Chapter 64 Attention should be paid to the discussion of the movie "The Legend of Wu Xun" [1]

(May 20, 1951) The questions raised by The Biography of Wu Xun are of a fundamental nature.People like Wu Xun lived in the era of the great struggle of the Chinese people against foreign aggressors and domestic reactionary feudal rulers at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Propagating feudal culture, and in order to obtain the status of propagating feudal culture that he did not have, he did his best to serve the reactionary feudal rulers. Is this ugly behavior that we should praise? Sing this to the people Is this something we can tolerate? Recognizing or tolerating this kind of eulogy is acknowledging Or tolerating reactionary propaganda that slanders the peasants' revolutionary struggle, slanders Chinese history, and slanders the Chinese nation is just propaganda that regards reactionary propaganda as legitimate.

The appearance of the movie "Biography of Wu Xun", especially the fact that there are so many praises for Wu Xun and the movie "Biography of Wu Xun", shows the degree of ideological confusion in my country's cultural circles! In the view of many authors, the development of history is not to replace the old with the new, but to keep the old from death with every effort; not to overthrow the reactionary feudal rulers who should be overthrown by class struggle, but Negate the class struggle of the oppressed people like Wu Xun and surrender to the reactionary feudal rulers.Our authors do not study who were the enemies who oppressed the Chinese people in the past history, and whether those who surrendered to these enemies and served them are worthy of praise.Our authors also do not study what has happened in China during the more than one hundred years since the Opium War in 1840, and the new struggle against the old socio-economic formation and its superstructure (politics, culture, etc.) In order to decide what should be praised or praised, what should not be praised or praised, and what should be opposed.

Particularly noteworthy are some Communist Party members who claim to have learned Marxism.They have learned the history of social development—historical materialism, but when they encounter specific historical events, specific historical figures (such as Wu Xun), specific anti-historical ideas (such as the movie "The Story of Wu Xun" and other Wu Xun's works), they lost the ability to criticize, and some people even surrendered to this reactionary thinking.Is it not true that bourgeois reactionary ideology has invaded the militant Communist Party? Where has the Marxism that some Communist Party members claim to have learned gone?

For the above-mentioned reasons, discussions on the film "The Biography of Wu Xun" and other writings and treatises on Wu Xun should be carried out in order to thoroughly clarify the confused thoughts on this issue. Published according to Mao Zedong's manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is a few paragraphs added and rewritten by Mao Zedong when reviewing the editorial draft of "People's Daily" "We Should Pay Attention to the Discussion of the Movie "Wu Xun Biography"", which constitutes the main body of this editorial.