Zhou also translated the works of
Leo Tolstoy and other Russian writers into Chinese. Shortly before the
Yan'an Forum in 1942, he translated
Nikolai Chernyshevsky's
The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality into Chinese. Zhou described himself as being a "loyal follower" of Chernyshevsky, stating that Chernyshevsky's "famous formula of 'beauty is life' carries a fundamental truth." In August 1956,
Ding Ling was accused during the Sufan Movement of forming an anti-party clique. As part of her response to the allegations, she criticized Zhou for his extramarital affair. However, during the late stage of the Cultural Revolution Zhou was himself imprisoned after falling out of favor due to differing view points on the importance of art in politics. After the Cultural Revolution ended, he was rehabilitated and given new political offices, being elected to the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee at the party's
Eleventh National Congress. At that time he apologized to victims of past campaigns. He also advocated the
humanist aspects of
Marxism within the Communist Party near the end of his life, and was criticized again for such views. ==References==