On the “Duet” of Lu Xun and Gorky in Yan’an Literary and Art Movement

Gorky and Lu Xun,known as “China’s Gorky”,were appointed by Mao Zedong as the “commander-in-chief of the literary and art army” in Yan’an after the Yan’an Literature and Art Symposium.This shows that in Mao Zedong’s eyes,they have equally important status and value.Mao Zedong used Gorky’s identity labels such as “proletarian classic writer” and “politician of litterateurs” who was born as a worker and peasant and never separated from the grassroots people to create a “mirror image” for Yan’an literature and art.He also established Lu Xun as the “direction” for building a new Chinese culture and the “banner” of “people’s literary and art workers” by interpreting Lu Xun’s spirit of unyieldingly opposing imperialism and feudal bureaucracy and being “a willing ox serving the children”.Mao Zedong had both intersections and different emphases in his viewpoints on Gorky and Lu Xun.Through the interpretation and refinement of the personalities,spirits and values of the two,he “empowered” the Yan’an literary and art movement.Mao Zedong’s interpretation of Lu Xun emphasized the “political” side of him.This is an early and also a quite historical evaluation of “political Lu Xun”,which can stand the test of time.