; party fee of 40 yuan in December and January; daily consumer goods 92. 96 yuan; liquefied gas 9. 6 yuan; food 659. $13". It can be seen from this that from the perspective of income and expenditure, Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing's salary, the "first family" can be regarded as the "moonlight family". Of course, in addition to salary, Mao Zedong also had a large income, that is, the fee, which he had the right to dispose of, but this fee was stored in the name of the special meeting room of the Central Office, mostly used for public affairs, Mao's daily expenses, or his own salary.