Party Emblem Seal: Loyalty Hidden in "Pocket Watch"

"The army is called the worker-peasant revolution, the flag is sickle and axe. Kuanglu area does not stop, to go straight to Xiaoxiang." In 1927, a few days after Mao Zedong led the Autumn Harvest Uprising, he created the term "Xijiang Moon Autumn Harvest Uprising", which described in detail the name and banner of the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops: the troops were called "Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army" and the military flag was "Sickle and Axe Flag".

Three years later, on August 23, 1930, the Red First Front Army was established in Lijiadaiwu, Yonghe Town, Liuyang, with Zhu De as the commander-in-chief and Mao Zedong as the chief political commissar. Many years later, people found a party emblem seal in the big house of the Li family. The pattern of the seal was "sickle and hammer head". This seal is hidden in a gold pocket watch-shaped metal box. The seal is now incomplete in one corner, but the party emblem pattern is complete. According to the residents of the Li family, this was used by Chairman Mao himself. After textual research, many experts believe that this is the first party emblem seal used within the party.

When one sees this seal, one cannot help but wonder why the military flag (party emblem) described by Mao Zedong in his words is different from the seal of the party emblem. Did Mao Zedong miswrite it when he created the "West River Moon-Autumn Harvest Uprising" or was it for another reason?

According to textual research, after the failure of the first Great Revolution, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China broke down, and the Communist Party of China erected its own banner-the sickle and axe flag. From 1927 to a long time later, most of the flags used by the Communist Party of China and its army were sickles and axes. In April 1930, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China issued a notice stating: "All military flags at all levels use five-pointed red flags, and the international emblem of sickle and axe is arranged in the star, and the flag uses a big red flag." The so-called "international emblem" refers to the emblem of the Communist International and the party emblem of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, that is, the sickle and hammer, but the notice changed the "sickle and hammer" to "sickle and axe", indicating that the Red Army flag was stipulated as the sickle and axe flag at that time. From this, it can be inferred that the military flag described in Mao Zedong's words conforms to the actual situation at that time.

At the beginning of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the design on the party flag and emblem has been in a state of change and non-standard. Most of the party meetings are mixed with the party flag and the military flag, and the flag has different standards and forms. The central revolutionary base in some important meetings and formal occasions, the use of "sickle hammer head" pattern. According to Luo Yeyong, deputy curator of the Changsha History Museum of the Communist Party of China, "Relevant information shows that the seal symbols used by the Chinese Soviet Republic, which was established in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province in 1931, are mostly 'sickle and hammer' patterns. The 'sickle and hammer' pattern also appeared on the banknotes issued by the Chinese Soviet government." Most of the revolutionary base areas such as western Fujian, western Hunan and Hubei, Hubei, Hunan and Anhui, and Sichuan and Shaanxi use the "sickle and axe" pattern.

On April 28, 1943, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee made a decision on the style of the flag of the Communist Party of China: "the length and width of the flag of the Communist Party of China is the ratio of three to two, with an axe sickle on the left corner and no five-pointed star." The first batch of standard party flags of the Communist Party of China was born in Yan'an. However, at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the main part of the party flag hung in the middle of the rostrum for the first time was composed of the "sickle hammer head" pattern. The party emblem and flag designs that appeared in the seven party congress venues and the anti-Japanese base areas before and after this are basically unified as "sickle hammer heads".

In 1950, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee drew up a plan for the production of the party flag, which made it clear that "the flag surface is red and rectangular, its length and height are the ratio of three to two, the upper left of the flag surface is decorated with a yellow sickle and axe, and the flagpole is covered with white". In September 1952, the "Reply of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Issue of the Party Flag" pointed out: "There is only a hammer and sickle on the party flag, and there are no five stars (there are five stars on the Soviet flag). Please pay attention to this point." The introduction and implementation of these two documents, a clear emblem using the "sickle hammer head" pattern. This pocket-shaped party emblem and seal has experienced the test of life and death, blood and fire, witnessed the glorious course of the Chinese revolution, and witnessed the loyalty and love of the older generation of revolutionaries such as Mao Zedong to the party.

Source: Xiang Chao, Issue 2, 2020