Appraisals of "Compound Where Rent Was Collected"

Chinese Literature
No. 4, 1967, pp. 111-121

EDITORS' NOTE

Guided by Mao Tse-tung's thought, some revolutionary artists have recently made in Peking a new set of clay sculptures in the series Compound Where Rent Was Collected. Actuated by the spirit of continuous revolution and continuous advance, they made certain important changes to the old figures besides sculpting some new ones, thus improving the ideological significance as well as the artistic form of the whole work.

"Revolt," expressing the peasants' revolutionary struggle, is the most important section in this new work and a key factor in raising the ideological level of the whole. In accordance with Chairman Mao's great teaching "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun," the revolutionary artists have presented the peasants' struggle in Compound Where Rent Was Collected as developing from spontaneous to conscious revolt, from a general revolt to armed struggle led by the Communist Party. This clearly reveals the gradual awakening of the Chinese peasants and the development of their revolutionary rebel spirit under the guidance of Mao Tse-tung's thought, forcefully propagating Chairman Mao's brilliant teachings on armed struggle and the agrarian movement.

The success of this improved and enlarged Compound Where Rent Was Collected is yet another convincing demonstration of the fact that Mao Tse-tung's thought is the soul of all revolutionary works of art. All revolutionary writers and artists must abide by Chairman Mao's orientation for literature and art, use the method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism, and integrate themselves with the workers, peasants and soldiers; for only so can they create a new proletarian literature and art worthy of the great age we live in.

The clay sculptures in Compound Where Rent Was Collected are a product of the great proletarian cultural revolution, and a splendid prototype for the revolution in sculpture. They have an epoch-making significance, just as has the highly successful reform of Peking opera, the ballet and symphonic music. These are all part of the successful outcome of the great proletarian cultural revolution and a brilliant victory for Mao Tse-tung's teachings on literature and art.

Below we print some appraisals of Compound Where Rent Was Collected by workers, peasants, soldiers and Red Guards.

Fiery Hatred Makes My Blood Boil

As I stand in front of these figures
My heart seethes like the raging sea;
This is not the long distant past
But our wretched yesterday,
When three big mountains*  [*Imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism.]
were crushing the Chinese people
And all China was a "compound where rent was collected."

As I stand in front of these figures
Hate floods my heart;
I gaze at them with anguished eyes
And seem to hear my dear ones cry for help;
Then, instinctively, my hands
Take a tighter grip on my gun.

As I stand in front of these figures
Tears stream from my eyes;
Dropping into my heart they turn into seeds of fire,
And falling on to my gun are changed into bullets;
To forget the past is a betrayal,
A soldier's responsibility is as heavy as a mountain.

As I stand in front of these figures
Fiery hatred makes my blood boil;
There are still countless landlords in the five continents,
Still countless compounds on earth where rent is collected.
To arms, slaves!
Unite and battle until the dawn.

A soldier

My Thoughts on Seeing "Compound Where Rent Was Collected"

A thousand thunder-claps
        Burst from my heart,
Ten thousand torches
        Cast a blazing light.

Rent collection! — this tableau of blood and tears
Fills me with undying hatred
And imprints class love on my heart.

Each clay figure mirrors
Those grim, dark days of old;
Each gesture has the power
To open the flood-gates of memory.
What is meant by oppression?
What is meant by classes?
Here in this compound where rent was collected
They are pictured to the life.

My heart is a raging fire,
My blood boils at sight of these figures.
See that old peasant!
His arms are like two sticks, his back bent from toil,
His eyes are fixed on his grain - his blood and sweat -
To be made over now to the landlord.
The old man is worn to a shadow;
The wheels of his barrow creak and groan -
He can barely push it along.
Look again -
A whip cracks by the winnowing machine,
Raising welts on a small lad's back
While in vain his grandfather cries, "This is good grain!"
There is no justice in the old society,
For "might is right" - the money-bag's word is law.

See that old woman!
I long to step forward and take her arm,
For in her I see my own poor grandmother.
I long to tell her:
Stop fretting about the debt you can never repay,
The peasants now have kindled the fire of revenge.
I am moved to cry to my peasant brothers: Arise!
Look round at the whole wide world.
Liu Wen-tsai is not the only landlord on earth,
Countless fetters are being forged in the White House,
Countless whips are falling on the backs of the poor.

Hate high as a mountain -
        Higher than a mountain;
Rage deep as the ocean -
        Deeper than the ocean!
Boundless class hatred,
Burning national fury
Pent up for countless centuries,
For countless generations.
As I leave Compound Where Rent Was Collected
The spring wind brings good news of a fresh leap forward;
Those bad old days are gone, never to return,
We are living in the new age of socialism;
But not for a moment must we relax our guard,
Class struggle still exists;
We must follow closely behind Chairman Mao
And always be thoroughgoing revolutionaries!

A visitor to the exhibition

We Must Always Remember Chairman Mao's Great Teachings

We were stirred to the very bottom of our hearts as we entered the exhibition Compound Where Rent Was Collected, for the first thing we saw there was a statue of our most beloved and respected leader Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao, ah, Chairman Mao! It is you who have led millions of our heroic people to make revolution and overthrow imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism which were battening on their blood; it is you who have brought us our present happiness. Growing up under your care, we have never known hardships. But you have taught us not to forget the past, not to forget class struggle. Today, acting on your instructions, we have seen Compound Where Rent Was Collected and received an object lesson in class education.

In the old society where man preyed upon man, there were many vicious scoundrels like Liu Wen-tsai. Tigers, wherever they may be, are man-eating beasts. As we thought of our own families' wretched history, the tears started to our eyes. Today we young people are following the Party and Chairman Mao to make revolution, and coming to Peking we have known the greatest happiness in our lives - we have seen the red sun in our hearts, Chairman Mao. He has told us: "The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You young people, full of vigour and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning. Our hope is placed on you.... The world belongs to you. China's future belongs to you." Chairman Mao places such high hopes on us!

Today the class enemies who have been overthrown want to stage a come-back, want to drag our younger generation on to the bourgeois road, drag the Chinese people back to that old man-eating society, so that they can lord it over us again and do whatever they please. These are simply pipe-dreams. We must keep Chairman Mao's teachings firmly in mind, and in this great proletarian cultural revolution smash all the class enemy's devilish plots, to defend the dictatorship of the proletariat. We must safeguard our socialist motherland and make her impregnable!

Three Red Guards of a long march contingent from Shantung

Never Forget Class Suffering,
Remain Revolutionaries to the End

As we left the exhibition Compound Where Rent Was Collected, a cold wind blew in our faces but I could not help being stirred by the thought of the sculptures. I kept seeing a harrowing scene: Through the blustering autumn wind a fearfully skinny little girl was leading her blind, white-haired grandfather, who held in his trembling hand a deed selling her....

Ah, we must never forget class suffering, we must never forget class struggle! Our great leader Chairman Mao has taught us: "The imperialists and domestic reactionaries will certainly not take their defeat lying down and they will struggle to the last ditch. After there is peace and order throughout the country, they will still engage in sabotage and create disturbances in various ways and will try every day and every minute to stage a come-back." Countless staggering facts which have come to light during the great proletarian cultural revolution testify to the complete correctness of this brilliant statement of Chairman Mao's. Just look at the records kept by the overthrown landlords and rich peasants in order to settle scores if the power changed hands. Look at the weapons hidden in the homes of counter-revolutionaries. Agents of the bourgeoisie have wormed their way into our organizations. So long as they live they keep hoping to stage a come-back. If we forget the class struggle, the enemy will seize power and the mass of labouring people will be plunged again into a living hell, while countless revolutionaries will lose their heads.

We must keep class hatred firmly in mind and always be revolutionaries, resolutely following Chairman Mao to carry the revolution through to the end.

A Red Guard of a long march contingent from Shansi

Our Mighty Country Must Remain Red For Ever

The grim clay figures in Compound Where Rent Was Collected brought tears to my eyes and threw my heart into an anguished tumult. I am a youngster from Yenan, sacred to the revolution, and today in the capital of our great motherland I have received another profound lesson in class education. The dark old society was a hell on earth; it hounded countless numbers of our class brothers to death, broke up countless families and reduced them to ruin.

Today, under the leadership of our great leader Chairman Mao, our motherland is stronger and fairer than ever before. This has been won at the cost of the blood and lives of tens of thousands of revolutionaries before us. We must see to it that our mighty country remains red for ever!

A student of Yenan University

We Must Keep a Firm Grip on Our Guns

When I saw Compound Where Rent Was Collected it reminded me of the wretched life my family led when I was a child and we were oppressed and exploited by the landlords. We were poor peasants and never had enough to eat, though my father and elder brother both worked for a landlord. My mother died of semi-starvation and illness, and my father hung himself. The old society broke up my family and killed my parents. At fifteen I left home to join the revolution.

Now we have a happy life, but we must on no account forget the past nor the fact that in the world today there are still many "Compounds Where Rent Is Collected." We must not forget that Taiwan and two-thirds of mankind have not yet been liberated. The reactionaries will not take their defeat lying down, nor can they put down their butchers' knives and suddenly turn into Buddhas. We must never forget class hatred, must constantly keep a firm grip on our guns.

A demobilized soldier, now a militiaman

The Improved "Compound Where Rent Was Collected" Is Excellent!

The addition of the section "Revolt" to Compound Where Rent Was Collected is excellent.

Wherever there is oppression there will be revolt. Millions of peasants, awakening to the truth because of their own fearful sufferings, united to launch a heroic struggle against the criminal system of exploitation. The only way to overthrow man-eating monsters is by taking up arms. Only so can the labouring people win liberation.

Chairman Mao has taught us: "The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution." And "Every Communist must grasp the truth, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.'" The sculptors of Compound Where Rent Was Collected made changes and additions to it in line with the suggestions of workers, peasants, soldiers and Red Guards. This new, improved set of sculptures gives clearer prominence to the great thought of Mao Tse-tung and is a fresh triumph for the great proletarian cultural revolution.

Members of a long march contingent from Shanghai