Understanding and Promoting the ‘Integration’of Marxism and the Excellent Aspects of Traditional Chinese Culture from the Lofty Perspective of the Reconstruction of Chineseness?

Shen Xiangping

It is generally held that the guiding thought that “we must continue to adapt the basic tenets of Marxism to the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture”34“Full Text:Speech by Xi Jinping at a Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the CPC,” Xinhuanet,last modif ied July 1,2021,http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/special/2021-07/01/c_1310038244.htm.indicates that,in the context of the once-in-a-century changes taking place in the world,China will stress socialism with Chinese characteristics and its national character and make the country,the Chinese nation,and the self-identification of Chinese people more prominent in the journey toward its national rejuvenation.This perception is,on the whole,correct.However,further explanation is needed to avoid the epochal character being overshadowed and thus restraining the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture from manifesting their own true vitality.Today,we should recognize and promote the innovative effort to adapt the basic Marxist tenets to the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture from the loft y perspective of reconstructing Chineseness in accordance with the times.

China’s National Rejuvenation Has Reached the Phase in Which Particularity Is Premised on Universality[15]

Marx said,“The f irst premise of all human history is,of course,the existence of living human individuals....Rather it is a def inite form of activity of these individuals,a def inite form of expressing their life,a definite mode of life on their part.As individuals express their life,so they are.”35Karl Marx,“Idealism and Materialism,” sec.A of “Feuerbach:Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlooks,”part I ofThe German Ideology,Marxists Internet Archive,https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm.This Marxist axiom can be applied to a nation,too.The diff erent historical tasks of diff erent historical periods lead to ways of life that are diff erent from one another.Consequently,the identity of a nation in diff erent periods varies and each has its own focus.The past century has witnessed China’s national rejuvenation,from liberation to prosperity,and from thence to a strong nation.Since each phase has had its own specif ic tasks of national rejuvenation,the corresponding national identity has had its own focus and the orientation of traditional Chinese culture has varied.

In the liberation phase,the country struggled hard for recognition,pursued independence and liberation,and finally won an equal status in the world.In the prosperity phase,the country tried its best to catch up with the pace of the times,in case it would be expelled from global society.In these two phases,overall,although China’s eff ort to rejuvenate herself did substantially change the world’s balance of power,the country did not yet approach the center of the world stage and thus was still unable to exert a profound inf luence on the situation of the world.In this course,some scholars attributed the reason for China falling behind and becoming vulnerable to attacks to its cultural traditions,while others sought help from traditional Chinese culture to support the particularity of China’s modernity.In both cases,traditional Chinese culture was regarded as an exceptional national culture diff ering greatly from Western culture.The idea that “Chinese culture can save the world,” as held by Gu Hongming 辜鴻銘 (1857—1928),Liang Qichao 梁?jiǎn)⒊?(1873—1929),Pan Guangdan潘光旦 (1899—1967),and Ji Xianlin 季羨林 (1911—2009),was still a thesis concerning the particularity of a certain culture,holding that traditional Chinese culture was originally superior.In the mid-1990s,this Chinese exploration,which consciously made a distinction between Chinese and Western modernities,was regarded in academic circles as a mission searching for Chineseness,that is to say,making the particularity of Chinese culture more prominent in the modern world.Some held that “the perception of Chineseness was pivotal to understanding why Chinese culture proceeded from the traditional phase to the modern phase inthisbut notthatway.”36Zhang Fa 張法,“Chineseness:A Cultural Interpretation of Course of Chinese Modernity” [中華性：中國(guó)現(xiàn)代性歷程的文化解釋],Tianjin Social Sciences [天津社會(huì)科學(xué)],no.4 (2002):96—103.

In the phase of growing stronger,the country has approached closer to the center of the world stage.At this time,the internal and external circulation of China’s development,the intentionality of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,and the extensionality of China’s global influence have unprecedentedly correlated and interacted with one another.The greatest variable of the historic changes currently taking place in the world is China.Under these circumstances,on the one hand,the Chinese nation has instinctively pursued a “new situation” benef itting the country most in the historic global changes,and has thus had reason to tell China’s stories well.In doing so,it has tried to “give its ideas the form of universality,and represent them as the only rational,universally valid ones.”37Karl Marx,“The Illusion of the Epoch,” sec.B of “Feuerbach:Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlooks,”https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm.On the other hand,the guiding Marxist theory determines that China has the mission and obligation to f ind positive solutions to the problems besetting all humankind,and provide the world with a universally applicable program.In fact,for a truly powerful country,its external communication is always an embodiment of its internal communication,and it can even be said that,inversely,the extent to which a country’s external communication manifests as its internal communication determines how powerful the country will be.To a great extent,if China is unable to propose a universally acceptable solution to the question “what has happened to the world and how should we respond,”38Xi Jinping,“Working Together to Build a Community of Shared Future for Humankind:Speech at the United Nations Offi ce at Geneva,” Qiushi Online,last modif ied January 5,2021,http://en.qstheory.cn/2021-01/05/c_579937.htm.the country will not be really powerful,nor will the mission of national rejuvenation be truly realized.In previous phases,China just needed to immerse herself in hard work and,step by step,the nation would be rejuvenated.Even when China especially stressed her own particularity,it had been empirically proven that her practice was successful.But in the phase of growing stronger,if China is unable to create a universality transcending conventional nationality,the particularity of China will not be fully realized.

In light of the above discussions,we can understand some apparently contradictory mainstream discourses dialectically.For example,not only does the CPC emphasize that it does its utmost to lead the people to live a happy life and realize the dream of national rejuvenation,it also stresses that,apart from rejuvenating the Chinese nation,it also strives to help all humankind progress and build a world of greater unity.Likewise,we declare that the Chinese mode of modernization and a new form of human civilization have been created,all the while earnestly suggesting that all countries hold fast to the common values of humanity and work hard to build a community of shared future for humankind.Understood reasonably,China and the world,nations and humankind are united.More moderately,the degree and importance of this unity is increasing at an unprecedented rate.Precisely because of these realities,the national rejuvenation of China reaches the lofty height of a principle of the times,as well as living up to the guiding basic tenets of Marxism.Thus,at the same time,while the endeavor to lead the people to live a happy life is,f irst of all,applied to the Chinese people,it is undoubtedly also applied to the people of the world in the wake of China’s rise as a prosperous,powerful country.As China is approaching the center of the world stage,she finds that only when the country makes substantial contributions to human progress and the harmonization of the world will there be an accomplished national rejuvenation giving impetus to the cause of human development.

The present author holds that the Chinese path of modernization and the new civilizational form for humankind stemming from Chinese practice should neither be regarded as something completely different from existing,established paths of modernization and civilizational forms,nor be treated as something entirely national and particular.The Chinese path of modernization and the new civilizational form for humankind stemming from Chinese practice are “new” not only because these achievements assimilate all positive elements of modernity and modern human civilization as a whole,but also because they are theoretically and practically applicable to f inding solutions to the global challenges and problems besetting all humankind.They are not simply a new addition to existing modes of modernity and civilizational forms,but the sublation and elevation of existing modes and forms.It can thus be concluded both that holding fast to the common values of humankind and carrying forward the work of building a community of shared future for humankind are rightly the content of the Chinese mode of modernity and new civilizational form,and that the Chinese mode of modernity and new civilizational form vividly demonstrate how to hold fast to the common values of humankind and build a community of shared future for humankind.

Reconstructing Chineseness with Focus on the Universality of the Excellent Aspects of Traditional Chinese Culture[16]

Marx once made a programmatic assertion,which read:“The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society;the standpoint of the new is human society,or social humanity.”39Karl Marx,“Theses on Feuerbach,” ed.Friedrich Engels,trans.W.Lough,Marxists Internet Archive,https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm.It is true that the modernity,path of modernization,and bourgeois civilization invented by the West was based on the abstract individual and built according to the logic of capital.Contrary to this,Marxism selects the entirety of human society as its starting point and highlights the role that practice plays in social transformation.

From the very beginning,the CPC,guided by Marxism,has possessed a vision of caring for all humankind from the height of world history that is different from other political forces.As its goal,the Party sets not only the minimum program of national independence,but also the maximum program aiming to emancipate the whole body of humankind.In the past,when China still lagged behind and was vulnerable to attacks,she had to struggle to survive and was not able to make the maximum program manifest.In the course of searching for modernity and its path of modernization,the country spent much time debating the advantages and disadvantages of China and the West,and f inally developed a concept of Chineseness that distinguishes itself from previous ones in leading the country to “l(fā)ook toward modernization,the world,and the future.” The greatest achievement of this concept of Chineseness is that China has found her own path of modernization,that is,the road to national rejuvenation.But at present,we no longer “l(fā)ook toward the world,” since we are already in the world and have approached the center of the world stage.Nor do we“l(fā)ook toward the future,” since we have already caught up with the times and even taken the lead in many respects.Nor do we “l(fā)ook toward modernization,” since we have found our own path of modernization,which contains the basic orientation of the modernization of humankind.The situation is similar when it comes to the new civilizational form for humankind.This means that,as China proceeds to a new phrase of her development and “the world is once again at a historical crossroads”40“Full Text of Xi’s Statement at the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly,”Qiushi Online,last modif ied September 22,2021,http://en.qstheory.cn/2021-09/22/c_662473.htm.of unprecedented,historic changes,we must reconstruct Chineseness.While this work of reconstructing Chineseness still focuses on self-awareness and recognition of identity,it also pays great attention to how to maintain a balance between Chinese nationality and universal humanity.In comparison with the past,when more importance was attached to Chinese nationality,we today need to make the humanistic universality of Chineseness more prominent.

By this token,the perception and promotion of the guiding thought that “we must continue to adapt the basic tenets of Marxism to the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture” should not stop at underscoring Chinese characteristics and Chinese national character but instead make further efforts to make the humanistic universality of the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture manifest itself,and to that end,to reconstruct Chineseness in accordance with the times.From the angle of academic scholarship,we should reexamine and explore what role the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture have played and will play in the country’s endeavor to set an example for others in holding fast to common values of humankind and building a community of shared future for humankind.We should go further,asking why China’s path of modernization and new civilizational form for humankind are regarded as something extraordinary.What is the role that the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture have played and will play? How do the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture play these roles? And how do these roles that the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture play acquire humanistic universality?More profoundly,what are the special and universal inspirations taken from the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture when the world responds to global challenges and issues concerning entire humankind? And how do the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture and a reconstructed Chineseness accord with the basic tenets of Marxism while at the same time making more intellectual contributions to the sustainable development and wonderful future of humankind in the course of rejuvenating the Chinese nation?

Manifesting the Universality of Traditional Chinese Culture on the Basis of Life Practice[17]

At present,the world is witnessing historic changes and undergoing a global epidemic,accompanied by instabilities and shifts,manifold challenges,and increasing risks.Consequently,profound problems besetting humankind are emerging one aft er another in extreme forms.These problems can be categorized as crises concerning the relationships between humankind and nature,between humankind and society,and between humankind and itself.By nature,these crises represent a crisis concerning the survival of humankind.As far as the origin of these crises is concerned,they must be mainly attributed to the modernity invented by Western culture and civilization.To a large extent,contemporary humankind’s predicament and crisis is none other than the predicament and crisis of modern Western civilization.In an era of risk when globalization is still being deepened,when simple causality is replaced by correlated complexity,and when domino eff ects can be found in any time and place,any national and even individual action may be able to exert a global inf luence.There is only one earth for humankind,and there is only one common future for humankind.The conventional idea that whoever made something should be responsible for it is already past its time.Herein might lie the most fundamental reason why Antony Giddens stressed that,in this highly modernized period,social life should be“remoralized” in the light of the Heideggerian “question of Being.”41Anthony Giddens,Modernity and Self-Identity:Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge,UK:Polity Press,1991),224.Precisely because of the outstanding “question of Being” and the appeal to remoralize social life,it is possible and indeed necessary for the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture,which is known for its concern for life,belief in harmony,valuing of emotions,esteem for virtue,and worldwide vision,to enter the stage from the loft y heights of humanity.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly encouraged us to reinvigorate the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture by means of the spirit of the times.In March 2021,when visiting a park dedicated to Zhu Xi in Fujian,he asserted,“We should make innovative efforts to creatively transform and develop the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture.We should reinvigorate the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture.We should have the endeavor to carry forward the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture organically integrated with the work of upholding Marxism.”42“Xi Jinping Stresses in His Inspection Trip that Fujian Should Strike High in Serving and Integrating into the New Pattern of Development and Strive for a New Chapter of Building a Modern Socialist Country in a Comprehensive Way” [習(xí)近平在福建考察時(shí)強(qiáng)調(diào) 在服務(wù)和融入新發(fā)展格局上展現(xiàn)更大作為 奮力譜寫全面建設(shè)社會(huì)主義現(xiàn)代化國(guó)家福建篇章],People’s Daily,March 26,2021,1.From an academic perspective,the present author argues that the spirit of the times has two aspects.First,the nucleus of the spirit lies in reform and innovation from the heights of the nation and state.Second,from the heights of humankind and the world,although there is no consensus concerning the spirit of the times,it undoubtedly consists of common values such as peace,development,fairness,justice,democracy,and freedom.

The spirit of the times is always a collective consciousness responding to the questions of the times.As for the question or topic of our time,from the loft y height of humankind,it is how to make the right choice in the face of a survival crisis aff ecting the entire population of the world.Xi Jinping has asserted,the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture are the cultural lifeline of the Chinese nation;their visions,concepts,values and moral norms are the core of Chinese thought,and they also hold invaluable references for resolving the problems of humanity.43See Xi Jinping,“Public Communication in the New Era,” inXi Jinping:The Governance of China III (Beijing:Foreign Language Press,2020),367.In order that the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture can successfully be reinvigorated,not only should we creatively and innovatively transform and develop the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture in the light of the spirit of times concerning nation and state,but we also “need to inject new vitality into the Chinese civilization by energizing all cultural elements that transcend time,space and national borders and that possess both perpetual appeal and current value”44“Speech by H.E.Xi Jinping President of the People’s Republic of China at UNESCO Headquarters,” Ministry of Foreign Aff airs of the People’s Republic of China,last modif ied March 28,2014,https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/zyjh_665391/201403/t20140331_678150.html.from the heights of humankind and the world.In a word,we should reinvigorate the wisdom of universality and humanity rather than one that is purely local and national.When it comes to diverse cultures and civilizations including Western ones,we should no longer stop at exploring the simple differences between self and other or inquiring into simple interactions such as assimilation and drawing lessons,but rather strive to develop an inclusive relationship,namely that China is originally or at present ought to be a civilization-state transcending the nation-state,resulting in a new quasi-human civilization that approaches the state in which all countries exist together harmoniously.

Of course,as Mou Zongsan 牟宗三 (1909—1995) argued,the diff erence between cultural universality and scientific universality is that the former should manifest itself through different lives.“Cultural universality can only manifest itself through individual lives.Consequently,it will be restricted by them.Manifestation and restriction are all justif ied and do not contradict each other.”45Mou Zongsan 牟宗三,Fourteen Lectures Connecting Chinese and Western Philosophies [中西哲學(xué)之會(huì)通十四講](Shanghai:Shanghai Classics Publishing House,2007),5.Traditional Chinese culture,being centered on life,f inds the“common mind shared by all humans” (Mencius6A:7) by means of life and its realization,and thereby completes itself in universality.This is a special contribution made by traditional Chinese culture.Therefore,faced with the survival crisis of humankind,the simplest and most basic method of manifesting the universality and humanity contained in the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture is reinvigorating the philosophy of survival taught by traditional Chinese culture.Xunzi said,“Various grades of people live together.They share the same pursuits but have different ways.They share the same desires but have different understandings.This is simply the way they are born.”46“Enriching the State” [富國(guó)],inXunzi.The English translation of theXunzi is based on Eric L.Hutton’s version,83,with some alterations.Contradictions between humans are simply due to different ways and different understandings,while the desires of life,which are essentially the same,lie in the wish to “l(fā)ive a stable and good life.”47Pan Naigu 潘乃谷 and Pan Naihe 潘乃和,eds.,Existing Pan Guandan’s Treatises on Education [潘光旦教育文存](Beijing:People’s Education Press,2002),57.In order to accomplish living a stable and good life,one must realize “equilibrium and harmony,order and nourishment”:“Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection,and a happy order will prevail throughout Heaven and Earth,and all things will be nourished and f lourish....All things are nourished together without their injuring one another.The courses[are all]pursued without any collision among them.”48“The State of Equilibrium and Harmony” [中庸],inBook of Rites.The English translation of theBook of Rites is based on James Legge’s version,with some alterations.This is an insight with Chinese characteristics,as well as being a universal truth.The predicament of Western modernization was precisely caused by its violation of this,and the way out of its troubles lies in this,even though it may be expressed in a diff erent form.Marx profoundly pointed out that “the f irst premise of all human history is,of course,the existence of living human individuals.”49Marx,“Idealism and Materialism.”It is here,where the prerequisite and root of living existence lie,that the basic tenets of Marxism and the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture perfectly accord with one another,and where the nature of and solution to issues concerning all humankind are revealed.

To sum up,Chineseness is constantly reconstructed in the course of inheriting and carrying forward the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture.But it should be noted that more emphasis has long been placed on responding to the challenges and anxiety brought about by the “becoming-other” that resulted from the “other” of the West by making Chinese nationality more prominent.In the new journey,we should always do our best to adapt the basic tenets of Marxism to the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture,and the reconstruction of Chineseness should focus more on the solutions to human challenges or universal problems,by which means Chinese subjectivity will conversely become more prominent.In other words,to a great extent,certain elements of nationality can be sacrificed to create a new form of human civilization and build a community of shared future for humankind,in the hope of making the potential essence of universality in traditional Chinese culture a reality.In view of this,we can say that Chineseness is reconstructed and elevated,extricating itself from a narrow sense of nationality.This means that the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture itself are insufficient to meet the needs of present-day China;in contrast,we can only realize the remolding of our culture through its multiple-negation by combining it with Marxism.Only in this way can the excellent aspects of traditional Chinese culture display their rightful vigor and eternal charm.

Bibliography of Cited Translations

Hutton,Eric L.,trans.Xunzi:The Complete Text.Princeton,NJ:Princeton University Press,2014.Legge,James,trans.Book of Rites.https://ctext.org/liji/zhong-yong/ens.