The Historical Analysis Method of *The Communist Manifesto*

The task of *The Communist Manifesto* (hereinafter referred to as *The Manifesto*) is to reveal the inevitable demise of capitalism and the inevitable victory of the proletarian revolution. Employing the method of historical analysis, proceeding from the perspective of world history, and in accordance with the basic laws of historical development, Marx and Engels revealed the historical status of capitalism, elucidated the historical mission of the proletariat and its party, criticized the historical errors of various socialist trends, indicated the attitude the proletarian party should adopt toward various opposition parties, and called on the proletariat of all countries to unite.

《共产党宣言》（以下简称《宣言》）的任务在于揭示资本主义的必然灭亡和无产阶级革命的必然胜利。马克思、恩格斯运用历史分析方法，从世界历史的视域出发，依据历史发展的基本规律，揭示了资本主义的历史地位，阐明了无产阶级及其政党的历史使命，批判了各种社会主义思潮的历史错误，指明了无产阶级政党对待各种反对党的态度，号召全世界无产者联合起来。

The Perspective of World History

世界历史的视域

In *The German Ideology*, Marx pointed out that the development of large-scale industry first created world history. It eliminated the naturally formed closed state of previous countries, opened up the world market, and transformed feudal estate capital into modern industrial capital. The bourgeoisie stepped onto the historical stage as a world-historical force. This line of thought continued into *The Manifesto*. Marx and Engels pointed out that the bourgeoisie, with cheap commodities and gunboats, knocked open the doors of backward nations, compelling all nations to adopt the bourgeois mode of production. The bourgeoisie created a new world in its own image, subordinating backward nations to the so-called "civilized nations" and the East to the West.

马克思在《德意志意识形态》中指出，大工业的发展首次开创了世界历史。它消灭了以往各国自然形成的封闭状态，开辟了世界市场，使封建等级资本转化为现代工业资本。资产阶级作为一种世界历史性力量登上了历史舞台。这一思想一直延续到《宣言》。马克思、恩格斯指出，资产阶级用廉价商品和坚船利炮敲开了落后民族的大门，迫使一切民族采取资产阶级的生产方式。资产阶级按照自己的面貌创造出一个新世界，使落后民族从属于所谓的“文明国家”，使东方从属于西方。

The formation of capitalism and world history is the same process, which also extended the class contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat to a global scale, providing an opportunity for the proletariat of all countries to unite. The proletariat is first and foremost a class of each nation, but due to the establishment of the world market, the separation between nations is gradually being broken down. In this sense, the working class has no fatherland. In the process of revolution, although the proletariat must first rise to become the leading class within a single country, from the perspective of world history, once class antagonisms within nations are eliminated, the precondition for eliminating antagonisms between nations is provided.

资本主义与世界历史的形成是同一过程，这也将资产阶级与无产阶级的阶级矛盾拓展到世界范围，为全世界无产阶级联合起来提供了契机。无产阶级首先是各个民族的阶级，但由于世界市场的建立，民族之间的分隔逐渐被打破。在这个意义上，工人阶级没有祖国。在革命过程中，虽然无产阶级首先必须在一国范围内上升为领导阶级，但从世界历史的角度来看，民族内部的阶级对立一旦消除，就为消除民族之间的对立提供了前提。

Capitalism created world history and therefore occupied a privileged position for a certain period, but the irreconcilable class contradictions continuously expand across the globe, and the international unity of the proletariat provides the historical conditions for the sublation of capitalism.

资本主义开创了世界历史，因而也在一定时期内占据了优先地位，但不可调和的阶级矛盾在全世界不断拓展，国际无产阶级的联合，为扬弃资本主义提供了历史条件。

The Historical Status of Capitalism

资本主义的历史地位

Marx not only discussed the formation of capitalism from the perspective of world history but also conducted a dialectical analysis of the historical status of capitalism. From the perspective of the process of human historical development, capitalism has both a positive historical role and inevitable historical limitations.

马克思既从世界历史的视角讨论了资本主义的形成，又对资本主义的历史地位展开了辩证分析。从人类历史发展的进程来看，资本主义既有积极的历史作用，也有不可避免的历史局限性。

Marx highly praised the emancipatory role of capitalism. On the one hand, capitalism severed the patriarchal relations of feudal society and brought personal freedom. Although this freedom is merely superficial and formal, it is undoubtedly progressive compared to the personal dependency relations of feudal society. On the other hand, capitalism greatly liberated the productive forces. Within less than a hundred years, capitalism created more material wealth than the sum total of all previous eras.

马克思高度赞扬了资本主义的解放作用。一方面，资本主义斩断了封建社会的宗法关系，带来了人身自由。虽然这种自由仅仅是表面的、形式的，但相对封建社会的人身依附关系而言，无疑具有进步意义。另一方面，资本主义极大地解放了生产力。在不到一百年的时间内，资本主义创造的物质财富超过了以往所有时代的总和。

Capitalism liberated the productive forces, but this does not mean the end of human history. Although, in the eyes of the apologists of capitalism, previous societies were historical, capitalist society is eternal. But in reality, due to the contradiction between the private ownership of the means of production and socialized large-scale production, periodic economic crises, and inevitable overproduction, the narrow capitalist relations of ownership are increasingly unable to accommodate the continuously developing productive forces. Just as the relations of production of feudal society could not adapt to the bourgeois mode of production and inevitably disintegrated, so too must capitalist relations of production inevitably move toward their own self-sublation due to the further development of the productive forces.

资本主义解放了生产力，但这不意味着人类历史的终结。虽然在资本主义的辩护士们看来，以往的社会是历史的，资本主义社会却是永恒的。但实际上，由于生产资料的私人占有和社会化大生产之间的矛盾、周期性的经济危机和不可避免的生产过剩，狭隘的资本主义所有制越来越难以适应不断发展的生产力。正如封建社会的生产关系无法适应资产阶级的生产方式而必然趋于瓦解，资本主义生产关系也同样必然由于生产力的进一步发展而走向自我扬弃。

The Historical Mission of the Proletariat and Its Party

无产阶级及其政党的历史使命

The inevitable historical trend of the demise of capitalism is not only because it has created social productive forces it cannot contain, but also because it has produced the modern proletariat that wields this weapon. Capitalism produces its own gravediggers.

资本主义必然灭亡的历史趋势不仅因为其创造了无法容纳的社会生产力，而且还因为其生产了使用这种武器的现代无产阶级。资本主义生产了自身的掘墓人。

The proletariat possesses no means of production of its own and must rely on selling its labor power to survive. Without wage labor, there is no such relation of production as capital. For the capitalist, the worker is merely an instrument for the valorization of capital. The worker's wage is limited to the value of the means of subsistence necessary to maintain the worker and his family. With the development of machine-based large-scale industry, the worker increasingly becomes an appendage of the machine. Within the factory, the worker's labor is pure alienated labor, labor that is forced and supervised. Not only is the worker exploited by the capitalist within the factory, but in life, the worker is also exploited by various petty-bourgeois elements.

无产阶级没有自己的生产资料，不得不靠出卖自己的劳动力来维持生存。没有雇佣劳动，就没有资本这种生产关系。对资本家来说，工人仅仅是资本增殖的工具。工人的工资仅限于维系工人及其家庭的生活资料的价值。随着机器大工业的发展，工人越来越沦为机器的附庸。在工厂内部，工人的劳动是纯粹的异化劳动，是被强迫和监视的劳动。工人不仅在工厂内部受到资本家的剥削，而且在生活上受到各种小资产阶级的剥削。

Where there is exploitation, there is resistance. As the degree of exploitation increases, workers begin to gradually awaken and resist. Initially, this manifests as resistance by individual workers, then as resistance by workers in a single factory, and finally evolves into resistance by the entire working class of society. The forms of resistance also develop from destroying machines to organized workers' movements. The ranks of the workers' movement gradually expand with the elimination of various intermediate strata, and its strength correspondingly increases. The proletarian revolution is a movement for the interests of the vast majority.

哪里有剥削，哪里就有反抗。随着剥削程度的提高，工人开始逐步觉醒和反抗。最初表现为单个工人的反抗，其次表现为某一工厂工人的反抗，最后演变为整个社会工人阶级的反抗。反抗的形式也从破坏机器发展到有组织的工人运动。工人运动的队伍随着各种中间等级的消除而逐步扩大，其力量也随之不断增强。无产阶级革命是为绝大多数人谋利益的运动。

The proletarian party is the vanguard of the proletariat, always representing the interests of the entire movement and representing the internationalist direction that transcends national boundaries. The mission of the proletariat and its party is to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie and establish a communism premised on the free development of each individual. The foundation of this historical mission is not some theoretical conception or ideological principle, but an intellectual expression of the real crisis of capitalism and the proletarian revolutionary movement, an inevitable requirement of the objective historical process.

无产阶级政党是无产阶级的先锋队，始终代表着整个运动的利益，代表着不分民族的国际主义方向。无产阶级及其政党的使命在于推翻资产阶级的统治，建立以每一个人自由发展为前提的共产主义。这种历史使命的根基不是某种理论设想或思想原则，而是对资本主义现实危机和无产阶级革命运动的思想表达，是客观历史进程的必然要求。

The Historical Errors of Various Socialist Theories

各种社会主义理论的历史错误

In *The Manifesto*, Marx and Engels not only pointed out the historical basis for the "two inevitables" [1]1 The "two inevitables" (两个必然) refers to the Marxist thesis that the inevitable demise of capitalism and the inevitable victory of the proletariat are objective laws of historical development, as expounded in *The Communist Manifesto*., but also refuted erroneous socialist trends. Although the errors of these trends directly stem from the limitations of class interests, the limitations of interests are rooted in historical limitations.

在《宣言》中，马克思、恩格斯不仅指出了“两个必然”的历史依据，而且驳斥了错误的社会主义思潮。虽然这些思潮的错误直接源于阶级利益的局限性，但利益的局限性根源于历史的局限性。

The first erroneous trend was reactionary socialist thought, mainly including feudal, petty-bourgeois, and "true" socialism. Feudal socialism verbally attacked capitalism and courted the proletariat, but they completely failed to understand the historical process of modern society. Therefore, these slogans were merely echoes of the past. In the process of large-scale industrial development, the living space of the petty bourgeoisie was gradually compressed. Therefore, petty-bourgeois socialism either attempted to restore old relations of ownership or tried to force the modern mode of production into old patriarchal relations, ultimately falling into cowardly lamentation. German "true" socialism translated French socialist literature into philosophical literature, yet completely failed to understand that this literature was premised on a specific reality. "True" socialism, priding itself on philosophical categories such as "human essence" and "practical reason," believed it could transcend class contradictions and class conflicts, unaware that the so-called "true human" and "human in general" exist only in the space of philosophical fantasy, and unaware that the objects of French socialist literature's critique—the material foundation and political system of capitalist society—were still things to be fought for in Germany at the time. The second was conservative bourgeois socialist thought. These people attempted to eliminate the ills of capitalist society while maintaining the capitalist system. They believed the world under bourgeois rule was the best of all worlds, claiming that free trade, protective tariffs, and even solitary confinement were for the benefit of the working class. This trend ignored the real miserable fate of the working class, ignored the real movement of the proletarian revolution, did not touch capitalist relations of ownership at all, and likewise failed to see the trend of historical development. The third was utopian socialism. This trend failed to see the historical initiative of the proletarian movement. They rejected all political revolution, advocating for opening a path for the new society through genius ideas and experimental demonstrations, ultimately running counter to the direction of the proletarian revolution. In short, reactionary, conservative, and utopian socialism either attempted to turn back the wheel of history, or remained stuck in the present historical reality, or tried to transcend history and build castles in the air. They all committed historical errors.

第一种错误思潮是反动的社会主义思想，主要有封建的、小资产阶级、“真正的”社会主义等。封建的社会主义在口头上抨击资本主义，拉拢无产阶级，但他们完全不懂现代社会的历史进程。因此，这些口号不过是过去的回响。在大工业发展进程中，小资产阶级的生存空间逐渐被压缩。因此，小资产阶级的社会主义或者试图恢复旧的所有制关系，或者试图将现代生产方式硬塞到旧的宗法关系中，最终只能陷入懦弱的悲叹。德国的“真正的”社会主义将法国社会主义文献翻译成哲学文献，却完全不明白这些文献是以特定的现实为前提的。“真正的”社会主义自诩以“人的本质”“实践理性”等哲学范畴，就能超越阶级矛盾和阶级冲突，殊不知所谓“真正的人”“一般的人”只存在于哲学幻想的太空中，殊不知法国社会主义文献批判的对象（资本主义社会物质基础和政治制度）在当时的德国还是有待争取的。第二种是保守的资产阶级社会主义思潮。这些人试图消除资本主义社会的弊病，维护资本主义制度。他们认为资产阶级统治的世界是最美好的世界，声称自由贸易、保护关税，甚至单人牢房都是为了工人阶级利益。这种思潮无视工人阶级现实的悲惨命运，无视无产阶级革命的现实运动，丝毫不触及资本主义的所有制关系，同样看不到历史发展的趋势。第三种是空想的社会主义。这种思潮看不到无产阶级运动的历史主动性。他们拒绝一切政治革命，主张通过天才的设想、实验的示范为新社会开辟道路，最终与无产阶级革命的方向背道而驰。 总之，反动的、保守的、空想的社会主义或者试图倒转历史的车轮，或者停留于当下的历史现实，或者试图超越历史，建立空中楼阁。他们都犯了历史错误。

Conditioned by Concrete Historical Circumstances

以具体的历史条件为转移

The *Manifesto* points out the inevitable victory of the proletarian revolution, but as far as the revolutionary path of each country is concerned, it must be transferred according to the specific historical conditions. Although the proletarian party represents the future trend of development in the revolutionary movement, it must also examine the specific historical circumstances of each country at the time. In France, the proletarian party should cooperate with the socialist democrats to jointly oppose the conservative bourgeoisie, but it cannot therefore abandon the criticism of the empty talk and illusions left over from the revolutionary process. In Switzerland, although the proletarian party supports the radicals, it cannot ignore the fact that the radicals contain bourgeois elements. In Poland, the proletarian party must support the land revolution in the national liberation movement. In Germany, the proletarian party supports the bourgeoisie in opposing the rule of the feudal monarchy, but it cannot ignore the opposition between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, nor can it ignore that after overthrowing feudal rule, it must immediately begin to oppose the rule of the bourgeoisie. In the 1872, 1882, and other "Prefaces" to the *Manifesto*, Marx and Engels emphasized that while the basic principles of the *Manifesto* are correct, their concrete application must be transferred according to specific historical conditions. They either revised some formulations based on new historical data, or made new interpretations based on new historical experience, or pointed out that with the development of capitalism, some specific measures to overthrow capitalism have lost their historical significance.

《宣言》指出了无产阶级革命的必然胜利，但就各国的革命道路而言，则需要以具体的历史条件为转移。虽然无产阶级政党在革命运动中代表了未来的发展趋势，但也不得不考察当时各国的具体历史情势。在法国，无产阶级政党应当与社会主义民主党合作，一起反对保守的资产阶级，但不能因此放弃批判革命过程中遗留下来的空谈和幻想。在瑞士，无产阶级政党虽然支持激进派，但不能忽视激进派中包含着资产者的事实。在波兰，无产阶级政党必须支持民族解放运动中的土地革命。在德国，无产阶级政党支持资产阶级反对封建君主的统治，但不能忽略资产阶级与无产阶级的对立，不能忽略推翻封建统治之后立即开始反对资产阶级的统治。在《宣言》的1872年、1882年等“序言”中，马克思、恩格斯强调虽然《宣言》的基本原理是正确的，但具体运用则需要以具体的历史条件为转移。他们或者根据新的历史资料修订了一些说法，或者根据新的历史经验作出了新的阐释，或者指出随着资本主义的发展，一些推翻资本主义的具体措施已经失去历史意义。

The historical analysis method is the basic method by which Marx and Engels arrived at the "two inevitables." [2]2 The "two inevitables" (两个必然) refer to the Marxist conclusion that the inevitable collapse of capitalism and the inevitable victory of communism are historically determined. Under the new historical conditions, we still need to start from the perspective of world history, combine specific historical circumstances, and use the basic laws of historical development to study the new characteristics of capitalism, and develop Marxism that has been adapted to the Chinese context and the needs of the times.

历史分析方法是马克思、恩格斯得出“两个必然”的基本方法。在新的历史条件下，我们依然需要从世界历史的视角，结合具体的历史情势，运用历史发展的基本规律研究资本主义的新特点，发展中国化时代化的马克思主义。

(This article is a phased result of the National Social Science Fund general project "Research on the Innovation of Chinese Marxist Philosophical Discourse in the New Era" (22BZX016))

（本文系国家社科基金一般项目“新时代中国马克思主义哲学话语创新研究”（22BZX016）阶段性成果）

(The author is a professor at the School of Marxism, Anhui Normal University)

（作者系安徽师范大学马克思主义学院教授）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心