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"the rmb belongs to the country and is issued by the government. how can my portrait be printed on it?"

on december 1, 1948, the people's bank of china was established in shijiazhuang, hebei, and officially issued rmb. since then, rmb has been issued five times. but did you know? faced with the practice of printing the names of national leaders on rmb, and facing the strong appeals of cadres and the masses across the country, chairman mao refused to have his portrait printed on rmb four times in his life.

the first set of rmb

in april 1947, under the instruction of chairman mao, dong biwu began to prepare for the establishment of the people's bank of china and the issuance of currency. according to convention, the portraits of national leaders, especially the founding leaders, are often included in the national legal currency.

the design of the new currency was assigned to wang yijiu and shen naiyong from the printing bureau of the jin-cha-ji border region. they designed a total of seven versions of the bills, with the main pattern being chairman mao's head, drawn in the form of hand-drawn drafts. after being reviewed by nan hanchen, director of the preparatory office of the people's bank of china, they were submitted to the central government for approval.

however, after seeing the draft for examination, chairman mao expressed his firm opposition: "the renminbi belongs to the country and is issued by the government, not the party. i am now the chairman of the party, not the chairman of the government. how can my portrait be printed on it?"

in chairman mao's view, he is the servant of the people. since the renminbi is called renminbi, it must reflect the people's color. therefore, he specifically instructed that it must reflect the people's color and reflect the image of the masses.

the first set of rmb revision

on october 1, 1949, the people's republic of china was officially founded and mao zedong was elected chairman of the central people's government of the people's republic of china. shi lei, then the head of the issuance department of the people's bank of china, asked nan hanchen, the governor of the people's bank of china, "now that mao zedong has become the chairman of the central government, can the rmb be printed with chairman mao's image?"

nan hanchen nodded and said, "well, i have never forgotten this. but this requires chairman mao's approval." a few days later, nan hanchen went to zhongnanhai for a meeting. during the break in the meeting, he found chairman mao to report on his work and made this suggestion.

chairman mao shook his head and said, "not right, not right. i have become the chairman of the central people's government, but i cannot forget my position as chairman of the government, because we have made a decision at the meeting before entering the city, and i cannot violate it."

because the second plenary session of the seventh central committee held in march 1948 made regulations: it is forbidden to celebrate the birthdays of party leaders, and it is forbidden to use the names of leaders as place names... and factory names... "

the second set of rmb

in april 1950, famous art professors luo gongliu and zhou lingzhao began to design the second set of rmb in accordance with the decision of the central government.

after investigation and research, the designers initially designed a set of ticket templates that reflected the course of the chinese revolution and submitted them to the central finance committee for approval. after review by leaders including chen yun, bo yibo, and li fuchun, the following decision was made:

eleven new banknotes were approved for printing, with the following front images: one cent note: a civilian car; two cents note: a civilian aircraft; five cents note: a civilian ship; ten cents note: a tractor plowing land; two cents note: mao zedong's locomotive... one hundred yuan note: a steel worker.

because chairman mao has reiterated that his portrait cannot be used, this design does not use chairman mao's portrait as the main pattern. however, if you look closely, you can still find that there are two places with chairman mao's portrait.

the first one: the 2-cent note, on which the locomotive also has a striking image of mao zedong.

the second place: the 1 yuan note, which has a portrait of mao zedong hanging on the front of the tiananmen gate tower.

unexpectedly, after the plan was submitted, chairman mao still firmly opposed it and reiterated that "my portrait should not be put on the banknotes."

the third set of rmb

after the lessons learned from the previous two times, when the third set of rmb was redesigned, the people's bank of china and the designers did not mention printing chairman mao's portrait again, but the people still had a strong desire to have chairman mao on the rmb.

in january 1967, some employees of the printing factory directly under the people's bank of china collectively reported to the people's bank of china, claiming that they would stop printing the one-yuan notes, demanding the printing of banknotes with chairman mao's portrait, and requiring the leaders of the people's bank of china to "make a clear statement within a time limit", otherwise they would go on strike.

the people's bank of china quickly reported the matter to the state council, and soon the people's bank of china received the state council's opinion that "chairman mao did not agree to have his image printed on the rmb." the matter was finally resolved.

the fourth set of rmb

on september 9, 1976, our great leader chairman mao left us forever.

with the rapid development of my country's economy, small-denomination rmb is far from meeting the needs. after careful study, the central government decided to increase the number of 50-yuan and 100-yuan notes.

after receiving the task, china banknote printing and minting corporation quickly set up a design team. the team leader was the famous designer luo gongliu, but they soon encountered difficulties.

the pattern on the 10-yuan note of the fourth set of rmb is a human portrait, and the two most populous ethnic groups in my country, the han and the mongolian, are used. so which ethnic group should be used when issuing the new 50 and 100-yuan notes with larger denominations?

on national day in 1984, several designers took a break from their busy schedule to watch the national day tv broadcast in the design studio. on tv, a parade carrying large portraits of four great men, mao zedong, zhou enlai, liu shaoqi and zhu de, passed through tiananmen square.

this scene made luo gongliu's eyes light up, and he proposed to reflect the glorious image of the first generation of major leaders of new china.

after thorough research, the designers unanimously agreed that the side relief portraits of the four leaders mao zedong, zhou enlai, liu shaoqi and zhu de should be placed on the 100-yuan note.

on may 10, 1988, the 100-yuan note of the fourth set of rmb was issued publicly for the first time. the chinese people finally realized their dream. they finally saw the portrait of the great leader chairman mao on the rmb. at that time, chairman mao had been away from the people for 12 years.

the fifth set of rmb

october 1, 1999, today is the 50th anniversary of the founding of new china, and the fifth set of rmb is officially issued.

this is the first time in china's history that chairman mao's portrait has been used alone as the main scene on the rmb, and the same portrait has been used on all denominations of banknotes.

this decision fully demonstrated the chinese people's heartfelt respect for the great leader chairman mao, and also completely fulfilled the long-cherished wish of hundreds of millions of chinese people. it has a far-reaching impact on the history of the rmb.