To Trumpet Bourgeois

Literature and ArtIs to Restore Capitalism

- A RePudiation of Cbou Yang'sReactionary Fallaclt Adulating tbe"Renaissance", tbe "Enligbtenment"and "Critical Reali.sm" of the Bout-geoisie

' il l-';li ltc'r-l.;rr, -i. it of,:l i -: 1 l: l"i+n

r.l,.r[,._.i:l:;, r. t]ti,::: : ,i,1,, \.,,:;i-;.1i.,:ttl , j,::.:!,ir-2i:i,

;/:1f,, l:i,,,. ,'r .,r r' ,.:.'; i -.. ; i;i: r"i i:i,! i:,'- 1 i, (1.i t-l'.i'r -

i.:1irr;i 1,,:i I l' i f. i1 ' :..'" -' -: :-i;r':l'r' "-

'i:':1.-'3;1i'^1t'

1l"l:: -i'...:; i r' :." ". ; : i: ;i : i 'l : 'i:i': rlxr i)fl-litirlit,i: 1;: ;s ,--t:i, ,' " , i:' ,,,_ /.'ilt;1:r'i-.:l'"ir.i1i; OI lllr: Unii;trli.j t,;,'i,-r^

FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESSPEKING '1971

fromMao Tsetung

One of our curtent imPottant tasks

on the ideological ftont is to unfold

criticism of tevisionism.

Printed in tbe People's Repablic ol Cbina

T|HIRTY years ago, in summing uP theI struggle on the ideological and cul-

tural front since the MaY 4th Move-

ment,l our great leader Chairman Mao

pointed out: "Everything new comes

from the forge of hard and bitter strug-gle. This is also true of the new culturewhich has followed. a zigzag course inthe past twenty years, during which boththe good and the bad were tested and

proved in struggle." (On Neus Democ-

racy) It is precisely the struggle of those

twenty years that gave birth to theepoch-making document of the Marxistideological and cultural msvsrnglf -Chairman Mao's ?olks at the Yenan

Forum on Liiterature and Art,The thirty years since have witnessed

an even more violent and tortuous strug-

gle between the two classes, the prole-tariat and the bourgeoisie, and the twocultures, proletarian and bourgeois. Theoutcome of the test further confirmsthat Chairman Mao's proletarian rev_olutionary line in literaturc and art isthe only correct line for the movementof proletarian revolutionary literatureand art.

"The four villains,, Chou yang, HsiaYen, Tien Han and yang Han_sheng,agents of the renegade, hidden traitorand scab Liu Shao-chi in literary andart circles, stubbornly pushed a sinistercounter-revolutionary revisionist line inliterature and art which opposed Chair_man Mao's proletarian revolutionaryline. This sinister line advertised bour_geois and revisionist theories and worksof literature and art for the purpose ofrestoring capitalism. In Chou yang,seyes the Renaissance between the 14thand 16th centuries, the lBth centurv,

Enlightenment and the 1gth centuryliterature and art of critical realism of

the bourgeoisie in the West were "peaks,both ideologically and artistically".2 He

claimed that there were so many "mas-ters" standing on these "peaks" that "itis impossible to enumerate them"'3

There was no need therefore for China'sproletariat to make revolution in litera-ture and art; all that was needed was

to take the classical literature and art

of the bourgeoisie in the West as the

"goals to strive fot",4 to create a "ren-aissance in the East".5 Over the

decades, Ctrou Yang publicized numer-

ous reactionary theories in praise of

the bourgeois Renaissance, Enlighten-

ment and critical realism, as poison

arrows aimed at Chairman Mao's Pro-Ietarian revolutionary line in literatureand art. We must thoroughly criticizethese reactionarY fallacies.

Moke Bourgeois Literoture ond Art"Gools to Strive for" or Bring AboutProletorion Revolution in Literotureond Art?

What was the purpose of the Renais-sance, the Enlightenment and criticalrealism? They all served the purposeof preparing public opinion for develop-ing capitalism, establishing and consoli-dating the dictatorship of the bourgeoi-sie and rescuing capitalism from ex-tinction. The bourgeoisie had just step-ped onto the political arena during theRenaissance, then it seized politicalpower from the feudal class and gradu-ally established its capitalist rule duringthe Enlightenment. But in the 19thcentury when critical realism came tothe fore, the capitaiist system fuJ.ly re-vealed its intrinsic contradictions. Theproletariat, as the bourgeoisie's grave-digger, now mounted the political arena.Doesn't the history of the development

4

from the Renaissance through the En-lightenment to critical realism reflectthe process of the bourgeoisie frombirth, development, to its downfall on aworld-wide scale?

Chairman Mao has penetratinglypointed out: "Except for the revolutionwhich replaced primitive communes byslavery, that is, a system of non-ex-ploitation by one of exploitation, allrevolutions ended in the replacement ofone system of exploitation by another";"Our revolution, the revolution of themasses of the people led by the pro-letariat and the Communist Party, isthe only revolution aiming at the finalelimination of all systems of, exploita-tion and all classes." (Introductory noteto Matertal otu the Hu Feng Coun-ter-Reuolutionarg Clique) In order toachieve this goal, the proletariat, incontinuing the socialist revolution afterit has won poLitical power, has the im-portant task of thoroughly criticizing

all reactionary bourgeois and otherideologies which serve the exploitingclasses and the system of exploitation.The proletariat must not tahe bourgeoisliterature and art as a "model" or a"goal". To do so is to restore capitalism.

Can we still take the bourgeois Ren-aissance as a "goal to strive for" underthe dictatorship of the proletariat? Theexponents of the Renaissance did theirutmost to advocate humanism, that is,humanitarianism, and were said to havebeen the first to "discover" and "affirm"the worth of the human being. Thefeudal class was also a type of humanbeing, yet it did not talk of "humanity"but of "divinity". Its "divinities" werenone other than the haloed feudalrulers themselves. The bourgeoisie used"humanity" to oppose the "divinity" ofthe feudal class, and its "humanity"refers to precisely the bourgeoisie itself.As for the hundreds of millions ofworking people, the creators of world

6

history, they were not "discovered",still less "affirmed". The humanistspreached the paramountcy of happinessin the present world, oPPosing thefeudal class's abnegation, that is, hiddenself-indulgence, with their open bour-geois self-indulgence. They claimed,

"My mind centres only around myself."Thus they described bourgeois egoism,epicureanism and the compulsive drivefor possessions as "universal human-ness" endowed bY "nature"' If a

"renaissance" of these is to be broughtabout, what place would there be forthe working people ! Where would thered political power of the proletariat be!

Can we still take bourgeois Enlighten-ment as a "goal to strive for" under thedictatorship of the proletariat? Every-where Chou Yang urged: "Use scientifictruth to enlighten the masses."6 Thismirrored the bourgeoisie's reactionaryviewpoint of regarding itself as a "sav-iour" and the masses as "the mob"'

Truth has its class character. What is"scientific truth,'? In the history ofmankind, only Marxism-Leninism_MaoTsetung Thought is genuine scientifictruth that will enable mankind to wincomplete emancipation. Where didMarxism come from? It was establishedon the basis of practical experiences inthe proletarian revolutionary movementin various countries summarized bvMarx and Engels. This is as ChairmaitMao says "from the rnasses,,. The ad_vanced elements of the proletariat in_troduced Marxism to the working peo_ple and continuously educated them inits truths. "Once the correct ideascharacteristic of the advanced class aregrasped by the masses, these ideas turninto a material force which ehanges so_ciety and changes the world.,, (MaoTsetung, Where Do Correct ld,eas Comefrom?) This is as Chairman Mao says,"to the masses". Marxism developedprecisely along the line of ,.from the

masses, to the masses", "and so on' overand over again in an endless sPiral,with the ideas becoming more correct,more vital and richer each time."(Mao Tsetung, Sonxe Questions Concern-i,ng Meth.ods of Leadership) Marxism,Leninism and Mao Tsetung Thoughtmark the three stages in the develop-ment of Marxism. In advocatingthe so-called Enlightenment thebourgeois democratic revolutionariesnot only presented themselves as

saviours but used such bourgeoisslogans as "Iiberty, equality, frater-nity" hypocritically to deceive themasses, to help establish or consolidatethe dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. To

the proletariat, the "Enlightenment"means "hoodwinking" the masses pureand simple. Taking such literature andart as a "goal" was to create counter-revolutionary public opinion for LiuShao-chi's bourgeois reactionary line.What of the character Lei Huan-chueh

in the reactionary filllr- Platns Ablaze*fabricated by Chou Yang,s sinister linein ]iterature and art at the cue of LiuShao-chi, in order to erect a monumentto his renegade self? Lei Huan-chuehis homophonic with the Chinese charac-ters which mean "His advent givesenlightenment." This scab appears as a"saviour" to "enlighten" the masses.For many years the renegade, hiddentraitor and scab Liu Shao-chi pushedthe bourgeois reactionary line aimed atmisleading and suppressing the workerand peasant masses. It allowed thebourgeoisie to exploit and oppress theworking people while forbidding the

* A reactionary feature film which dis-torted the revolutionary struggle of therailway workers and miners of Anyuan in1922. Entirely concealing the fact that itwas Chairman Mao who led the workers,movement, the film played up the scab LiuShao-chi, who sold out the interests of theworking class, as the "hero", "saviour,'and"leader" of the strike.

10

worker and peasant masses to rise upin revolution!

Can we still take the literature andart of bourgeois critical realism as a"goal to strive for" under the dictator-ship of the proletariat? The proletariatcriticizes the bourgeoisie in order todestroy it completely. Bourgeois writers,however, when "criticizing" capitalismdare not negate its essence of exploita-tion, dare not touch the fundamentalquestion of the dictatorship of the bour-geoisie. Not only this but on the con-

trary, they try to consolidate bourgeoisdictatorship and dream of prescribingnostrums for the incurable capitalistsystem. Their criticism of the capitalistsociety never goes beyond, nor can itgo beyond, the limits set by the capital-ist system. The modern revisionists,representeC by the Soviet revisionistrenegade clique, laud critical realism tothe skies because they are also spokes-men for the decadent bourgeoisie and

11

want to maintain their bourgeois reac-tionary rule with it. Introduced intosocialist New China from the Sovietrevisionist renegade clique by ChouYang and company, these bourgeoistrends of literature and art branchedout into theories on "truthful writing","the deepening of realism" and "thebroad path of realism".T Chou Yangand company openly exhorted bourgeoisintellectuals to "boldly expose the truthof life"8 and "expose the seamy side ofthe socialist system"e so as to under-mine and destroy the dictatorship of theproletariat. Therefore, if we wish tofurther consolidate and strengthen theproletarian dictatorship ideologically,and culturally we must criticize bour-geois criti.cal realism with the pro-letarian world outlook.

In fact, even at the time when the"renaissance" was advocated, the bour-geoisie used the slogan merely as ameans, not as its real goal. Did it ever

t2

intend to revive the slave-owners' cul-ture of ancient Greece and Rome? Notat aII. Chairman Mao Points out: "Agiven culture is the ideological reflectionof the politics and economics of a givensociety." (On Netn DemocracY) The

"idea1 realm" of the bourgeoisie thenwas capitalist society; it had no inten-tion of going back to the social order ofslavery. In attacking feudal rule, itunfurled the banner of "renaissance"because it aimed, apart from rousingthe militant enthusiasm of its ownranks, chiefly to disguise the pal-trycontent of the bourgeois revolution, so

as to cheat and mislead the broadmasses of the people. It is clear thatthe bourgeoisie brought out the "renais-sance" in the period of its rise to satisfycertain bourgeois political demandswith some progressive significance -

toreplace the old system of exploitationwith a new one, and achieve the transi-tion from feudal to capitalist society.

13

But in making the bourgeois Renais-sance a "goal to strive for" under theconditions of the dictatorship of theproletariat, Chou Yang and companyfully unmasked themselves as entirelyrepresenting the overthrown bour-geoisie and suiting their counter-revolu-tionary needs of capitalist restoration.In other words, by reviving the o1d

bourgeois ideas and culture they soughtto restore the old politics and economicsand the old system of exploitation,cause our socialist society to revert toa capitalist society and the socialist NewChina to become once again semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China.

The resistance the reactionary classputs up to the law of historical develop-ment only hastens its own downfall.Engels said, "It is the epoch which hadits rise in the last half of the fifteenthcentury. . . and while the burghers andnobles were still grappling with oneanother, the peasant war in Germany

t4

pointed prophetically to future class

struggles, by bringing on to the stage

not only the peasants in revolt - thatwas no longer anYthing nelv - but'behind thern, the beginnings of the

modern proletariat, with the red flag

in their hands and the dernand fot com-

mon ownef,shiP of ProPertY on theirlips." (SeZected' Worl<s of Karl Marr and

Fied.eri.ck Engels, Chinese ed', Vol' III'pp

Itime when the bourgeois Renaissance

socialism is advancing to world-wide

victory, it is as vicious and inane forChou Yang and comPanY to coPY the

same old bourgeois tricks in a bid to

t5

revive capitalism as trying to stop theearth from turning.

Refute Notionol Betroyol in Culture

In lauding bourgeois literature and art,Chou Yang specially explained:"Friends of foreign countries very muchhope to see a renaissance in the East.,,IoThe renegade and enemy agent ChouYang's "foreign friends" could only bethe handful of imperialists and social-imperialists. What "hopes" have theyfor socialist New China? ..Basing

themselves on the changes in the SovietUnion, the imperialist prophets arepinning their hopes of 'peaceful evolu-tion' on the third or fourth generationof the Chinese Party." (Quotations fromChctirman Mao Tsetung, Eng. ed., p.277)Chou Yang is a traitor who faithfullyimplemented the counter-revolutionary"hopes" of the imperialist ,'prophets,,.

16

Chou Yang fabricated various sorts ofcounter-revolutionary hypotheses inorder to push his line of nationalbetrayal in literature and art.

There was the so-called theorY of"absoLute confoirnitY".

Chou Yang held that the interests of

the bourgeoisie in the period of its risewere "in conformity with the interestsof the entire labouring people", hence

bourgeois literature and art at the timeof the Renaissance and the Enlighten-ment "made great contributions tomankind".ll And in the 19th century'when the bourgeoisie was alreadydecadent and in decline, the criticalrealist writers, as "representatives ofthe bourgeoisie", were claimed to be

"prodigals" who had betrayed theirclass and "did not favour capitalism"'l2Thus literature and art of this kindagain became the "pride of all civilizedmankind".13 In one terse sentence:AII bourgeois literature and art was "in

17

absolute conformity with" the interestsof the labouring people!

This is downright class capitulationin culture.

The bourgeoisie has indeed alwaystried to pose as representing the in-terests of "all mankind". But even atthe time when it started attacking thefeudal class, it never for a momentstopped its cruel exploitation and oppres-sion of the labouring people; moreover,its aim in attacking the feudal classwas to seize the power of controllingand exploiting the labouring people.Therefore, immediately after politicalpower was in its hands, it invariablyallied with the feudal class to ruthlesslysuppress the labouring people whosought to carry the revolution forward.In modern world history, has the bour-geoisie not taught us enough of theselessons in blood?

Chairman Mao has a most penetrat-ing generalization: "Whatever is under

18

the leadership of the bourgeoisie cannotpossibly be of the masses." (Talks atthe Yenan Forum on Literature andArt) This comment goes to the quick,punctures every lie spread by the bour-geoisie and revisionists, such as "litera-ture and art of the whole PeoPle" and"literature and art of all mankind".This is because whatever is led by thebourgeoisie is remoulded according toits exploitative nature.

The whole of bourgeois culture inwhich Chou Yang and company tooksuch "pride" was created on the basis

of the bourgeoisie's ruthless plunder ofthe labouring people, and serves thepolitical interests of the bourgeoisie.This is true of the literature and art ofthe Renaissance and the Enlightenmentand also true of the 19th century litera-ture and art of critical realism. Theonly difference is that in the formerperiod the bourgeoisie was still in its"golden age" and projected such char-

19

acters as Robinson Crusoe, "con-queror" and ambitious colonialist, in a

tale by Defoe; whlle in the latterperiod, the bourgeoisie was "sinkingfast, like the sun setting beyond thewestern hills", and producing thewriters of critical realism from Balzacto Tolstoy, plus a number of others whowrote obsessively of "superfluous man".Did these writers really "not favourcapitalism"? By no means! They weretrying might and main to forestall the,doom and extinction of their class's

decadent and reactionary rule. Marxists€an never acclaim defenders of bour-geois rule as spokesmen of the workingpeople but must make a class analysisof their works and help people torecognize them for what they are, freethemselves from the bourgeo.sie's webof lies and overthrow the capitalistsystem and its entire superstructure bymeans of violent revolution.

20

Then there was the so-called theoryof being "unsurPassable".

Chou Yang touted the bourgeois Ren-aissance, the Enlightenment and criticalrealism as "peaks, both ideologicallyand artistically" and ordered that itwas not allowed and "not necessary tosurpass" them.la Not only not "surpass",but the Chinese proletariat was noteven to think of "comparing" with such

"peaks", that only after it had crawledat snail pace behind the Western bour-geoisie "for a few centuries" could itthink of "comparing".

Marxism - Leninism - Mao TsetungThought holds that no specific thing inthe world has an unsurpassable limit"Bourgeois representatives, from theirbourgeois viewPoint, have time and

again declared that their idealistic and

metaphysical ideological systems are

"unsurpassable" and the "last word intheory", but the development of Marx-ism and of the revolution long ago

I

t2L

nailed this lie which the bourgeoisrepresentatives use to resist proletarianrevolution and maintain bourgeois reac-tionary rule. Chou Yang's theory ofbeing "unsurpassable" was in essence

touting the "unsurpassableness" of thecapitalist system.

Proletarian culture, which serves theworkers, peasants and soldiers, is thegreatest culture in human history, Howcan it be compared with bourgeois cul-ture, the whole lot of which serves ex-clusively the exploiting classes? Com-pare the creation of typical characters.Open any of the works of the Renais-sance, the Enlightenment or criticalrealism; those characters portrayed,acclaimed and glorified are only thoseof the exploiting classes and theirintellectuals. The few characters whochance to appear from the worker andpeasant masses are either distorted as

ne'er-do-wells or maligned as servilerobots. The exploiters and bloodsuckers

,,

of every stripe are cast as principalcharacters in works of literature andart, swaggering on stage and screen, innovels and poems. Here, history'struth and the essence of historicaldevelopment are reversed. Chou Yang,of course, refuses to admit this.

His concept is that bourgeois writershave not only created countless "typicalcharacters true to life",15 but alsocreated images of the "new people" of"imminent socialism".16 Time and againhe heaped praises on the Russian bour-geois writer of the novel What ls to BeDone?, Chernyshevsky, for painting notonly a superb "picture of socialist so-ciety",t1 but also creating a group oftypical "new people". One of these isnamed Vera. The "new" in her is thatshe hypocritically veils her obviouslyodious egoism with "rationalism". Un-questionably a woman factory capi-talist, she dupes the workers by lettingthem think they're the "bosses", and

i{

,A:r',

ff'*

thus engages in "civilized exploitation"'Vera's first husband remarks that hehas long ago "seen in America"l8 sucha tactic.

We of the Shanghai working class

had more than enough experiencebefore liberation with such "new peo-ple" who let workers be "straw bosses"

and whom Chou Yang lauded to theskies. Their so-called "civilized exploita-tion" was actually not only a means thebig factory owners used to throw a fewcrumbs as pay to hired scabs and toswindle the workers but, like in the

"welfare state" boasted by Nixon andBrezhnev, all this served the purpose ofconsolidating the capitalist system' Justdress up capitalism and caII it "social-ism" and you have at once the tYPicaI

"new people" of "imminent socialism",so close to Chou Yang's heart. This iswhat he called unsurpassable "ideolo-gical and artistic peaks" !

24

"To find men truly great and noble-hearted we must look here in the pres-ent." History has long since testifiedthat only the proletariat which hasgrasped Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought can produce brilliantimages of true proletarian revolutionaryheroes. The model revolutionary the-atrical works which Comrade ChiangChing painstakingly fostered under theguidance of Chairman Mao's proletarianrevolutionary line, are truly works withwhich no bourgeo s literature and artcan compare. How pallid the repre-sentatives of the exploiting classes inbourgeois literature and art when facedwith Li Yu-ho, Yang Tzu-jung, FangHai-chen, Kuo Chien-kuang, Wu Ching-hua, Hung Chang-ching and otherproletarian revolutionary heroes andheroines in these theatrical works !

Chou Yang said tremulously: "You'llhit snags if you want to surpass ineverything."le Does this not reveal the

25

fear of the bourgeoisie confronted withthe magnificent victory of the pro-letarian revolution in literature andart?

Just as our great leader ChairmanMao pointed out long ago: "The great,

victorious Chinese People's War of Lib-eration and the great people's revolutionhave rejuvenated and are rejuvenatingthe great culture of the Chinese people.

In its spiritual aspect, this cultureof the Chinese people already standshigher than any in the capitalist world.Take U.S. Secretary of State Achesonand his like, for instance' The level oftheir understanding of modern Chinaand of the modern world is lower thanthat of an ordinary soldier of the Chi-nese People's Liberation Army." (The

Bankruptcy oJ tlte ldealist Conceptionof Hi,story) Please note, "stands higherthan any in the capitalist world", in-cluding their capitalist culture ! Thisis the most thorough refutation of Chou

26

Yang's theory of "unsurpassable" and

the most powerful rePlY to it!Then there was the so-called theory

of "total Westernization".Chou Yang hooted to "turn to the

Western legacy"20 and "preserve theideologies of the olden times in today'sliterature ancl art in systematic form".2l"Old", "systematic", "preserve" -

i3p'f,

this "totaI Westernization"? He also

spread the falsities that China's "tech-niques in every artistlc field are tradi-tionally weak", "those of the West are

certainly far more advanced and scien-

tific than China's old, traditional tech-

niques"; therefore "it is always prof-itable to assimilate as much as possible,

that with every bit we assimilate, we

sha1l benefit that much more".22 He

indeed "forgot his ancestors whilenumbering the classics", as an oldChinese saying goes. How low he had

stooped ! Had he anY semblance of a

Chinese? Not a shred ! His was the

2t

manner of a vassal with hand extendedto the Western bourgeoisie.

The Chinese PeoPle are a great, in-dustrious and brave people, the Chinese

nation is a great and highly culturednation. From the MaY 4th Movement

in 1919 there had arisen under the

Ieadership of the Chinese CommunistParty with Chairman Mao Tsetung as

leader a new cultural force and a new

cultural orientation represented by LuHsun, which Put an end to the old

bourgeois democratic culture in the

land of China.Today we are building Proletarian

culture - the greatest and most revolu-

tionary culture in mankind's history'Our firm and unalterable policies are:

"'Make the past serve the present and

foreign things serve China" and "\ileedthrough the old to bring forth the new"'As regards ideological content, old

Chinese art and foreign art express thepolitical aspirations, thinking and

feelings of the exploiting classes ofbygone times and other lands. It isnecessary to thoroughly criticize andcompletely break with these things. Asfor certain aspects of the art forms ofcertain works, we must use MaoTsetung Thought as our weapon tocriticize and remould them, and enablethese art forms to serve the creation ofproletarian literature and art.

"There is no construction withoutdestruction. Destruction means criti-cism and repudiation, it means revolu-tion. It involves reasoning things out,which is construction. Put destructionfirst, and in the process you have con-

struction." If these art forms are to be

used, they must first be criticized;without being criticized they cannotserve us, to say nothing of weedingthrough the capitalist old to bring forththe socialist new. The model revolu-tionary theatrical works produced bythe revolutionary literary and art

workers under the leadership of Com-rade Chiang Ching are brilliant ex-amples of applying Chairman Mao'sgreat policies: "Make the past serve thepresent and foreign things serve China"and "Weed through the old to bringforth the new". These model revolu-tionary theatrical works are havingever more far-reaching influence onthe practical question of method inapproaching and dealing with thecultural Legacy.

But Chou Yang's eyes saw onlY the"foreign" and not the "Chinese", the

"past" and not the "present", the bour-geoisie of the West and not the Pro-Ietariat of the East. If one allowsbourgeois literature and art to leadoneself by the nose like Chou Yang,then "with every bit one assimilates"one would be playing the reactionar5rrole of rendering service "that muchmore" to Liu Shao-chi and comPanY'splot of national betrayal.

3C

Chairman Mao penetratingly pointsout: "Class capitulationism is actuallythe reserve force of national capitula-tionism." (The Situatton and Tasks inthe Anti-Japanese War AJter the FaIloJ Shanghai anil Taiguan) From"absolute conformity" to "unsurpass-able" and then to "total Westetniza-tion", Chou Yang crawled along afterLiu Shao-chi onto the road of renegingthe Party and betraying the country!

Springing from and maturing onsemi-colonial, sen-ri-feudal soi1, the Chi-nese bourgeoisie was extremely weakand backward in both Politics andculture. Its right wing, the compradorbourgeoisie, tailing after the Westernbourgeoisie at every move, sank to thecriminal perfidy of selling out themotherland. Chou Yang was preciselya representative of the bourgeoisie whopushed the line of national betrayal inculture. Of course he was not the onlyone. In China's contemporary cultural

31

history, Hu Shih was Chou Yang'sforerunner. Hu Shih and cornpanysaid that even the moon looked morebeautiful in the United States. In thesame tone Chou Yang Prated that the

bourgeois cu-Iture of the West was most

advanced, most scientific and excellent,and that we could never aspire to such

heights. Forerunner and disciple are

indeed a pair of sworn brothers in thesame boat. Is there any differencebetween them? Yes. It is this' HuShih was a cultural comPrador Ped-dling wares made in the U.S.A. ex-clusively while Chou Yang retailed a

notions counter of miscellaneous im-ported goods. There is no otherdifference.

Corry the Revolution Through to theEnd on the ldeologicol-Culturol Front

"There is no construction without de-

struction, no flowing u{thout damming

and no motion without rest." (MaoTsetung, On New Democracy) If thecurrent struggle-criticism-transforma-tion mass movement on the literary andart front is to be carried forward, wernust smash Chou Yang's reactionarytheories which lauded bourgeois litera-ture and art to the skies.

We must solve the question of cor-rectly appraising We-stern classicalIiterature and art. The so-called Ren-aissance, the Enlightenment and criticalrealism are all bourgeois classi-cism. Viewed from the historical ma-terialist viewpoint, just as imperialismand social-imperialism are the higheststage of capitalism, so literature andart of the bourgeois modernist schoolrepresent the last stage of bourgeoisliterature and art, which is heading forextinction.

But the revisionists in China andother countries have long placed thebourgeois literature and art classics

to

against the bourgeois modernist litera-ture and art, as if the former were notbourgeois but fine examples of "litera-ture and art of the whole people", whoseprestige was sullied by the modernistschool. What a fraud ! The two typesof bourgeois literature and art do havesome differences in artistry, the classicsproviding us with possible examples ofartistic form while there is nothing forus to learn from the modernist school.Viewed from class nature both are thesame, the latter being a malignant out-growth of the former. This is the in-evitable, logical result of the politicaland economic crises of the bourgeoisiein the 20th century, the era of impe-rialism and of proletarian revolution.

Under the dictatorship of the prole-tariat, the bourgeoisie adopts twomethods in attacking the proletariat onthe ideological-cultural front. One issimply to take over Iiterature and artworks of the modernist school, the other

34

is to use the so-called classics of litera-ture and art. What the bourgeoisieseeks in the classics is precisely the"paradise" it has lost and is trying athousand and one ways to "regain".There are still a number of people insociety, particularly the young, who arenot sufficiently aware of the classessence represented by the classics andfall easy prey to them. The proletariatmust therefore use Marxism to,thoroughly criticize the bourgeois clas-sics of literature and art.

Negative example shows the necessi-ty of such criticism: We need only touchthe "masters" of bourgeois classicalliterature and art and the Soviet revi-sionist renegade clique gets its back up-Soviet revisionist culture, which sanc-tifies the "masters" of bourgeois clas-sical literature and art, is also riddenwith "jazz", rock'n'roll and the whole,gamut of rubbish of the Westernmodernist school, and has made all this;

35

"the thing" in the Soviet Union. It isclear that the revisionists intend notonly to develop the carrion of themodernist schooL for their own purposes,but also to use the dead "classics" toexercise dictatorship over the prole-tariat and restore capitalism. They re-sort to these counter-revolutionary dualtactics simultaneously on the culturalfront. Sometimes they argue amongthemselves and even make a big row.Some opt for the modernist schoolwhile others would throw it out. Somerant about the "sanctity" of the oldtsars' barbarous ideology of aggression,while others rave how "civilized" therotten culture of U.S, imperialisrn is.These are essentially only spats over thetype of butcher's knife better for kill-ing people. The people can learn muchfrom this type of historical lesson. Fora long time Chou Yang and company,sanctifying the "masters" while don-ning the cloak of Marxism-Leninism,

36

spread a lot of poison in literature andthe social and natural sciences. We musthave a big ideological clean-up in orderto deflate the arrogance of the Westernbourgeoisie, raise the morale of theChinese proletariat and promote social-ist science and culture. This is a long-term revolutionary task, a task we mustgrasp firmly and carry through to theend.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Rev-olution has already achieved many greatvictories. A series of model revolution-ary theatrical works, born of the rev-olution in Peking opera, balet andsymphonic music, now shine with evergreater brilliance and exert ever great_er influence, inspiring us to furtherrevolutionizing and creation in everyphase of literature and art, as ChairmanMao directs. The counter-revolutionaryrevisionist line in literature and artpreached by Chou Yang has been shat-tered but the struggle between the two

37

classes and two lines on the ideological-cultural front is by no means over.Old ideologies and cultures will put upa desperate fight for survival. Newpoisonous weeds may sprout in variousbourgeois modernistic or classical artforms and vie with the proletariat forsupremacy. AII these decadent mani-festations are detrimental to the dicta-torship of the proletariat.

We must, therefore, continue fightingunder the guidance of Chairman Mao'sproletarian revolutionary line in litera-ture and art, and unfold the revolution-ary mass criticism on a still larger scale.We must criticize Liu Shao-chi's coun-ter-revolutionary revisionist line inpolitics and in literature and art, crit-icize the four bourgeois villains ChouYang, Hsia Yen, Tien Han and YangHan-sheng, criticize Confucius, Hu Shihand the "masters" they praised and allvarieties of bourgeois reactionary think-ing. This will enable the masses of

revolutionary literary and art workersto steel and remould themselves in therevolutionary mass criticism. We hopeall comrades on the various fronts willpay closer attention to and take a

greater part in this revolutionary mass

criticism movement so as to carry theclass struggle in the ideological spherethrough to the end and strive persistent-ly to establish and consolidate the all-round dictatorship of the proletariat inthe superstructure, including all fieldsof culture. Let us raise high the greatred banner of Marxism-Leninism-MaoTsetung Thought and plunge into theheat of battle to greet the new hightide of proletarian revolution in litera-ture and art!

- From Hongqi (Red Flag), No. 4, 1970

NOTESI The May 4th Movement was an anti-

imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionarymovement which began on May 4, 1919. Inthe first half of that year, the victors ofWorld War I, i.e., Britain, France, theUnited States, Japan, Italy and other im-perialist countries, met in Paris to dividethe spoils and decided that Japan shouldtake over all the privileges previously en-joyed by Germany in Shantung Province,China. The students of Peking were thefirst to show determined opposition to thisscheme, holding rallies and demonstrationson May 4. The Northern warlord govern-ment arrested more than thirty students inan effort to suppress this opposition. Inprotest, the students of Peking went onstrike and large numbers of students inother parts of the country responded. OnJune 3 the Northern warlord governmentstarted arresting students in Peking enmasse, and within two days about a thou-sand were taken into custody. This arousedstill greater indignation throughout thecountry. From June 5 onwards, the workersof Shanghai and many other cities went onstrike and the merchants in these placesshut their shops. Thus, what was at first

40

a patriotic movement consisting mainly ofintellectuals rapidly developed into a na-tional patriotic movement embracing theproletariat, the urban petty bourgeoisie andihe bourgeoisie. And along with the growthof this patriotic movement, the new cultur-al movement which had begun before May4 as a movement against feudalism and forthe progrew intionarycurrent was the propagation of Marxism-Leninism.

2Speech bY Chou Yang at the Forum onLiterary and Art Work (the second time),June 16, 1961.

3Speech by Chou Yang at the NationalConference on Cultural Work, December24, 7g5gi and "Build Marxist Aesthetics"(Lecture at Peking University, November22, t95B).

a Chou Yang's lecture at the Symposiumof Playwrights, JulY 1963.

5 Chou Yang's sPeech at the Forum onCreative Writing, February 20, 1959.

o "Build Marxist Aesthetics".T "Truthful writing", "the deepening of

realism" and "the broad path of realism"are counter-revolutionary revisionist fal-

4t

lacies on literature and art put forward byChou Yang and company, agents of therenegade, hidden traitor and scab LiuShao-chi in literary and art circles. Theyvainly tried to negate the principle of Partyspirit of proletarian literature and art andopposed literature and art serving theworkers, peasants and soldiers, opposed itserving proletarian politics. The nub ofthese fallacies is to oppose praising therevolutionary heroism of the proletariatand working people, oppose creating heroicimages of workers, peasants and soldiers,so as to undermine the dictatorship of theproletariat and pave the way for therestoration of capitalism. For example,"truthful writing" openly instigates bour-geois reactionary writers to "boldly exposethe truth of life", that is, to seek out theseamy Side of life in socialist society for thepurpose of smearing bright socialism.

"The deepening of realism" advocatesthat writers collect "old things" from themasses and then create complicated "mid-dle characters" and describe the contradic-tions of the innermost world of the "middlecharacters", that is, the backrvard charac-ters. In the eyes of Chou Yang and com-pany, through writing such works, realisnr

42

would be "deepened". The essence of ad-vocating this reactionary fallacy is to pourout and spread their scepticism of and dis-satisfaction with the socialist system andto oppose socialist revolution and socialistconstruction.

"The broad path of realism" alleges thatthe most correct and the broadest road ofserving the workers, peasants and soldiersis too cramped, for "it confines writers toa narrow unalterable path". It advocatesthat authors write whatever they likeaccording to "their own experience, cul-tivation, temperament and artistic indi-viduality", in an attempt to make writersabandon the political orientation of servingthe workers, peasants and soldiers for theexploration of "a vast area to bring theircreativeness into full play". This fullyreveals the vicious aims of Chou Yang andhis like to disintegrate the dictatorship ofthe proletariat and to restore capitalism.

8 Chou Yang's article "Strive to CreateMore Good Works of Literature and Art"h WenAi Bao (LiterarA Go.zette), No. 19,1953.

e Chou Yang's speech at the Conferenceon Editorial Work of Literary Magazinesconvened by the Union of Chinese Writers,December 1956.

43

to Chou Yang's speech at the Forum onCreative Writing, February 20, 1959.

Lt The Path of Socialist Literature andArt in China- Chou Yang's report to theThird Congress of Chinese Literary andArt Workers, JttLy 22, 7960.

12 Chou Yang's speech at the NationalConference on Creation of Feature Films,June 23, 1961.

13 "Speech of Greetings at the SecondAII-USSR Writers' Congress" by ChouYang, published in Wengi Bao, Nos. 23 &24, t954.

laSpeech by Chou Yang at the Forum onLiterary and Art Work (the second time),June 16, 1961.

15 Chou Yang's article "Preliminary Re-marks orr Realism" in Wenrue (Literature),Vol. VI, No. 1, 1936.

16,17 Chou Yang's article "On Cherny-shevsliy and His Aesthetics" in Life anilAesthetics, 1957.

LBWhat Is to Be Done?, Chinese ed.,Epoch Publishing House, 1951, p. 762.

le Speech by Chou Yang at the Forum onLiterary and Art Work (the second time),June 16,1961.

20 Chou Yang's article "The Question ofReforming Education in Art" in The Era ofPortraAing the Neu People, t949.

44

21 Chou Yang's report at the Conferenceof Cadres from the Cultural OrganizationsDirectly Under the Central AuthoritiesTaking Part in the "Four Cleans" Move-ment, November 24, 1964.

22 Chou Yang's article "The Question ofReforming Education in Art" in The Era o!Portraying the Neto PeoPIe, 1949,

45

Hi!iHFpfi&reidEEHH#EX*

4tHffiirHffi( rtH')ts77+<64rt)H'}ffi

fiB: (4)10050-69300016

to-E-tznPc