Promoting Chinese Modernization with Firm Historical Self-confidence (Building Philosophy and Social Sciences with China Characteristics)
Core reading
We should not only see the profound influence of western modernization on the development of world history, but also see the great significance of the continuous advancement of modernization in developing countries to the development of world history. Chinese civilization has a unique historical context of origin, formation and development, excellent traditional culture, etc. We must unswervingly follow the road of Chinese modernization.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "On the new great journey, we must strengthen our historical self-confidence, enhance our historical initiative, take the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China as the guide, promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese modernization, work together to achieve the goal of the second century, and make new and greater contributions to the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind." Chinese-style modernization is a great achievement made by the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in the long-term exploration and practice under the leadership of our party, and we must cherish it, persist in it, and constantly expand and deepen it. Therefore, we need to deepen our understanding of Chinese modernization from a broad perspective of the history of human society and Chinese civilization, constantly strengthen our historical self-confidence, enhance our historical initiative and vigorously promote Chinese modernization.
Deepening the understanding of Chinese modernization from the development history of human society
The industrial revolution originated in western Europe, and the worldwide modernization process also began in western Europe. Because today’s developed countries are mainly European and American countries and capitalist countries deeply influenced by western civilization, the myth of "modernization = westernization" has emerged. Since its establishment, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has shouldered the heavy responsibility of leading the people of China to explore the road of modernization in China, and has made new achievements. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, our party has continued to advance on the existing basis, constantly achieved innovative breakthroughs in theory and practice, and successfully promoted and expanded Chinese modernization. Chinese-style modernization has broken the myth of "modernization equals westernization", which strongly proves that modernization is not a "patent" of a few countries, nor is it an "alternative choice", and it is impossible to simply copy and paste. Investigating the vertical and horizontal development of human society is helpful for us to deeply understand Chinese modernization.
The development of human society is a long historical process, including vertical development and horizontal development. Vertically, Marx and Engels divided the history of human society into primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and communist society according to the different nature of economic base, especially production relations. These five social forms constitute the longitudinal sequence of human society from low to high. Horizontally, all regions, tribes, nationalities and countries were mostly in a closed state in the early stage of their development, and later they began to open up to the outside world due to the development of productive forces and the increase of commodities, and they were gradually linked by mutual dispersion. The horizontal development began to occur between neighboring regions and countries, then expanded to neighboring continents, and finally developed into a "world history" with global significance.
For a period of time, many people have paid more attention to the horizontal development of human society, especially to the phenomenon that the global expansion of capitalist mode of production in Western Europe has transformed regional history into world history. Some people even mistakenly think that this is the universal law and inevitable trend of the development of human society. This misunderstanding has caused some people to equate modernization with westernization, and then take the west as the standard in political, economic and cultural development, forming the so-called "western-centered theory." In this regard, we should adhere to dialectical materialism and historical materialism and always keep a clear understanding.
First, Marxism holds that the general trend of the development of human history from a lower social form to a higher social form is unchanged, and at the same time, the specific development stages of different regions, different nationalities and different countries are different. Marx pointed out: "Different communities find different means of production and different means of subsistence in their respective natural environments. Therefore, their production methods, lifestyles and products are different. " Engels pointed out: "We must study the conditions for the existence of various social forms in detail, and then try to find out the corresponding political, private law, aesthetics, philosophy, religion and so on from these conditions." From the development history of human society, the horizontal development of human society will affect the vertical development of some regions, which is also the reason why western modernization is not limited to its birthplace in Western Europe, but there is a dialectical relationship between the vertical development and horizontal development of human society. We can’t deny the vertical development by horizontal development, and we can’t think that other countries and regions can be completely westernized without their own national conditions. The modernization of western developed countries is also the result of vertical development based on their own national conditions, and affects other countries and regions from horizontal development to a certain extent. However, western modernization is particularity rather than universality for human society, and developing countries cannot become copies of western developed countries.
Secondly, judging from the changes of world history, the trend of "rising to the east and descending to the west" is becoming more and more obvious, and the unique modernization cause of developing countries is being merged into the torrent of human modernization. The development of world modernization tells us that although western modernization once influenced the whole world horizontally when it began to rise, with the Westphalia system after the 30-year war in Europe, Versailles after the First World War — The Washington system and the Yalta system after the Second World War collapsed one after another, and the modern production mode and its social system in the west increasingly showed historical temporality, and the focus of the world economy gradually shifted from west to east. After World War II, Japanese, Korean, Singaporean and other economies developed rapidly, while China and Indian developed rapidly. In 2010, China became the second largest economy in the world. At present, the international power balance is undergoing unprecedented positive changes. The rise of emerging market countries and developing countries is changing the global political and economic map and affecting the development process of world modernization. The development of world history is no longer the unilateral role of western developed countries, but the result of many countries’ continuous modernization in their own vertical development, which in turn has a horizontal impact.
We should adhere to the development law of human society revealed by Marxism, and not only see the profound influence of western modernization on the development of world history, but also see the great significance of the continuous advancement of modernization in developing countries to the development of world history. Chinese-style modernization not only has the common characteristics of modernization in all countries, but also has the characteristics of China based on our own national conditions. We have firm historical confidence in Chinese-style modernization.
Deepening the understanding of Chinese modernization from the development history of Chinese civilization
Marx pointed out: "People create their own history, but they don’t create it at will, not under the conditions they choose, but under the conditions that they meet directly, are established and inherited from the past." General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized: "Chinese modernization is deeply rooted in Chinese excellent traditional culture". The Chinese-style modernization contains China characteristics, which originated from the development history of Chinese civilization. Chinese civilization is the only splendid civilization that has lasted for more than 5,000 years in human history. It has a unique historical context of origin, formation and development, and excellent traditional culture. This determines that it is impossible for China to take the road of western modernization. We must strengthen our historical self-confidence, enhance our historical initiative and unswervingly take the road of Chinese modernization.
China has a human history of one million years, a cultural history of 10,000 years and a civilization history of more than 5,000 years. From the origin of civilization, unlike other ancient civilizations, which mostly originated from a single point and then developed along a single line of rivers, Chinese civilization coexisted in many areas and at many points at the same time. There are many civilized areas in the Yellow River basin, the Yangtze River basin and the north of the Great Wall. Around 4,000 years ago, there was a trend that the surrounding civilized areas converged to the Central Plains civilized area, and a "pluralistic and integrated" early civilization development pattern with the Central Plains Chinese culture as the core appeared in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. After the transformation and innovation in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the development pattern of civilization from Qin and Han Dynasties to Ming and Qing Dynasties was formed. This origin and development process determines many characteristics of Chinese civilization.
As early as 10,000 years ago, China has entered the Neolithic Age from the Paleolithic Age, and food gatherers have developed into food producers, animal hunters and animal breeders, opening up the dryland millet farming areas with the Yellow River Basin and the Xiliao River Basin as the core in the north, paddy rice farming areas with the Yangtze River Basin and Xiangjiang River Basin, Ganjiang River Basin and Qiantang River Basin as the core in the south, and animal husbandry production in these areas. In the long historical development process, farming and animal husbandry production has been developing for a long time in such a vast area. The politics and culture formed on the basis of this farming and animal husbandry production largely determine the form and characteristics of Chinese civilization.
China’s excellent traditional culture has a long history and is profound. It is the crystallization of Chinese civilization’s wisdom and has a profound influence on China’s choice of modernization road. In the China characteristics of Chinese modernization, we can clearly see the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture. For example, from "people-oriented" of Chinese excellent traditional culture to Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all people, from "harmony between man and nature" of Chinese excellent traditional culture to Chinese modernization is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and from "harmony under heaven" of Chinese excellent traditional culture to Chinese modernization is the modernization of peaceful development, etc. In addition, the spirit of "self-improvement" and the patriotic spirit of "integration of home and country" in Chinese excellent traditional culture have also become spiritual and cultural resources for comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese modernization.
In the long historical process, the Chinese nation, with its determination and will to strive for self-improvement, has gone through a development process different from other civilizations in the world. The profound historical heritage of Chinese civilization is the foundation for us to promote and expand Chinese modernization. We should have a great historical view, deeply understand China’s past, present and future from the development history of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years, constantly deepen our understanding of Chinese modernization and strengthen our historical confidence.
Chinese modernization provides a new choice for human beings to realize modernization.
Marx pointed out: "whatever a nation does as a nation is what they do for human society." The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "We will always closely link our own destiny with the destiny of people of all countries, strive to provide new opportunities for world development with new achievements in Chinese modernization, provide new assistance for human exploration of the road to modernization, and make new contributions to the theoretical and practical innovation of human social modernization." At present, the changes of the world, the times and the history are unfolding in an unprecedented way, and the world once again stands at the crossroads of history. Chinese-style modernization provides a new choice for mankind to realize modernization. We should strengthen our historical self-confidence, strive to provide more and better China wisdom, China’s plan and China’s strength to solve the common problems facing mankind, and make new and greater contributions to the lofty cause of human peace and development.
Chinese-style modernization shows a new prospect different from the western modernization model. From the perspective of development mode, western developed countries are a "series" development process, with industrialization, urbanization, agricultural modernization and informatization developing in sequence; Chinese-style modernization is a "parallel" process of overlapping development of industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. From the perspective of development connotation, western modernization is the modernization centered on capital, the modernization of polarization, the modernization of material expansion and the modernization of foreign expansion and plunder, while Chinese modernization is the modernization of huge population, the modernization of common prosperity for all people, the modernization of harmonious material civilization and spiritual civilization, the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and the modernization of peaceful development. Chinese-style modernization shows another picture of modernization and expands the path choice of developing countries towards modernization.
The unique world outlook, values, historical outlook, civilization outlook, democracy outlook and ecological outlook contained in Chinese modernization and its great practice are great innovations in the theory and practice of world modernization. Chinese civilization has its own form and characteristics, and it has continued to evolve and develop in the long historical process. With the continuous creative transformation and innovative development of China’s excellent traditional culture, the Chinese excellent traditional culture contains the following concepts: the world is for the public, the people are the foundation of the country, the government is based on morality, innovation, meritocracy, harmony between man and nature, unremitting self-improvement, kindness and morality, kindness and kindness to neighbors, etc., which not only provide abundant cultural nutrients and profound historical details for Chinese modernization, but also provide China wisdom for human exploration of a better social system, which can greatly.
Chinese-style modernization has set an example for developing countries to move towards modernization independently. With the global expansion of capitalist mode of production, more and more countries in the world have been brought into the western-led world historical process. Chinese-style modernization is based on China’s national conditions, self-reliance and self-improvement, and has embarked on a China road different from that of the West. It has provided a brand-new choice for countries and nations in the world who want to speed up their development and maintain their independence, and made great contributions to the world’s joint efforts to draw a new picture of human social modernization.
(The author is a professor at the School of History and Culture of Shandong University)