Chapter 133 Transforming old art to create new art[1]

(December 21, 1947) Regarding drama, I am a layman, I only watch it.Some of you here are from Xi'an and Beiping, and some are from Zhangjiakou. Let's start with Zhangjiakou.Everyone may be very unhappy when Zhangjiakou fell, but our tactics are like this, "you come and I go."Of course, it is not impossible to use a lot of troops to hold on, but it is not cost-effective.When we fight, we use our large forces to defeat the enemy's small forces.In the war of self-defense for more than a year, we have wiped out more than 1.6 million enemies, and captured more than 1 million of them.When we fought wars, our troops were mainly replenished by captives from the Jiang army, and our guns and ammunition were mainly transported by the Kuomintang. We did not have a large arsenal.In the past, food and clothing supplies were settled within the Liberated Areas, but now they still depend on the Kuomintang areas. For example, Liu Deng's [2] army fought in the Dabie Mountains, and Chen Xie's [3] army fought in the Funiu Mountains. from the enemy.This is a characteristic of our PLA's expanded ranks.This is rare for any army in the world, and we have always used this old method.Most of the cadres of the Eighth Route Army came from the south, and they will soon go to the south. Now they live in the north. This means that the bones of the south have grown some meat from the north.Hu Tsung-nan[4] occupied our Yan'an and wanted to drive us out of northern Shaanxi, but we are still here today.When we withdrew from Yan'an, many people doubted whether we could eliminate Hu Zongnan. At that time, Biancoin[5] also fell in price.But now they have changed their views. They believe that we can eliminate Hu Zongnan.We now have a slogan: "Go to Nanjing and capture Chiang Kai-shek alive." As for how many years it will take for the final victory, it depends on how we work hard.Now that the Americans are in a meeting and they want to aid Chiang Kai-shek, we are not afraid, at most it will be several billion US dollars as last year, and it will not be spent soon.We are also preparing for the United States to send troops to help.When the Kuomintang launched a full-scale civil war in July last year, because there were still one million Japanese soldiers who had not yet been repatriated, as well as the supplies left over, plus the aid of the United States, it could attack frantically.As is the case in all countries, the power of the rulers increases from great to small, and that of liberators from small to large.The Russian tsar was once so powerful, but he didn't fall down later.The Communist Party of the Soviet Union started with few guns, and our People's Liberation Army started with a small number, but now it has grown to two million.The Kuomintang army is now outnumbered by us, but the final victory will be ours.It is said that there was a worker in the Soviet Union who could finish in one year what other people could do in five years. There is a reason here, that is, the liberated people work for themselves, so they have unlimited enthusiasm and creativity.We did not have any foreign aid to defeat Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan, but we were able to defeat them for this reason.Soon we will be able to regain Zhangjiakou and many other places.

The same goes for art groups.Your Ping Theater accepts old art and creates new art.Old art has shortcomings, especially its content, which in my opinion reverses right and wrong and confuses black and white.History was originally not created by emperors and generals, but by working people, but in old dramas, for example, when Kong Ming [6] appeared on stage, he overwhelmed everything else, as if the world belonged to them, and the working people were just playing tricks.Ninety percent of the people in the world are workers and peasants. The houses we live in are all built with their hands. The local tyrants and evil gentry can't even move a pillar, but many old dramas show the working people as clowns .Of course, there are some good scripts in old dramas, such as "Fishing Fishermen and Killing Households"[7].You can remake some old dramas, master this art with your own creativity, and make some progress politically, and you may write something new.War is also an invention, but it is the result of many deaths.When I was in Wuhan in 1927, I was still a white-faced scholar, but in the next twenty years of war, I created a new method of fighting.Likewise, every functionary and cadre of our Party has the possibility to display his or her creativity in various tasks.The future is ours.We are not afraid of losing a battle. If we don't lose a battle, we don't know how to fight it.Pingju has had a lot of controversy in Yan'an.Pingju writes the master, wife, young master, and miss into a world, and the poor don't count.We are not in a hurry to change the format of Pingju at present, but only select a few plays that need to be revised, and start with the content first.In the past, two plays were remodeled in Yan'an, one was "Forcing the Liangshan" [8], and the other was "Three Attacks on Zhujiazhuang" [9]. The disadvantage is that it is too long.Some old dramas I think are written very concisely.I hope you will boldly carry out artistic creations, and renovate more old plays after seizing big cities in the future. The play "Evil Tiger Village" should rewrite Huang Tianba as a spy[10].According to the Marxist-Leninist viewpoint, the first national organization is the army, without the army there is no strength, and the second is the government.Chiang Kai-shek's government oppressed the people, while our government suppresses bullies, local tyrants and evil gentry.As for some of our cadres who bully the common people, we should punish him according to the opinions of the common people, because he is a sinner of the people.

There are a lot of Pingju operas in China, and there is a stall in the Kuomintang ruled areas.We comrades have improved politically and will come to big cities in the future to take over those old drama groups and lead them.If we only rely on acting in old plays, we will naturally not be able to play them.If we do not improve politically, then we cannot lead them. Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech to the performance team of Jinsuiping Theater in Yangjiagou, Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi.

[2] Liu Deng, referring to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, who were the commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army at that time. [3] Chen Xie refers to Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi, who served as the former secretary and deputy secretary of the Chen Xie Group of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Field Army respectively at that time. [4] Hu Zongnan, then director of the Xi'an Appeasement Office of the Kuomintang Army. [5] Border currency refers to the banknotes issued by the Bank of Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region in 1941. [6] Kong Ming, that is, Zhuge Liang (181-234), a native of Langxie Yangdu (now Yinan, Shandong).A politician and military strategist during the Three Kingdoms period, and Liu Bei's main adviser. After Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor, he served as the prime minister of Shu.

[7] "Fishing and Killing the Family", also known as "Qing Dingzhu", "Begging Fish Tax", is a traditional opera.The main content is that Xiao En and his daughter Guiying fish for a living. The local bully Ding Zixie colludes with the government, extorts fish taxes, and indiscriminately uses torture sticks. [8] "Forcing the Liangshan", a new historical drama, created collectively by the Popular Art Research Society of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1943, written by Yang Shaoxuan and Qi Yanming, based on novels.The main content is that at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Gao Qiu was in power, internal and external troubles intertwined, and the hungry people were brutally killed. Lin Chong, the head of the Imperial Army who sympathized with the hungry people, was framed by Gao Qiu and his son, and was forced to join the Liangshan Rebel Army.

[9] "Three Attacks on Zhujiazhuang", a new historical drama, created collectively by Yan'an Ping Theater in 1944, written by Li Lun, Wei Chenxu, and Ren Guilin, based on novels.The main content is that Liangshan Song Jiang led the army to attack Zhujiazhuang twice, but failed because the situation was unknown. In the third attack, he changed his strategy and sent people into the village to respond internally. ,Success. [10] "Evil Tiger Village", also known as "Jiangdu County" and "Sanyi Breaking Friendship", is a traditional opera play.It was adapted by Yang Zhengang in the Qing Dynasty based on the novel "Shi Gong An".The main content is that Shi Shilun, the county magistrate of Jiangdu in the Qing Dynasty, was promoted and was robbed by the owners Pu Tiandiao and Wu Tianqiu when he passed by Ehu Village.Shi Shilun's guard Huang Tianba, Pu Tiandiao and Wu Tianqiu are allied brothers. He used the pretext of celebrating his birthday to go to the village to find out the situation, gathered his accomplices that night, killed Wu Tianqiu and Pu Tiandiao's wife, forced Pu Tiandiao to death, and rescued Shi Shilun , And set fire to the manor.After Mao Zedong watched "Evil Tiger Village" performed by the Jinsuiping Theater Troupe and proposed revisions, the Jinsuiping Theater tried to adapt the play.