In the past, I often heard my parents say: Our era was an era of eating from a big pot. Do you think today's children are really picky eaters? I'm also curious about what kind of food is this big pot rice? Is it delicious? Now let’s learn about the era of big pot rice.
The era of eating from one big pot in 1958
Due to the relationship between the Great Leap Forward and the People’s Commune Movement, starting from the second half of 1958, each household has been cooking separately since ancient times. Chinese farmers suddenly moved into the public canteen. Every family happily smashed the small pot and handed it to the brigade. The brigade built a big pot for the whole team, men, women, old and young, to eat and drink. Everyone was full but not allowed to take away. It was like the current buffet. The men, women, old and young were very happy to eat. , and I go home with a bulging stomach every time.
According to incomplete statistics, there were 3.45 million public canteens across the country at that time, and the people eating here accounted for more than 90% of the country’s total rural population, which means that there were 500 million Chinese people at that time. Farmers all eat in the public canteen.
The origin and thought of Big Pot Rice.
The concept of big pot rice can be traced back to the emergence of the "People's Commune" in 1958, which is also closely related to the "Great Leap Forward"
People's Commune accelerated industrial accumulation. During the cooperative period, farmers' rations were distributed to each household. After entering the Great Leap Forward and the People's Communes, rations were controlled by the communes and production teams. This is the most criticized establishment today: "canteen" and "big pot rice". At that time, "big pot rice" was a metaphor for the egalitarian phenomenon that existed in distribution. In the 1960s and 1970s, the phenomenon of "big pot rice" (egalitarianism) still existed, which led to the emergence of negative thoughts, "doing good and bad things in the same way" led to serious internal friction. Later it was abandoned.
Origin of the name
In China after the 1950s, the term "big pot rice" was a household name, known to all women and children. Therefore, many people believe that "big pot rice" is a product of the socialist planned economy. In fact, its origin is much older. People often use "big pot rice" to describe the phenomenon that "good or bad work is the same at work, and everyone has a share in whether they do it or not". ?Big pot rice? originated from Qingyun Temple in Guangdong. There is an extra large iron pot in Qingyun Temple built in the Ming Dynasty on Qixingyan. If you use this iron pot to cook a pot of rice, it can feed hundreds of monks. However, this big iron pot is not really used for cooking, but for alms from donors who worship gods and Buddhas. It is placed in a corner of the Buddhist temple and is surrounded by iron railings. All faithful men and women who enter the temple to burn incense and worship Buddha must throw in a few copper coins when passing by the big iron pot. One is to honor the Bodhisattva and seek blessings and eliminate disasters; the other is to maintain the livelihood of the monks in the temple. Therefore, this big pot that has never been cooked is the monk's livelihood, and it is filled with authentic "big pot rice". This is the origin of the term "big pot rice".
Current situation
However, under the highly centralized planned economic system, the problem of extreme egalitarianism has not been fundamentally solved. Extended to state-owned enterprises, one is that the enterprise eats from the country's "big pot", that is, regardless of whether the enterprise is operating well or not, wages are paid, and the total salary of the enterprise is out of touch with the operating results; second, the employees eat from the enterprise's "big pot", that is, within the enterprise, the employees' There is serious egalitarianism in wage distribution.
In order to completely eradicate this shortcoming and stimulate the vitality and efficiency of individuals, enterprises, and the country, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Party Central Committee reviewed the various forms of joint production contract responsibility systems that emerged in rural areas. On the basis of this, the agricultural production responsibility system was implemented nationwide; subsequently, a pilot project for enterprise power expansion was launched. By 1987, 80% of state-owned enterprises across the country had implemented various forms of contract management responsibility systems, and reforms with the factory director (manager) responsibility system as the main content were also widely carried out within the enterprises.
Breaking the "big pot rice", promoting the economic production responsibility system, and implementing payment according to work are the starting point for the reform of my country's urban and rural economic systems and the precursor to establishing and improving the socialist market economic system.