The general line of three red flags

The formation of the general line began with criticism and opposition to rash advancement.

In the summer of 1955, senior central leaders had disagreements over the speed of agricultural cooperative development. At the Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in October of this year, Mao Zedong emphasized: "We must find a good way to enable cooperatives to be established more quickly and well." Subsequently, at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Mao Zedong proposed: Socialist economic construction must also be “more, faster and better”. Later, Mao Zedong adopted Li Fuchun's suggestion and added the word "province" after "many", "fast" and "good". With the proposal of "more speed, better economy", the party launched a struggle to criticize right-leaning ideas at the end of 1955. As a result, unrealistic and aggressive tendencies appeared in various tasks in 1956. The impatience within the party immediately aroused the alarm of Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and other central leaders, and they tried to correct it. This was the counter-advocacy that began in 1956. Although Mao Zedong did not expressly object to the anti-rash advance opinion at the time, he did not agree with it in his heart. Through several meetings to unify thoughts, Mao Zedong’s general line of “more speed, better economy” was ready to emerge.

In 1958, "People's Daily" published a New Year's Day editorial stating: "Not only must we carry out various construction work in a large, fast, good and economical manner, but we must also work hard to strive for the upper reaches and give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of the revolution. ". The editorial attracted a lot of attention. In early January, when Mao Zedong discussed this editorial with historian Zhou Gucheng, Zhou Gucheng said that the core of the editorial was eight words - "Gather all your energy and strive for the top." Mao Zedong was very happy to hear this and praised Zhou Gucheng for his good summary. In March 1958, the Central Committee held a conference in Chengdu. Mao Zedong expressed a lot of emotion when he once again mentioned "must go all out and strive for the top" and connected "more speed, better economy" together, which he called the "general line". From May 5 to 23, 1958, the Second Session of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held. At the meeting, Liu Shaoqi officially announced the general line of "must go all out, strive for the upper reaches, and build socialism with greater speed, better quality and more cost-effectively".

On December 6, Mao Zedong said in his speech on anti-rightism and anti-conservatism that Chinese farmers are better than British and American workers, so they can carry out socialist construction more, faster, and better. Later, Mao Zedong adopted Li Fuchun's suggestion and added the word "province" after the three words "many", "fast" and "good". On December 14, the National Agricultural Tools Work Conference conveyed for the first time the central government’s construction policy of “more, faster, better and more economically”. On January 1, 1956, the People's Daily put forward in its New Year's Day editorial "Strive to Comprehensively Complete the Five-Year Plan Early and Overfulfill It" that "we must develop our own industries more, faster, better, and more economically." Career", thus publicizing the slogan "More, faster, more economical" to the whole country. In 1958, People's Daily supported the slogan "Three Red Flags" in the Tiananmen Square parade on the 10th anniversary of the new National Day in "Riding the Wind and Waves". The editorial said that not only must "carry out various construction work in greater quantity, speed, quality and economy", but also "must work hard, strive to reach the top, and give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of the revolution." After the editorial was published, it attracted great attention. In early January, when Mao Zedong discussed the New Year's message of the People's Daily with historian Zhou Gucheng, Zhou Gucheng told Mao Zedong that the core of this editorial was eight words, "Give up all your energy and strive to reach the top." Mao Zedong was very happy after hearing this and agreed with Zhou Gucheng's good summary. Later, at the Nanning Conference and the Supreme State Council, Mao Zedong mentioned these eight words many times. In March 1958, the central government held the Chengdu Conference. At the meeting, Mao Zedong once again expressed a lot of emotion when he mentioned "go all out and strive for the top", and connected it with "more speed, better economy" and called it the "general line". At this point, a complete concept of the "general line" has been formed. In Mao Zedong's view, through practice seven or eight years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he finally found a way to speed up China's socialist construction. Later, at the second session of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in May 1958, the Central Committee submitted the general line to the conference for discussion. It received unanimous support from the participants and was officially adopted by the conference, and was written into the resolution formed by the conference. At this meeting, Mao Zedong was in high spirits and talked eloquently about the general line.

Why do we need to "must all the energy"? Mao Zedong said, whether it is one person, a group of people, our party, or the people of the whole country, if there is no energy or insufficient energy, it will be difficult to get things done. So work hard. He also said, what does "strive for the top" mean? For example, the tasks proposed in the "Agricultural Development Outline" were originally scheduled to be completed in 12 years, but now they do not need to be completed in 12 years. For some basic projects, some provinces say that they can be completed in three years, and some projects can be completed this year. Finish. He also said that the two sentences "work hard and strive for the top" are absolutely necessary. There is an issue with the amount of this energy. Now the word "gather up" is probably better than "gather up". It has already been raised, but you still want to raise it? The problem is whether there is enough or not? Mao Zedong continued, where did "more speed, better economy" come from? It is because of the emergence of "more speed, better economy" among the masses, in factories, rural areas, and shops. How fast, easy and economical have appeared in government agencies, schools, and the military. The people demand that they work hard to reach the top and build socialism more quickly, better and more cost-effectively. What needs to be mentioned is that although the general line for socialist construction was proposed, Mao Zedong was still doubtful about whether it was correct or not. He also said that major lines and principles need to be gradually formed and gradually improved in practice and carried out with practice. test. It is a pity that Mao Zedong failed to implement this correct thought well in the practice of leading our country's socialist construction. Shortly thereafter, the "Great Leap Forward" and "people's commune" movements were launched that were divorced from reality and violated objective laws.