[4] The inaugural issue of the magazine contained an inscription from Mao Tse-Tung, stating "I hope that more good pieces of writing will be born of this.

[10] In 1952, the magazine compiled and republished a collection of Chinas’ most significant classical works, including Water Margins, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West, Unofficial History of the Literati, Notes on Strange Matters from Idleness Studio, The Story of the Western Chamber and the complete or selected works of various poets.

However, the magazine did not exist solely as a tool of the state in the fifties, in fact, during the Hundred Flowers period it acted as a vanguard of independent and pluralist thought, with works such as The Newcomer In The Organisation Department by Wang Meng, published by People’s Literature in the September of 1956, criticising the distinction between an individual's ideals and reality in society, telling the story of an outsider who is unable to fit in a new environment.

[11] Despite this brief pluralism in the magazine’s publishing, the Anti-Rightist movement of the late fifties prompted a return to an ideological orientation of orthodox Maoism.

Following this return to orthodoxy which coincides with the Anti-Rightist Campaign and eventually the Cultural Revolution of the sixties, People’s Literature became decreasingly significant in the wider Chinese literary community as the publication Liberation Army Literature & Arts, more closely tied to the party, took its place as the main literary outlet of the state.

[12][13] The magazine resumed publication in 1976 — interestingly, this occurred early in the year, prior to Mao’s death, the event typically used to denote the Cultural Revolutions end.

[18] The magazine reached its height of popularity between the periods of cultural revolution and market liberalisation from the mid 70s to 90s, in which it was challenged by neither scrutiny from political forces nor a more competitive international marketplace.

However, the magazine was not subject to serious political censorship until the onset of the cultural revolution; during the period between 1966 and 1976, People’s Literature, along with almost all other literary journals in China stopped publishing.

This in combination with a turn from the Chinese socialist literary system to a wider cultural market dealt a major blow to many literary journals in China; however, due to its prestige, wide readership (pertaining over a million subscribers as of the early 80s) and larger significance in Chinese history, People’s Literature has been able to remain publishing.

One critique of the magazine targets how it has rewritten texts predating the People’s Republic of China to better represent the political ambitions of the new state.