Bring Forth the New from the Old

The basic policy of the CPC in developing and further prospering of the socialist culture. In 1942, Mao Zedong put forward the general policy of reforming the classic Chinese opera— “the policy of weeding through the old to bring forth the new” in the inscription to congratulate the establishment of Yan'an Pingju Institute in Yan'an. On April 3, 1951, to congratulate the establishment of the Research Institute for Chinese Opera, Mao Zedong inscribed the following: "Let a hundred flowers blossom and weed through the old to bring forth the new.”

This inscription has become an important guideline for the opera art and for the whole cultural and artistic undertakings. Under the guidance of this policy, the cause of new China's Opera continued to develop and has made great achievements. The policy of “weeding through the old to bring forth the new” means critically inheriting the old culture, discarding its dross, absorbing its essence, and in this way creating a new culture.

Mao Zedong pointed out that we must critically inherit the rich literary and art legacy heritage and fine artistic traditions both from our ancient predecessors in China and foreign countries, " learn from them when we try to work over the artistic and literary raw material found in the life of the people in our own times and in our own country.” He added: We do not refuse to make use of the artistic and literary forms of the past, and when we reshape them and fill them with new content, they also become things which serve the revolution and the people.”

The purpose of inheriting and drawing lessons from the past old culture is to create a new culture and serve the cause of transforming the current reality. However, "inheritance and drawing on can never become a substitute for one's own creation, these two should never be confused. Imitating and copying the ancients and foreigners is not creation, uncritical copy-paste and imitation of ancients and foreigners in literature and art is the most unproductive and most harmful dogmatism”. Mao Zedong pointed out: "the good things in foreign countries" and "the good native things of China" should be learned from, but we should not "copy or imitate everything", instead we should "make innovations" ("the new innovations which can be welcomed by the people"), and on the basis of critical inheritance, we should create a kind of art and culture "not only different from foreign countries, but also from ancient China", they should bear the mark of "own Chinese things and possess a unique national style".

“Weeding through the old and to bring forth the new" is in fact the dialectical unification process of these two aspects in order to promote the cultural development. The proposition of "letting a hundred flowers bloom, weeding through the old and bring forth the new" is a successful example of using the universal principles of Marxism so as to solve Chinese cultural problems, and conforms to the objective law of the development of culture and art. History has proved that it is not only the basic policy of the Communist Party of China to prosper, develop and promote the development of opera, but also the basic policy for promoting the cause of building socialist literary and art.