After more than four years of hard work by experts and scholars, this set of "History of Contemporary Chinese Literary Criticism" finally came out on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The purpose of compiling this series of books is to review and study the development history of contemporary Chinese literary criticism in 1949, especially since the reform and opening up, from various aspects, sum up lessons and lessons, provide reference for the development of literary criticism at present and in the future, and promote Chinese literature and art to the peak. Over the past 70 years, Chinese literary criticism has experienced an extraordinary course of tortuous and brilliant development from self-isolation to opening up to the outside world, from system construction to independent innovation. From the mainstream of the development of Chinese literary criticism, it seems that we can summarize these periods as "new beginnings, new changes, new periods, new centuries, and new eras", and analyze and study these periods separately. We can also identify various literary genres such as poetry, prose, novels, and dramas, and tell the history of literary criticism for these literary genres. We can also consider some new art categories formed by the intersection of literature and art, and examine how literary criticism enters these complex literary phenomena. The study of literary criticism is a theoretical group, involving the object of criticism, the method of criticism, the identity of the critic, the purpose of criticism, etc., and contains very rich content. We have compiled this series of books to actively face this complexity, to include as much content as possible with a broader vision, and to look forward to a more comprehensive review and summary of 70 years of Chinese literary criticism. Compared to the writing of theoretical works, the writing of historical works is very different. Historical works should show a process, summarize something regular; Theoretical works should clarify some truths or principles through the development of logical reasoning. To write the history of literary criticism in the past 70 years is to put some historical events, concepts, trends of thought, and theories that have appeared in history back into the historical context to investigate, and then see how history has evolved. In the early 50s of the 20th century, there was an upsurge of socialist construction in China, and at the same time, the demand for building a new socialist culture appeared. At that time, cultural construction was carried out against the background of criticism of old culture, so theoretical guidance was particularly important. Taking revolutionary theory as the guide, transforming old literature and art and establishing new literature and art through literary and art criticism was the central task of cultural construction at that time. Against this background, the literary theory at that time was formed as the main body of Mao Zedong's works such as "On New Democracy" and "Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum" and the literary ideas, principles and policies put forward by other leaders' works and speeches. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong's literary and artistic thought was the product of combining the universal truth of Marxism with the literary and artistic practice in the base areas of the Chinese revolution at that time. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Communist Party of China and the people's power under its leadership faced a more complicated situation than during the revolutionary war, faced with the task of allowing new literary and artistic ideas to occupy the field of literary criticism and teaching new literary theories in university classrooms. Based on this need, we introduced many Soviet literary theories at that time, including the Soviet literary textbook system. After the mid-50s of the 20th century, an upsurge of theoretical and critical construction was formed, and the "hundred flowers blooming" in literature and art and the "hundred schools of thought contending" in academia advocated at that time made great progress in the theoretical and practical construction of literary and art criticism. The literary controversy of the 50s, as well as some of the critical ideas of "realism" that emerged at that time, were extremely valuable. However, these positive explorations were wrongly criticized during the Cultural Revolution. After the reform and opening up, literary criticism showed unprecedented vitality, which played a role in promoting and leading the prosperity and development of literature and art in the new era. In the following years, with the introduction of some foreign literary criticism theories, Chinese literary criticism has undergone new changes. On the one hand, the introduction of foreign literary theories and criticism methods has injected new vitality into China's literary and art theory criticism; on the other hand, there has also been a phenomenon of using foreign theories to tailor Chinese literature and art, making it a footnote to Western theory. Some imported theories not only cannot help us better carry out effective literary and art criticism, but distort Chinese literature and art, or extract literary and artistic phenomena and become idle theories. Under such circumstances, it is particularly urgent and important to return to literature and art itself and construct a theory of literary criticism based on local experience. Today, standing on an important historical node, looking back on history, we can sigh, sigh, and move, but more importantly, we must have some understanding. Chinese talk about "taking history as a guide", history should become the current "general guide to the governance of resources". To study history is to illuminate the present and guide the future. Striving to create a new era of Chinese literary discourse should be our central task today. To build a discourse system of Chinese literature in the new era, we must adhere to practicality. Theory should be combined with practice, especially criticism. Literary theory should guide literary criticism, and literary criticism should be carried out under the guidance of literary theory. From this, it is necessary to develop the theory of criticism. The theory of this criticism is not a practical criticism manual, but a deep theoretical reflection on criticism. This theory of criticism does not seek universal application in various literary genres and arts, but seeks their commonality on the basis of studying their respective particularities. From practice, after forming a theory, and then returning to practice to be tested. To build a discourse system of Chinese literature in the new era, we should absorb all theoretical resources useful to us in line with the principle of "ancient for modern use, foreign for Chinese use". However, this is by no means a copy and a simple application. We have used ancient literary theory and Western literary theory to explain contemporary literary and artistic practice, and historically, this seems to have some rationality at that time. Hegel said that everything that is realistic is rational. In this sense, it can also be said that the above practice has its own rationality in a specific historical context. But Hegel also said that everything that is rational should be realized. Ancient literary theory cannot fully conform to the reality of contemporary Chinese literature and art, and Western literary theory cannot conform well to the reality of contemporary China. On the basis of absorbing multiple resources, we must base ourselves on China's reality, promote theoretical innovation, and use new theories in the new era to explain and guide the practice of contemporary China's literature and art, including the practice of Chinese literary and art criticism. The construction of a Chinese literary discourse system in the new era is in line with the efforts of theoretical construction in the 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially in the more than 40 years of reform and opening up. This is also our original intention in editing this "History of Contemporary Chinese Literary Criticism". When Mr. Feng Youlan talked about the history of philosophy, he made a distinction between "following the lecture" and "continuing to speak". With regard to historical facts and the thoughts of important figures in history, we must "follow the talks" and not make mistakes and distort the thinking of our predecessors. But it is not enough to just "follow the talk", and after the lecture is finished, it is necessary to "continue speaking". The wheel of history is rolling forward, and we must face new situations, make new summaries, and speak new words. Conversely, "continuing to speak" and "following the talk" are also a continuous relationship. History cannot be separated, and only by reflecting on history can we look forward to the future. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his "Speech at the Forum on Literary and Art Work" that it is necessary to judge and appreciate works from "historical, people's, artistic and aesthetic perspectives", which puts forward new requirements and establishes new standards for literary criticism. In the new era, we must innovate and develop the theory of literary criticism to help Chinese literature and art prosper. Zhangjiang, September 2019（AI翻译）