“Political standards first, Artistic standards second” is a view on the standards of literary and artistic criticism Mao Zedong stands for in his Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, and it has long been generally accepted as a core concept of the problem. But I believe that it is a onesided and incomplete perception of “political standards first, artistic standards second” being the only meaning of Mao Zedong’s talks on literary criticism. It needs to trace back to the historical contexts where the Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art happens through close reading of the text, and only in this way can the whole and authentic meanings of Mao Zedong’s concepts on literary criticism be fully taken. To be specific, the interrelated theoretical interpretation on literary and artistic criticism should be disclosed, and Mao Zedong’s analysis and criticism of eight false thoughts also deserves deeply thinking and painstaking explanations.

The Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art; the standards of literary and artistic criticism; eight kinds of confused concepts; the thoughts of Literature and Art