From Yan’an to the World: The International Dissemination of Chinese Literary Theory

At present, changes unseen in a century in the world are accelerating; communication capacity determines influence, and discursive power determines the initiative. Accelerating the construction of a Chinese discourse and Chinese narrative system, and comprehensively enhancing the effectiveness of international communication, are the necessary paths for conforming to the developmental demands of the era, responding to challenges in international public opinion, and strengthening comprehensive national power. *Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art* (hereinafter referred to as the *Talks*), as a foundational document of the Chinese Communist Party’s system of thought on literature and art, received widespread attention both domestically and internationally from the moment of its publication. Its cross-cultural translation, dissemination, and influence have continued to the present day, making an important Chinese contribution to the development of Marxist literary theory. The 80-year history of the international dissemination of the *Talks* provides a highly instructive historical mirror for understanding how to tell China’s story well, spread China’s voice effectively, and promote Chinese literary theory to the world.

当前，世界百年未有之大变局加速演进，传播力决定影响力，话语权决定主动权。加快构建中国话语和中国叙事体系，全面提升国际传播效能是顺应时代发展要求、应对国际舆论挑战、增强综合国力的必由之路。《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》（以下简称《讲话》）作为中国共产党文艺思想体系的奠基性文献，发表伊始，即受到国内外广泛关注，其跨文化翻译、传播与影响持续至今，为发展马克思主义文艺理论作出了重要的中国贡献。《讲话》80年来的国际传播历程，为我们理解如何讲好中国故事、传播好中国声音，推动中国文论走向世界提供了极具启示意义的历史镜鉴。

Government-Led English Translation and Dissemination of the *Talks*

中国政府主导的《讲话》英译与传播

Translation is the discursive prerequisite for Chinese literary theory to go global. Regarding English translation, as early as around 1950, English translations of the *Talks* had been published both domestically and internationally. The first complete translation was published in the English-language newspaper *Zhifu News* in Yantai, translated by Chen Jiakang, then secretary to Dong Biwu, and American journalist Ruth Earnshaw Lo. [1]1 The *Talks* refers to Mao Zedong’s “Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art” (1942), a foundational text of Chinese Communist cultural policy that defined the political role of art and literature. In the same year, another complete translation, translated by American scholar Frederick Vanderbilt Field under the title *Problems of Literature and Art*, was published in the United States and India, and was subsequently reprinted twice.

翻译是中国文论走向世界的话语前提。就英译而言，早在1950年前后，国内外已出版《讲话》英译本。第一个全译本发表于烟台的英文报纸《芝罘新闻》，由时任董必武秘书的陈家康和美国女记者葛兰恒翻译。同年，美国学者菲尔德以《文艺问题》为名翻译的另一全译本也在美国、印度等地出版，随后两度重印。

From 1961 to 1965, the Beijing Foreign Languages Press successively published the English translations of the first four volumes of the *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, with the *Talks* included in Volume 3. This volume brought together the wisdom of first-class scholars such as Qian Zhongshu, Jin Yuelin, and Ye Junjian, adhering to the translation principle of “taking the source language as the standard” and striving to be “completely faithful to the original text in both spirit and wording.” [2]2 “Adapting Marxism to the Chinese context” is the standard rendering of 马克思主义中国化, a core Party concept meaning the sinicization of Marxist theory to fit Chinese conditions. Moreover, Mao Zedong himself personally participated in the review and verification, interacting directly with the translators, fundamentally ensuring the fidelity and accuracy of the translation.

1961—1965年，北京外文出版社陆续发行《毛泽东选集》前4卷英译本，《讲话》收录于第3卷。该卷本汇集了钱锺书、金岳霖、叶君健等一流学者的智慧，坚持“以原语为旨归”的翻译原则，力求“在文字和精神上均完全忠实于原文”。而且，毛泽东本人亲自参与审阅校验，与译者直接互动，从根本上确保译文的忠实与准确。

With the publication of the English translation of the *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, the international dissemination of the *Talks* entered a new phase. Research shows that between 1950 and 1967, Mao Zedong’s works, including the *Talks*, were translated into 65 languages, with as many as 853 editions published, spreading to over 150 countries and regions worldwide. [3]3 The *Quotations from Chairman Mao* (also known as the *Little Red Book*) is a collection of statements from Mao Zedong’s speeches and writings, widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Among them, the *Quotations from Chairman Mao* in various languages, with its concise and unique expressions, disseminated the core tenets of the people’s character of literature and art, the relationship between literature, art, and revolution, and the dual criteria of literary and artistic criticism to different strata and groups—from intellectual elites and political figures to the general public—creating a broad social foundation for subsequent academic reception and in-depth interpretation. As a classic of translation from Chinese into foreign languages, the government-led translation of the *Talks*, by virtue of its unquestionable authority and profound influence, has been the most widely circulated and most highly recognized in the international community, establishing its authoritative status as the official Chinese translation version.

随着《毛泽东选集》英译本的出版，《讲话》的国际传播进入新阶段。研究显示，1950 —1967年间，包括《讲话》在内的毛泽东著作被翻译成65种语言，发行版本多达853种，传播范围遍及全球150余个国家和地区。其中，涵盖各语种的《毛主席语录》更以其言简意赅的独特表述，将文艺的人民性、文艺与革命的关系、文艺批评的双重标准等主旨要义传播至不同阶层和群体——从思想精英、政界人士到普罗大众，为后续的学术化接受和深度阐释创造了广泛的社会基础。作为中译外的经典，中国政府主导的《讲话》译本，凭借其无可置疑的权威性和深远的影响力，在国际社会流传最广、认可度最高，奠定其作为中国官方翻译版的权威地位。

Historically, the translation work of the 1950s and 1960s was, in essence, a national-level practice of cultural dissemination, shouldering an important mission of a specific historical stage. At that time, with the sharp confrontation between the Eastern and Western blocs, New China had to both break through the containment and encirclement by Western powers and respond to the strong demands of many Asian, African, and Latin American countries to learn from China and shake off colonial rule. It was precisely in this complex and intertwined international situation that the *Talks* became an ideological weapon and cultural bond for uniting international progressive forces and jointly confronting the Cold War. Its target audience for translation was mainly leftists in Europe and America, sinology researchers, and the revolutionary peoples of the Third World. Since its publication, the *Talks*, with its superb translation, has successfully disseminated Chinese revolutionary literary and artistic experience and theory to the world, providing important theoretical resources and ideological guidance for the world proletarian literary and artistic movement, and successfully promoting Chinese culture and Chinese thought to the world.

历史地看，20世纪五六十年代的翻译，本质上是国家层面的文化传播实践，肩负着特定历史阶段的重要使命。彼时，东西阵营尖锐对峙，新中国既要突破西方列强的遏制围堵，又要回应广大亚非拉国家学习中国、摆脱殖民统治的强烈诉求。正是在这种复杂交织的国际形势下，《讲话》成为团结国际进步力量、共同应对冷战的思想武器和文化纽带，其译文受众主要面向欧美左翼、汉学研究者和第三世界的革命人民。自出版以来，《讲话》以其精湛的译文向全世界成功传播中国革命文艺经验和理论，为世界无产阶级文艺运动提供重要的理论资源和思想指引，成功推动中国文化和中国思想走向世界。

English Translation and Dissemination of the *Talks* Led by Foreign Research Institutions

国外研究机构主导的《讲话》英译与传播

The international dissemination of the *Talks* did not stop at China’s official translation. Abroad, academic groups, publishing institutions, and individuals, based on their own research objectives, spontaneously organized translations and published them on a large scale, playing an important role in the international dissemination of the *Talks*. The cross-century translation and introduction lineage clearly presents the path of reception and interpretation of Chinese literary theory in the international academic field.

《讲话》的国际传播并未止步于中国的官方译本。在国外，学术团体、出版机构和个人等基于自身的研究目标，自发组织翻译，规模化出版，在《讲话》的国际传播中扮演着重要角色。跨世纪的译介脉络，清晰呈现中国文论在国际学术场域的接受和阐释路径。

In 1952, Harvard University published *A Documentary History of Chinese Communism*, compiled collaboratively by Brandt, Schwartz, and Fairbank, which selected and translated the main content of the *Talks*. [4]4 Conrad Brandt, Benjamin Schwartz, and John King Fairbank were leading American scholars of modern China. Fairbank (1907–1991) is considered the founder of modern Chinese studies in the United States. As the first systematic English-language document introducing the Chinese Communist movement, its publication marked the beginning of Western academia’s philological compilation and research on the Chinese revolution. The editors pointed out that the *Talks*, based on Marxism, deeply elucidated the core issues of literary and artistic creation and criticism: standpoint, attitude, readership, and the relationship between creation and theoretical study. On this basis, it confirmed the active role of literature and art in the revolution and highly evaluated the *Talks*’ function as a political document in the process of the Chinese revolution. At the same time, it emphasized the inseparable intellectual origins between the *Talks* and Marxism. The translation and introduction of the *Talks* at this stage promoted Western scholarly understanding of the *Talks* and laid the documentary foundation for subsequent research.

1952年，哈佛大学出版布兰德、史华慈和费正清等合作编译的《中国共产主义文献史》，选译《讲话》的主要内容。作为首部系统介绍中国共产主义运动的英文文献，其问世标志着西方学术界开始对中国革命进行文献学意义上的整理、研究。编者指出，《讲话》立足马克思主义，深入阐释文艺创作与批评的核心问题：立场、态度、读者，以及创作与理论学习的关系，在此基础上确证文艺对革命的能动作用，高度评价《讲话》作为政治文献在中国革命进程中的作用。同时，强调《讲话》与马克思主义之间不可割裂的思想渊源。此阶段的《讲话》译介促进了西方对《讲话》的学理性认知，为后续研究奠定了文献基础。

In 1980, a separate edition of the *Talks* translated by Australian sinologist Bonnie S. McDougall was published by the University of Michigan Press, and was subsequently reprinted in 1992 and 2020. [5]5 Bonnie S. McDougall (born 1941) is a prominent Australian sinologist and translator specializing in modern Chinese literature. This translation, with its distinct academic stance and research orientation, reflected a paradigm shift in Western research on the *Talks*. As an expert translator, McDougall was deeply versed in modern and contemporary Chinese literature and Chinese-English translation studies. Through a systematic review of the views of representative scholars such as Cyril Birch, Joe C. Huang, and Douwe Fokkema, she sharply pointed out that these studies were deeply influenced by ideological bias, framing the *Talks* as a political-historical document, thereby obscuring the rich literary and artistic elements contained within the *Talks*. She firmly believed that the *Talks* possessed a special aesthetic connotation worthy of in-depth exploration, and her translation aimed to reveal the inherent aesthetic value of the *Talks*. To this end, she meticulously designed every aspect of the translation process. Given that the *Talks* were born in the war-torn era of the War of Resistance Against Japan, underwent several revisions and changes in editions, she used the text of the *Talks* published in the *Liberation Daily* in 1943 to commemorate the 7th anniversary of Lu Xun’s death as the source text, and took the text of the *Talks* included in the 1953 Chinese edition of the *Selected Works of Mao Zedong* as a reference, meticulously annotating the changes in the edition within the translation. [6]6 The *Liberation Daily* (*Jiefang Ribao*) was the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published in Yan’an from 1941 to 1947. Lu Xun (1881–1936) was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature, highly influential in leftist cultural circles. For the translation of key concepts, she chose expressions that could better highlight aesthetic value and enhance the translator’s understanding and reception. Although her translation somewhat diminished the connotations of the original text, it enhanced the commensurability of the *Talks* with Western literary theory, facilitating target-language readers’ genuine understanding of the literary and artistic thought of the *Talks*. McDougall’s translation initiated an aesthetic turn in the translation, introduction, and reception of the *Talks*, providing important documentary evidence for the objective Western cognition and scholarly interpretation of Chinese literary theory.

1980年，澳大利亚汉学家杜博妮翻译的《讲话》单行本面世，由美国密歇根大学出版，后分别于1992年、2020年再版发行。该译本以其鲜明的学术立场和研究取向，体现了西方对《讲话》研究的范式转换。作为专家型译者，杜博妮深谙中国现当代文学和汉英翻译研究。通过系统梳理白芝、鲍华德、佛克马等代表性学者的观点，她犀利地指出，这些研究深受意识形态偏见影响，将《讲话》框定为政治史学文献，遮蔽了《讲话》蕴含的丰富文艺元素。她坚信《讲话》具有特殊的、值得深入探讨的美学内涵，她的译本旨在揭示《讲话》内在的审美价值。为此，她精心设计每个翻译环节。鉴于《讲话》诞生于战火纷飞的抗战年代，几经修改，版本变迁，她以1943年《解放日报》为纪念鲁迅逝世7周年而发表的《讲话》为源本，并以1953年中文版《毛泽东选集》收录的《讲话》为参照，在译文中详细标注版本的改动内容。针对关键概念的翻译，则选择更能凸显审美价值、提升译者理解接受的表达方式。其翻译虽然在一定程度上减损了原典内涵，但提升了《讲话》与西方文论的通约性，便于译语读者真正理解《讲话》的文艺思想。杜氏译本开启了《讲话》译介与接受的审美化转向，为西方客观认知和学理化阐释中国文论提供了重要的文献依据。

In 1992, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University launched a major project—a systematic translation of Mao Zedong’s writings from 1912 to 1949. [7]7 Stuart R. Schram (1924–2012) was a British political scientist and a leading Western scholar of Mao Zedong’s thought. The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University is a major center for research on China. With Stuart R. Schram, a senior scholar in the international field of Mao studies, as the chief editor, the project took over 30 years, with the complete publication of the 10-volume set only being completed in 2023. Upon its release, with its rich and detailed annotations and rigorous and standardized translations, it immediately became an irreplaceable documentary resource for overseas Chinese studies, overseas Mao studies, and other fields, and is hailed as the “Harvard edition of the *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*.” Volume 8 of the collection includes McDougall’s translation of the *Talks*. In the “Introduction,” the editors trace and sort out the historical background of the convening of the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, not only fully affirming the significant historical contributions of the *Talks* to Yan’an literature, art, and the Chinese revolution, but also delving into the texture of literary and artistic aesthetics. The “Introduction” proposes that Mao Zedong’s philosophical reflections on the relationship between the beauty of life and the beauty of art, and his insight into elevating life into “living art,” embody a literary and artistic view that prioritizes poetic intuition over rational logic. The Harvard School, represented by Schram, is a bellwether for overseas Mao studies. Their commentary indicates that, with the deepening of the globalization process, Western research on the *Talks* has broken through the limitations of a single perspective, achieving an organic integration of multiple horizons including politics, history, and aesthetics.

1992年，哈佛大学费正清中国研究中心启动一项重要项目——系统翻译1912—1949年间的毛泽东著述。由国际毛泽东研究领域的资深学者施拉姆任总主编，历时30余年，直至2023年才完成10卷本的全部出版。甫一问世，即以其翔实丰富的注释和严谨规范的译文，成为海外中国学、海外毛泽东研究等不可替代的文献资源，被誉为“哈佛版《毛泽东选集》”。文献第8卷收录杜博妮的《讲话》译文，编者在“序言”中回溯、梳理延安文艺座谈会召开的历史背景，不仅充分肯定《讲话》对延安文艺和中国革命的重大历史贡献，而且深入到文艺美学的肌理。“序言”提出，毛泽东就生活美与艺术美之关系的哲学思考，将生活升华为“活的艺术”的创见，体现了诗性直觉优先于理性逻辑的文艺观。以施拉姆为代表的哈佛学派是海外毛泽东研究的风向标，他们的评述表明，随着全球化进程的深入，西方的《讲话》研究已突破单一视角的局限，实现了政治、历史与审美等多元视域的有机融合。

Contemporary Implications of the English Translation and Dissemination of the *Talks*

《讲话》英译与传播的时代启示

From the cave dwellings of Yan’an to the field of Western literary theory, the worldwide resonance of the *Talks* [1]1 The *Talks* refers to Mao Zedong’s “Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art” (1942), a foundational text of Chinese Communist cultural policy that defined the political role of art and literature. and its literary and artistic theory has endured without abating. Its theoretical travel across civilizational boundaries demonstrates that the international dissemination of Chinese literary theory has never been a simple linguistic conversion, but rather a complex systemic project involving discourse generation, meaning reconstruction, and cultural dialogue. A survey of translations by foreign research institutions in different periods clearly reveals a research trajectory shifting from a focus on political-historical interpretation to a focus on aesthetic-connotative interpretation.

从延安窑洞到西方文论场域，《讲话》及其文艺理论的世界性回响经久不衰。其跨越文明疆界的理论旅行表明：中国文论的国际传播，从来不是简单的语言转换，而是涉及话语生成、意义重构与文化对话的复杂系统工程。纵观不同时期国外研究机构的翻译，可以清晰看到一条从偏重政治历史解读到偏重审美内涵阐释的研究脉络。

Over the past 80 years, the *Talks* have undergone continuous interpretation and written reconstruction in the contexts of different eras, realizing a paradigm innovation from a Chinese revolutionary document to a discourse of world literary theory. While promoting the international dissemination of Chinese discourse, it has also facilitated the understanding of and dialogue with Chinese literary theory among people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, demonstrating the vigorous vitality and value of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. [2]2 “Adapting Marxism to the Chinese context” is the standard rendering of 马克思主义中国化, a core Party concept meaning the sinicization of Marxist theory to fit Chinese conditions. Standing at a new historical starting point, the international dissemination of the *Talks* provides valuable historical inspiration for advancing Chinese culture to “go global” and “take root” in the New Era, enhancing the influence of Chinese culture, and forging new forms of human civilization, contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to mutual learning among civilizations.

80年来，《讲话》历经不同时代语境的持续阐释和书写重构，实现了从中国革命文献到世界文论话语的范式革新。在推动中国话语国际传播的同时，也促进了不同语言文化背景的民众对中国文论的理解和对话，彰显了马克思主义中国化的旺盛生命力与价值。站在新的历史起点，《讲话》的国际传播为新时代推进中国文化“走出去”“走进去”、提升中华文化影响力和构建人类文明新形态提供了宝贵的历史启示，为文明互鉴贡献中国智慧和中国方案。

(The author is a researcher at the School of Communication, Shenzhen University)

（作者系深圳大学传播学院研究员）