Comrades Shaoxuan and Yanming:
I have seen your opera.2 You have done excellent work. I thank you and please extend my thanks to the performers as well. History is created by the people, but on the stage of old opera (and all the old literature and arts that were divorced from the people), the people were but the dregs of society, and the stage was dominated by nabobs, rich wives, and young masters and misses. You now have reversed this inversion of history and have restored history’s true face. From now on, the old opera will turn over a new leaf, and this is worth celebrating. In the area of historical drama, Guo Moruo3 has done excellent work. You have done the same in the realm of the old opera. This beginning that you have made will be the start of a revolutionary epoch for old opera. I am greatly pleased to think about this. I hope you will compose and perform much that will become common practice throughout the entire country!
Salutations!
Mao Zedong
night of January 9
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 222–23, where it is reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.
1. Yang Shaoxuan (1893–1971) was a researcher at the Central Party School. Qi Yanming (1907–1978) was director of the Cultural Education Section of the Dean’s Office of the Central Party School.
2. The opera by Yang and Qi was titled “Bishang Liangshan” (Driven to Liangshan), meaning “driven to rebellion”—the rebels of Liangshan in the Song dynasty are well known in Chinese literature.
3. Guo Moruo (1892–1978) was a noted historian, writer, and revolutionary activist. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was the head of the Third Section of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government and the director of the Cultural Work Committee. He organized progressive cultural figures to engage in anti-Japanese propaganda work in the Guomindang-controlled areas.