A Dialogue with Zhu Guang[1]

(September 1937)

Zhu Guang: When we meet, we split it half and half.

Mao Zedong: This is outrageous!

Zhu Guang: The cursive and clerical scripts of Wang Xizhi and his son have already blossomed and been sublimated under your brush. As for the calligraphy of Yan, Liu, Ou, and Zhao, you have long had a foundation in copying them. Let’s set aside the model calligraphy books for now—the plays should go to me.

Mao Zedong: Who says they should go to you? Shakespeare was a great master of drama for an age. Marx loved reading his books; his second son-in-law said that in Marx’s household there was a veritable cult of Shakespeare worship, and his youngest daughter said Shakespeare was the family’s “Bible.” … Of course, there are also those who oppose him. Napoleon said that Shakespeare’s miscellanies are unreadable and pitiful. As for me, I stand for fairness. Marx was correct! I am a follower of Marxism. How could I let the matter of ownership of Shakespeare’s works be settled amicably with you, Zhu Guang?

Zhu Guang: I am a veteran of the Southern China Society,[2] and I have the right to decide to whom the plays belong.

[1] After the victory at the Battle of Pingxingguan in 1937, a young writer, on his way from Mount Wutai to Yan’an, picked up from the bombed-out ruins left by the Japanese army four famous volumes of Shakespeare—Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream—as well as two volumes each of Shi Suo (Stone Rubbings) and Can Tie of the Sanxi Hall (Remnant Model Calligraphy from the Hall of Three Rarities). He regarded them as treasures. Although Commander-in-Chief Zhu De repeatedly issued orders to travel light, the writer could never bear to part with them. Upon arriving in Yan’an, through an introduction by Zhu Guang, this writer met Mao Zedong. This is the main content of the dialogue between Mao Zedong and Zhu Guang concerning these books.

[2] When Zhu Guang was in Shanghai, he once organized the Southern China Drama Society under the leadership of the underground Party to carry out revolutionary propaganda activities.

Zhu Guang: Wouldn’t this distribution be reasonable?!

Mao Zedong: Since the authority rests with you, I can only comply. But I must ask you, you call yourself a veteran of the Southern China Society—can you still perform Shakespeare’s spoken dramas today?

Zhu Guang: Listen to me recite a monologue…

(Zhu Guang’s impromptu recitation was delivered with full emotion and expression; the only flaw was a mixed-in Hakka accent.)

Mao Zedong: Your accent is not sufficiently standardized in the national language.

Zhu Guang: But my performance, would you say it was brilliant?

Mao Zedong: In that case, when you perform Othello, I must be present to benefit from your instruction!

Zhu Guang: I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare!

[1] Zhu Guang obtained Othello, King Lear, and the Shi Suo model calligraphy books. Mao Zedong obtained Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Can Tie of the Sanxi Hall.