The Shaping of the Concept of the Glory of Labor by Party Newspapers and Periodicals during the Yan’an Period

During the Yan’an period, our Party established a democratic political power in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and creatively launched the Great Production Movement, in order to break the enemy’s blockade and solve material difficulties. Against this background, in order to fully stimulate the masses’ enthusiasm for production, our Party, guided by Marxism, focused on leading and shaping the concept of the glory of labor. By constructing a value identification with labor among the masses, establishing a moral orientation that takes pride in labor, and advocating for the cultivation of a positive labor attitude, Party newspapers and periodicals became an important public opinion front for the Party to shape the concept of the glory of labor.

延安时期，我们党在陕甘宁边区建立了民主政权，创造性地发起了大生产运动，以期打破敌寇封锁、解决物质困难。在这种背景下，为充分激发群众的生产积极性，我们党以马克思主义为指导，着力引领和塑造劳动光荣观念。党报党刊通过在群众中构建对劳动的价值认同、树立以劳动为荣的道德导向、倡导培育积极的劳动态度，成为党塑造劳动光荣观念的重要舆论阵地。

Elaborating the Multiple Values of Labor, Forming a Value Identification with Labor

阐述劳动的多重价值，形成对劳动的价值认同

During the Yan’an period, because the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was remote and its economy and culture relatively backward, concepts left over from the old society still had a wide influence. Therefore, Party newspapers and periodicals helped the masses form a value identification with labor by elaborating the multiple values of labor.

延安时期，由于陕甘宁边区地处偏远，经济文化相对落后，旧社会遗留观念仍影响较广。因此，党报党刊通过阐述劳动的多重价值，帮助群众形成对劳动的价值认同。

Labor can make one prosperous and build up a family. At that time, the fatalistic consciousness that “poverty is decreed by fate” still lingered in the border region, affecting the masses’ labor enthusiasm. Party newspapers and periodicals interpreted “doing it ourselves to solve difficulties” as improving material life through active participation in labor and development of production. By publicizing the exemplary deeds of labor heroes who relied on labor to turn their lives around and improve their individual lives, they guided the masses to establish the value cognition that labor can change a poor fate and make one prosperous and build up a family. Among these, the coverage of Wu Manyou was quite representative. Wu Manyou was a native of Hengshan, Shaanxi, who fled famine to Yan’an in 1928. After the land reform, he was allocated a piece of wasteland and actively responded to the Party’s call for the production movement, “achieving ample food and clothing for himself, and also organizing everyone to produce, ensuring the public supply” (“Cultivate Mass Backbones Who Take Both Public and Private Interests into Account, Intensify Spring Plowing Campaign,” *Xinhua Daily* (Taihang Edition), April 19, 1944), becoming a well-known agricultural labor hero in Yan’an. Party newspapers and periodicals, through forms such as editorials, news briefs, poems, and woodcut illustrations, publicized Wu Manyou’s exemplary deeds and called on all peasants in the region to learn from Wu Manyou (“On the Direction of Wu Manyou,” *Liberation Daily*, March 15, 1943).

劳动能发家致富。当时，边区残存着“穷是命里注定”的宿命论意识，影响着群众的劳动积极性。党报党刊将“自己动手，解决困难”解释为以积极参加劳动与发展生产来改善物质生活，通过宣传劳动英雄依靠劳动翻身、改善个体生活的模范事迹，引导群众树立劳动可以改变穷苦命运、致富发家的价值认知。其中，对吴满有的报道颇具代表性。吴满有是陕西横山人，于1928年逃荒到延安，土地改革后分到一块荒地，积极响应党的生产运动号召，“自己得到丰衣足食，还组织大家生产，保证了公家的供给”（《培养公私兼顾的群众骨干 加紧开展春耕运动》，《新华日报》（太行版）1944年4月19日），成为延安家喻户晓的农业劳动英雄。党报党刊通过社论、短讯、诗歌、木刻插图等形式，宣传吴满有的模范事迹，号召全区农民向吴满有学习（《关于吴满有的方向》，《解放日报》1943年3月15日）。

Labor can contribute to the revolution. In 1940, Li Fuchun pointed out at the Yan’an Production Summary Conference: “Our production movement serves the War of Resistance and is carried out to fulfill the Party’s political tasks” (“Summary of the Production Movement and New Tasks,” *Liberation*, May 15, 1940). On the one hand, Party newspapers and periodicals focused on presenting the model citizen image of labor heroes who paid more national salvation public grain and produced military supplies, inspiring the masses to contribute to ensuring materials for the War of Resistance. On the other hand, they publicized the typical deeds of the troops “fighting on one front, producing on another, and studying on a third,” pointing out that through carrying out production labor, the troops not only improved their living conditions but also helped soldiers raise their political consciousness and invigorate their mental state, which helped enhance the troops’ cohesion and combat effectiveness. As early as January 1939, the *Military and Political Magazine of the Eighth Route Army* reported that the garrison troops combined “general intense study” with “ardent labor,” which “raised the work enthusiasm and initiative of all commanders and fighters.” The troops relied on collective labor to achieve semi-self-sufficiency or self-sufficiency, lightening the people’s tax burden and further strengthening the military-civilian relationship.

劳动能为革命作贡献。1940年，李富春在延安生产总结大会上指出：“我们的生产运动是为抗战而服务的，是为着完成党的政治任务而进行的。”（《生产运动总结与新的任务》，《解放》1940年5月15日）一方面，党报党刊注重呈现劳动英雄多缴救国公粮、生产军需物资的模范公民形象，激励群众为保障抗战物资作贡献。另一方面，宣传部队“一面战斗、一面生产、一面学习”的典型事迹，指出部队通过开展生产劳动，不仅改善了生活条件，而且帮助士兵提高了政治觉悟、振奋了精神状态，有助于增强部队的凝聚力和战斗力。早在1939年1月，《八路军军政杂志》就曾报道留守兵团将“一般的紧张学习”和“热烈的劳动”相结合，“提高了全体指战员的工作热情与积极性”。部队依靠集体劳动实现半自给或自给，减轻了人民的赋税负担，进一步密切了军民关系。

Labor can transform people’s thinking. The emergence of “loafers” [erliuzi] was closely related to the parasitic life of the exploiting classes under the old system and the deprivation of the masses’ living conditions, leading to the formation of a parasitic group characterized by loafing, gambling, stealing, and so on. Reforming “loafers” was a key link in the New Democratic social policy, aimed at eliminating the remnants of the old society through labor production and promoting economic recovery and ideological innovation. Therefore, the reform carried out on them relied on labor for the “transformation of people’s consciousness” (“The Reform of Loafers in the Border Region,” *Liberation Daily*, May 1, 1944). In response to the wavering and repeated phenomena that appeared in the process of reforming “loafers,” Party newspapers and periodicals pointed out that ideological transformation is a long-term process, and attention should be paid to persuasion and moral suasion to stimulate the initiative of “loafers” to reform. On the one hand, “loafers” were mobilized to actively participate in confession meetings and engage in self-criticism: “Being a loafer is not reputable… I will labor” (“Another Victory in the Production Movement: Loafers in Our City Change One After Another, Over Fifty People Determined to Repent and Participate in Production,” *Liberation Daily*, December 22, 1943). On the other hand, many reports invited labor heroes who had transformed from “loafers” to speak from personal experience, in order to evoke emotional resonance among the masses and point the way forward.

劳动能改造人的思想。“二流子”的产生与旧制度下剥削阶级寄生生活及群众生存条件被剥夺密切相关，导致形成以游荡、赌博、偷窃等为特征的寄生群体。改造“二流子”是新民主主义社会政策的关键环节，旨在通过劳动生产消除旧社会残余，促进经济恢复和意识形态革新。因此，对其进行的改造是依靠劳动对“人的意识的改造”（《边区二流子的改造》，《解放日报》1944年5月1日）。针对“二流子”改造过程中出现的动摇、反复现象，党报党刊指出思想的改造是一个长期的过程，要注重说服、感化，激发“二流子”改造的主动性。一方面，动员“二流子”积极参加坦白会，进行自我批评：“当二流子很不名望……我劳动。”（《生产运动又一胜利 本市二流子纷纷转变 五十余人决心改悔参加生产》，《解放日报》1943年12月22日）另一方面，多篇报道邀请从“二流子”转变的劳动英雄现身说法，以唤起大众情感共鸣并指明方向。

Criticizing Erroneous Concepts, Establishing a Moral Orientation That Takes Pride in Labor

批判错误观念，树立以劳动为荣的道德导向

During the Yan’an period, Party newspapers and periodicals focused on guiding the masses to establish a moral orientation that takes pride in labor, advocating that labor issues should not be viewed differently due to differences in the specific form of labor or the gender of the laborer, so that the concept of the glory of labor was widely disseminated.

延安时期，党报党刊注重引导群众树立以劳动为荣的道德导向，倡导不因劳动具体形态、劳动者性别等差异而区别看待劳动问题，使得劳动光荣的观念广泛传播。

With the advancement of the Great Production Movement, “the gap between mental and manual labor began to be gradually changed by the people of the border region” (“Our City Holds Production Summary and Award Mobilization Conference,” *New China Daily*, March 26, 1940), but concepts looking down on physical labor still existed among some groups. Party newspapers and periodicals, by reporting on examples such as Party Central Committee leaders personally participating in physical labor and workers and peasants actively participating in the Great Production Movement, made the masses feel the great power of productive labor. In addition, there was also the erroneous concept in the border region that “women participating in production is a loss of face.” Party newspapers and periodicals summarized the policy of mobilizing women to participate in production labor as a new direction for women’s work, emphasizing that women’s participation in production was the fundamental means of safeguarding their own interests, and encouraged women to participate in production by setting up women labor heroes. For example, the *Border Region Masses’ Newspaper* once published an article titled “Whoever Is Capable in Production Will Be the Head of the Household,” using examples to confirm that women’s labor is equally glorious. In terms of literary and artistic propaganda, through forms such as yangge opera, clapper talk, and prints, the moral orientation that the glory of labor does not distinguish between men and women was conveyed, while also helping women choose suitable production labor based on their professional expertise and difficult circumstances. Furthermore, Party newspapers and periodicals noted that among the broad masses, the linguistic habit of referring to labor as “suffering” [shouku] or “bitter fate” [mingku] was still maintained, and therefore pointed out that this linguistic habit should be corrected. In fact, “with our working-class political party—the Chinese Communist Party—and with a democratic border region government, and this government being our own, so here is our workers’ home, and we workers are the masters here,” labor is not “suffering,” but “glorious” (“Confession of a Shoemaker,” *Chinese Worker*, April 4, 1940).

伴随大生产运动的推进，“劳心与劳力间的鸿沟开始被边区的人民慢慢的改变着”（《本市举行生产总结给奖动员大会》，《新中华报》1940年3月26日），但一些群体中还存在轻视体力劳动的观念。党报党刊通过报道党中央领导人以身作则参加体力劳动、工农群众积极参加大生产运动等事例，使大众感受到生产劳动的伟大力量。此外，边区也存在着“妇女参加生产有失体面”的错误观念。党报党刊将动员妇女参加生产劳动的政策概括为妇女工作的新方向，强调妇女参加生产是维护自身利益的根本手段，并通过树立妇女劳动英雄激励女性参加生产。例如，《边区群众报》曾刊登《谁生产能干谁当家》一文，以实例印证妇女劳动同样光荣。文艺宣传方面，通过秧歌剧、快板、版画等形式传递劳动光荣不分男女的道德导向，同时注重帮助妇女结合专业特长、困难情况等选择适合的生产劳动。此外，党报党刊注意到在广大群众中间还保持着把劳动称作“受苦”“命苦”的话语习惯，因而指出这种话语习惯应当予以纠正。实际上，“有我们工人阶级的政党——中国共产党，有了民主的边区政府，而这政府又是我们自己的，所以这里是我们工人的家，我们工人在这里就是主人”，劳动不是“受苦”，而是“光荣”（《一个鞋工的自白》，《中国工人》1940年4月4日）。

Leveraging the Exemplary Role of Labor Heroes, Advocating and Cultivating a Positive Labor Attitude

发挥劳动英雄示范作用，倡导培育积极的劳动态度

During the Yan’an period, labor heroes played a “vanguard role,” “backbone role,” and “bridge role” (“We Must Learn to Do Economic Work,” *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, Vol. 3, People’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 1014). Party newspapers and periodicals vigorously reported on the heroic deeds, cultivating and promoting a positive labor attitude.

延安时期，劳动英雄发挥着“带头作用”“骨干作用”“桥梁作用”（《必须学会做经济工作》，《毛泽东选集》第3卷，人民出版社1991年版，第1014页）。党报党刊大力报道英雄事迹，培育并弘扬积极劳动态度。

Party newspapers and periodicals summarized the labor attitude displayed by labor heroes as active dedication, mutual aid and cooperation, hard work and down-to-earth effort, and diligent study and innovation, and promoted this labor attitude to take root in people’s hearts through vigorous publicity of heroic deeds. Among them, Zhao Zhankui was a model representative. He came to Yan’an in 1938, always stuck to his own job, and was rated as a special-class labor hero of the border region for three consecutive years from 1943 to 1945. The *Liberation Daily* specially reported on Zhao Zhankui’s deeds, evaluating that he embodied the labor attitude of “consistent, active and responsible, honest and down-to-earth, hardworking and uncomplaining, selfless and devoted to the public interest, and self-sacrificing.” In October 1942, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region General Trade Union issued the “Notice on Launching the Zhao Zhankui Movement,” pointing out that it was necessary to inspire all workers in the border region to learn from Zhao Zhankui’s deeds, “in order to achieve the goal of raising workers’ political consciousness, stabilizing production sentiment, and stimulating labor enthusiasm.”

党报党刊将劳动英雄所展现的劳动态度概括为主动奉献、互助合作、埋头苦干、钻研创新等，通过大力宣传英雄事迹推动这种劳动态度深入人心。其中，赵占魁是一个模范代表。他于1938年来到延安，始终坚守本职工作，自1943年到1945年连续三年被评为边区特等劳动英雄。《解放日报》专门报道赵占魁事迹，评价其体现了“始终如一、积极负责、老老实实、埋头苦干、大公无私、自我牺牲”的劳动态度。1942年10月，陕甘宁边区总工会发布《关于开展赵占魁运动的通知》指出，要激励全边区工人学习赵占魁事迹，“以达到提高工人政治觉悟，稳定生产情绪，激发劳动热忱”的目的。

Calling on labor heroes to lead by example and promote a positive attitude toward labor. In the processes of providing production guidance, conducting heart-to-heart talks, and engaging in joint labor, labor heroes fully played a demonstrative and leading role. The *Labor Heroes’ Covenant* explicitly stipulated that labor heroes must “first complete [the task] themselves” and also “help others in production.” It advocated “labor for the revolution” and labor “for one’s own liberation” (Mu Ting, “‘Hardship’ and ‘Fateful Hardship’,” *Liberation Daily*, May 18, 1943). At the same time, Party newspapers and periodicals paid attention to reporting on the commendation and rewards given to labor heroes in the border region, often devoting substantial front-page coverage to the grand scenes of labor hero conferences and showing the welcome and respect labor heroes received upon returning to their hometowns. Mao Zedong once pointed out, “I hope you (editor’s note: labor heroes) will not become complacent” (*Organize*, *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, Vol. 3, People’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 935). Responding to this call, Party newspapers and periodicals warned labor heroes to strengthen self-criticism and avoid becoming arrogant or complacent due to honors or achievements already made (*The Border Region Heroes Conference Opens, Chairman Lin Delivers an Opening Address, Calling for Restraining Complacency and Striving for Progress*, *Liberation Daily*, December 23, 1944), encouraging them to strengthen their guidance and shaping of social attitudes toward labor through close interaction with the masses.

号召劳动英雄以身作则，弘扬积极劳动态度。在提供生产指导、谈话谈心、共同劳动等过程中，劳动英雄充分发挥示范引领作用。《劳动英雄公约》明确规定，劳动英雄“自己首先完成”，还要“帮助别人生产”。倡导“为革命而劳动”，“为了自己的解放”而劳动（穆挺：《“辛苦”与“命苦”》，《解放日报》1943年5月18日）。同时，党报党刊注重报道边区对劳动英雄的表彰和奖励，时常在头版以较大篇幅报道劳动英雄大会的盛况，并展现劳动英雄回乡受到的欢迎和尊重。毛泽东曾指出，“希望你们（编者注：劳动英雄）也不要自满”（《组织起来》，《毛泽东选集》第3卷，人民出版社1991年版，第935页）。党报党刊响应号召，警示劳动英雄加强自我批评，避免因荣誉表彰或已取得的成绩而骄傲自满（《边区群英大会开幕 林主席致开幕词 号召抑制自满力求进步》，《解放日报》1944年12月23日），鼓励他们在同群众的密切交往中加强对社会劳动态度的引领与塑造。

(Author: Zhang Yujie, Lecturer at the School of Marxism, Nankai University)

（作者：张玉杰，系南开大学马克思主义学院讲师）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧