"The Second Combination" is another ideological liberation tradition | China | Culture
Author: Wang Binglin
This is the systematic understanding we have gained in exploring the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and it is the greatest weapon for us to achieve success.Explaining the great significance of the "second combination" from the perspective of ideological liberation indicates that our party has made a new leap in understanding the guiding mechanism of Marxism, has a new perspective on the modernization of excellent traditional Chinese culture, and has reached a new level of understanding the compatibility between Marxism and excellent traditional Chinese culture.
1. There has been a new leap in understanding the guiding mechanism of Marxism
Marxist science has revealed the laws of human social development, pointed out the path of human liberation, and promoted the process of human civilization. However, "Marx's entire worldview is not a doctrine, but a method. It provides not ready-made dogma, but a starting point for further research and a method for use in such research.". The vitality and vigor of Marxism lies in its integration with the specific realities of various countries and ethnic groups.
In the history of our party, there have been errors in dogmatism that have caused serious losses to the revolutionary cause. The Yan'an Rectification Movement broke away from the dogmatism of copying and copying Marxist words and phrases, and sanctifying the instructions of the Communist International. It enabled our party to establish a pragmatic ideological line, adhere to the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific realities, and form the first theoretical achievement of the sinicization of Marxism. Mao Zedong Thought was established as the guiding ideology of the party, which had a profound impact on the cause of Chinese revolution and construction. It is precisely by adhering to the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific realities that our party continuously promotes practical innovation and innovation in all aspects guided by theoretical innovation. It is obvious that achieving the "first combination" is an important achievement of ideological liberation.
In the process of promoting the sinicization of Marxism, our party gradually realizes the importance of promoting the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "Today's China is a development of historical China. We are Marxist historicists, and we should not cut off history. From Confucius to Sun Yat sen, we should sum up and inherit this precious heritage." The CPC is the successor and promoter of China's excellent traditional culture. However, it still needs a process to constantly promote the organic combination of Marxism and China's excellent traditional culture from the perspective of theoretical research and practical exploration. Although China also includes the content of traditional Chinese culture in its specific practice, there is still a need to deepen our understanding of the importance of excellent traditional Chinese culture as a cultural fertile ground for Marxism to take root in China.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and our party's historical and cultural confidence has reached a new height. We have made new breakthroughs in our understanding of the guiding mechanism of Marxism. To firmly establish Marxism in China, it is not enough to simply combine it with China's specific realities. It must also have a profound cultural and mass foundation, and must be transformed into China's own ideological and cultural heritage. The basic principles of Marxism can only be combined with the national spirit, character, cultural psychology, way of thinking, and way of life accumulated in the more than 5000 years of history of the Chinese nation, in order to create forms of expression that are easily accepted by the Chinese people. This requires the integration of the essence of Marxism with the essence of Chinese excellent traditional culture, and with the common values that people use everyday without being aware of. This requires that the basic principles of Marxism should not only be combined with the specific realities of China, but also with the excellent traditional culture of China.
Integrating Marxism with excellent traditional Chinese culture means that Marxism not only needs to draw theoretical innovation from the reality of China in the present continuous tense, but also deeply rooted in the soil of excellent traditional Chinese culture in the past perfect tense, learning, understanding, and entering the spiritual world and psychological space of the Chinese nation and people from the depth of history. On the basis of adhering to the first combination, proposing the second combination is a new leap in understanding the guiding mechanism of Marxism, and another ideological liberation in opening up a new realm of Marxism's sinicization and modernization.
2. A new perspective has been gained on the modernization of excellent traditional Chinese culture
Since modern times, due to extremely complex reasons, traditional Chinese culture has gone through many ups and downs, enduring many vicissitudes. During the May Fourth period, in order to resist the reverse trend of respecting Confucius and building a modern form of civilization, the academic and ideological circles conducted a profound review and fierce criticism of traditional Chinese culture. During the Cultural Revolution, some classics and cultural relics were destroyed, and traditional culture suffered a heavy blow once again. Since the reform and opening up, the economic status and influence of developed Western countries have led some people to oppose tradition and modernity, and even a trend of "complete westernization" has emerged. History has fully proven that adopting a simplified and one-sided understanding and treatment of traditional culture is not advisable, and even completely wrong.
Modernization requires the continuation of tradition. Marx pointed out that "people create their own history, but they do not create it at will, not under the conditions they choose, but under the conditions they directly encounter, established, inherited from the past." We created Chinese path to modernization in the context of traditional culture "inherited from the past", which requires that we must correctly treat traditional culture and handle the relationship between traditional culture and modernization.
A culture cannot achieve modern transformation without the guidance of scientific theories and methods. Marxism provides scientific theories and methods for the modern transformation of excellent traditional Chinese culture. Marxist dialectics requires us to look at traditional culture in two, recognizing that there are both time-space spanning and stable values, as well as outdated and dross things, which need to take its essence and discard its dross, instead of adopting an absolutist attitude of overall acceptance or rejection; Guide us to view traditional culture from a perspective of change and development, based on the historical orientation of the new era, and focusing on current social practice, injecting fresh blood into the excellent traditional Chinese culture, promoting its creative transformation and innovative development, rather than viewing it as a rigid and static legacy. Chinese culture, as a unique symbol of the Chinese nation, is deeply rooted in the hearts of the Chinese people and subtly influences their way of thinking and behavior. It is an important support for building a shared spiritual home for the Chinese nation. While adhering to the combination of Marxism with China's specific realities, it is proposed to combine it with China's excellent traditional culture, fully affirming the important position and contemporary value of China's excellent traditional culture in the process of modernization. Under the guidance of Marxism, China's excellent traditional culture has once again gained vitality, transformed into the infinite power of cultural people in the new era, and established a traditional Chinese culture that has been passed down from ancient times to the present. The second combination provides us with a new Marxist perspective on the modernization of excellent traditional Chinese culture, opens up innovative space for building a modern form of Chinese culture, and is a new form of ideological liberation.
3. Reaching a new level of understanding of the compatibility between Marxism and excellent traditional Chinese culture
We have always emphasized the guiding role of Marxism and also emphasized the need to inherit and promote the excellent traditional Chinese culture. However, in the past, there was insufficient attention paid to the compatibility and compatibility between the two, and there was even a tendency to replace or suppress another thought with one. In fact, after the introduction of Marxism to China, the proposition of scientific socialism was warmly welcomed by the Chinese people and ultimately rooted in the land of China, blossoming and bearing fruit. It is not accidental, but rather because it is integrated with the excellent historical and cultural heritage that has been passed down for thousands of years and the values that the vast majority of the people use unconsciously.
Marxism and excellent traditional Chinese culture have a high degree of compatibility with each other. In the excellent traditional Chinese culture, the social ideal of putting the world first, the people-oriented concept of the people being the foundation of the country, the governance concept of honesty and virtue based governance, the diverse and integrated tradition of unity, the patriotic sentiment of the rise and fall of the world and the responsibility of each person, the philosophical thought of seeking truth from facts and integrating knowledge and action, the spiritual pursuit of self-improvement and carrying virtue, the ecological concept of unity between heaven and man, and the cultivation of all things, the way of communication that emphasizes faith, harmony, benevolence, and good neighbors, and so on, these Chinese people's accumulated worldview, worldview, social view, civilization view, moral view, and ecological view in long-term production and life, are similar to Marxism. Some important viewpoints have a high degree of compatibility. Promoting excellent traditional Chinese culture enables Marxism to gain a broader and deeper cultural heritage on the land of China. Through "combination", Marxism has activated the vitality of China's excellent traditional culture, which has provided cultural fertile soil for Marxism to take root, sprout, blossom and bear fruit in China, and created a new cultural life body with organic unity, making Marxism become Chinese, Chinese excellent traditional culture become modern, and the new culture formed through "combination" become a cultural form of Chinese path to modernization. A new breakthrough has been made in the understanding of the high compatibility between Marxism and excellent traditional Chinese culture, indicating that our party's historical and cultural confidence has reached a new height, and that our party's consciousness in promoting cultural innovation in inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture has reached a new height.
The liberation of thought promotes the development and progress of human society, which is an objective law of history. For more than a hundred years, every time the CPC has led the Chinese people to emancipate their minds, it has greatly promoted the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. For example, after the May 4th Movement, Marxism spread widely in China, greatly promoting the ideological liberation of the Chinese people. The CPC came into being, and the Chinese revolution took on a new look. The Yan'an Rectification Movement laid an important ideological and political foundation for the victory of the Anti Japanese War and the democratic revolution. The discussion on the issue of the standard of truth has laid a theoretical foundation for re establishing the ideological line of Marxism, and has made ideological preparations for the historical turning point of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and China's entry into a new era of reform and opening up. In 1992, Comrade Deng Xiaoping delivered a southern speech, deepening the understanding of what socialism is and how to build socialism, and so on. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the "second combination" is another ideological liberation. It is a profound summary of our party's historical experience in the sinicization and modernization of Marxism, a profound grasp of the development laws of Chinese civilization, and a new height of our party's understanding of the Chinese path, theory, and system. It will play a huge role in strengthening cultural confidence and self-improvement, and solidly promoting the construction of a modern civilization and a socialist cultural power of the Chinese nation.
Guangming Daily
