Why "Not Mahdi, Pius IX, or Hong Xiuquan" - Xuelin Essays | A visionary person from the 19th century

In the mid-19th century, Marx already possessed a modern global perspective. This is reflected in his observation and analysis of historical events, including his observation of the Chinese issue.

In his article "Chinese Revolution and European Revolution" published in 1853, Marx described and predicted China under the rule of the Qing Dynasty: "The prestige of the Qing Dynasty was destroyed when it encountered British guns and artillery, and the long-standing superstition of the Chinese Empire was dealt a fatal blow. The barbaric, isolated, and isolated state from the civilized world was broken."

He pointed out that British cannons undermined the authority of the Chinese emperor and forced the Chinese Empire to engage with the world on earth. "Complete isolation from the outside world was once the primary condition for preserving old China, and when this isolation was broken by violence under the efforts of Britain, the inevitable process followed was the disintegration, just as a mummy carefully preserved in a sealed coffin would inevitably disintegrate upon contact with fresh air."

Marx's relevant comments can be said to reveal the direction of China after the Opium War: firstly, it is confirmed that China was in a state of seclusion at that time; Secondly, the Qing Dynasty failed due to the "British guns and cannons", which were modernized equipment; Thirdly, as long as exposed to fresh air, the old Chinese system will inevitably disintegrate. That is to say, China's traditional civilization will inevitably choose to transform into a modern civilization. This is Marx's traction on China's modernization. He is not based on subjective imagination, but on the general trends of the world's historical era.

For the Chinese people, the British guns have brought pain and shame. For the Qing Dynasty, this was the trump card of the traditional system and the bell of the arrival of revolution. Marx, full of modernization, believed that as long as new productive forces were encountered, the traditional old society would inevitably disintegrate.

In the early 1850s, Marx mocked the victorious reactionary forces in Europe, imagining that the revolution had been suffocated, without realizing that natural science was preparing for a new revolution. "The steam king overturned the entire world in the previous century, and now its rule is at its end; another immeasurable revolutionary force - the spark of electricity - will take its place."

Next, Marx excitedly told Liebknecht that a few days ago a model of an electric locomotive pulling a train was exhibited on Richter Street in London: "The problem has now been solved, and the consequences of this matter are incalculable. After the economic revolution, we must follow the political revolution, because the latter is only a manifestation of the former."

The Industrial Revolution created a new civilization of modernity, and modernization is the process of realizing modernity. In the 1860s, Marx made a very important statement in the preface of the first edition of Volume 1 of Capital: "What industrialized countries show to less industrialized countries is only the future of the latter." The "Modernization" article published in the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences in the United States quoted Marx's sentence as the first basis for explaining the meaning of modernization.

Since modern times, the acceptance of Marxism by advanced Chinese intellectuals has largely been based on their confirmation of the future of China's modernization.

Before the founding of the Communist Party of China, Li Dazhao pointed out in his article "My Marxist Outlook" that "before the 18th century, social, political, and religious forces were stronger than economic forces. The so-called social forces rarely came from the economy... For example, the indigenous people of South America only stretched out their mouths and waited for the bread tree and coffee tree to give them food and drink, so they only had religious gratitude and no economic competition. In the era of mechanical production after the Industrial Revolution in Britain, humans separated from nature and achieved a self-sufficient economic life, and the social situation changed... With this environment, Ma's materialist view of history was created; with this economic phenomenon, it was reflected that Ma Cheng Ma's materialist view of history was formed." "Doctrinism."

In the late 20th century, the world socialist cause experienced setbacks. But it is with the guidance of modernization that the value of Marxist thought has not diminished. Israeli scholar Yuval Herali, in his best-selling book "A Brief History of the Future," disregarded the fact of the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and fairly affirmed the value of Marx's modernity ideas.

Herali believed that the visionary people of the 19th century were not Mahdi, Pius IX, or Hong Xiuquan, but Marx, Engels, and Lenin, not because social humanistic philosophy was superior to Christian theology, but because Marx and Lenin were not busy studying ancient classics, but rather worked hard to understand contemporary technological and economic realities. They studied how steam engines operate, how coal mines operate, how railways shape the economy, and how electricity affects politics.

"Marx and others understand new technological realities and human experiences, and are therefore able to provide key answers to new problems in industrial society, as well as original ideas, telling people how to benefit from unprecedented opportunities."

Herali pointed out that for a beautiful new world, socialism has created a beautiful new vision, promising to use technology and economy as tools. So, this became the first technologism in history and also changed the foundation of ideological discourse.

Before Marx, the standard by which people defined and distinguished themselves was their view of God, rather than the mode of production. After Marx, issues of technology and economic structure were more important than debates about the soul and the afterlife. In the second half of the 20th century, the mode of production became a hot topic of discussion, causing humans to almost forget their existence. "Even those who harshly criticize Marx and Lenin have accepted their basic attitudes towards history and society, and are thinking more carefully about technology and production."

Herald compared Marx with Mahathir, Pius IX, or Hong Xiuquan, with a focus on Marx's leadership of modernity. If China in the 20th century did not choose Marxism, it can be said that it would not start the road of Chinese path to modernization.

Of course, in today's view, Marx's statement that "what industrialized countries show to less industrialized countries" should not be understood as: everything that industrialized countries had at that time - from objects, systems, to cultural concepts - could be copied to less industrialized countries. At least, all the drawbacks of capitalist countries - from unsustainable mechanisms to moral deficiencies and cultural decadence - should be abandoned. The critical nature of the Communist Manifesto is precisely aimed at this.

After stripping away the drawbacks of capitalist modernization, the basic characteristics of modern civilization still exist, "which does not mean that society has returned to the poetic and picturesque atmosphere of the Middle Ages.". It is on this point that China will not fully show the modernization characteristics of western countries that the special significance of Chinese path to modernization can further show the world significance.