Chapter 50 49 Concerned about the cause of literature and art, correcting the mistakes of the "Left"

Comrade Zhou Enlai was very concerned about and attached great importance to literary and artistic work during his lifetime. Friends in the literary and artistic circles have a special feeling for him and regard him as a good teacher and helpful friend. Me, too. Due to my work relationship, I have more opportunities to get in touch with him, and I often listen to his teachings personally, and the actual experience is deeper. Comrade Zhou Enlai is approachable and has many contacts with literary and art workers. He can look at their strengths and weaknesses realistically, and has always disapproved of using simplistic "Left" perspectives and methods to deal with problems in the literary and art circles.

In order to eliminate the interference of "Left" thoughts on the literary and artistic circles, and to minimize the damage caused by "Left" errors to the literary and artistic circles, he made unremitting efforts and devoted himself to the development of literary and artistic undertakings. Let me talk about a few things from my own experience to illustrate this point. Comrade Zhou Enlai and I met at the end of the Anti-Japanese War. In the winter of 1944, Comrade Zhou Enlai returned to Yan'an from Chongqing.At that time, the "rescue" campaign in Yan'an had not yet ended, and I was working in the "Liberation Daily", and together with Comrade Wen Jize, I was the assistant to Comrade Ai Siqi, the editor-in-chief of the "Liberation Daily" supplement.During the "rescue" campaign, some comrades in various departments of the newspaper were labeled as "secret agents" by means of "extorted confessions", but the Supplement Department did not do so.Therefore, Ai Siqi, Wen Jize and I were considered to be a "secret that shelters spies" and became the targets of struggle.Comrade Ai Siqi was the first to be criticized, and then it was my turn.At this moment, I was suddenly notified that Comrade Zhou Enlai wanted me to talk.In the past, I have listened to the reports of Comrade Zhou Enlai many times, and I really like to listen to his profound and vivid analysis of the political and war situation, but I have never had direct contact with them.That day, I came to the cave where Comrade Zhou Enlai lived with excitement, and met him and Sister Deng there.Comrade Enlai warmly greeted me to sit down and told me that because of work needs, the organization planned to transfer me to work in Chongqing.Of course I obey the organization's decision, but considering that the newspaper office is preparing to hold my criticism meeting, how can I leave?I told Comrade Enlai about these concerns, and he said he was aware of the situation, and he would try to resolve it, so I could rest assured.In this way, I was liberated from the "rescue" movement, avoided the fight, and went to Chongqing.This shows that Comrade Zhou Enlai does not approve of the practice of the "rescue" movement.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1952, I was transferred to work in the Literature and Art Department of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.Due to work, my contacts with Comrade Zhou Enlai gradually increased.He has a better and deeper understanding of his struggle against "Left" errors. The "Great Leap Forward" movement in 1958 violated the law of economic development and caused heavy losses to our national economy."Left" errors in the economic field have also affected literary and artistic work.Under the atmosphere of "high speed, high targets" and "quick transition", some leading comrades in the cultural department became enthusiastic, transferred a set of "Left" practices in industrial and agricultural production to cultural work, and proposed that "everyone should make poetry." , everyone draws, everyone sings, everyone dances" slogan, and requires literary and artistic creation to "spread satellites", "every county produces a Mei Lanfang, and every county produces a Guo Moruo".Some even announced specific dates for entering communism.This is obviously impractical and violates the objective laws of literary and artistic work.A similar phenomenon occurs in education, sports, health and other sectors.These circumstances attracted the attention of Comrade Zhou Enlai.In order to fully understand the situation, clarify the problems, and unify the understanding, on the evening of December 28 this year, Comrade Zhou Enlai convened Lu Dingyi, Zhang Jichun, Yang Xiufeng, Zhou Yang, Qian Junrui, Zhang Ziyi, Hu Qiaomu, Liu Zhiming, Xia Yan, Chen Kehan, Lin Mohan Comrades in charge of departments of culture, education, sports, health and other departments went to the Xihua Hall for a meeting to jointly analyze and study various problems in these departments in the "Great Leap Forward" situation.At the beginning of the meeting, Comrade Zhou Enlai encouraged everyone to eliminate their worries and dare to tell the truth.He asked me to report first what I had learned from the Department of Literature and Art of the Central Propaganda Department, and other comrades also reported the situation of various departments.Then, he asked everyone to discuss how to correct these inappropriate practices.Comrade Zhou Enlai pointed out that it was wrong to "raise the white flag" among university professors in education, and demanded that it be stopped immediately.In terms of literature and art, he disapproved of requiring literature and art to simply cooperate with policies, and opposed slogans such as "literary art releases satellites."He also specially reminded everyone to pay attention to research and correctly deal with the problems of intellectuals.Some comrades were confused at first, but later they happily accepted his opinions.This meeting, especially Comrade Zhou Enlai's remarks, had the effect of "cooling down" everyone's minds and correcting the "Left" deviation in time.At the end of the meeting, when everyone walked out of the Xihua Hall, the sky was already pale.

After this meeting, the Central Propaganda Department originally planned to hold a cultural work conference in 1959 to further correct thinking and correct the "Left" tendency in cultural work in accordance with the spirit of Comrade Zhou Enlai's instructions.However, due to the convening of the "Lushan Conference", things changed. In the summer of 1959, some responsible comrades from the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Culture gathered in Beidaihe to discuss how to hold this cultural work conference.While actively preparing for this meeting, the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held in Lushan confirmed that the current main tendency is right, and we must continue to fight against the right.When the news came, I couldn't turn my mind for a while.I thought to myself at the time that we should analyze the specific situation in detail. Maybe some aspects are right, but there are indeed "left" tendencies in some aspects, so we can't generalize them.

After the Lushan meeting, the party launched an anti-rightist movement, and the Central Propaganda Department carried out a vigorous campaign, posting many big-character posters and uncovering the so-called "nine big sharks".Under such circumstances, the originally scheduled cultural work conference was postponed until the end of the year. The meeting changed its topic and proposed to oppose right opportunism and revisionist literary thought.Some comrades checked, and some comrades were wrongly criticized.In this way, Comrade Zhou Enlai's original idea of ​​correcting "Left" errors in literary and artistic work was disturbed, and the "Left" errors were further developed.

In the early 1960s, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began to correct the "Left" errors that had occurred on the economic front since the "Great Leap Forward", and implemented the policy of "adjustment, consolidation, enrichment, and improvement". In the first half of 1961, under the guidance of the central government's comprehensive adjustment policy, the fronts of culture, education, and science and technology also began to formulate specific policies and form regulations to correct problems in actual work.This was the beginning of the re-correction of "Left" after the Anti-Right Movement in 1959.

In June 1961, the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Culture held a symposium on literary and artistic work and a feature film creation meeting to review and summarize the literary and artistic work in the past few years, and to study and adjust the principles and policies of literature and art.Comrade Zhou Enlai went deep into the representatives of the conference and made a lot of investigations. Based on the situation reported by everyone, he made important speeches for the representatives of the two conferences.At the beginning, he clearly stated that the theme of the meeting was to solve the problem of art democracy.He pointed out that "there is a bad atmosphere now, that is, the democratic style is not enough."Grabbing pigtails, wearing hats, and beating sticks at other people's words at every turn. This is a very bad atmosphere and must be changed.He emphasized that to establish a democratic style of work in the literary and art circles, we must first start with leading cadres.He said, "We often contact friends in the literary and art circles. If our opinions are not allowed to be doubted or discussed, then what research and discussion is there? Our speech is not officially approved by the party. Even if it is something that the party has already studied and approved. , comments are also allowed". "We want to create an atmosphere. Everyone discusses issues from the standpoint of socialism. In order to do a good job in literature and art work and implement literature and art policies well. Everyone has their own opinions on these aspects, why can't they discuss them?" Comrade Zhou Enlai's speech Summarizing the experience and lessons of both positive and negative aspects of the literary and art front since liberation, it has an important guiding role in eliminating the interference of "left", implementing the double hundred policy, and encouraging people to emancipate their minds and break through forbidden areas.

On July 19 of this year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved and forwarded the "Fourteen Opinions on the Current Work of Natural Science Research Institutions (Draft)" by the Party Group of the State Science and Technology Commission and the Party Group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The draft summarizes some successful experiences in the field of scientific research, and is determined to correct some "left" mistakes in practical work since the "Great Leap Forward".The Central Committee’s comments on the approval of this draft pointed out: “It is very important to do a good job in the work of intellectuals” and “In recent years, many comrades have had some one-sided understandings when it comes to dealing with knowledge and intellectuals. Violent phenomena have also grown, and serious attention must be drawn to correct the direction and correctly implement the policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend and the principle of linking theory with practice.”The central government believes that this document is applicable to all departments and units where intellectuals work.

Comrade Zhou Enlai's speech and the issuance of this document aroused great repercussions among intellectuals and were very inspiring to our comrades who lead literary and artistic work.The Propaganda Department of the Central Committee once held a meeting, and the comrades present at the meeting agreed that a regulation should also be formulated for literary and artistic work as a basis for improving literary and artistic work, mainly to correct the "Left" problems in the leadership of literature and art.Under the leadership of Comrade Zhou Yang, the Central Propaganda Department cooperated with the Ministry of Culture and the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles to conduct a large number of investigations and studies, and the Literary and Art Department of the Central Propaganda Department drafted the "Opinions on Current Literary and Art Work (Draft)" (referred to as "Ten Articles on Literature and Art").This regulation received the attention of Comrade Zhou Enlai and the support of comrades in the literary and art circles.Some comrades even excitedly proposed that this regulation should be engraved on a monument.However, because some comrades have different views and are worried about another extreme, the regulations have not been submitted to the central government for a long time.By 1962, the central government held a meeting of 7,000 people, and then held a conference on scientific and technological work and drama creation in Guangzhou. Comrades Zhou Silai and Comrade Chen Yi gave important speeches on overcoming "Left" tendencies, and then reintroduced this The regulations were proposed and sent to Comrade Chen Yi and others for review. They thought the regulations were good and could submit them to the Central Committee.Comrade Zhou Yang asked me to revise it again. I only made a little textual change and submitted it to the Secretariat of the Central Committee.A few days later, I went to Xihua Hall to attend a meeting called by Premier Zhou.When Premier Zhou came out of the backyard and saw me, he asked with concern whether the regulations on literature and art had been sent to the central government, and I replied that they had.Premier Zhou nodded and said: Just give it away.This regulation is called "Opinions on Current Literary and Artistic Work (Draft)". There were originally ten articles, which were later revised to eight articles.Its main content is: to further implement the policy of "letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend", strive to improve the quality of creation, critically inherit national cultural heritage and absorb foreign culture; correctly carry out literary criticism, etc.This is completely in line with the needs of the prosperity and healthy development of our country's socialist literature and art undertakings.

Comrade Zhou Enlai not only cared about the general principles and policies of literature and art work, he also put forward important opinions on the development direction of various departments of literature and art, such as drama, music, dance, etc. change.There are incorrect views among some music and dance workers. They think that Chinese folk music and dance are backward and unscientific, while music and dance in Western capitalist countries are progressive and scientific and can be accepted without modification. come over.In order to solve these problems, Comrade Zhou Enlai made in-depth research. He believed that "art should still be based on the country and develop on the basis of our nation."He believes that the art of the nation must be developed, and the art of learning from the West must be gradually nationalized.For example, ballet can reflect the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people, but it should not be hasty. It must be divided into steps. First, the theme must be revolutionary, and some foreign revolutionary themes can be performed, and then the transition to nationalization;However, he never imposes on others, but respects the creative spirit of art workers.He initially thought that it was difficult for ballet to express the modern life of our country all at once, and he should make a transition, and first create a program that reflects the ancient life of our country. .He said, you perform well, but I am more conservative than you.

Comrade Zhou Enlai disapproved of adding too many foreign musical instruments to national operas. He believed that there were two disadvantages in doing so. The first was that the original artistic features were destroyed. harmful. Comrade Zhou Enlai asked us many times to study the development of music and dance, and personally asked about the performances of "Small Knife Club" and "Lotus Lantern", and put forward many pertinent opinions.He also suggested that comrades in the music industry should be mobilized in the newspapers to conduct a comprehensive discussion on what path music should take.In his letter to me, he clearly put forward the slogan that music should be "revolutionized, nationalized, and popularized".According to Comrade Zhou Enlai's instructions, we convened discussions with people from all walks of life, and discussed them in newspapers and periodicals.This discussion lasted for a year and had a great impact. It played a very important role in correcting errors or biased thoughts in music and dance work and promoting the healthy development of socialist music and dance art. It has been 12 years since Comrade Zhou Enlai left us.The painstaking efforts he expended and the various hardships he experienced in developing our country's literary and artistic undertakings have been deeply imprinted in our hearts and will never be forgotten; the precious spiritual wealth he left behind will continue to be inherited and developed by future generations.