Chapter 103 Literary and art workers must integrate with workers, peasants and soldiers[1]

(May 28, 1942) Comrades in the literary and art circles have held several meetings recently to discuss how to combine comrades in the literary and art circles with our comrades present here and with comrades working in various fields under our leadership.I think the comrades present here should also understand this issue.The solution to this problem is of course not a matter of a day or two, but a long-term process, but we must understand the Party's policy on this problem. We can look back.During the ten-year civil war, that is, when we were in the Red Army, we also had a bit of literature and art, such as writing novels and running a theater troupe, which were relatively common. In addition, we also had songs, posters, and cartoons.Compared with the current situation, these things are much worse. Now our Eighth Route Army has absorbed a much richer variety of talents, and the literature and art work is much more common.At that time, our base areas were cut off from the majority of intellectuals and from the people in the central cities. We made mistakes on the issue of intellectuals, despised intellectuals, and thought that intellectuals seemed useless. If we hadn’t made these mistakes, the situation might have changed will be better.

At that time, the Kuomintang had two kinds of "encirclement and suppression", namely military "encirclement and suppression" and cultural "encirclement and suppression".Military "encirclement and suppression" means opposing the Red Army; cultural "encirclement and suppression" means opposing new culture, literature and art that contains revolutionary ideas, that is, opposing revolutionary culture and art in the White Areas headed by Lu Xun.After the Xi'an Incident, we established a united front, and this "encirclement and suppression" was broken, and cultural people and intellectuals came to the base areas in large numbers.Therefore, in the base areas in North and Central China, in the Shensi-Kansu-Ningxia Border Region, and especially in Yan'an, there are a large number of writers and artists, some of whom have become professionals, and many who have no families and are engaged in ordinary cultural and artistic work. There are more people.What is the nature of this phenomenon for the Communist Party, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and our base areas? It is a very good phenomenon, and by no means a bad phenomenon.This situation will be even better after the central government's decision on intellectuals is promulgated.The Central Committee’s decision on intellectuals officially stated that our Party welcomes and absorbs a large number of intellectuals, no matter what kind of intellectuals they are, as long as they are anti-Japanese, they should be absorbed.But in fact, the intellectuals who cooperated with us were not only anti-Japanese, but also had democratic ideas and leaned toward democracy.Without democratic ideas, they would not have come at all.Moreover, among the people who cooperated with us, the thinking of most people has become the thinking of Marxism-Leninism, the thinking of communism, that is to say, most people have become party members, and their thinking is not only anti-Japanese, democratic , and became proletarian.

The Party Central Committee has already made a decision on intellectuals, but we have not yet made a unified and good decision on literary and artistic work.Now we are going to make such a decision, so we convened three symposiums[2], and more than a hundred comrades arrived, some from within the Party and some from outside the Party.This meeting was held fairly well, and its purpose was to solve the problem of integration just mentioned, that is, the integration of writers, artists, literary and art workers with our party cadres, the integration of workers and peasants, and the integration of military officers and soldiers. combined problem.

How to combine it? Divide into two aspects, and do work to people from both aspects.For writers, artists, and literature and art workers, they need to contact and combine with comrades working in the army, party affairs, political affairs, and economics; They want to contact and combine with writers and artists.In short, we must work on both sides, and we must tell both sides what attitude they should adopt. We should also understand the problems of literary and art workers.What are the problems in this regard? It is the question of whether or not to combine and how to combine.First of all, whether to combine or not to combine, the answer is to combine; then the next step is how to combine, that is, how to combine.In the middle of this, ideological problems must be solved. One of the basic problems is to get rid of the influence of bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideology, so that we can transform into proletarian ideology and have the party spirit of Marxism-Leninism.Only by solving this ideological problem can we be able to integrate ideologically with the proletariat and with the masses of workers and peasants; with such a foundation, it is possible to integrate with the workers, peasants, soldiers, and our party in action.If this problem is not resolved, it will always be out of place.If a person engages in a career for a long time, many habits and biases will inevitably develop.Many writers and artists grew up in a society ruled by the Kuomintang or in a feudal society. Some were more influenced by the old society than others, and some had shallow foundations while others had deep roots, to varying degrees.If these things are not pointed out, if they are not made to consciously destroy these things and gradually transform them into proletarian ideology, then they will become an obstacle to these comrades' complete integration with the workers, peasants, soldiers and the party in their actions, hindering them The speed of this combined process hinders their own progress.Therefore, in the rectification of the three winds, all comrades must be rectified, including the literary and art circles. The purpose is to destroy bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideology and transform them into proletarian ideology.

In the recent period, certain articles, certain literary works—certainly only a part of them—had some problems.Some comrades are dissatisfied with some things and put forward some opinions. These questions are all correct. What do these questions prove? It proves that our comrades are worthy of being political fighters.Although our cultural level is low, our political sense is quite sensitive, and we can smell any bad atmosphere immediately.All these problems that have occurred now, and all the works that have problems, we say that there are no major problems.Why do you say that? Because those comrades are fundamentally revolutionary, and they all came from outside cities or base areas. They also did revolutionary work in the outer cities. Many of them have been doing revolutionary work for a long time, and they are still doing revolutionary work now. .As for certain times, or a certain speech or writing is not done well, this is a partial nature. Such problems are easy to solve, and they are not serious problems.Comrade Wang Shiwei is one of the more serious ones. His thinking is relatively systematic, and it seems that the bad things are deeper.Other works are different from this, only a partial problem, not a big problem, this is a kind of problem.

Another is a serious problem.They are still far from completely applying the ideas of Marxism-Leninism and achieving the complete unity of revolutionary nature, party spirit and artistic work. That is to say, they still have bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas in their heads.If this thing is not broken and allowed to develop, it is quite dangerous.This thing is more or less common among comrades in the literary and art circles, among new Party members, and among old Party members.Of course, only some comrades have serious shortcomings like this.Their most basic question is whether literature and art should serve the masses of workers and peasants, serve the masses of workers and peasants, spread to the masses of workers and peasants, and improve through popularization among them.These problems of theirs can also be solved.In addition, there are problems like this. In the evaluation of the works, some comrades say that the artistry is obliterated, and some comrades say that the revolutionary nature is obliterated.The so-called obliteration of revolutionary nature means that as long as it is artistic, as long as it is a literary and artistic work with a high artistic level, it is considered good.They put particular emphasis on this aspect, but they don't have a clear understanding of the issues of standpoint, point of view, basic viewpoints of Marxism-Leninism, the issue of drawing materials from workers, peasants and soldiers, who to read to, and the issues of being closely integrated with workers, peasants and soldiers or completely working for workers, peasants and soldiers.

Writers and artists should draw materials from workers, peasants and soldiers, and be friends with them, like brothers and sisters.If you underestimate or do not pay attention to this aspect, it is a bias, that is, to relatively ignore the revolutionary nature (of course, the degree of ignorance also varies).If there is a bias, it is a serious bias.Of course, not everyone has this bias, but many people have the bias of ignoring revolution.They neglect to study Marxism-Leninism, and neglect to use Marxism-Leninism to break the influence of bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideology in our minds.Their thinking and practice, thinking and action are not unified, they think this way, but they do it that way, and what they do does not match what they think.This is the separation of theory and practice.They think for the workers and peasants, but do not do things for the workers and peasants; they think about doing things for the workers and peasants, but they have very few friends among them;This kind of "thinking" is actually not thorough, that is to say, it does not emphasize the revolutionary nature well.This kind of bias is common among comrades in the literary and art circles, and it should be thoroughly reviewed.

Is there any other bias? Yes, it is too much emphasis on the revolutionary and ignoring the artistic, thinking that as long as it is revolutionary, it doesn't matter if it is slogan or artistically ugly.This reduces literature and art to the same level as ordinary things, because other things do not take the artistic form of literature and art.Now that the revolutionary nature is emphasized, the artistic forms needed for the revolutionary nature of literature and art are also omitted. This is another bias.We only emphasize the revolutionary nature of literature and art, but not the artistry of literature and art. Is that enough? That is not enough. Without artistry, it is not called literature or art.This bias has happened in Russia, and it has happened in the history of our party. It seems that as long as we talk about Marxism-Leninism and the proletariat, it is a good thing.Not paying attention to the problem of art form, but only paying attention to the political content of the work, this cancels the distinction between art and other things.It is equally biased to say that art need not have any particularity, nor is it a special branch of revolutionary work.

So, what kind of things do we stand for? We believe that revolutionary is from low to high, and artistry is also from low to high.How does revolutionaryness go from low-level to high-level? For big landlords, if you talk to him about Marxism-Leninism, he won’t come, and he won’t come if you talk about democracy. The landlord wants rent and the feudal system.Now that Japanese imperialism has invaded, he also wants to resist Japan. As long as his feudal system is not destroyed, even if it is destroyed, it should not be destroyed too thoroughly, and he will come to resist Japan.It's fine if he comes. For the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie, it's all about their resistance to Japan. We can't get anything else from them, as long as they resist Japan.The national bourgeoisie is different. They need democracy, but the democracy they need is the livelihood of the bourgeoisie.As for the most important part of the people, that is, the democracy of the workers, peasants, and petty bourgeoisie is different from the democracy of the bourgeoisie.When China's national bourgeoisie has not completely won power, or has not mainly won power, they at least have this kind of thinking: they want to practice democracy, and they will not come to talk about Marxism-Leninism.As far as the entire class of the petty bourgeoisie is concerned, they do not practice Marxism-Leninism. Only the intellectuals of the proletariat and other proletarianized strata truly believe in and practice Marxism-Leninism.Talking about revolutionary is from anti-Japanese to Marxism-Leninism, that is, from low level to high level.In art, the policy we adopt is the same as revolutionary, from the low level to the high level, that is, from the embryonic state to the high level, to the most exquisite of Tolstoy, Gorky, and Lu Xun.We want those with high artistic quality, and we also want those with low artistic quality.Like posters and dolls, we also want them. They are sprouts, have the possibility of development, and have roots there.The songs sung by the common people, the folk tales, the wall newspapers in the government agencies, and the bragging stories of the soldiers all contain art.I have heard many stories of people who cannot read can tell beautiful stories, even the words are artistic.Neglecting these things, the eyes only see the high and not the low, and they say that ordinary people have rough hands and feet, and they look down on those things. It is not true that a wall poster with hundreds of words written by hand has a lot of meaning.Many professionals have this view.We need to read Hu Shizhi's book, and it's okay not to read it.We also need to read wall newspapers, folk songs, and folk tales.It is a great event that a person who has just turned over after years of oppression can write a few hundred words of wall newspapers; if you don’t look at it this way, it means that his stand is obviously not firm, so he doesn’t like to read things from the masses.What is our main base? It is workers, peasants and soldiers.Do we need intellectuals and artists of bourgeois and petty bourgeois origin? Yes, but the main base is workers, peasants and soldiers.Only on this basis can their works blossom.Writers and artists of bourgeois and petty bourgeois origin can help us. Some of them are determined to become workers and peasants. Workers and peasants, and raised to become an art.There are literati in class society, and there will also be specialized writers and artists in the socialist society of the future.A large number of writers in the future will emerge from workers and peasants.Now is a transitional period. I think this period will last fifty years in China. These fifty years will be very troublesome. It is a process of combining bourgeois and petty bourgeois writers and artists with workers and peasants.During this period, some troubles and troubles are inevitable.Our policy is to carefully guide them to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants consciously and not reluctantly.A small number of people cannot get along with each other, and to tolerate them is a matter of thought, and it cannot be forced or used in a rude manner.Our general policy is to win over most of the writers and artists to combine with the workers and peasants, so that they look up to low-level things and look up to ordinary writers and artists.Experts have the responsibility to guide ordinary literary and art workers.Is it only the responsibility of guidance? No, we still have to learn, we have to absorb nourishment from ordinary literary and art workers, from the people, otherwise we will be suspended in the air. This is very dangerous.Gorky is tall, but he has extensive connections with the following.He has communication links with the countryside.He was very happy to see a letter from a thirteen-year-old boy, so he changed a few words and published it, which was included in "The Forest on the Sea".A high-level literary and artistic worker can only find a way out if he has contact with ordinary literary and artistic workers and the people. He has the masses and milk to eat.

Literature and art are an army, and its cadres are literature and art workers.It also needs a commander-in-chief. Without a commander-in-chief, its direction will be wrong.Lu Xun and Gorky are equivalent to the commander-in-chief, and their works and words are used as direction guides.If an ordinary literary and art worker does not have high-level guidance, his direction may be wrong, and he will remain at a low level for a long time and cannot improve.We must enable literary and art workers to understand these issues and grasp the Party's policies.It is better for them to get to know each other within a month or two. If they can't get to know each other in a month or two, they can come to him for half a year, and if they can't get to know each other in half a year, they can come to him for a year.We must pay special attention to let those well-known and accomplished writers understand, so as to push the entire literary and artistic work in this direction, so as to benefit the nation, benefit the workers, peasants and soldiers.This is also beneficial to the writers themselves. "As long as you live, the grass grows as long as you live", for what? The whole life is dedicated to the workers, peasants and soldiers, and it would be nice if the sacrificial rites were done in the same way when they died.When Zhang Hao [3] passed away, we made a sacrificial oration. It was called to the dead, but in fact it was to the living. It was to tell people, don’t be selfish! Is Zhang Hao’s revolutionary life meant to be a sacrificial oration? I believe not Therefore, writers and artists must understand this policy, and other comrades must also understand this policy. This is a matter of integration.

Another problem is how to combine.We ask our comrades who work in the army, the government, education, the democratic movement, and party affairs to adopt a welcoming and appropriate attitude towards literary and artistic workers, whether they are low-level or high-level, and to treat their shortcomings. We must adopt an attitude of forgiveness; and as far as writers and artists are concerned, we must also adopt an attitude of forgiveness for the shortcomings of workers, peasants and soldiers.If there are shortcomings, it is impossible not to forgive them, and there will definitely be problems in the future.Some intellectuals, writers and artists do not make friends with us. This is not only due to shortcomings on the part of intellectuals and writers and artists. Some departments must also have shortcomings and problems.After the announcement of the Central Committee's decision on intellectuals, there are still many problems that have not been resolved. Therefore, like the three major disciplines and the eight points of attention, we need to talk about it every day, so that comrades working in the military, government, party affairs, economics, and education have a good understanding of cultural issues. People and intellectuals adopt a welcoming attitude and understand their importance. Without this group of people, nothing can be done.Stalin addressed this issue as a theoretical issue at the Eighteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.Any class must use such a group of educated people to do things. The landlord class, the bourgeoisie, and the proletariat are the same, and there must be intellectuals for them to use.Before their class is fully intellectualized, intellectuals from other classes will have to be used.So we have to take it slowly, we have to carry out publicity and explanations, just writing a few articles and making a few speeches won’t do the job, we must take it step by step in a concrete way, and it’s not as easy as succeeding just once. Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is the third part of Mao Zedong's report at the Central Study Group Meeting. [2] Refers to the three sessions of the 1942 Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art held on May 2, 16, and 23. [3] Zhang Hao, that is, Lin Yuying, served as the All-China Federation of Trade Unions' representative to the Red Workers International, member of the Chinese Communist Party's delegation to the Communist International, secretary of the White Area Working Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, political commissar of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Deputy Secretary of the Labor Movement Committee.Died of illness in Yan'an on March 6, 1942.