Chapter 32 3. Overview of books and publications from the failure of the Great Revolution to the founding of New China

In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, and the vigorous revolution failed.While launching political and military encirclement and suppression, the Kuomintang reactionaries launched a cultural "encirclement and suppression" campaign on the cultural front, adopted a policy of coercion and terror, and caused many progressive books and revolutionary publications to be banned. Many revolutionary writers, progressive writers, revolutionary Cultural workers were persecuted and attacked. In 1928, the KMT reactionary authorities issued a ban on publications that were so-called "obviously violating party principles" or "other publications prohibited by law".In 1931 alone, 228 kinds of progressive books were banned; in 1934, 149 kinds of literature and art books were banned in Shanghai alone; in 1936, 676 kinds of social science books were banned.While banning a large number of progressive books and periodicals, progressive publishing institutions and bookstores were smashed, and revolutionary cultural workers and progressives were persecuted and assassinated. In February 1931, the outstanding writer Rou Shi was shot dead; in November 1934, Shi Liangcai, the general manager of "Shenzhen", was assassinated; In 1929, the Creation Society was sealed up. In 1931, the Shanghai Modern Bookstore was sealed up for publishing the publications of the "Leftist League". In the winter of 1933, Liangyou Book Company, Shenzhou Guoguang Society, and Guanghua Book Company were destroyed successively. In 1937, in order to control speech, the "Interim Measures for Prohibition of Books and Magazines" were announced. In 1938, the "Measures for Examination of Manuscripts of Books and Magazines in Wartime" was promulgated to further destroy the progressive publishing industry. From April 1939 to April 1940, there were 16 branches of the Life Bookstore that were sealed up or forced to close down, and 9 branches of the Xinzhi Bookstore.During the Anti-Japanese War, the censorship system in the Kuomintang-controlled areas and the harsh political, economic and other social environments caused serious blows to the book industry.In the enemy-occupied areas, due to the brutal plundering by the Japanese imperialists, a large number of books were looted and burned, and publishing houses were looted, paralyzing the book business in the enemy-occupied areas.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang government prepared to attack the liberated areas, and on the other hand, suppressed the people, implemented fascist rule, stifled the freedom of publishing and speech, and continued to implement a series of banning laws, so that the Kuomintang Central Propaganda Department directly controlled the censorship of news, books and magazines.When the People's Democratic Movement rose, the Kuomintang reactionaries beat, kidnapped, imprisoned, and massacred democratic and progressive figures in addition to sealing up progressive books and publishing institutions that emerged after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. In 1946, the famous democratic progressives Li Gongpu and Wen Yiduo were assassinated successively.The policy of cultural white terror carried out by the reactionary Kuomintang authorities has caused serious losses to my country's book publishing industry.According to statistics, there were 259 bookstores in Shanghai in 1935, and only 312 in the whole country in 1949.

On the other hand, the Kuomintang reactionary authorities tried to monopolize propaganda tools to serve their regime by running their own bookstores and publications.They organized politicians and literati such as Hu Shi and Liang Shiqiu to use "New Moon" magazine, "Front Weekly", "Literary Monthly" and "Cosmos Wind" as their positions to carry out bourgeois ideological and cultural propaganda and to the revolutionaries. Literary attack. Facing the cultural "encirclement and suppression" by the Kuomintang reactionaries, the progressive cultural publishing workers were not intimidated, let alone surrendered. They organized progressive cultural groups in the Kuomintang-controlled areas to counter the "encirclement and suppression." In March 1930, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the "League of Chinese Left-Wing Writers" and "Alliance of Social Scientists" were established.At that time, the "Left Alliance" established publications such as "Sprout", "Pioneer", "Literary Monthly", and "Beidou", and peripheral publications included "Popular Literature and Art", "Literary News", "Modern Fiction" and so on.There is also the "Life Weekly" run by Zou Taofen, which promotes patriotism, progressive ideas, and carries out work in contact with the masses, which is very popular among the people.

During this period, Lu Xun, in addition to continuing to create a large number of combat essays as "throwing guns" at the heart of the Kuomintang reactionaries, also created five novels, including "Fei Gong" and "Li Shui", based on ancient history and myths and legends, which were later collected. Yu Li.Guo Moruo wrote historical novels such as "Mengfuzi Gets a Wife", "Sima Qian Gets Wrathful", "The Overlord of Chu Suicide" and other historical novels.Mao Dun's trilogy, "He and the Countryside", described the scene of the impoverishment of the masses of workers and peasants in the 1930s.Tian Han created and performed dramas such as "The Clock", "Seven Women in the Storm", and "The Storm on the Yangtze River", which reflected the heroic spirit of the Chinese nation in defending the motherland and resisting aggression after the "September 18th", and strongly encouraged The people fought against Japan.There are also Ye Shengtao's, Cao Yu's "Thunderstorm", Ba Jin's, Lao She's, Jiang Guangci's "Wind in the Field" and other works, which profoundly expose the darkness of the real society from different angles.At the same time, Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai translated a large number of literary masterpieces of the world proletariat.For example, "Destruction" translated by Lu Xun, "Selected Works of Gorky's Essays" and "Selected Works of Gorky" translated by Qu Qiubai, "Tie Liu" translated by Cao Jinghua, translated by Xia Yan, etc., have played a role in helping young people to devote themselves to the proletarian revolution and strengthen their revolutionary will. positive effects.

In the revolutionary base areas, in the extremely difficult environment of anti-encirclement and suppression, Marxist-Leninist classics were still published, such as Lenin's "February Revolution to October Revolution", "The State and Revolution", "The Proletarian Revolution and the Traitor Kautsky "Wait. Before and after the Anti-Japanese War, in order to publicize the policies of the Communist Party of China and unite the people of the whole country to fight against the Japanese War, the Party Central Committee's "Liberation" weekly was founded in Yan'an, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region government official newspaper "New China News" (formerly known as "Red China"), In 1941, it was renamed "Liberation Daily" and became the official newspaper of the Party Central Committee. As of March 27, 1947, it had published a total of 2,130 issues.During the long period of the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation, it became the mouthpiece for propagating our party's political line and various political propositions, exposing the conspiracy of class enemies at home and abroad, and calling on the people of the whole country to fight for the survival of the Chinese nation and for their own liberation. .

In 1939, Yan'an founded the "Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine", which was a publication aimed at improving our army's anti-Japanese strength and at the same time providing friendly troops and people with anti-Japanese experience.The central first-level publications that were launched thereafter include "Communist", "Chinese Youth", "Chinese Women", "Chinese Workers", "Chinese Culture" and so on.According to the instructions of the Party Central Committee, newspapers and periodicals were published in each anti-Japanese base area, which had grown to more than 20 kinds in 1940, such as "Xinhua Daily" North China Edition, "Anti-Japanese War Daily", "Jinchaji Daily", "Dazhong Daily", "China People's Daily, Struggle Daily, Anti-Enemy Daily, etc.In the Kuomintang-controlled areas, our party took advantage of its legal status to openly run newspapers and periodicals such as Wuhan's "Mass" weekly, and "Xinhua Daily", which was founded in Wuhan in 1938.During the entire Anti-Japanese War, he actively publicized our party's anti-enemy policy, united and educated the people, opposed the Kuomintang's one-sided anti-Japanese war and anti-communist surrender policy, and adhered to the position of the united front of the comprehensive anti-Japanese war.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, it exposed the face of the Kuomintang's false peace and real civil war, united the broad masses of the people, and worked hard for the people's democracy.At the same time, there are many progressive publications in the Kuomintang-controlled areas that are led by our party or influenced by our party, such as "National People's War of Resistance", which was merged by Li Gongpu's "National People's Weekly" and Zou Taofen's "Anti-Japanese War", founded by Xia Yan in Shanghai in August 1937 The "Salvation Daily" and so on.

In terms of book publishing, the anti-Japanese base areas published many Marxist-Leninist works under very difficult conditions. In 1938, Yan'an Jiefang Publishing House published "Marx and Engels on China" and "Lenin and Stalin on China", and in 1939 published five volumes of "Selected Works of Stalin" and "A Brief History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks).In September of the same year, "Xinhua Bookstore" was established in Yan'an, which is an institution responsible for book printing, publishing and distribution under the leadership of the Party Central Committee. In 1942, he edited and published "Marx and Engels Thought Methodology" and so on.Chairman Mao Zedong's works during this period include "On Protracted War", "War and Strategic Issues", "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art", "On New Democracy", Liu Shaoqi's "On the Party", Zhu De's "On the Battlefields in Liberated Areas" ", etc., have also been published and widely circulated.

In terms of literary and artistic works, writers in the anti-Japanese base areas have written a number of works that are deeply loved by the masses, such as Zhao Shuli's "Xiaoerhei's Marriage" and "The Changes of Lijiazhuang", He Jingzhi and Ding Yi's opera "White Hair" Female", Li Ji's long poem "Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang", etc., have all been published and circulated. During the War of Liberation, the publishing of books and periodicals in the liberated areas became more active.As early as 1944, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China compiled and printed five volumes of Mao Zedong's Selected Works for the first time, and reedited it into six volumes in 1946, including 38 works. From around 1945 to July 1946, the book publishing industry in the 19 liberated areas in North China, Central China, and South China achieved great development. Each district established an editing and publishing organization, some attached to newspaper offices, and some organized by Xinhua Bookstores and other distribution agencies leaders.In the Northeast Liberated Areas, in addition to reprinting the publications of Yan'an and other liberated areas, various books such as "Storm" and "Political Commissars" reflecting the struggle and life in the Northeast Liberated Areas were also published, and the Northeast edition of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" which influenced the whole country was published.In the Northeast Liberated Area alone, the Xinhua Bookstore system published 592 kinds of books and periodicals in the two years from 1947 to 1948, with a circulation of 14 million copies and more than 6 million textbooks for primary and secondary schools.

Successive victories in the War of Liberation made the Liberated Areas continue to expand and become one piece. In June 1948, "Jinchaji Daily" and "People's Daily" of Shanxi, Hebei, Luyu and Henan were merged, and "People's Daily" was published in Shijiazhuang, becoming the official newspaper of the North China Bureau of the Communist Party of China. At the beginning of 1949, "People's Daily" moved to Beijing and became the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.The book industry in the newly liberated areas developed rapidly. According to incomplete statistics of the five liberated areas of East China, North China, Central China, Northwest China, and Northeast China, more than 5,000 books were published from 1945 to 1949, and more than 40 million copies were printed.The achievements of book publishing in liberated areas laid the foundation for the development of new China's book publishing.