(Essential question) Zhang Jun: Marxism in China: How to start the era of “re-creation of civilization”?
China News Service, Beijing, September 20th, title: Marxism in China: How to start the era of “re-creation of civilization”?
Author Zhang Jun, deputy director and professor of the Department of Culture, History, Education and Research of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration)
In his important speech at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, pointed out that the basic principles of Marxism should be integrated with China’s specific reality and with the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Lead the times and continue to develop contemporary Chinese Marxism and 21st century Marxism.
In more than five thousand years of long history of civilization, the Chinese nation has formed a splendid and splendid Chinese traditional culture, which is the root and soul of the Chinese nation. Looking back at history, how does Marxism and Chinese civilization continue to combine? Why does Marxism fit in with the excellent Chinese traditional culture? Focusing on the present, how can socialism with Chinese characteristics revitalize the ancient Chinese civilization? How does the combination of the two usher in the great era of “re-creation of civilization”?
The theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the modern development of Chinese civilization
The Communist Party of China has been a loyal believer of Marxism since its birth, as well as the inheritor and advocate of the excellent traditional Chinese culture. To study Marxism, we cannot copy Marxism intact. We must learn from the reality of the Chinese revolution and the historical reality of the Chinese nation.
When explaining the culture of new democracy, Mao Zedong said, “Chinese culture should have its own form, which is the national form. The form of the nation, the content of new democracy-this is our new culture today.” Said, “Our nation has a history of thousands of years, has its characteristics, and has many precious products. For these, we are still primary school students. Today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historians, We should not cut off history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should summarize and inherit this precious legacy.”
In the new period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, the Chinese Communists have continuously promoted the modernization of Chinese excellent traditional culture in accordance with the needs of the times, and fully absorbed the essence of Chinese excellent traditional culture in the construction of the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Turn it into a theoretical resource for solving practical problems.
Since entering the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to the inheritance and promotion of Chinese excellent traditional culture. It believes that Chinese excellent traditional culture is the “root” and “soul” of the Chinese nation and the deepest cultural soft power. The fertile soil where socialism with Chinese characteristics is rooted is the foundation for us to gain a firm foothold in the upsurge of world culture. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation requires the development and prosperity of Chinese culture as a condition. It is necessary to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture, continuously increase the influence and appeal of Chinese culture, and create new brilliance of Chinese culture.
To this end, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued a series of important statements, from the Chinese dream to cultural self-confidence, from emphasizing that the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is based on the inheritance of the Chinese nation’s 5,000-year-old civilization, to emphasizing the development of a society with Chinese characteristics. Chinese culture must adhere to the standpoint of Chinese culture and so on. In the “July 1” speech, the “two combinations” were proposed, especially “the basic principles of Marxism should be combined with the excellent traditional Chinese culture.” A new realm of Sinicization of Doctrine.
The proposal of “two combinations”, especially the proposal of “combining the basic principles of Marxism with the excellent traditional Chinese culture.” This new thesis and new proposition is the latest achievement of the cultural theoretical innovation of the Communist Party of China in the new era and will help China’s historical experience, national wisdom, and national spirit are further integrated into Marxism, and the Chinese Communist Party’s innovative theory is deeply rooted in the fertile soil of China’s excellent traditional culture.
In a nutshell, practice has proven and will continue to prove that the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the product of the combination of the basic principles of Marxism and the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and is the modern development of Chinese civilization.
Data map: The Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai.Photo by Zhang Hengwei
Marxism and Chinese civilization are compatible and complementary, and both pursue “great unification”
Can Marxism and Chinese civilization blend together? The answer is yes. The value ideals of Marxism are interlinked with the characteristics of Chinese civilization, and they are naturally isomorphic, compatible, and complementary. In this regard, academia has already produced very rich research results. In summary, we believe that the isomorphism and affinity of the two are mainly reflected in several aspects.
For one, both have lofty political ideals. On the political level, the most ideal society in Chinese traditional culture is the “Great Harmony Society”. “Book of Rites·Ritual Yun” said: “On the journey of the great road, the world is the public, the selection of talents and ability, and the belief and harmony. The old man will not only kiss his relatives, not only children and his children, so that the old will have the end, and the strong will be useful. Young people have strengths, and those who are weak, widowed, lonely, alone, and sick, all have support, men have their share, and women have their return. If you are evil, you don’t have to hide in yourself; Also, you don’t have to do it for yourself. It’s the same as the one who seeks to close but does not thrive, the thieves and thieves do not do it, and the foreigners do not close.”
In the “Manuscript of Economics and Philosophy in 1844”, Marx summed up the ideal of communism: “Communism, as a completed naturalism, is equal to humanitarianism, and as a completed humanitarianism, it is equal to naturalism. It is man and nature. The true resolution of the contradictions between people and between people is the true resolution of the struggle between existence and essence, objectification and self-confirmation, freedom and necessity, and between individuals and species.” Therefore, it is the same as the Datong society or the communist society. Whatever it is, it is an expression of the most beautiful political ideas of mankind, and it is the pursuit of an ideal society where there is no oppression, no exploitation, no alienation, and harmony between people and nature.
Secondly, both emphasize a dialectical and historicist attitude towards human society, and look at historical development from the perspective of the entire world and mankind, and both have a strong sense of “world” or “world history”. On the one hand, they all emphasize the “continuous life”, “unbreakable and unreliable”, “revolution” and “revolutionary movement”, acknowledging the change and development of history and its different stages; on the other hand, they also believe in the combination of universal and special historical laws or historical “road”.
Third, both have strong people’s character. People-based thought has a long history in traditional Chinese culture. “People are the foundation of the country, and the foundation is solid.”, “People are precious”, “People who win the hearts of the people, get the world“, “People and things,” and other thoughts occupy the history of Chinese political thought. important position. Marxism emphasizes the decisive role of the masses in historical development, and believes that the people are the driving force for the development of society and history, and the free and conscious development of everyone is the condition for the free and conscious development of all people. The reason why the slogan “Serve the People” is so deeply rooted in China is that this sentence not only embodies the basic spirit of Marxism, but also embodies the basic spirit of Chinese traditional culture.
Fourth, both emphasize the idea of community, advocate for the common world, pursue “great unification”, oppose excessive emphasis on individual rights, and oppose the absolute and eternalization of private property. In ancient China, various forms of public ownership of land existed in different periods. The property system emphasized “shared wealth”, “transformation of wealth”, “equal wealth”, opposed hoarding, and advocated the restraint of capital. This is in line with Marx’s path to abandon capitalism. The methods are consistent.
Of course, there is complementarity between the two. Marxism is the theoretical system that has the most comprehensive understanding of capitalism and the most profound criticism, while Chinese culture is the culture of rural agricultural society. When Western capitalist powers bully China and China urgently needs to understand and respond to capitalism, Marxism provides Complete discourse system. This also explains why only Marxism took root in China in the historical development of more than 100 years in modern China, and formed Marxism in China, and then became the guiding ideology of China’s revolution, construction and reform.
The so-called “Chinese road is the interruption of Chinese culture” is a theory of absurd appearance
Persisting in integrating the basic principles of Marxism with China’s specific reality and with China’s excellent traditional culture is a long-term historical process. The continuous integration of Marxism and Chinese civilization is ushering in a great era of rebuilding Chinese civilization and even the entire human civilization.
The Communist Party of China is the carrier and defender of Chinese civilization. Some Western scholars once said, “Today’s China has a certain degree of chaos, because on the one hand, the CCP is still a Marxist-Leninist party, but on the other hand, the CCP is willing to revive the traditional values of Chinese culture. The two ideologies are not necessarily mutually exclusive. compatible”. Some people even asserted that “The Communist Party of China is not a product of China, but a worm of the Soviet Russian Communist Empire.” “Today’s Chinese road and Chinese system are transplants of Soviet roads and the interruption of Chinese culture.”
However, the 100-year history of the Communist Party of China has proved that these claims are absurd and skin-like theories. The Sinicized Marxism created by the Chinese Communists is the modern development of Chinese civilization, and socialism with Chinese characteristics is the modern form of Chinese civilization. Without the Communist Party of China, the so-called “cultural China” has long since become “a civilization in a museum.” The future revival of Chinese civilization can only be based on contemporary China, where the Communist Party of China has been in power for a long time.
The formation and development of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is, in the final analysis, the logical development of Chinese civilization. The Chinese road has its own distinctive characteristics. This characteristic is determined by the historical inheritance of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. However, the Chinese road is universal and includes the universal principles of scientific socialism founded by Marx. Therefore, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his important “July 1” speech: “We adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, promote the coordinated development of material civilization, political civilization, spiritual civilization, social civilization, and ecological civilization, and create a new path for Chinese-style modernization. , Created a new form of human civilization.”
Marxism is the crystallization of Western advanced culture, originated from Western civilization and surpassing Western civilization, and has a broad vision of cosmopolitanism. The introduction of Marxism into China not only triggered profound changes in Chinese civilization, but also went through a process of gradual sinicization. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has given new vigor and vitality to the ancient Chinese civilization, greatly deepened the connotation of the Chinese civilization, broadened the extension of the Chinese civilization, and pushed the Chinese civilization to a new height.
As China in the new era increasingly moves toward the center of the world‘s historical arena, China has increasingly become the “China of the world“. The socialism with Chinese characteristics that integrates China, West, and Malaysia will surely usher in a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. (over)
About the Author:
Zhang Jun, deputy director and professor of the Department of Culture, History, Education and Research of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration). Member of the History Expert Committee of the National Textbook Committee. The main research areas are the cultural theory and policy of the Communist Party of China, the history of Chinese political thought and political system, etc. He is the chief expert of the project group “Xi Jinping’s important discourse on cultural construction” and the chief expert of the project group “The Values and Spiritual Pursuit of Chinese Communists” of the Innovation Project of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration).
.