Beijing Review: "Great Truth, Sharp Weapon," June 2, 1967 This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

Source: "Great Truth, Sharp Weapon," Beijing Review 10, no. 23, 2 June 1967, 17-19.

Transcribed by an HC, April 8, 2005


BEIJING REVIEW

June 2, 1967


Great Truth, Sharp Weapon

[Transcriber's introduction (April 8, 2005): The below articles touches on the relationship between the struggle in literature and art (including film), on the one hand, and cultural revolution. Various revisionists today still take anti-realist, humynist, Liberal, opportunist and subjectivist (and typically and inevitably pro-imperialist and patriarchal) approaches toward literature and art. Later, after they have wormed their way into the party or arisen from the new bourgeoisie, they will act surprised when they are criticized during the literary struggle. Though the below article's emphasis is on the literary struggle after the seizure of power and during the cultural revolution, and the struggle against the new bourgeoisie, none of these incorrect approaches, humynism, etc., are ever justified even before the seizure of power.

MIM does not let reactionary ideas slide while doing culture reviews for the sake of pandering to the majority--especially when the majority in North Amerika is exploiters and oppressors. MIM does not imitate the bourgeois literary and art critics. To justify their failure to attack reactionary art, the Liberals and dogmatists unite. The Liberals do not want any political criticism of any art or any mention of that word "ban." The dogmatists believe there is no good art worth talking about in the first place, and many proceed from that point to a Liberal line of not bothering.]

Chairman Mao's five documents on literature and art published for the first time have creatively developed Marxist-Leninist theory on literature and art, class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. They are the guide for overcoming the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes, developing socialist literature and art, preventing the revisionists from usurping the leadership of the Party and government and for consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat. They are the programmatic documents for the great proletarian cultural revolution.

When Chairman Mao expounded his theories on the contradictions in socialist society and on classes and class struggle at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, he pointed out: "The use of the novel for anti-Party activities is quite an invention. To overthrow a political power, it is always necessary, first of all, to create public opinion, to do work in the ideological sphere. This is true for the revolutionary class as well as for the counter-revolutionary class."

This profound thesis tells us that class struggle in socialist society is concentrated on one point, that is, the struggle between the proletariat which wants to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie which wants to overthrow it. To carry out its criminal activities to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, first of all, must always create public opinion and do work in the ideological sphere, and it must always emphasize the use of the weapon of literature and art.

In the 17 years since the founding of New China, the soul-stirring class struggles that have taken place one on the heels of another on the literary and art front are centred on political power. Backed to the hilt by the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road, the group of counter-revolutionary revisionists on the ideological and cultural front -- such as Lu Ting-yi, Chou Yang, Chi Yen-ming, Hsia Yen, Lin Mo-han and Peng Chen, ringleader of the counter-revolutionary revisionists of the former Peking Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party -- carried out activities in drama, cinema, fiction and theory on literature and art which were all aimed at creating public opinion for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the proletariat. On the other hand, the struggle waged by the proletarian revolutionary fighters on the literary and art front under the leadership of the great leader Chairman Mao has been aimed at eliminating public opinion for counter-revolutionary revisionism and consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat.

As far back as 1944, in his "Letter to the Yenan Peking Opera Theatre After Seeing Driven to Join the Liangshan Mountain Rebels," Chairman Mao wrote: "history is made by the people, yet the old opera (and all the old literature and art, which are divorced from the people) presents the people as though they were dirt, and the stage is dominated by lords and ladies and their pampered sons and daughters. Now you have reversed this reversal of history and restored historical truth, and thus a new life is opening up for the old opera. That is why this merits congratulations. The initiative you have taken marks an epoch-making beginning in the revolutionization of the old opera. I am very happy at the thought of this. I hope you will write more plays and give more performances, and so help make this practice a common one which will prevail throughout the country." Here Chairman Mao warmly supported the beginning of revolution in the old opera and indicated the road to revolutionizing the old opera and literature and art. Revolutionary workers in the theatre and all other revolutionary literary and art workers have advanced along this bright road. But the counter-revolutionary revisionists, supported by the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road, did exactly the opposite. Especially after the founding of New China, they went even further and adopted two-faced counter-revolutionary tactics to oppose the directives of Chairman Mao; and they used the power in their hands and the literary and art front they controlled to create public opinion for a bourgeois counter-revolutionary come-back. They allowed emperors and kings, generals and ministers, scholars and beauties, ghosts and monsters to control the stage and the "dead" to dominate many literary and art departments, turning a number of literary and art organizations into units like the Petofi Club in Hungary. Those counter-revolutionary revisionists vainly hoped that once the chance came, they could overthrow the dicta-¬torship [p. 18] of the proletariat on a nationwide scale and bring about the restoration of capitalism.

In 1950, the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road described the film Inside Story of the Ching Court , a film of national betrayal, as patriotic. He had the film shown throughout the country and poisoned the masses through the counter-revolutionary revisionists controlling the cultural position. They openly resisted Chairman Mao's directive on criticizing and repudiating this film.

In 1954, in a letter to the comrades of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and other comrades concerned, Chairman Mao once again pointed out: "The film Inside Story of the Ching Court , which has been described as patriotic but is in fact a film of national betrayal, has not been criticized and repudiated at any time since it was shown all over the country." Having been criticized by Chairman Mao, the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road continued to obstruct criticism and repudiation of the Inside Story of the Ching Court . Why? This was because he stubbornly wanted to restore capitalism in New China and the Inside Story of the Ching Court conformed to the need of his reactionary politics.

In 1951, Chairman Mao personally launched and led the great mass criticism and repudiation of the film The Life of Wu Hsun This was a great struggle against reactionary ideology, a great struggle against the counter-revolutionary revisionists on the literary and art front and their backer, the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road. Chairman Mao in his article "Give Serious Attention to the Discussion of the film The Life of Wu Hsun " said: "Certain Communists who have reputedly grasped Marxism warrant particular attention. They have learnt the history of social development -- historical materialism -- but when they come across specific historical events, specific historical figures (like Wu Hsun) and specific ideas contrary to history (as in the film The Life of Wu Hsun and the writings about Wu Hsun), they lose their critical faculties, and some have even capitulated to these reactionary ideas. Is it not a fact that reactionary bourgeois ideas have found their way into the militant Communist Party? Where on earth is the Marxism which certain Communists claim to have grasped?" This was a warning bell to the whole Party. It was a serious reprimand to those (including the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road) who had capitulated to bourgeois reactionary ideas. But he and the handful of counter-revolutionary revisionists on the literary and art front he supported continued their two-faced attitude. They accepted it superficially, but in fact they resisted.

In 1954, it was again this group of "big shots" who repressed the "nobodies" and tried in vain to strangle the criticism and repudiation of Yu Ping-po's Studies of the "Dream of the Red Chamber." Chairman Mao supported the "nobodies" and led this great mass criticism and repudiation. In his Letter Concerning Studies of "The Dream of the Red Chamber," he again directly criticized the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road. Chairman Mao said: "The whole thing has been set going by two 'nobodies,' while the 'big shots' usually ignore or even obstruct it, and they form a united front with bourgeois writers on the basis of idealism and are willing captives of the bourgeoisie. It was almost the same when the films Inside Story of the Ching Court and The Life of Wu Hsun were shown. . . . Although The Life of Wu Hsun has been criticized, up to now no lessons have been drawn; what is more, we have the strange situation in which Yu Ping-po's idealism is tolerated and lively critical essays by 'nobodies' are obstructed. This deserves our attention."

Up to the present, these panjandrums have not yet drawn the lessons. Why? The many facts exposed in the mass movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution prove that they are counter-revolutionary revisionists and their big backer is the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road. So it is in conformity with the objective laws that they remain diehards.

After China in the main completed the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production, the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road and the counter-revolutionary revisionists of the old Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the old Ministry of Culture and the old Peking Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party he supported, attacked socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat still more frantically. They did their utmost to create counter-revolutionary public opinion in preparation for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the proletariat. From the appearance of the anti-Party and anti-socialist article Battle Drum of the Film in 1956 to the staging of the Peking opera Hai Jui Dismissed From Office , up to opposing the revolutionization of the Peking opera, opposing the criticism and repudiation of Hai Jui Dismissed From Office , and opposing the mass movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution, they put out a large quantity of poisonous weeds and undertook many actions with ulterior motives. Some were directly supported by the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road or secretly instigated by him. Some were personally carried out by the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road. The film Plains Ablaze which vilified the working class is one example.

This secret history was eventually brought to light in the mass movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution initiated and led by Chairman Mao himself. As a result, a number of counter-revolutionary revisionists on the cultural front and their big boss be-¬hind [p. 19] the scenes, the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road, have been exposed to the light. This is history's verdict. This is the historical summing up of the struggle between the two roads within the Party over the past 17 years. This is a tremendous victory won by Chairman Mao and his close comrade-in-arms Comrade Lin Piao in leading hundreds of millions of revolutionary people and defeating the agents of the bourgeoisie in the Party! This is a tremendous victory won by the proletariat in opposing the bourgeoisie's attempts at a restoration! This is a tremendous victory for the thought of Mao Tse-Tung!

By studying these five brilliant documents of Chairman Mao's in relation to the history of the class struggle on the literary and art front and the practice of this great proletarian cultural revolution, we should acquire more understanding of the following points:

(1) So long as classes and class struggle still exist in China and abroad, the struggle between the bourgeoisie's attempts at a restoration and the proletariat's efforts to oppose it will inevitably continue. Chairman Mao teaches us: "The present great cultural revolution is only the first; there will inevitably be many more in the future. The issue of who will win in the revolution can only be settled over a long historical period. If things are not properly handled, it is possible for a capitalist restoration to take place at any time. It should not be thought by any Party member or any one of the people in our country that everything will be all right after one or two great cultural revolutions, or even three or four. We must be very much on the alert and never lose vigilance." We must follow Chairman Mao's teachings, discard illusions and get ready for long-term struggle.

(2) We must defend the dictatorship of the proletariat not only with guns but also with pens. We must, in line with Chairman Mao's many instructions, pay serious attention to the class struggle on the literary and art front, take firm hold of the struggle between the two roads in the ideological sphere and view it from the level of the question concerning political power, and not treat it lightly. To ignore this would be tantamount to forgetting about the dictatorship of the proletariat.

(3) Who make up the command post of the class enemies vainly attempting to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat? They are a handful of people who take shelter within the apparatus of this dictatorship, a handful of people who take shelter within the leading organs of the Party. It is easiest to destroy a fortress from within, and the agents of the bourgeoisie in the Party are the most dangerous enemies. We must not lower our guards. We should draw lessons from "the rut that overturns the cart" in the Soviet Union. We must act seriously in line with Chairman Mao's instructions. And, in order really to do this in practice, we must constantly strive to arm ourselves with Mao Tse-tung's thought and overcome the remnants of all types of non-proletarian ideas still in our minds. Only by so doing can we become staunch proletarian revolutionary fighters speaking on behalf of the proletariat at all times and not on behalf of the bourgeoisie.

(4) The handful of top Party persons in authority taking the capitalist road the counter-revolutionary revisionists peddle their pretentious revisionist stuff as if they were eternal truths. But facts prove that these people and their goods are just paper tigers. They and their products will collapse rapidly, once Mao Tse-tung's thought grips hundreds of millions of people. This has been proved by the victory in the revolution of Peking opera, and has been proved all the more clearly by the victory of the great proletarian cultural revolution. Has not the most stubborn citadel, Peking opera, been breached? Have not the "bigwigs" taking the capitalist road who swagger around like conquerors been overthrown? The same will happen in the future; whoever in authority wants to take the capitalist road can end up in no other way than being overthrown by the revolutionary people.

We have the greatest faith in Mao Tse-tung's thought and in the masses, and this provides us with the fullest ground for despising strategically all exploiting classes and their representatives and the ideology of all exploiting classes handed down over the past thousands of years.

Only the literature and art and other parts of the superstructure that serve the workers, peasants and soldiers and the socialist economic base have great vitality and a future of tremendous growth. Decadent things that run counter to the trend of the times will be buried, once and for all, by the revolutionary people and, in fact, are now in the process of being buried by them.

History has proved and practice in the future will confirm that the five documents of Chairman Mao's concerning literature and art all embody great truths. Their significance is by no means confined to the realm of literature and art. They are our sharpest weapons in the struggle against counter-revolutionary revisionism, against the agents of the bourgeoisie within the Party and against the ideology of all exploiting classes. Let us study them conscientiously and apply them in the current class struggle in order to win new victories for the great proletarian cultural revolution and in the tasks of "struggle-criticism-transformation"!*

("Hongqi" editorial, No. 9, 1967.)

* "Struggle-criticism-transformation" means: to struggle against and overthrow those persons in authority taking the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic "authorities" and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes, and to transform education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure which do not correspond with the socialist economic base.


Notes:

1. MIM Theory , no. 13, "Culture in Revolution"