Zhou Yang: A Lifetime of Struggle for the Cause of Socialist Literature and Art

Zhou Yang (1908-1989), pen name Zhou Qiying and Yunyi, a native of Yiyang, Hunan, was a Marxist literary and art theorist. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1927. He graduated from Daxia University in Shanghai in 1928 and studied in Japan in the same year. In 1930, he returned to Shanghai and led the Left-Wing Revolutionary Literary and Art Movement in China, serving as the secretary of the Left League Party Group, the secretary of the Cultural Committee of the Shanghai Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China and the secretary of the General League of Culture, and the editor-in-chief of the Left League organ "Literature Monthly". After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, he went to Yan'an in the autumn of 1937. He has successively served as director of the Department of Education of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, vice president and dean of Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Literature, president of Yan'an University, vice president of North China Union University, director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Bureau of Jin-Cha-Ji and North China Bureau, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, vice minister of culture and secretary of the party leading group, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, dean of the Graduate School, member of the Faculty, vice chairman and chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and vice chairman of the China Writers Association. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, a member of the Central Advisory Committee, a deputy to the First, Second and Third National People's Congresses, a member of the Standing Committee and the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an alternate member of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a member of the Eleventh Central Committee, and a representative of the Twelfth Party Congress. He began publishing in 1928. Zhou Yang wrote articles including "On National Defense Literature" (1934), "Preface to Marxism and Literature and Art" (1944), "Serving the Broadest Masses of the People" (1962), "Three Great Ideological Emancipation Movements" (1979), and "Discussion on Several Theoretical Issues of Marxism" (1983). In 1952, he joined the Chinese Writers Association. He is the author of a collection of essays, "The Era of Expressing the New Masses", "Resolutely Implementing Mao Zedong's Literary and Artistic Line", translated the novel "Anna Karenina", "Life and Aesthetics", selected "Marxism and Literature and Art", and published "Zhou Yang's Collected Writings" (five volumes).

　　In the course of the cpc's century-long development, Zhou Yang has made many major contributions to the cause of socialist literature and art and the development of Marxist literature and art; he has held important leading positions for a long time, bringing together politicians and writers and artists, and is a famous Marxist literary and art theorist in the history of modern Chinese literature and art and one of the pioneers of the proletarian revolutionary literary movement. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the 14th collective study of the Politburo of the Central Committee: We must adhere to the "big historical concept" and understand and grasp the May Fourth Movement in the 5,000-year history of civilization of the Chinese nation, the history of the struggle of the Chinese people for more than 170 years since modern times, and the history of the struggle of the Communist Party of China for more than 90 years, and the 500-year history of world socialism is also an important perspective. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his speech at the mobilization meeting for the study and education of party history: "It is necessary to educate and guide the whole party to bear in mind the overall situation of the great rejuvenation strategy of the Chinese nation and the great changes in the world that have not occurred in a hundred years, establish a big historical concept, analyze the evolution mechanism from the long river of history, the tide of the times, and the global situation, and explore the laws of history." This "big historical view" provides a theoretical basis for our scientific evaluation of Zhou Yang's historical contributions today: Judging from the history of China's modernization in the past 200 years, Zhou Yang is the promoter of literary and artistic modernization and has made contributions to the development of China's modern literature and art and to the modernization of the Chinese nation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China; judging from the history of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years, he is a promoter of the nationalization of literature and art, and has made important contributions to promoting the nationalization and popularization of Modern Chinese literature and art and the integration of China's outstanding traditional culture into the cause of modernization Judging from the history of world socialism for more than 500 years, Mao Zedong Thought on Literature and Art is an important theoretical achievement in the development of world Marxist literature in China, and as an important interpreter, Zhou Yang has made contributions to the development of socialist literature and art in China and the development of world Marxist literature.

　　Participants and promoters of literary and artistic modernization

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "From the perspective of thousands of years of history, change and opening up are generally the historical norm of China. "Realizing modernization is the inherent need of the Chinese nation's own reform, opening up and development. The unique historical situation of late-developing modernization has made "seeking new knowledge outside the territory" or "seeking new voices in foreign countries", studying abroad, translating and introducing ideas outside the region, etc., one of the important ways for a generation of advanced intellectuals to explore the road of China's modernization. When Zhou Yang was in college, he began to contact Marxism. After graduating from university in 1928, he studied briefly in Japan, came into contact with left-wing culture, befriended left-wing progressives, purchased a large number of left-wing English books, read literary and artistic works in Asia, Europe and the Americas, and especially had a unique understanding of Soviet and Russian literary and artistic works. Since then, translating and studying foreign literature and art and theories has become an important part of Zhou Yang's literary and artistic activities. He has translated short stories by American writers Gorde, Soviet novels "The Great Love", "Anna Karenina", "Orof and His Wife", "Life and Aesthetics" and "Chernyshevsky Anthology", etc., and published papers such as "On American Proletarian Writers" and "Overview of Brazilian Literature", especially on Chernyshevsky, Gorky and so on. These translations and research work have played an important role in promoting the modernization of Chinese literature and art.

　　Zhou Yang called the May Fourth Movement the first "great ideological emancipation movement" experienced by the Chinese people, and it was under the inspiration of the May Fourth spirit that he himself embarked on the road of engaging in revolutionary literature and art. The May Fourth Movement ushered in the modernization process of Chinese literature and art and culture, and as a witness to the May Fourth New Literature and a critic of Marxist literature, Zhou Yang commented on and studied the works of many modern writers such as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Tian Han, Cao Yu, Lao She, Zhao Shuli and many other modern writers. During the Yan'an period, he lectured on the "History of Chinese Literary and Art Movements" and compiled the "Outline of Lecture Notes on the History of new literary movements". After the founding of New China, he organized and led the construction of textbooks for liberal arts, including literary and art theory, and put forward important and specific opinions on the compilation of the national unified textbook "History of Modern Chinese Literature". During the period of reform and opening up, Zhou Yang put forward the concept of "literature and art in the new period" and actively promoted the ideological emancipation movement in the literary and art circles and the implementation of the "double hundred" and "two for" principles. Zhou Yang played an important role in promoting the development stage of the "May Fourth New Literature", "Seventeen Years of Literature and Art" and "Literature and Art in the New Period" in the history of Chinese literary and art modernization, and had an important influence on the writing and theoretical construction of modern Chinese literary and art history.

　　During the Yan'an period, Zhou Yang began to directly engage in the organization of the party's literary and artistic undertakings. After the founding of New China, he served as vice chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Writers' Association, was appointed to preside over three literary congresses, and made reports that were reviewed and revised by Mao Zedong, thus playing an important role in organizing literary and art workers and leading the development of socialist literary and artistic undertakings. At the enlarged meeting of the Second Council of the Chinese Writers Association held in 1956, Zhou Yang gave a long report entitled "The Task of Building Socialist Literature". In 1961, he discussed with Yuan Shuipai, Zhang Guangnian and others the draft Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Current Literary and Artistic Work (Draft) (hereinafter referred to as the "Eight Articles of Literature and Art"). After the comeback of the new era, he returned to the work of literature and art. In 1981, he summoned Lin Mohan and others to discuss the drafting of a new "Eight Articles of Literature and Art.". These tasks have played an important role in promoting the modernization of Chinese literature and art and the development of socialist literary and artistic undertakings under the leadership of the Party.

　　Promoter and leader of the nationalization of literature and art

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed: "Chinese Communists are not historical nihilists, nor are they cultural nihilists", "Chinese Communists have always been the faithful inheritors and promoters of China's excellent traditional culture". Integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific reality and China's excellent traditional culture, and realizing and constantly promoting the sinification of Marxism is the basic successful experience achieved by the party in its century-long development process. In this regard, Zhou Yang has always been a promoter and leader of the nationalization of literature and art.

　　The literary and artistic popularization movement during the "Left Alliance" period raised the issue of national form under the new situation of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and Zhou Yang actively participated in the discussion. In his later article "A View on the Use of Old Forms in Literature," he pointed out: "Absorbing the fine elements of the old national and folk art forms into the new literature and art, giving fresh and robust nutrition to the new literature and art, making the new literature and art more national, popular, more solid and richer," and "writing Chinese on the basis of living authenticity" will be "Chinese style and Chinese style" and "real national form." Mao Zedong pointed out in "On New Democracy": "The form of the nation, the content of new democracy -- this is our new culture today", and the "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art" further clearly pointed out the fundamental way to realize the popularization of literature and art and establish a national form. As the interpreter of Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought, Zhou Yang has always had a continuous theoretical discussion on the issue of the national form of literature and art.

　　After the founding of New China, Zhou Yang directly organized and promoted the development of the nationalization of literature and art, especially in the reform and development of national opera art. At the 1950 National Opera Work Conference, he made an opening speech and a summary report, stressing the need for opera, which is "the theatrical artistic heritage of the Chinese nation," as the "tradition" and "foundation" of "the new Chinese national drama." The "Instructions on the Reform of Opera", drafted on the basis of this summary report and approved and issued by Zhou Enlai, became the programmatic guidelines for the reform of opera in New China. At the First National Opera Observation and Performance Conference in 1952, Zhou Yang made a long summary report on "Reforming and Developing National Opera Art", in addition to "On how to inherit the national heritage in drama" and other reports. At the first national conference on opera repertoire work in 1956, Zhou Yang also made a long report. He stressed that "the new culture and new art of socialism must be built on the basis of national cultural traditions", and that "Chinese opera is the best example of nationalization in terms of language and structure", and "China's opera is a heritage that lives in the folk, and it has both classical and folk flavors." Its people's nature is very strong; its unique and concise performing arts have aroused the astonishment of the world," and it is necessary to "innovate the old" in a dialectical way, "inherit and innovate the outstanding literary and artistic heritage of our country and make them a part of the advanced socialist culture," "make the new literature and art of all forms and genres have more dazzling national characteristics," and develop "a variety of socialist new national literature and art." These literary and artistic ideas and related organizational activities have played an important role in promoting the nationalization of the creation of new Chinese dramas. The nationalization of literary and artistic creation is closely linked to the popularization and folk art, etc. In this regard, Zhou Yang has published "Speech at the Inaugural Meeting of the Mass Literary and Art Creation Research Association" and "Opening Speech of the Inaugural Meeting of the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Research Association", and organized and promoted the development of the New Folk Song Movement.

　　In the new period of reform and opening up, Zhou Yang made a long speech entitled "Further Innovating and Developing the Art of Opera" at the 1980 Xiqu Repertoire Work Forum, stressing that "the spiritual civilization we want to build should also have Chinese characteristics." In his later years, he also reflected: "In the early days of national liberation, we were wary of the mistakes made by the 'proletarian cultural faction' and adopted a more cautious attitude towards the cultural heritage of our country, especially the drama, so we made fewer mistakes and made more remarkable achievements. Avoiding the negative effects of cultural and historical nihilism such as the "proletarian cultural faction" is also one of the reasons why the "Seventeen Years of Literature and Art" have made remarkable achievements, and Zhou Yang has made many contributions to this.

　　In addition, Zhou Yang also delivered speeches such as "Guidelines and Practices on the Collation and Publication of Ancient Books", constantly promoting the integration of China's excellent traditional cultural resources into socialist literature, art and cultural development. Since the new period, Zhou Yang has also written "Building a Socialist and National Musical Culture -- Speech at the Symposium on Music Creation" and so on. During the inaugural meeting of the Society for the "Wenxin Carved Dragon," an important classic of ancient Chinese literary theory, in response to a question from a reporter from the "Social Science Front," Zhou Yang put forward "the question of building Marxist literary and art theory with Chinese national characteristics," pointed out that the theoretical heritage of ancient Chinese literature is very rich and precious, and stressed that the construction of Marxist literary and art theory must have its own national foundation.

　　Builder of the sinicization of Marxist literature

　　Zhou Yang made outstanding contributions to the development of Marxist literary theory and socialist literature and art in China. He wrote an epilogue to "Marx, Engels, Lenin on Art", selected and edited "Marxism and Literature and Art" and wrote a preface, which played an important role in the spread of Marxist literary and artistic ideas in China. During the "Left Alliance" period, Zhou Yang actively translated and introduced documents such as the development of Literature and Art in the Soviet Union, and was the first to comprehensively and completely explain the theory of socialist realism. Since then, he has been using Marxism as the guide to continuously discuss the basic theoretical issues of realism and romanticism in literature and art. After the founding of New China, Zhou Yang published "Establishing China's Own Marxist Literary and Art Theory and Criticism" and so on, constantly promoting the development of Marxist literary theory in China.

　　Zhou Yang described himself as "a propagandist and practitioner of Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought." An important theoretical achievement in the development of Marxist literary and artistic thought in China is Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought, and its classic is Mao Zedong's "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art." As one of the constructors of Chinese Marxist literary theory, Zhou Yang's outstanding theoretical contributions were first reflected in the interpretation, research and propaganda of the Speech. After arriving in Yan'an in 1937, he began to associate with Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong communicated with Zhou Yang as a theoretician and listened to Zhou Yang's opinions when revising the "Theory of New Democracy." Most of the more than a dozen 10,000-word essays written by Zhou Yang during the Yan'an period were submitted to Mao Zedong for review before they were published, and Mao Zedong made dozens of revisions and annotations to Zhou Yang's article "A View on the Use of Old Forms in Literature." In 1942, Zhou Yang assisted in the preparation of the Yan'an Literary and Art Symposium, collecting opinions, arguments, and creations of "Lu Yi" writers and artists and submitting them to Mao Zedong. Zhou Yang listened to Mao Zedong's "Introduction" report at the first meeting of the forum, organized discussions after the meeting, and made a long speech at the second meeting. Since then, Zhou Yang has become a research interpreter and propagandist of the spirit of the "Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum", and has made significant contributions to the development of Chinese-style Marxist literary and artistic thought.

　　After the founding of New China, Zhou Yang published "The Tenth Anniversary of the Publication of Comrade Mao Zedong's Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art," "Speech at the Symposium on the Syllabus of the Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art," and "Serving the Broadest Masses of the People:-Commemorating the Twentieth Anniversary of Comrade Mao Zedong's Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art." At the same time, he also implemented the spirit of the "Speech" in the theoretical study and criticism of the popularization of literature and art, nationalization, the relationship between literature and art and politics, and literary and artistic realism, and organized and led the development of socialist literary and artistic undertakings with the spirit of the "Speech." Deng Xiaoping's "Congratulatory Speech at the Fourth Congress of Chinese Literary and Artistic Workers" is another classic document for the sinification of Marxist literature. At the current congress, Zhou Yang made a keynote speech entitled "Inheriting the Past and Opening Up the Future, Prospering Literature and Art in the New Socialist Period," which played an important role in the further development of the sinification of Marxist literature and literature in the new period.

　　View the historical contributions of Zhou Yang and his literary thought from the perspective of the great history

　　The above sorting out of Zhou Yangwen's ideological and historical contributions will inevitably be missing a million. In the course of a century of development, the Communist Party of China has led the Chinese nation, which has a history of civilization of more than 5,000 years, to embark on the correct road of modernization and achieved great success, and China's socialist revolution and construction are also an important part of the socialist movement in the modern world. Throughout his life, Zhou Yang was closely related to the modern rejuvenation of the Chinese nation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the prosperity and development of socialist literary and artistic undertakings, and his position and role in the history of modern literature and art were closely related to Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought, which is the crystallization of Sinicized Marxist literary theory.

　　Confined to excessive academicization and narrow vision of specialization, for some time, some researchers have not been able to fully understand the historical position of Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought in the history of modern literary and artistic thought in China and even in the world. In recent years, with the broadening of research horizons and the deepening of theoretical discussions, the understanding of these aspects has been initially improved. The study found that Mao Zedong's works were widely disseminated abroad, and in 1954 the British translated and published the English version of the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" Volume 1, in 1959 Iceland published the first volume of the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", and in the early 1960s the United States published two English editions of the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong". Some scholars pointed out: "The external dissemination of Mao Zedong's works is the first time in the history of the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture in more than 400 years since the beginning of the spread of Chinese culture by Western missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty. "The judgment that China has only accepted Western influence in one direction since modernization is untenable. Judging from the history of modern literary theory, in 1949 France published the French translation of Mao Zedong's "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art", and in 1950, the United States and Britain published the English translation of "Speech" almost at the same time; western literary theorist Marserei quoted much of the "Speech", and Mao Zedong's philosophy and literary and artistic thought also had a lot of influence on Western theorists such as Althusser, Sartre, Beauvoir, Badio, and Jameson. As the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Chinese Communists and the crystallization of the collective wisdom of chinese Marxist literary and artistic thought researchers, Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought has an extremely wide world influence. Only by proceeding from the "big historical view" put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping can we fully reveal this world influence and also reveal the historical contribution of Zhou Yang, who is the interpreter of Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought.

　　Judging from the three major historical frameworks involved in the "great historical view": In the nearly 200 years of China's modernization history, China's advanced intellectuals "sought new knowledge outside the territory" and criticized the old feudal culture for the independence and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. To understand this historical choice of Zhou Yang and other advanced intellectuals and the broad masses of Chinese people, it is necessary to fully integrate it with the history of world socialism for more than 500 years. The history of the Opium War to the May Fourth Movement shows that it is no longer feasible for China, which was a latecomer to modernize, to achieve national independence and rejuvenation by copying the Western capitalist road; the "October Revolution" in Russia marks that world history has entered the era of socialist revolution, the Chinese people have conformed to the general trend of world historical progress and "stood on the right side of history" to choose socialism, world socialism has also opened up a development path in China, and the Chinese nation has taken a major historical turn in the modernization road of seeking its own independence and rejuvenation. At the beginning of the birth of capitalism, there was a utopian socialist idea that criticized capitalism, and with the maturity and development of capitalism, Marx and Engels developed utopian (utopian) socialism into scientific socialism, and the Russian "October Revolution" further transformed this idea into practice. This shows that in the overall pattern of modernization of human society and its ideas, socialism and capitalism develop side by side, and not only capitalism has the so-called "modernity", but socialism and its ideas also have modernity and have a stronger progressiveness. As the leader of the modernization and development of the Chinese nation, the thinking of the Chinese Communists is both modern and progressive, which is also reflected in Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought. As the interpreter of Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought and the builder of Sinicized Marxist literary theory, the ideas of Zhou Yang and other Chinese Marxist literary researchers also have this modern, progressive and universal significance, and have an important historical position in the history of modern literary and artistic thought in China and even the world, which has important enlightenment for our adherence to theoretical self-confidence in Marxism today.

　　Judging from the history of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years, "reform and opening up are generally the historical norm of China", embarking on the road of modernization is also the inherent need of the Chinese nation's own reform, opening up and development. This is reflected in the continuous development of the sinification of Marxism, and Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought is also an important result of the modernization and development of China's outstanding literary and artistic thought; the thinking of Zhou Yang and other Chinese Marxist literary researchers is also highly national, and has made important contributions to the innovative development of China's outstanding literary and artistic thought in the process of modernization, and still has important enlightenment for our firm cultural self-confidence today.

　　In short, the century-old history of the Communist Party of China constitutes the backbone of the modernization history of the Chinese nation, which has entered the era of socialist revolution in world history and has a long history of civilization for 5,000 years. In line with the trend of world development and progress, the CPC led the Chinese people to victory in the socialist revolution, realized the historic leap of the Chinese nation in "standing up," opened up the cause of socialist construction, and made major achievements. In the 1990s, the development of world socialism fell into a trough, while China continued to hold high the banner of scientific socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, achieved a historic leap from "getting rich" to "becoming strong", and opened up a beautiful future for world socialism and human society -- this century-old history has fully proved the correctness of the Chinese nation, the Chinese people's choice of the Communist Party of China - only in such a large historical framework can the historical contributions of Marxist literary and art theorists such as Zhou Yang be fully revealed. From the perspective of theoretical resources, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that to build a philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics, it is necessary to fully absorb the resources of Marxism, the resources of China's excellent traditional culture, and the resources of foreign philosophy and social sciences. Zhou Yang's contribution to literature and art with Chinese characteristics is also first reflected in the full absorption of these three major resources. Today, only by bearing in mind the overall situation of the great rejuvenation strategy of the Chinese nation and the great changes in the world that have not occurred in a hundred years, establishing a great historical outlook, conforming to the general trend of world development and progress, always "standing on the right side of history," and sharing solidarity with the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation, can the literary and theoretical circles make a difference in building literature and art with Chinese characteristics, which is an important enlightenment left to us by Zhou Yang.

　　(Author Affilications:Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Liu Fangxi