We Must Revolutionize Our Thinking and Then Revolutionize Sculpture
Chinese Literature
No. 4, 1967, pp. 97-110
EDITORS' NOTE
The clay sculptures Compound Where Rent Was Collected, produced during out great proletarian cultural revolution, are a splendid and completely new departure in the history of Chinese sculpture. They have won the approval of our broad masses of workers, peasants and soldiers, and have received a great welcome from viewers at home and overseas visitors. The success of this work marks yet another brilliant victory for Mao Tse-tung's thought as regards literature and art.
The minds of the sculptors who created Compound Were Rent Was Collected were armed with Mao Tse-tung's thought. This had enabled them to remould their thinking and so had lighted the way for the bringing into being of these new revolutionary works. They followed Chairman Mao's instructions: "If our writers and artists ... want their works to be well received by the masses, they must change and remould their thinking and their feelings." First of all they grappled seriously with the fundamental problem of remoulding their world outlook. They conscientiously and creatively studied and applied Chairman Mao's works, learned humbly from the workers, peasants and soldiers, and fused their thoughts and feelings with those of the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers. Therefore they were able to create art works warmly welcomed by the workers, peasants and soldiers. Because they were armed with Mao Tse-tung's thought, they dared to think, to act, to break through, to make revolution and had the courage to smash the old conventions held sacred by bourgeois "authorities" and to produce new socialist, proletarian works ushering in a new age in China's sculpture. If all revolutionary literary and art workers will follow the example of these sculptors and advance steadfastly in the direction shown by Chairman Mao, they will certainly be able to create more brilliant works worthy of our great age.
Sculpture and Revolution
Chairman Mao in his Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art instructed revolutionary literary and art workers, "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." For years, however, under the predominant influence of the black bourgeois line in literature and art represented by Chou Yang, a line opposed to the Party, to socialism and to the thought of Mao Tse-tung, Chairman Mao's line on literature and art was not carried out but resisted and attacked. In the field of sculpture, for instance, a handful of bourgeois "specialists" and "authorities" clung stubbornly 0 heir old way of doing things, alleging that "the revolution has deprived sculpture of its vitality," "politics cannot create art," and "politics has turned art into something lifeless." So they did all in their power to resist the revolutionizing of sculpture. However, by far the greater majority of revolutionary comrades believed, "Politics must lead art. If sculpture is to keep up with the great forward advance of the socialist revolution, it must itself undergo a big revolution."
The problem is, essentially, not whether to mould large memorials or small figurines, not whether to use stone, wood or clay as a medium, but something a great deal more important, which path sculpture should take, whether it should serve proletarian politics or bourgeois politics.
When we were first assigned the task of sculpting Compound Where Rent Was Collected, some of us thought: "It will give us no scope," "It's just like working out a graph... making moulds ... nothing to do with art," "and even if we do this job well, no one will appreciate it here in the countryside." What problem did this reveal? The problem of whether art should serve proletarian politics, serve socialism, serve the workers, peasants and soldiers, or whether it should serve the bourgeois ideals of individual fame and profit. In view of this problem, the leadership told us to make a careful study of Chairman Mao's Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art. We had read the Talks countless times, but each time we studied it we learned something new. This time by studying it with specific problems in mind, in the actual compound where rent had been collected we gained an even deeper understanding of its meaning. We realized that in the past our sculpture had not been created for the workers, peasants and soldiers, much less had it been used by them. Here was a good opportunity to serve them. We should rid ourselves of all selfish ideas and mixed motives, single-mindedly follow Chairman Mao's instructions and produce something of use to the workers, peasants and soldiers, something that the peasants could see, understand and appreciate. After this study of the Talks we all felt this task offered us plenty of scope.
This was the first time we had ever attempted a work on this scale; had consciously taken Chairman Mao's thought on literature and art as our guide; had tried to give direct expression to such an important theme of class struggle; had sculptured a group of figures so large in scope about one central theme; had combined "local" and "foreign" techniques; and had worked as such a large, heterogeneous team....
Since this was the first time and we lacked experience we came up against very great difficulties. What was to be done? Should we abandon the project? Call it off? No. Chairman Mao has taught us that we are now engaged in a cause never undertaken by our forefathers. We should steadfastly follow Chairman Mao's instructions, dare to think, to break through, to act, to open up our own road, to achieve new victory for the proletariat. Revolutionaries always forge ahead regardless of difficulties; those who halt in dismay are contemptible cowards.
Revolution is never easy. If it were easy, it would not be revolution. Our leadership gave us this good advice: "We mustn't be afraid of failure in revolutionizing sculpture. At the worst, failure will leave us with a heap of clay, and after summing up our experience we can start all over again." At the same time the leadership urged us to hold fast to three precious things: Chairman Mao's works, Party leadership and the help of the peasant masses. With these to guide us, all difficulties could be overcome.
If you turn the pages of histories of Chinese sculpture, you find nothing but old bodhisattvas; if you turn the pages of histories of Western sculpture, you find nothing but Western "bodhisattvas." Some people are completely obsessed by Greece, Rome, Northern Wei and the Tang dynasty, by Jesus, the Madonna, David, Venus, Buddha and Kuanyin. They fall prostrate in admiration before these representatives of deities, potentates and beauties of ancient times or foreign lands, regarding them as the pinnacle of world art and investing them with divine qualities. In the seventeen years since liberation, although some sculptures have been made of workers, peasants and soldiers, most of them are still Davids and Venuses dressed up as workers, peasants and soldiers. Apparently foreign dogmas were sacred maxims, and to tamper with them would have been lese-majesty.
Chairman Mao says, "Uncritical transplantation or copying from the ancients and the foreigners is the most sterile and harmful dogmatism in literature and art." "Foreign bodhisattvas" and "ancient bodhisattvas" are not easily overthrown; but it is quite impossible to merely carry out reforms on the basis of "foreign" and "ancient" conventions. Therefore we made up our minds to stage a full-scale rebellion, to completely revolutionize sculpture inside and out, both as regards its content and its form.
Mao Tse-tung's thought is the acme of modem Marxism-Leninism. By arming ourselves with Mao Tse-tung's thought, we dared to despise what had been called the pinnacle of world art. The Western Renaissance and the "golden age" of the Tang dynasty in China may be praised to the skies, but one is bourgeois and the other feudal - neither is proletarian. There is nothing so very wonderful about them, nothing we cannot surpass. We became firmly convinced that if we advanced in the direction pointed out by Chairman Mao in the Talks, we could scale new heights in world art.
We Change Our Feelings
Chairman Mao has said, "If our writers and artists who come from the intelligentsia want their works to be well received by the masses, they must change and remould their thinking and their feelings. Without such a change, without such remoulding, they can do nothing well and will be misfits." The whole process of moulding the figures of Compound Where Rent Was Collected brought home to us the facts that the only way to produce sculpture with strong proletarian feeling was by going among the masses determined to remould our thinking, by learning from them so as to change our own thinking and feelings until we came to love and hate the same things; that only sculptures steeped in proletarian feeling can give those who see them a class education.
We started work on Compound Where Rent Was Collected in June 1965, and finished in October, covering the time from when the paddy was planted out to the harvest and delivery of grain to the state. From the courtyard in front of the compound we heard the whirr of the commune's winnowing-machines and saw peasants filing past the gate to deliver their grain. Smiling all over their faces, commune members trooped into the compound to look at our sculptures, and left with tears in their eyes. This tremendous contrast between the hell before liberation and the heaven after it was something very hard for our team to grasp or imagine, for our average age was less than thirty.
One peasant told us, "It bucks us up nowadays to hear the whirr of the winnowing-machine. But in the old days, whenever it whirred, the landlord made a pile of gold, while we peasants had nothing but tears."
"Now with our sickles we reap a bumper harvest," another said. "But in the old days we put them down to go begging."
"Now, we rush to deliver grain to the state as if the soles of out feet were greased," said another peasant. "But in the old days, delivering grain to the landlord was like lugging a hill -- we could hardly drag ourselves along."
Leng Yueh-ying told us between sobs how she had been thrown into the water-prison for failing to pay her rent in full. Lo Erh-niang showed us the scars on her breasts made by the landlord Liu Wen-tsai, who forced her to act as his wet-nurse and bit her nipples until they streamed with blood. Mother Kan broke down completely while telling us how she had taken her children begging after her husband was press-ganged. Some old peasants described the struggles they had waged, thousands of them parading with a peasant's dead body to denounce the landlord's crimes, many taking to the mountains to fight as guerrillas.... The contrast between the past and the present and the peasants' burning class hatred not only provided us with a wealth of material from real life but taught us many profound truths about class struggle and influenced our way of thinking and our feelings. In our work from start to finish the peasants taught us ideologically, helped us materially, gave us endless advice and encouragement, and also served as our models. This made some of us feel very much ashamed that in the past we had gone down to the country ostensibly to "experience life" but in actuality to collect material in order to make a name or to earn money for ourselves. It also enabled us to understand why our previous sculptures had no feeling, or if they had, it was not the feeling of the working people.
In the past we had often given ourselves airs as "artists" and had behaved as "observers" of life, as the "teachers" of the masses, when actually it should have been the other way round. Summarizing the lessons we had learned in the light of Chairman Mao's teachings and the leadership's instructions, we determined to orientate ourselves correctly, to adopt the right attitude. That meant giving first place to studying the works of Chairman Mao, and making the study of sculpture take second place. It meant revolutionizing our own thought before revolutionizing sculpture. It meant learning from others before reaching others, remoulding our thinking before experiencing life. In short, we determined to put Mao Tse-tung's thought in command of out work and everything we did. So when we reached the exhibition hall of the former landlord's manor-house in Tayi, Szechuan, we studied Chairman Mao's writings before starting work. We went round the exhibits as visitors anxious to learn, not as a "work team" sizing up the situation. Our aim in calling on the peasants was to receive a class education from them and learn from their class feelings, not to collect material. While planning our work and actually moulding the figures we tried to see everything from the standpoint of viewers rather than from that of sculptors.
Precisely because a change took place in our thinking and feelings and we began to take the stand of the workers, peasants and soldiers, our planning of the whole work and our handling of specific parts had the workers, peasants and soldiers in command and were considered from their point of view, in an endeavour to ensure that the peasants could see, understand and appreciate our work. Let us take the treatment of the eyes of the figures as one example. There have long been two foreign ways of sculpting eyes. One is to sculpt the eyeball without any pupil; but the peasants said this made figures look like blind men with open eyes. The other is to hollow out the eye-socket and let the shade represent the pupil; but the peasants complained that figures with this type of eye looked stupid. So we adopted the local folk method of using glass eyes. At first some of us, being unused to this, objected that it "destroyed the overall effect," and was "incongruous." Having put in glass eyes, we wanted to remove them. But the peasants' comment was, "Fine! Those eyes have fire and spirit." So we abided by the peasants' judgement. Soon we became used to the method and began to think highly of it.
The whole process of working on Compound Where Rent Was Collected was a process of thought remoulding, a training class for the study of Chairman Mao's works as well as a training class in sculpture.
Through it we gained a better understanding of the great significance of studying Chairman Mao's works and of learning from the workers, peasants and soldiers, as well as of the fact that all problems can be solved if politics is put first.
Class Struggle, the Class Viewpoint and Class Feeling
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLE Chairman Mao has said, "When we look at a thing, we must examine its essence and treat its appearance merely as an usher at the threshold, and once we cross the threshold, we must grasp the essence of the thing; this is the only reliable and scientific method of analysis." When we first arrived at the compound where rent had been collected, even though living there we failed to "cross the threshold" because we had not grasped the essence of the place. To us it was simply a place where the peasants had paid their rent to the landlord, and we viewed it much as we would an exchange or a market.
After raising the level of our understanding by studying the works of Chairman Mao and coming into contact with more than a thousand peasants, we gradually became aware that this compound was stained with the blood of countless peasants. The landlord's carved and painted mansion was built of white bones, the delicacies on his table were steeped in blood and tears, and this compound where rent was collected was the focal point of his exploitation of the peasants. As the peasants said, "The compound where the landlord collects rent is the peasants' execution-ground." At opposite poles were the shameless licence and extravagance of the landlord and misery and death of the peasants. Inimical as fire and water during this collecting of rents were the savage, gloating landlord and his thugs and the wretched peasants burning with hatred. This compound was no exchange; nor did the peasants come here as if to a market. It was the arena of a bitter class struggle, the focus of a struggle to the death between the oppressed and oppressors. The collection of rent in this compound was not a simple business transaction, but the economic exploitation and political oppression of the peasants by the landlord class. The delivery and collection of rent were appearances; class struggle was the essence. Only when we understand this thoroughly will we grasp the essence of the thing and be on the right track.
THE CONNECTING THREAD Once we had taken class struggle as our guiding principle, we needed some thread as a link in this chain Of 114 figures spread out over a distance of 96 metres. The most obvious thread was: the rent delivery, inspection of the grain, the winnowing, the weighing, and the accounting. But this was only a series of business transactions. It was more difficult to find a connecting thread with more ideological significance which would show what these transactions really meant. We learned to use the viewpoint of On Contradiction and the dialectical method to understand and organize our material. The whole process of rent collecting was one of class struggle, of developing contradictions.
At the start the wretched, famished peasants are forced to make over the fruit of their whole year's toil to the landlord under the watchful eyes of his thugs. Confronted by these enemies, their hearts burn inwardly with rage, but the contradiction between them is kept hidden. The landlord's underhand dealings during the inspection, winnowing and weighing of the grain make the anger the peasants have been suppressing flare up, and the contradiction between them gradually develops. By the time the accounts are reckoned up, it is white hot. The peasants are quite clearly ranged against the big landlord and local despot Liu Wen-tsai and his thugs. However, because the reactionaries have guns and power, the peasants are savagely treated and compelled to hand over their grain. The contradiction has not been solved, and a new contradiction is taking shape - the peasants are turning towards struggle and revolution. In the succession of sculptured figures this progression, like the gradual upsurge of a tide, is not just aimed at artistic effect but is the inevitable rule of the development of things. From the first old widow bowed down with grief to the final peasant in his prime who sees that his only hope lies in revolution, the contradictions and struggle develop from spontaneous to conscious, from a desperate struggle for existence to revolution and from a quantitative to a qualitative change. Thus, cause and effect, the whole course of development, have their logical, dialectical connection. Not only are the different incidents clear, but so is the red thread connecting them. Experience has taught us the necessity for expressing through the medium of art the unity of variety and progression in the form of mounting waves. Still more important is the ideology guiding this progression. Without Mao Tse-tung's thought to guide us, the hundred-odd characters in Compound Where Rent Was Collected could not have formed an integral whole but would have been chaotic and disconnected. With Chairman Mao's works to guide us, we had a key to all our problems.
THE COMPOUND WHERE RENT WAS COLLECTED AND THE WHOLE OLD SOCIETY At first we took a mechanical view of Liu Wen-tsai and the compound where rent was collected, considering them in isolation. We corrected this after studying On Contradiction and Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society. Liu Wen-tsai did not exist in isolation but had complex class connections and social contacts. He was a big local despot, warlord, official, landlord, gangster and capitalist all in one, who also had contacts with imperialism. In one hand he held a gun, in the other a seal of office. He was a typical product of the old, semi-feudal, semi-colonial China, and it was extremely important to convey this. For his compound where rent was collected actually epitomized the whole of the old society. In the scene of press-ganging and the ransacking of a house in the section Forcing the Peasants to Pay Rent, we used at first only two of the landlord's thugs as negative characters. But once we had a better understanding of the classes and social relations in the old society, we brought in a greater variety of these characters - eleven in all, to back up the landlord. These included a Kuomintang army officer, a bandit chief, a gangster, a "high-class" henchman like the chief accountant, and a "low-class" thug. This mixed crew of reactionaries gave a true picture of the nature of the classes in the old society and added variety to our portrait gallery. Collecting rent was a typical event, the compound where rent was collected was a typical environment of such a scene and Liu Wen-tsai was a typical landlord and despot. By using such things typical of the old society to reveal the essence, by expressing the general through the particular, we presented a microcosm of all pre-liberation China and made this single compound reflect the whole of the old society.
FROM THE STAND OF THE PRESENT RECALL THE PAST AND LOOK AHEAD TO THE FUTURE To start with, the effect we aimed at in this work was to move those who saw it to tears. We thought that would be fine. For very few sculptures can move people to tears. But was that a correct aim? No. Some pernicious works use bourgeois humanism to reduce people to tears. We have observed a trend towards exaggerating grief and terror to arouse men's sympathy and make them weep. This trend appeared in our own work. Thus our first draft had peasants begging the landlord for mercy, showing none of the grit, fortitude or spirit of revolt of the poor, and our aim here was to make the audience weep. Some comrades also proposed depicting all Liu Wen-tsai's cruel tortures, gouging out eyes, cutting off ears, and disembowelling, to arouse pity and horror. But such onesided, superficial treatment, aimed at sensational effects without making a thorough exposure of the old system from the point of view of class struggle, economic exploitation and political persecution, is bound to fall into the pits of naturalism, the old style of realism, or the bourgeois theory of "human nature." Chairman Mao has said, "In class society there is only human nature of a class character." Today's audiences belong to the socialist age. They go to see Compound Where Rent Was Collected not just to shed tears but to receive a class education. They are the revolutionary masses living in a socialist society, who recall the bitterness of the old society for the sake of the socialist revolution, socialist construction, and the struggle for the complete liberation of all mankind. In other words, from the standpoint of the present they recall the past for the sake of the future, Unless we make a clear connection between present, past and future, we shall be unable to combine revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism in our creative method, and will make dangerous mistakes. Study and discussion helped us to reach a better understanding, to progress from "tears" to "tears, hate and action." That is to say, recalling past bitterness was to arouse hatred for the reactionaries and deep love for the Party and Chairman Mao, to encourage people to strive hard and to struggle for the Chinese revolution and the world revolution.
In brief, we had to express the savagery of the landlord class as well as its weakness and cowardice; we had to express the misery of the peasants as well as their hatred and revolt; we had to express the cruel reality of that time and foreshadow the bright future. The representation of one compound where rent was collected had to make people think of the whole of the old society and then to link this with the revolutionary struggle throughout the world today.
THE INNER DETERMINES THE OUTER; THE OUTER EXPRESSES THE INNER Chairman Mao has said, "In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of a class." This was our guiding principle in analysing, understanding and moulding the figures in Compound Where Rent Was Collected. This class brand is stamped on men's inner thoughts and feelings as well as on their outer form and actions. The relation here is: the inner determines the outer, the outer expresses the inner. Take the blind old peasant, for instance. He is blind, a poor peasant, and must have the distinctive features of a peasant. Because he cannot pay his rent in full, he is forced to sell his little granddaughter. His heart is overflowing with grief, bitterness and hatred. His whole demeanour must show grief, bitterness and hatred. Or take the apathetic guard at the gate, who keeps his eyes on the ground as if utterly indifferent to the live man being dragged in and the corpse being carried out. He looks thoroughly contemptible, and his callous indifference to the sufferings of others expresses his distinctively ugly soul. Or, there is the sturdy peasant in the last section, who is brimming over with class hatred and understands that the only way out is revolution; his right fist is tightly clenched and he is holding the carrying-pole in his left hand as if it were a gun. He glares wrathfully towards the accountant, as if to say: "Just you wait! One of these days we'll settle accounts with you."
The Approval of the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Is Our Highest Reward
The news that we were sculpting Compound Where Rent Was Collected spread far and wide, and peasants flocked in from near and far to look at our work. They came with strong class feeling, and left with strong class feeling. They said, "There's no need for any explanation, we can see at a glance just what you mean." "These sculptures are done for us." "They denounce our enemies and speak for us."
Workers who saw the sculptures said, "Workers and peasants are one family. The peasants' sufferings are our sufferings. We must never forget our class bitterness, but always remember the blood, tears and hatred of the old society and carry the revolution through to the end."
Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army said, "The landlord class and the reactionaries could oppress and exploit the peasants because they had political power and guns. Today, the political power and the guns are in our hands; we must keep a firm grip on our weapons so as to defend our country."
Some people wrote in big characters in the visitors' book, "Long live the Communist Party!" "Long live Chairman Mao!"
These comments are couched in different language from that used by art critics. They contain fewer adjectives but are full of proletarian feeling. They are correct and to the point. To our minds, these are the most splendid tributes to our work; we could ask for no better reward.
Facts from life have taught us how much the revolution needs revolutionary sculpture, how much the workers, peasants and soldiers need such sculpture to serve them. But while sculpture was controlled by bourgeois "authorities" and "experts," it did not serve the workers, peasants and soldiers. Therefore we must make a revolution in sculpture before we can produce revolutionary sculptures, and make certain that our sculptures "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."
The success of Compound Where Rent Was Collected is a victory for the thought of Mao Tse-tung, a fruit of the great proletarian cultural revolution, a product of the cooperation between the leadership, the masses and the artists; an outcome of the collective work of both professional and spare-time artists. After completing our work we understand that only art produced in accordance with Chairman Mao's instructions is proletarian revolutionary art. Only works approved of by the workers, peasants and soldiers are good revolutionary works. The life of the workers, peasants and soldiers is the source from which our inspiration springs; they are the people we must serve and our most discriminating critics.
The age of Mao Tse-tung is an age of heroes. We must fervently praise the glorious deeds of the men of Taching and Tachai, and heroes like Lei Feng, Wang Chieh and Chiao Yu-lu. We must forcefully portray events from our revolutionary history; the Long March, the heroes of the War of Resistance Against Japan, our revolutionary martyrs, the struggle against US imperialism, the struggle against capitalist exploitation and oppression. Let us raise high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung's thought, firmly carry out Chairman Mao's line on literature and art, and boldly press forward.
