Literature and Ideologx: The Case of China. I.R. Mbise' The purpase af this paper is to. examine the idealagical underpinnings af literary practice in China. The underlying task is to. reveal haw literature can prampt to. actian: haw, . far instance, it can make a natian "mave" ar haw it can "make craps grow an a stany hill" and haw it can even make "aur peaple" became "aUf mauntain's". Literature in past-revalutinary China is essentially different from that af pre- revalutianary China. Peasant appressian, feudal explaitatian, the rise af a cam-: mercia I ari~la.:ra(;y wIth expropriated wealth to. suppart artistic specialists-all cantributed enarmausly to. the creatian af literature (art, theatre and music inc- !u~ed) .. China-with its lang cultural past and vast geagraphical reality-has, a tremendaus cultural variety. For instance, at least 200 styles af drama have been caunted in China since the liberatian. There is the Central Ensemble af Sang and Dance af Peking farmed in 1952 cansisting af 400 instrumentalists, singers, and dancers. And gaing through the pages af China Reconstructs,' perfarmances given to.audiences af thausands at ane sitting are a camman practice.2 • In ancient China, music{ subsumed under the categary afIiterature) was regarded as an image af'the universe; it expressed "the accard af Heaven and Earth" and praduced "harmatlY between men and spirits".' Its main abject was nat aesthetic pleasure, but the canveyance af eternal truths. It also. had anather abject: to. prepare men to. receive these, truths. Confucius saw music as "putting man's inm;r spirit in arder" and music was believed to.have a maral effect an the individual.4 , Music has' had both palitical ana spiritual implications. AD£ient China eer~eived everything to. be a unity; and music and the state reflected the laws afheaven. As in ancient Greece and also. in ancient Egypt, arder and harm any in the spiritual world meant arder and harmany in the material warld, and vice versa. This philasaphy runs cantrary to. Western thought which campartmentalizes the differrent aspe~ts afhuman life and even places them in appasitian to. ane anather. 'Thus we have the classical Western dichatamy af mind and bad y, spiritual and material. In Western philasaphy, literature and music are canfined to. the spiritual side, whereas palitics and the state are canfined to. the material warld. It is true that in pre-revahitianary China, literature was daminated by aristacratic landlards and princes; indeed by the ideas af the ruling feudal class, which was at the same time the class with palitical and ecanamic pawer. Thus literature reflected and reinfarced the- status quo, which included, inter alia, Canfucian idelagy, unequal ecanamic and sacial relatians between antaganistic classes, the landlards versus the peasants, the subordinatian afwamen, superstitiaus beliefs, and so. farth. Literature from the Chinese caurts appealed to. the wealthy class, "the haves", who. had all the leisure to. lie around and cantemplate. Human life and histary were a cyclical process in which the laws af nature were prime determinants. 'Senior Lecturer, Department of Literature. Umversity of Oar os Salaam. 55 Basically, this was a static world view in which the old feudal order was able to sustain itself for thousands of years. But change was inevitable, for history moves forward; and society with internal contradictions carries seeds of its own destruction. The Marxist world view, however, is not static but dialectical. It regards human history as a progressive continuum in which human forces—the forces of class struggle (and not natural or divine powers)—are the prime movers. In a violent revolution, the old China had to give way to the New, and literature entered a ne>v era. Can the traditional philosophical ideas in ancient China be related to Marxist ideology in present-day China? And how has the latter integrated literature ideologically into the economic and social life of post—revolutionary China? To understand the role of literature and the incorporation of some traditional culture into modern socialist culture, it is important to understand the dialectical relationship that exists between literature, politics and the economic superstructure. In his famous Venan talks, Mao observed: Literature and art are subordinate to politics, but in their turn exert a great influ- ence on politics. Revolutionary literature and art are part of the entire revolutio- nary cause...an indispensable part of the entire revolutionary cause. It we had not t literature and art even in the broadest and most ordinary senses, we could not carry on the revolutionary movement and win victory.5 Economic and social structures are the primary articulations of class struggle which is the propelling force of human history. Literature, an integral part of culture, grows out of the underlying social and economic structures and reflects them, turns back on them and exerts a tr.:mendo--.s influence on them. In revolutionary China, literature reflects and reinforces (no longer the ideas of the feudal class but) the dictatorship of the proletariat, the masses. All our literature and art are forthe masses ot'the people, and in the first place for •the workers, peasants and soldiers, they are created for the workers, peasants and i soldiers and are for their use.*1 Literature becomes a powerful revolutionary weapon for the broad masses of the people. It becomes part of that dialectical process in which antagonistic forces clash and resolve in new social and ec. lomic forms. In post-revolutionary China, literature also becomes a powerful revolutionary weapon for educating the masses. The stage for instance is a classroom: "The basic task of socialist literature and art is to work hard and create heroic models of workers and soldiers".7 Otherwise, the stage populated by "emperors, princes, generals, ministers, scholars, and beauties"" would undermine the revolution. Hence the need for the creation of proletarian heroes who would provide good models for the people and protect the socialist base of Chinese society. For what kind of education would the people receive from plays filled with reactionary character—models? Thus the theatre had to be revolutionised. Plays were writ- ten to reflect the revolution, and some old plays were adapted to reflect contemporary, poli- tically progressive situations, depicting proletarian heroes in the process of revolutionary struggle. The past was to serve the present: Nor do we refuse to utilise the literary and artistic forms of the past, but in our hands these old forms, remoulded and infused with new content, also become something revolutionary in the service ol the people.' 56 Looking back over centuries of Chinese historical development, over the oppressive feudal era, and over the revolutionary struggles that gave birth to present—day socialist Chi- na, literature and art had to be socialised and "converted" into a revolutionary weapon at the service of society. And it was an effective ideological weapon at the disposal of the Chinese Revolution: ...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 revolution10 (sic). Indeed literature and art were instrumental in attaining cultural works of the proper political orientation in winning people's confidence in socialism, in strengthening their unity and in renewing their enthusiasm for the living struggle to win the revolutionary battle and later to establish and maintain a true socialist society. This therefore leaves us in no doubt that literature has played a very significant role in present-day socialist China. Turning literature into a revolutionary weapon can be a very necessary stage in a nation's historical epoch. Literature may even run the risk of developing into a cultural dogmatism and a narrowing of cultural subject matter that is considered politically acceptable. The language, too, may be propagandist^; this is a season in history. But, as we have already pointed out, history moves forward, and tq be confined to a season in the long life of history is to deny history of its dialectical nature, its dynamism. Surely a higher stage must follow when we must go beyond dogmatism and beyond propaganda. While Mao regarded literature as a weapon, Lenin regarded it as a product in the process of history. But, at times, even Mao saw the need to strike a balance: What wcdcmaml is the unity ol politics and art. the unity of content and form. tRe 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" (emphasis mine). Indeed, literature can be political without necessarily the political underminii.g the literary. In the revolution, the two are not antagonistic. Notes 1. See the September 1976 issue, pp. 40-41. 2. For instance at the Songfest of May 1976, in Peking, there were 18,000 workers, peasants, and soldiers in attendance. 3. "Chinese Music" in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol. II, London; Macmillan, 1954. 4. Here one is reminded ol" the Tibetan Buddist view that sonic arts are sacremental arts and that, by singing in extraordinary ways, one can attain an extraodinary state of being. 5. Mao Tse-tung, "Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art", in The Chinese Cultural Revolution: Selected Documents ed. K.H. Fan, New York, Monthly Review Press, 1968, p. 16. 6. Chiang-Ching, On the Revolution of Peking Opera, Peking, Foreign Languages Press, 1968, p. 17. 7. To Find Men Truly Great and Noble-Hearted We Must Look Here in the Present, "In Praise of the Modern Revolutionary Peking Opera Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy", Peking, Foreign Languages Press, 1971, p. 54. K. Chiang-Ching, op. cit., p. 2 9. To Find Men Truly Great and Noble-Hearted We Must Look Here in the Present, p 61. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid., p. 52 N.B. Some of these quotations by Mao Tse-tung can also be found in Collected Works of Mao Tse- tung and in Selected Readings From the Works of Mao Tse-tung, Peking, Foreign Languages Press, 57