Mao Zedong's Comment on Lin Biao's Talk Regarding Army Cultural and Art Work
(June 4, 1964)

For Jiang Qing to read. Also, on June 5, go and have a talk with Comrade Lin Biao, and tell him that I completely endorse his views. His views are very good and very timely.

Mao Zedong
June 4

[1] This comment was written on Issue No. 131 of *Work Bulletin*, compiled and printed by the General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on June 2, 1964. This issue of the bulletin carried a talk on army cultural and art work delivered by Lin Biao, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of National Defense, on May 9 of the same year, after hearing a report by Liu Zhijian and Fu Zhong, Deputy Directors of the General Political Department, and Chen Qitong, Deputy Director of the Cultural Department of the General Political Department, on the Third All-Army Theatrical Festival. The talk stated that the purpose of proletarian literature and art is to unite the people, educate the people, inspire the fighting will of the revolutionary people, disintegrate the enemy, and annihilate the enemy. Army cultural and art work must be closely integrated with the army's tasks and ideological conditions, serving to promote the proletarian and eliminate the bourgeois, and to consolidate and enhance combat effectiveness. The key to cultural and art work still lies in grasping creative work; to do creative work well, it is necessary to achieve the three-way combination of leadership, professionals, and the masses. The leadership should set the topics, assign tasks, and make overall arrangements. To do creative work well, cultural and art workers must possess the three solid skills of studying Chairman Mao's works, going deep into life, and practicing basic techniques. Creative personnel should simultaneously observe, think, write, and revise. Revolutionary literature and art must have two standards, namely the political standard and the artistic standard; the two are not mixed but chemically combined. Army cultural and art work should produce "Number One Scholars" in every field. "Number One Scholars" emerge through competition; they should first compete within military regions, then on an army-wide scale, and then nationwide, and should also strive to reach a level worthy of competing on a world scale.