Facing the cross-century development of socialist literature and art, building a literary theory system with China characteristics has been put on the agenda of literary theory research. In the future, the structural system of literary theory with China characteristics should be diversified. From the theoretical perspective and methods, we can study and discuss the laws of literature and art from the perspectives and methods of human culturology, literature psychology, literature sociology, literature morphology and symbolic literature and art, and even make a theoretical summary. Marxist literary theory is based on the most basic production practice level of human life, and it has its irreplaceable advantages to examine literary phenomena from a holistic perspective. However, its structural system can also be varied. Since the new period, there have been various systematic modes and artistic production modes that are unified with "aesthetics-history". Some people advocate the theory of artistic reflection and aesthetic creation, which should be encouraged. Sticking to the same pattern and building a "unified paradigm" goes against the spirit of the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend, which is not conducive to academic prosperity and development, nor to enriching and developing Marxist literary theory. It is true that for the healthy development of socialist literature and art, in the new literary practice, the research on literary theory should strive to construct a new form of Marxist literary theory system. This needs to start from many aspects. In my opinion, at least the following aspects should be achieved: first, scientifically sum up the practical experience of human culture, especially the rich experience of socialist literature and art, because this practical experience of literature and art is a great practice that combines the aesthetic needs of the people with the aesthetic activities of transforming the world at a higher stage of human society, with many new aesthetic characteristics and excellent ideological and artistic traditions; At the same time, it is a literary art created by constantly absorbing all valuable ideological and artistic achievements of human culture, with brilliant successful experiences and profound setbacks. Both the former and the latter are valuable assets for us to think about new theories, and should be the practical basis and main theoretical summary for building a Marxist literary theory system with China characteristics. Second, extensively study and analyze the thinking materials of western literary criticism from ancient times to the present, especially the thinking achievements of modern and contemporary western literary criticism, discard its dross, take its excellent and reasonable components, and expand the theoretical thinking angle and connotation of Marxist literary criticism. For example, some new ideas and ideas put forward by "Western Marxists" in the face of capitalist reality, and some people in Europe and America who are called "new Marxists" and "new conservatives" in culture, such as Fredric Jameson, Ihab Hassan and daniel bell, have commented and analyzed the post-industrial society or post-capitalist society, which deserves our attention and guidance. Third, we should carefully sort out the outstanding achievements of China's ancient literary theory. This is a very valuable and rich theoretical heritage, which has its way of thinking, system, category and proposition different from western literary theory. We need to analyze and transform it hard, absorb it and integrate it into Marxist literary theory, so as to build a new system of contemporary Marxist literary theory with China characteristics. We did all these things in the 20th century, but obviously we didn't finish them. In the above work, I think the key link is to seriously study Deng Xiaoping's literary theory, learn his distinctive attitude of adhering to and developing Marxist literary theory, and be good at combining the basic principles of Marxism with the practice of China's modernization, so as to construct the thoughts and thinking methods of contemporary Marxist literary theory. This paper expounds some personal views on this, and asks Fang Jia and other colleagues to correct me. Every theoretical system should have its logical starting point. Hegel said, "As a system, a principle needs to be put forward and penetrated through something special" (note 1). This basic "principle", in my opinion, is the logical starting point of system construction. From the fundamental level of theoretical construction, the logical starting point of Marxism is practice; From the perspective of theoretical development, it is the basic principle of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. Based on this, from the macro-basic practice of human material production and spiritual production, and from the macro-structure of human society, it is determined that literature and art are the "art" way for people to master the world and the aesthetic social ideology, thus scientifically establishing the logical starting point of Marxist literary theory. Lenin inherited and developed Marxist literary theory according to the actual situation of Russian revolution, and put forward the party spirit principle of proletarian literature according to the theory of class struggle of historical materialism and the basic principles of social ideology. After the October Revolution, he put forward the idea of building proletarian culture and "art belongs to the people". I think this is the logical starting point of Lenin's literary thought. Under the historical conditions of China's new-democratic revolution, Mao Zedong's Speech at Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art revolved around the issue of "how to serve the masses", and put forward the view that literature and art should serve the workers, peasants and soldiers first and be subordinate to politics, which expanded his literary thought, which was the logical starting point of Mao Zedong's literary theory. Kant said, "System needs method" (Note 4). My understanding is that there is a way of thinking or method to find and solve problems. Marxist way of thinking is a materialistic dialectical way of thinking that grasps things as a whole. Comrade Deng Xiaoping insisted on using this way of thinking to solve a series of basic problems of socialist literature and art in the new period. Outstanding performance in the following aspects. First of all, in the creation and development of literature and art, we should unify the long-term goal of building socialism with the realistic task. After pointing out the significance of literature and art in building a high level of socialist spiritual civilization, he said: "Whether it is to meet the needs of people's spiritual life in many aspects, or to cultivate new socialist people and improve the ideological, cultural and moral level of the whole society, literature and art work bears an important responsibility that other departments cannot replace." This organically combines the lofty mission of literature and art in building a highly developed socialist cause with the realistic task of socialist literature and art in the new period. "Meeting people's various spiritual needs" is mainly a realistic task covering the primary stage of socialist modernization. We should proceed from the current people's aesthetic needs and aesthetic level, and carry out arduous aesthetic creation, which should be realistic and forward-looking. As Comrade Deng Xiaoping said, "People of different nationalities, occupations, ages, experiences and educational levels have different living customs, cultural traditions and artistic hobbies". Socialist literature and art should meet this constantly developing and diversified aesthetic need. However, with the improvement of people's material and cultural level, literature and art should adapt to and guide the improvement and development of this aesthetic demand. "Cultivating new socialist people" is an important issue related to the cause of socialism and the fate and future of the party and the country. It is not only an unshirkable and irreplaceable realistic task of current literature and art, but also a long-term strategic task and historical mission of socialist literature and art. "Improving the ideological, cultural and moral level of the whole society" is not only the concrete connotation of the first two tasks, but also the fundamental requirement of building a highly developed socialist spiritual civilization and realizing all-round social development, and the ideal realm of building socialism put forward by the founders of Marxism. Marx and Engels said, "In capitalist society, no one has a specific scope of activities, and anyone can develop in any department" (Note 5). This all-round development of human beings requires every worker to have a high level of thought, culture and morality. Socialist literature and art cannot exclude or ignore this lofty historical mission. Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out that these three "responsibilities" of literature and art are a model to unify the long-term ideal goal of socialist literature and art with the practical tasks, and are valuable assets that cannot be ignored in developing Marxist literary theory and building literary theory with China characteristics. The unity of general law and special law is another feature of dialectical thinking of Deng Xiaoping's literary theory. Marxist theory of literature and art has always combined the general law of literature and art with the special law of literature and art. In Ji Jingen, Marx criticized Lasalle for "turning the individual into a simple mouthpiece of the spirit of the times" and proposed to be "more Shakespearean". It is necessary to describe the "prominent figures" of the times and oppose "writing characters too abstractly". Engels, on the other hand, agreed that drama should be "perfectly combined with the vividness and richness of Shakespeare's drama plots", and he also said many times that he criticized literary works from the "highest standard" of combining "aesthetic point of view" and "historical point of view", that is, he first respected the aesthetic laws of literature and art and regarded literature and art as a social and historical phenomenon. Lenin's principle of literary party spirit clearly points out that in the cause of literature and art, it is absolutely necessary to ensure a vast world of personal creativity and personal hobbies, as well as a vast world of ideas and fantasies, forms and contents. When talking about literary and artistic creation, Mao Zedong elaborated on the relationship and requirements between the beauty of life and the beauty of art, pointing out that "our requirements are the unity of politics and art, the unity of content and form, the unity of revolutionary political content and the perfect artistic form as far as possible". All this shows that Marxist literary theory not only reveals the general law that literature and art actively reflect historical life, but also pays attention to the characteristics and laws of literary aesthetic creation. Deng Xiaoping's literary thought inherited this theoretical thinking tradition and creatively solved a series of problems in literary creation and development in the new period of socialist construction. For example, when expounding the basic creative principles of socialist literature and art in the new period, Lenin's thought that "art belongs to the people" was reiterated, and Mao Zedong's views of "approaching the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers" and "expressing the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers" were inherited. In view of the erroneous ideological trend at that time, the excellent quality and revolutionary spirit of our people for thousands of years were specifically expounded. As well as the historical facts of writing brilliant chapters again and again, it is clearly required that "literary and artistic creation must fully show the excellent quality of our people and praise the great victory of the people in the revolution and construction and in the struggle against various enemies and difficulties." Of course, this does not mean that literature and art cannot criticize backward ideas and ugly phenomena. When discussing that literature and art should play a role in promoting the four modernizations, Comrade Deng Xiaoping proposed that in addition to eliminating the political and ideological influence of Lin Biao and the Gang of Four in the ideological field, he should also "wage a long-term and effective struggle against all kinds of ideological habits that hinder the four modernizations" and clearly put forward that he should "criticize the influence of exploiting class thoughts and small-scale production conservative and narrow thoughts, criticize anarchism and extreme individualism, and overcome bureaucracy". These are all new interpretations of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong's literary thoughts on praising the revolutionary proletariat and people, criticizing the shortcomings among the people and exposing the views of the people's enemies according to the needs of building a developed socialism, which are the basic guiding principles for socialist literary and artistic creation in the new period. [