Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has profoundly grasped the law of human historical development, comprehensively understood the historical details of Chinese civilization, continuously deepened forward-looking, overall and strategic thinking on cultural construction, and put forward a series of new ideas, new viewpoints and new theories, comprehensively deployed and promoted the construction of a socialist cultural power, and made historic achievements and changes. At the symposium on cultural inheritance and development, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader issued a great call of "strengthening cultural self-confidence, taking on the mission, working hard, making joint efforts to create a new culture belonging to our era and building a modern civilization of the Chinese nation".
A Scientific Answer to the Debate between China and the West in Modern Times
After 1840, the Chinese nation encountered unprecedented severe challenges, faced with a huge crisis of "national subjugation and extinction", and started a difficult transition from a traditional society to a modern society. As Mr. He Lin said: "The crisis in China in the past hundred years is basically a cultural crisis." In the arduous exploration with difficult steps and huge amplitude, how to understand the relationship between tradition and modernity, and between native and western countries, that is, how to evaluate and position our cultural traditions, has become an important issue related to "where is China going?" Countless people with lofty ideals go up and down to seek, or stick to tradition and advocate "Chinese style and western use"; Or refuse to reconcile and advocate "total westernization." In fact, whether conservative or radical, these two attitudes mechanically regard cultural tradition as a constant and solidified existence, and separate "tradition" from "modern", "native" from "western", ignoring or denying the possibility of development and innovation of cultural tradition.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out at the forum on cultural inheritance and development that Chinese civilization has outstanding continuity, innovation, unity, inclusiveness and peace. "If we don’t know China from its long-standing historical continuity, we can’t understand ancient China, modern China and future China." The great historical practice and contemporary practice of the Chinese nation have eloquently proved that we can neither copy the West nor copy the tradition. To treat cultural traditions, we should "review the old and learn the new" and "bring forth the new". Innovation is the best inheritance. The outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization determine that we must draw nutrients from historical accumulation, explore and innovate from traditional culture, and take a development path of upholding integrity and keeping integrity and innovation.
A profound summary of the relationship between Marxism and Chinese excellent traditional culture
Combining the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete reality of our country is a summary of the historical experience that our party can lead the people to achieve great achievements in the new-democratic revolution, socialist revolution, reform and opening up and socialist modernization. This basic conclusion has been developed with the great practice of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Twenty years ago, Mr. Fei Xiaotong put forward: "We often talk about socialism with China characteristics, which refers to the combination of Marxism and China’s practice, so after Marxism entered China, it became Mao Zedong Thought and later developed into Deng Xiaoping Theory. There must be the characteristics of China culture at work behind this, but we can’t tell what the characteristics of these cultures are and how they are working. "
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out at the symposium on cultural inheritance and development that Marxism and Chinese excellent traditional culture fit in with each other and achieve each other. "Chinese-style modernization gives Chinese civilization modern strength, and Chinese civilization gives Chinese-style modernization a profound foundation." In particular, the combination of Marxism and Chinese excellent traditional culture is another ideological emancipation, "allowing us to make full use of the valuable resources of Chinese excellent traditional culture in a broader cultural space and explore future-oriented theoretical and institutional innovations". These expositions by the Supreme Leader General Secretary have comprehensively summarized and highly summarized the theoretical relationship between Marxism and Chinese excellent traditional culture, which is an innovative breakthrough in the modernization of Marxism in China, and also the fundamental principle and essential requirement of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s cultural construction.
Greatly expanded the cultural connotation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Since modern times, we have gradually realized that a nation should have "cultural consciousness". With Socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a new era, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, proceeding from the overall situation of the great rejuvenation strategy of the Chinese nation and the unprecedented changes in the world in the past century, put forward a major theoretical and practical proposition of "strengthening cultural self-confidence" on the premise of profoundly grasping the inherent requirements of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s development and the fundamental requirements of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s cultural construction, and defined it on the status of "more basic, broader and deeper" and "most basic, deepest and most lasting". General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "Without a high degree of cultural self-confidence and cultural prosperity, there would be no great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out at the symposium on cultural inheritance and development, "Let Marxism become China, and Chinese excellent traditional culture become modern, and let it pass through ‘ Combination ’ The new culture formed has become a cultural form of Chinese modernization, and the goal of building a modern civilization of the Chinese nation has been put forward. This indicates that Chinese civilization is about to usher in a historic milestone after modernization and transformation. The completion of the "modern civilization of the Chinese nation" will become a glorious symbol of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "The great social changes in contemporary China are not simply the master of continuing our history and culture, nor the template of simply applying the ideas of classical Marxist writers, nor the reprint of socialist practice in other countries, nor the replica of foreign modernization, so it is impossible to find ready-made textbooks." The change of economic base will lead to the transformation of the whole huge superstructure sooner or later. The new era conditions determine that we must create a new culture that matches Chinese modernization, adhere to the modernization of Marxism in China, inherit and develop Chinese excellent traditional culture, promote the localization of foreign culture, constantly cultivate and create "Chinese-style modern cultural form" at a new historical starting point, and finally build "Chinese modern civilization". To build the modern civilization of the Chinese nation, we must "strengthen our cultural self-confidence, stick to our own path, base ourselves on the great historical and contemporary practice of the Chinese nation, sum up China’s experience with China’s truth, upgrade China’s experience to China’s theory, and realize spiritual independence". When we create a new culture that belongs to our time, the first thing is to build China’s independent knowledge system and a new cultural form that matches Chinese modernization.
To create a new culture that matches Chinese modernization, we should adhere to the spirit of being upright and not conservative, respecting the ancient and not retro, and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture through reorganizing, evaluating, sublating and reconstructing traditional culture. At the same time, it is necessary to localize the ideas and theoretical systems spread from other civilizations in the world. Reviewing the source of culture, inheriting the lifeline of culture, integrating the essence of ancient and modern times, and accommodating Chinese and foreign heroes and Chinese, only through such sublimation and treatment can we create a new culture that matches Chinese modernization and build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation.
(Author: Wang Xuedian, chief expert of the National Social Science Fund’s major project "Multi-volume History of China in the 20th Century", executive dean of the Institute of Advanced Studies of Confucianism of Shandong University and editor-in-chief of Literature, History and Philosophy magazine)
