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In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite
classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no
such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that
is detached from or independent of politics.
Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause; they are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine. "Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942),
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| Revolutionary culture is a powerful revolutionary weapon for the broad
masses of the people. It prepares the ground ideologically before the revolution
comes and is an important, indeed essential, fighting front in the general
revolutionary front during the revolution.
"On New Democracy" (January 1940), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 382. |
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All our literature and art are for the masses of the people, and in
the first place for the workers, peasants and soldiers; they are created
for the workers, peasants and soldiers and are for their use.
"Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942),
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| Our literary and art workers must accomplish this task and shift their
stand; they must gradually move their feet over to the side of the workers,
peasants and soldiers, to the side of the proletariat, through the process
of going into their very midst and into the thick of practical struggles
and through the process of studying Marxism and society. Only in this way
can we have a literature and art that are truly for the workers, peasants
and soldiers, a truly proletarian literature and art.
"Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942),
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[Our purpose is] to ensure that literature and art fit well into the
whole revolutionary machine as a component part, that they operate as powerful
weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying
the enemy, and that they help the people fight the enemy with one heart
and one mind.
"Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942),
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| In literary and art criticism there are two criteria, the political
and the artistic.... There is the political criterion and there is the
artistic criterion; what is the relationship between the two? Politics
cannot be equated with art, nor can a general world outlook be equated
with a method of artistic creation and criticism. We deny not onlv that
there is an abstract and absolutely unchangeable political criterion, but
also that there is an abstract and absolutely unchangeable artistic criterion;
each class in every class society has its own political and artistic criteria.
But all classes in all class societies invariably put the political criterion
first and the artistic criterion second.... What we demand is the unity
of politics and art, the unity of content and form, the unity of revolutionary
political content and the highest possible perfection of artistic form.
Works of art which lack artistic quality have no force, however progressive
they are politically. Therefore, we oppose both works of art with a wrong
political viewpoint and the tendency towards the "poster and slogan style"
which is correct in political viewpoint but lacking in artistic power.
On questions of literature and art we must carry on a struggle on two fronts.
"Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942),
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Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought
contend is the policy for promoting the progress of the arts and the sciences
and a flourishing socialist culture in our land. Different forms and styles
in art should develop freely and different schools in science should contend
freely. We think that it is harmful to the growth of art and science if
administrative measures are used to impose one particular style of art
or school of thought and to ban another.
Questions of right and wrong in the arts and sciences should be settled through free discussion in artistic and scientific circles and through practical work in these fields. They should not be settled in summary fashion. "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People"
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| An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army
cannot defeat the enemy.
"The United Front in Cultural Work" (October 30, 1944),
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