1948年11月7日,战云低垂,在北大校园内,沈从文和朱光潜等一些教授、学生、助教有过一次文学座谈会,师生畅所欲言,平等地探讨“今日文学的方向”。沈从文在发言中反复以红绿灯为喻谈论文学和政治的关系,他提出:“文学自然受政治的限制,但是否能保留一点批评、修正的权利呢?” On November 7, 1948, war clouds drooped. At the Peking University campus, some professors, students, and teaching assistants of Shen Congwen and Zhu Guangqian had a literary symposium. Teachers and students spoke freely and discussed “the direction of today’s literature” on an equal footing. In his speech, Shen Congwen repeatedly talked about the relationship between literature and politics by using traffic lights as a metaphor. He proposed: “Literature is naturally restricted by politics, but can we retain a little criticism or amendment?”