The Party’s literary and artistic policy ought to be adjusted: over the course of one, two, or three years, we should gradually expand the range of literary and artistic programs.
There is a shortage of poetry, novels, essays, and literary criticism.
As for writers, we should both punish past mistakes as a warning to others and help them reform; unless they are counterrevolutionaries concealing serious anti-revolutionary activities, we must assist them.
Lu Xun [2] was attacked at that time by Hu Shi, the Creation Society, the Sun Society, the Crescent Moon Society [3], and the Kuomintang.
Had Lu Xun still been alive, he would not have approved keeping people like Zhou Yang [4] imprisoned for such a long time.
It has become divorced from the masses.
We already have “Dream of the Red Chamber” and “Water Margin,” and they have been published and distributed.
We cannot act hastily. We should gradually revitalize the scene over one or two years; three, four, or even five years would also be acceptable.
What have we to fear? In 1957 the rightists launched a frenzied offensive [5]. We published in the newspapers the very insults they hurled at us, and in the end we repelled their attack.
The earlier version of “Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains” [6] omitted the Second and Fourth Front Armies, which was undesirable.
I understand it has now been revised to correct this.
Literary and artistic issues are questions of ideology, but we must proceed with caution. The people cannot offer an informed critique if they are not presented with the relevant materials.
After the publication of “Anti-Dühring,” Berlin University dismissed Dühring [7] from his post. Engels was displeased: debate is one thing, but why remove him from office? Dühring lived to be over eighty, yet his reputation remained poor.
When meting out disciplinary measures, we must exercise care. To constantly threaten dismissal or imprisonment is symptomatic of nervous exhaustion.
If Lin Biao [8] had not fled, we would not have executed him; however, he certainly deserved censure.
During Chiang Kai-shek’s rule, the newspapers, radio, schools, and films were all under their control, enabling them to deceive the populace.
That is precisely where we ourselves originated.
For thirteen years I studied Confucius [9] and bourgeois ideas, yet I knew nothing of Marxism-Leninism. It was only after the October Revolution that I began to study Marxism-Leninism; previously, I had no knowledge of it.
The reactionaries possessed little real power. They lived off exploitation, and their troops were conscripted by force. Therefore, we had no reason to fear them.
It was Lin Biao who was afraid of death. When ordered to attack Jinzhou, he refused to do so. Only in the final two days did he advance, capturing 100,000 enemy soldiers.
We subsequently annihilated Liao Yaoxiang [10].
Changchun and Shenyang were liberated.
The release of prisoners was handled skillfully, greatly alarming the Kuomintang.


Printed based on the transcript of the conversation preserved in the Central Archives.


II. This film contains no major flaws and is recommended for release.
We should not demand perfection.
Moreover, the ten charges leveled against it are excessive—far too many—and hinder the adjustment of the Party’s literary and artistic policy.


Mao Zedong, July 25, 1975, printed according to the November 5, 1976 issue of the People’s Daily.


Notes [1] This first section consists of Mao Zedong’s conversation with Jiang Qing.
This second section comprises Mao Zedong’s annotations on a letter from Zhang Tianmin, the screenwriter of the film “Founding of a Nation.” In the letter, Jiang Qing (then a member of the CPC Central Political Bureau) and the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Culture had criticized “Founding of a Nation,” accusing it of “serious political and artistic errors” and listing ten specific objections. Zhang Tianmin offered a different perspective and suggested that the film be re-released.


[2] Lu Xun: see note [18] on page 395 of this volume.


[3] Hu Shi: see note [9] on page 46 of this volume.
The Creation Society was a literary group associated with the May Fourth New Culture Movement. Founded in Japan in 1921, its members were mostly young Chinese students studying there. Prominent figures included Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, and Cheng Fangwu. Their work was characterized by an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal stance and an active romanticism. In 1929, the society was banned by the Kuomintang government. Most of its members later joined the League of Left-Wing Writers.
The Sun Society was a revolutionary literary organization established in 1927. Its leading members included Jiang Guangci, Qian Xingcun, and Hong Lingfei. It played an active role in propagating theories of revolutionary literature and in fostering its creative practice. In the spring of 1930, all its members joined the League of Left-Wing Writers.
The Crescent Moon Society was a group dedicated to modern poetry, founded in 1923. Its prominent figures included Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo, Liang Shiqiu, and Wen Yiduo. They emphasized the aesthetic beauty of poetry, thereby enriching and elevating poetic technique. However, some members opposed revolution and revolutionary literature. The society ceased operations in 1933.


[4] Zhou Yang (1908–1989), from Yiyang, Hunan Province, formerly served as Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Propaganda Department, Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Writers Association. During the Cultural Revolution, he was wrongly branded as a “representative figure of the ‘black line’ in literature and art” and was subjected to prolonged detention. Shortly after this conversation with Mao Zedong, Zhou Yang was released. In 1979, a decision by the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Culture, approved by the CPC Central Propaganda Department, stated that seventeen years after liberation, there had never been any “black line in literature and art” nor any so-called “representatives of the black line” such as Zhou Yang. All those who had been persecuted and slandered due to these fabricated charges were to be fully rehabilitated.


[5] See note [4] on page 311 of this volume.


[6] “Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains” is a ten-act play depicting the Long March of the Red Army, first staged in 1955 by the General Political Department Drama Troupe of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In 1964, Mao Zedong attended a performance and commended certain plot points and characters, while offering suggestions for better portraying the Red Army’s unified combat across its various fronts. After repeated revisions, the play was restaged on October 1, 1974.


[7] Eugen Dühring (1833–1921), a German philosopher and vulgar economist, once served as a lecturer at the University of Berlin. He advocated for a “comprehensive transformation” of philosophy, political economy, and socialist theory, openly opposing Marxism. In his book “Anti-Dühring,” written between 1876 and 1878, Engels systematically critiqued Dühring’s theoretical system. In 1877, Dühring was stripped of his teaching position for publicly denouncing Professor Helmholtz of the University of Berlin’s physics department.


[8] Lin Biao (1907–1971), from Huanggang, Hubei Province, formerly held the posts of Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. During the Cultural Revolution, he formed a counterrevolutionary clique together with Chen Boda and colluded with Jiang Qing’s counterrevolutionary faction, competing with her for supreme leadership of the Party and the state. Upon exposure of their conspiracy, he fled abroad by plane on September 13, 1971, and died in a plane crash near Ulaan Khuur in Mongolia. In August 1973, the CPC Central Committee passed a resolution expelling Lin Biao from the Party. In 1981, a special tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China formally designated him as the principal culprit in the counterrevolutionary case.


[9] Confucius.
A thinker, statesman, and educator of the late Spring and Autumn period, and the founder of Confucianism.


[10] Liao Yaoxiang (1906–1968), from Shaoyang, Hunan Province, formerly served as Lieutenant General and Commander of the Kuomintang’s Ninth War Zone. At the end of October 1948, during the second phase of the Liaoshen Campaign, his entire force was annihilated, and he was taken prisoner.