恩格斯是马克思主义美学的奠基者之一。他的致斐迪南·拉萨尔、敏娜·考茨基和哈克纳斯的三封信,是尤为璀璨的美学文献。但长期以来,我们往往带着“左”的眼光,根据“左”的需要,任意地曲解恩格斯的原意,以致于完全颠倒了是非。最近笔者重读恩格斯致敏娜·考茨基的信,感到准确认识文学的倾向性问题,不仅关系重大,而且甚为迫切。 Engels is one of the founders of Marxist aesthetics. His three letters to Ferdinand Lassalle, Mindinah Kautsky and Hakkas are very bright aesthetic documents. For a long time, however, we have often left the “leftist” vision and arbitrarily misinterpreted Engels’s intentions in the light of the “leftist” demands, so as to completely upset the right and wrong. Recently I read Engels’s letter to Anna Kautsky, feeling that the accurate understanding of the tendencies of literature is not only of great importance, but also very urgent.