Comments by the Central Committee on the CPC Central Propaganda Department’s Report Concerning the Rectification and Study Campaign Among Literary and Artistic Cadres (November 26, 1951) To all Central Bureaus, with copy to sub-bureaus, party committees of provinces, municipalities directly under the central government, and autonomous regions; to the party leading groups of cultural departments at the same level and to the party leading groups of literary and artistic organizations:

(1) The Central Committee has approved the report submitted by the CPC Central Propaganda Department to the Central Committee on November 23, 1951[1], deeming it correct.

(2) All Central Bureaus, sub-bureaus, provincial committees, municipal committees, and district party committees are requested, together with the responsible comrades locally engaged in literary and artistic work, to carefully study this report. Following the Beijing model, they should launch a well-prepared, purposeful rectification and study campaign within the local literary and artistic circles, encouraging serious criticism and self-criticism so as to overcome erroneous ideas among literary and artistic cadres, promote sound thinking, and reorganize literary and artistic work, thereby guiding it toward healthy development. To ensure that this rectification campaign yields positive results, the responsible comrades of all Central Bureaus, sub-bureaus, provincial committees, municipal committees, and district party committees, as well as those of the Propaganda Department, must personally take firm charge of the leadership of the rectification movement in the literary and artistic circles. First, you are to submit your plans to the Central Committee and the CPC Central Propaganda Department for approval.

(3) This directive of the Central Committee, together with the report of the CPC Central Propaganda Department, may be published in Party publications and made available for review by sympathetic elements outside the Party.

Issued by the CPC Central Committee on November 26, 1951, based on Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft.

Notes [1] This report of the CPC Central Propaganda Department analyzes the achievements and shortcomings of literary and artistic work over the past two years, pointing out that, particularly in the leadership of such work, there has been a tendency to neglect ideological work, to become divorced from politics and the masses, and to pander to the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie. This has led to confusion on the literary and artistic front and has fostered certain phenomena of disorganization and indiscipline among Party cadres working in this field. In response, it was decided to conduct a rectification and study campaign among literary and artistic cadres in order to clarify the various erroneous ideas prevailing in the literary and artistic circles and to earnestly establish effective Party leadership over literary and artistic work. The report states that, in preparation for this study, the Propaganda Department convened a meeting of more than ten key Party cadres in the literary and artistic sphere, at which unanimous agreement was reached. According to the meeting’s assessment, the principal error in the leadership of literary and artistic work after entering the cities was a wavering in adherence to Mao Zedong’s policy on literature and art; in some respects, the influence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas had even usurped leadership. The meeting resolved that the main measures for improving literary and artistic work in the future would be: (1) to correct the state of detachment of literary and artistic work from Party leadership, regularly reporting important developments and problems to the Central Committee for instructions; (2) to thoroughly reorganize the work of all associations under the Federation of Literary and Artistic Circles, transforming them into centers for organizing writers to participate in practical struggles, engage in study, create, and carry out criticism and self-criticism; (3) to improve leadership over film production; (4) to rectify literary and artistic periodicals, making them serious and combative weapons; and (5) to wage a systematic struggle against bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas in the literary and artistic circles. ５£²