The Artistic-Critical Construction of Marx’s Scientific Atheism

The long-standing religious tradition of the Western world and the religious background of his early life and upbringing gave Marx a special perception and understanding of religion, God, or the divine. With the accumulation of life experience, the maturation of his theoretical thought, and the deepening of practical struggle, Marx gradually grew into a steadfast atheist. Marx’s atheist thought is directly expressed in the philosophical sphere as a critique of religion and theology, while in the artistic sphere it constructs an artistic path for criticizing divinity. From literary creation to the gradual perfection of his artistic thought system, Marx built up his scientific atheist artistic-critical thought, taking as its main thread his literary creation, his revelation of the essence of art, and his thought on artistic production, thereby further enriching the developmental genealogy and modes of unfolding of Marx’s scientific atheist thought.

西方世界长期以来的宗教传统和早年生活成长环境的宗教背景，使马克思对宗教、上帝或神有着特殊的认知和理解。随着人生阅历的累积、思想理论的成熟以及实践斗争的深化，马克思逐渐成长为一位坚定的无神论者。马克思的无神论思想在哲学范畴直接表现为对宗教、神学的批判，而在艺术范畴则构建了批判神性的艺术路径。从文学作品创作到艺术思想体系的逐步完善，马克思从其文学创作、对艺术本质的揭示和关于艺术生产的思想为主线建构起了科学无神论的艺术批判思想，进一步丰富了马克思科学无神论思想的发展谱系和展开方式。

I. The Critique of Divinity in Marx’s Literary Creation

一、马克思文学创作中的神性批判

As a special artistic language, literary works are an important vehicle for expressing thought and emotion. The young Marx was very enthusiastic about literary creation, producing several collections of poetry during his student years. In addition, Marx also created literary works such as plays and novels. The artistic thought in Marx’s literary works is profound in content and far-reaching in influence, and atheist thought had already begun to show itself in his early literary works. Marx’s literary works unambiguously deny the existence of God and its authority, using literary creation to initiate a critique of divinity.

作为一种特殊的艺术语言，文学作品是表达思想和情感的重要载体。青年时代的马克思十分热衷于文学创作，在求学期间创作了多部诗集。此外，马克思也曾创作过剧本、小说等文学作品。马克思文学创作中的艺术思想内涵深刻且影响深远，而无神论思想在其早期文学作品中便已初见端倪。马克思的文学作品毫不隐讳地否定了神的存在及其权威性，借助文学创作开启神性批判。

(1) Revealing the Illusory Essence of Deities through Artistic Critique

(一)以艺术化的批判揭示了神祇的虚幻本质

The image of gods is a common object in various types of literary works. The mysterious transcendence and unknowability of gods can depict unknown things, the illusory otherworldly realm, or obscure the limits of human existence and emotional distress, making it easier to express the psychological intentions and romantic sentiments of poets and other literary and artistic creators, thereby creating a complex and changeable subjective spiritual world. Marx’s literary works also use gods (God) or things with divinity or resembling gods (such as angels, spirits, etc.) as creative objects or material, such as “Song of the Sirens,” “Song of the Little Spirit,” and “Song of the Gnome,” which are poems created with such deities as their objects. But in Marx’s hands, they are not gods in the religious sense or other things with supernatural power or mysterious essence, but are merely used as objective comparisons or external forms for expressing emotion. “In Marx’s understanding and narration, what ‘spirit’ refers to is quite mixed, arbitrary, hazy, chaotic, and even contradictory, but this ultimately logically led Marx to conclude: gods do not exist; the household registration of gods is in the human world.” [1]1 The Chinese phrase “神的户籍在人间” (the household registration of gods is in the human world) is a metaphorical expression meaning that gods have no independent existence; their origin and “registration” are found in human society and consciousness.

神的形象是各类文学作品中常见对象，神的神秘超然、不可认知等特性能够描绘未知的事物、虚无缥缈的彼岸世界，或虚化人的现实生存限度及情感困顿，更有利于朦胧地表现诗人等文艺创作者的心理活动意图和浪漫主义情怀，从而创造一个复杂多变的主观精神世界。马克思的文学作品也使用神(上帝)或具有神性、类似于神的事物(如天使、精灵等)作为创作对象或素材，如《海妖之歌》《小精灵之歌》《地精之歌》等便是以这类神祇为对象创作的诗歌。但在马克思笔下，它们并不是宗教意义上的神或其他具有超自然力量、神秘本质的事物，而是仅仅被用于客观存在的比拟或抒发情感的外在形式。“在马克思的理解和叙述中，‘精灵’所指尽管是相当杂多、随意、迷蒙、混沌乃至矛盾的，但这最终却逻辑地促使马克思得出结论：神是不存在的，神的户籍在人间。”1

In Marx’s view, deities are merely virtualizations of objective existence, not real existence; the images of the gods can find their prototypes in actual existence. The reason people come to conceive of gods or imagine divinity from actual existence is mainly due to the limitations of their own cognition and their infinite craving for unknown things. In the poem “Song to the Stars” from the second part of the poetry collection *Book of Love*, Marx wrote:

在马克思看来，神祇不过是客观存在的虚拟化而非真实存在，诸神的形象可以从现实存在中找到原型。人之所以会对现实存在萌生出神的观念或神性的臆想，主要是因为自身认知的有限性以及对未知事物的无限渴求。马克思在诗集《爱之书》第二部的《致星星之歌》中写道：

“People look up to you,

“人们抬眼向你们凝望，

Thinking you possess mysterious power,

以为你们具有神秘的力量，

Wanting to draw hope from you,

想从你们那儿汲取希望，

Draw inexhaustible thought.” [2]2 Marx, “Song to the Stars,” *Book of Love*, Part Two.

汲取永不枯竭的思想。”2

People often place their hopes on the myriad stars to fulfill their wishes, but the countless stars cannot satisfy mortals’ real needs such as career success or the pursuit of happiness, nor their unreal desires for supernatural abilities, because the gods are merely fantasy, not real existence. Natural things like the stars are not gods and have no soul; they are merely objective realities that do not change according to individual will or circumstances:

人们往往寄望于万千星斗来实现自己的愿望，但漫天繁星并不能满足凡人获得事业成功、追求幸福等现实需要或获得超自然能力的不实欲望，因为诸神仅是幻想而非真实存在。如星斗一样的自然之物不是神，也没有灵魂，只是现实的客观存在，不会因为个人的意志或遭遇而发生任何改变：

“Even if we are shattered to pieces,

“即使我们粉身碎骨，

Even if we suffer utter ruin,

即使我们遭到灭顶之灾，

Not a single tree will break because of it,

也没有一棵树会因此而断裂，

Not a single star will fall.” [3]3 Marx, “Song to the Stars,” *Book of Love*, Part Two.

没有一颗星星会陨落下来。”3

People’s prayers to the gods cannot change the fact that they are merely divinity conceived by human thought and consciousness from objective existence. In the poem “To Jenny” from the poetry collection *Book of Songs*, Marx directly expressed contempt for “God,” stripping away its illusory essence. “The gods” are nothing but an illusory reflection of objectively existing things, phenomena, and laws of nature such as “the sky,” “the stars,” and “the clouds and mists.” Therefore, “the gods” cannot satisfy people’s real, actual demands; they only “bestow” on people a self-consolation that exists in name only. Thus, Marx mocks the gods:

人们向诸神的祈求，无法改变它们只是被人的思想意识从客观存在中构想出神性的事实。马克思在诗集《歌之书》的《致燕妮》一诗中，直接表达了对“神”的蔑视，剥开其虚幻本质。“众神”无非是对“苍天”“星辰”“云涛雾海”等自然界客观存在的事物、现象和规律虚幻的反映。因而，“众神”不可能满足人真实的现实诉求，仅向人们“馈赠”形同虚设的自我慰藉。所以，马克思嘲讽众神：

“I throw the gifts back in their faces

“我语带讥讽地把礼物

With sarcasm,

向他们的脸上扔去，

I will not accept these useless trifles from them,

我不愿接受他们这些无用的废物，

For the most precious things they cannot give.” [4]4 Marx, “To Jenny,” *Book of Songs*.

而最珍贵的东西他们却不会赠予。”4

Starting from objective reality, Marx’s poetry denies the existence of gods and people’s expectations of them, revealing through an artistic mode of criticizing divinity that the essence of deities is a virtualized image of objective existence, presenting a cognition of people’s inner emotions and other ideological consciousness, and a quest for all objective existence, including the universe and the world.

马克思的诗歌从客观实在出发，对神的存在和人寄望于神的期待予以否定，以艺术化的神性批判方式揭示神祇的本质即客观存在的虚拟化形象，呈现对人的内在情感等思想意识的认知、对宇宙世界等一切客观存在的求索。

(2) Denying the Artistic Inspiration of Divine Consciousness through the Real Basis of Literary Creation

(二)以文学创作的现实基础否定神性意识的艺术灵感

Marx’s literary reflection and creative practice show that the real world is the fundamental source of literary and artistic creation; the objective world, as the real basis of creative inspiration, directly denies the divine consciousness of creating “inspired by God.” Most of the poems in Marx’s poetry collections take the expression of emotion and love as their theme, and make extensive use of personification, revealing genuine feelings of longing for love. This romantic mode of expression and intensely lyrical writing come from Marx’s feelings and insights into real life. Marx’s literary creative practice reflects on the source of inspiration for artistic creation—artistic creative inspiration lies in real life and objective existence, not, as traditional philosophers held, in inspiration as a divine gift granted to a few.

马克思的文学反思和创作实践表明：现实世界是文学艺术创作的根本来源，客观世界作为创作灵感的现实基础直接否定了“感召于神”而进行创作的神性意识。马克思诗集中大部分诗歌以抒发情感、表达爱意为主题，并大量运用拟人化的创作方式，流露出对爱渴望的真情实感。这种浪漫主义表达方式和浓厚抒情文字，来自于马克思对现实生活的所感所悟。马克思的文学创作实践反思了对艺术创作的灵感来源——艺术创作灵感在于现实生活、客观存在，而不是如传统哲学家那样，将灵感归结为少数人获得的神明恩赐。

Lyrical poetry creation was Marx’s expression of his longing for the care of love and his catharsis of lonely emotions. The object of Marx’s lyricism and love was his beloved, Jenny, whom he missed day and night. In the two poetry collections *Book of Love* and *Book of Songs*, dozens of poems are directly titled “To Jenny” or have “To Jenny” as a subtitle. These poems narrate Marx’s faithful love for Jenny and his longing for her day and night; his love for and longing for Jenny were the fundamental source of inspiration for Marx’s poetry. In the poem “Longing: To Jenny” from the first part of *Book of Love*, Marx directly states that Jenny is the object of his poetry, and that his longing for Jenny is the driving force within his heart:

抒情诗歌创作是马克思对得到爱情关怀的渴望、对孤独情感的宣泄。马克思抒情、爱慕的对象是他日夜思念的爱人——燕妮。在《爱之书》和《歌之书》两部诗集中，有数十首诗歌直接以“致燕妮”命名或以“致燕妮”为副标题。这些诗歌讲述了马克思对燕妮的忠贞爱情和日夜思慕，对燕妮的爱和思念就是马克思诗歌创作灵感的根本源泉。在《爱之书》第一部的《思念·致燕妮》一诗中，马克思直言不讳地指出燕妮就是他诗歌创作的对象，而对燕妮的思念就是自己心中的动力：

“You yourself are the embodiment of this longing,

“你自己就是这思念的化身，

The word longing cannot express a heart full of feeling,

思念二字难表达一腔衷肠，

Burning deep emotion cannot be spoken in words,

炽热的深情无法用言词诉说，

This passion will burn ever stronger in my heart.” [5]5 Marx, “Longing: To Jenny,” *Book of Love*, Part One.

这热情将在我心中越烧越旺。”5

It was by means of poetry that Marx, far from home, expressed his longing for Jenny, his cognition and understanding of love, and, based on this human emotion of love, his subjective comparison and mental creation of objective nature.

背井离乡的马克思正是借助于诗歌创作来表达对燕妮的思念、对爱情的认知和感悟，以及基于爱情这一人间情感对客观自然的主观比拟和思维创造。

In Marx’s literary world, all things in nature, human social life, and so on are the source of beauty, the starting point of artistic creation, and also the “place of enlightenment” for the pursuit of aesthetics. The pursuit of beautiful things is an innate instinct of human beings, but the process of pursuit does not depend on praying to gods; on the contrary, blindly praying to gods for beautiful things while abandoning oneself is tantamount to self-destruction. In the poem “Spray,” Marx wrote:

在马克思的文学世界中，自然万物、人类社会生活等都是美的源头、艺术创作的起点，同时也是追寻审美的“悟道场”。追求美好事物是人与生俱来的本能，但追寻过程并不依赖于对神的祈求；相反，盲目地祈求神赐予美好而放弃自我，无异于自取灭亡。在《浪花》一诗中，马克思写道：

“People always pursue beautiful things,

“人总是把美好的事物追寻，

Thinking the gods will surely grant their requests,

以为自己的请求诸神定会慨允，

So they willingly jump into the abyss,

所以他甘愿跳下深渊，

But they only destroy that delicate picture!” [6]6 Marx, “Spray.”

可是他只会毁灭那幅纤巧的图景!”6

The fundamental source of the impulse for artistic creation lies in nature and the real world of human existence, not in gods or mysterious forces. All objective existence—including human emotions and other spiritual consciousness—is both the object of artistic creation and the source of creative inspiration. Through a correct grasp of the natural world, the social environment, and people’s inner spiritual world, Marx used literary works to express emotional fluctuations, human contradictions, the power of nature, and the complexity of society, and pointed out that all things in the world are not creations of gods, but are naturally occurring objective existence and human practical creation. This is the inspiration for Marx’s literary creation, and also the scientific atheist spirit contained in his poetry.

艺术创作冲动产生的根本在于自然界和人之生存的现实世界，而不是神或神秘力量给予的。一切客观存在——包括人的情感等精神意识，既是艺术创作的对象，又是创作灵感的来源。马克思通过对自然世界、社会环境及人的内在精神世界的正确把握，把情感的波动、人性的矛盾、自然的力量和社会的复杂借助文学作品表现出来，并指出世界万物不是神的造物，而是自然而然的客观存在和人的实践创造。这是马克思文学创作的灵感启示，也是其诗歌中内含的科学无神论精神。

(3) Resisting the Domination of Human Destiny by Divinity through the Inner Spirit of Literary Creation

(三)以文学创作的内在精神反抗神性支配人类命运

Marx took the reflection of humanity’s essential forces as the inner spirit of literary creation. In his literary works, God is neither a transcendent being with “divinity,” nor an omnipotent absolute that can relieve human suffering, govern human destiny, or control the birth and death of all things, but rather a mere allegory. All things in the world have their own objective laws of generation and evolution, while humanity’s inner essential forces are the fundamental basis for understanding and utilizing these laws to realize a beautiful vision. In “Stars: Three Sonnets,” Marx uses the stars to express his cognitive reflections on humanity’s relationship to the material existence, unconsciousness, and laws of motion of nature:

马克思以反映人的本质力量为文学创作的内在精神，在其文学作品中，神不是具有“神性”的超然存在，也不是能解决人间疾苦、驾驭人类命运、掌握事物生灭的全能绝对者，而是一种单纯的寓意。世间万物自有生成、演进的客观规律，而人内在的本质力量则是认识和利用规律实现美好愿景的根本所在。马克思在《星星·十四行诗三首》中借星星表明人对自然的物质存在、无意识性以及运动规律的认知思考：

“Stars, if you were subject to the power of God,

“星星啊，如果你们受制于上帝的力量，

The vast sky would appear utterly desolate;

漠漠长空就会显得一片荒凉，

You only know how to move in eternal orbits,

你们只知道运行于永恒的轨道，

Yet care not whether a gentle, noble soul perishes!”[7]7 Karl Marx, “Stars: Three Sonnets,” in *Collected Works of Marx and Engels*, vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 583. [Translator’s note: The original Chinese text cites this as note 7; the English translation of the poem is adapted from the Chinese version provided.]

却不管一个温柔、崇高的心灵从此消亡!”7

In Marx’s view, the stars are neither confined by “the power of God” nor limited by human emotion or life; they are merely natural celestial bodies that move according to their own orbits, indifferent to human feelings. The fundamental link between humanity and the so-called “God” lies in human imagination, yet “imagination” is powerless to determine the outcome of human activity.

在马克思看来，星星既没有局限于“上帝的力量”,也没有受限于人的情感亦或生命，仅仅是按照自身轨道运行、对人的情感漠不关心的自然星体。维系人与所谓的“神”之间联系的根本在于人的想象力，而“想象力”无力决定人的活动的结果。

In the novel *Scorpion and Felix*, Marx firmly expresses the view that human activity is not governed by God. God does not “manifest” when humans make choices or engage in other activities, nor is human destiny determined by God. Human imagination creates God, and then distances God from humanity, erecting a barrier between them; indeed, mortals do not even know “whether God has a nose on his face.”[8]8 Karl Marx, *Scorpion and Felix*, in *Collected Works of Marx and Engels*, vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 601. Although the contingency of the world’s operation and development, along with human activity, may produce “miracles” where “divine governance” and “human obedience” coincide, in the final analysis, humanity itself is the master of its own destiny; true choice lies in human freedom and self-consciousness. Therefore, all human activity and its results reside in humanity itself, not in the illusion of seeming “miracles.” The “I” in Marx’s writing says: “Whoever bathes in a river must place himself in the stormy waves of nature, must overcome the raging billows, struggling with strong arms; but he who sits in a bathtub stays behind closed doors, staring at the corner of the bathroom.”[9]9 Ibid., p. 602.

在小说《斯考尔皮昂和费利克斯》中，马克思坚定表明人的活动不受神的支配的态度。上帝不会在人进行选择或其他活动时“显灵”,人的命运也不是由上帝决定的。人的想象力创造了神，又在神与人之间拉开距离、竖起屏障，甚至凡人并不知道“上帝脸上是否长着鼻子”8。虽然世界运行发展与人的行为活动的偶然性，会导致“上帝支配”与“人类服从”相互重合的“神迹”,但归根结底，人才是自身命运的掌控者，真正的选择在于人的自由自觉。因此，人的一切活动及其结果在于人本身，而不是看似“神迹”的假象。马克思笔下的“我”说道：“凡在江河里洗澡的人，都要置身于风浪汹涌的大自然里，要战胜惊涛骇浪，用强劲的双臂搏斗；而坐在澡盆里的人，却闭门不出，注视着浴室的壁角。”9

In those literary works where divinity enters, although creative imagination can endow the protagonist with a life of magical color, the end point of destiny lies in God’s choice. Marx’s literary creation, by contrast, emphasizes that humans can make choices and put them into action because of the attributes and essential forces that make humans human, not because of God’s arrangement. Facing objective reality with the courage to create and to practice is the foundation for humanity’s all-round development and the key to making humans the deciders of their own destiny. “God” is endowed with attributes such as controlling everything, transcending time, and presiding over beginning and end. Fundamentally, these divine attributes arise from the contradiction between humanity’s infinite desires and its limited capacities. When the goals of human activity cannot be realized due to a lack of capacity, humans create in their own conscious world a God capable of realizing idealized goals. God’s transcendence, omnipotence, and so on symbolize humanity’s self-transcendence in extending its limited capacities toward infinite super-capacities. However, as humanity’s knowledge structure improves, cognitive abilities increase, and scientific and technological levels advance, humanity’s capacity to understand and transform the world develops day by day. The traditional defenses for the existence of God have lost their ideological foundation; divinity is no longer mysterious and unattainable. The development of science continuously breaks through God’s “monopoly” domains, revealing the illusory essence of so-called “divinity.”

在那些被神性走入的文学作品中，尽管创作的想象力可以为主人公设定具有神奇色彩的人生，但命运的终点却在于神的抉择。而马克思的文学创作则强调人之所以能做出选择并付诸行动，是因为人之为人的自身属性和本质力量，而不是神的安排。面向客观现实勇于创造、勇于实践，是人的全面发展的基础，是使人成为自身命运的决定者的关键。“神”被赋予掌控一切、超越时间、主宰始终等属性。从根本上说，这些神性产生于人的无限愿望受制于自身有限能力的矛盾中。人的活动目标因自身不具备能力而无法实现时，便在自己的意识世界创造出一个有能力实现理想化目标的神。上帝的超然性、全能性等，就象征着人将自身有限能力向无限超能力拓展的自我超越。然而，随着人类知识结构的完善、认知能力的提升、科技水平的进步等，人的认识和改造世界的能力日益发展，关于神之存在的传统辩护已经失去了思想基础，神性不再神秘又无法企及，科学的发展不断地突破上帝的“垄断”领域，解释了所谓“神性”的虚幻本质。

The critique of divinity in Marx’s literary creation affirms humanity’s external basis of existence and its inner spirit and thought, thereby highlighting the objectivity of the natural world, the authenticity of human emotion, and the reality of human activity. This critique of divinity in Marx’s literary creation deepens the theoretical significance of contemporary research on literary and artistic issues, provides practical value for guiding literary and artistic creation, and also offers a literary perspective and artistic path for contemporary research on scientific atheism.

马克思文学创作的神性批判肯定人外在的生存基础、内在的精神和思想，由此彰显自然世界的客观性、人性情感的真实性、人的活动的现实性。马克思文学创作的神性批判深化了当代文艺问题研究的理论意义、指导文学作品创作的现实价值，也为当代科学无神论研究提供了文学视野和艺术路径。

II. The “De-divinization” of Marx’s Exposition on the Essence of Art

二、马克思关于艺术本质论述的“去神性化”

Marx defined the essence of art through multiple dimensions—philosophical, practical, and social—laying an atheistic foundation for it with scientific theoretical explanation. By reflecting on artistic issues on the basis of materialist philosophy and the theory of practice, Marx brought the emergence and development of art back from the world of divine ideas to the world of human life. As a conscious practical activity of humanity, art sheds its cloak of divinity and, directly or indirectly, participates in the movement of social development and historical evolution, playing an important role in it.

马克思从哲学性、实践性、社会性等多维属性规定了艺术本质，以科学的理论阐释为其奠定无神论基础。通过以唯物主义哲学和实践论为基础对艺术问题的反思，马克思将艺术的产生、发展从神的理念世界带回到人的生活世界。作为人的有意识的实践活动，艺术褪去神性外衣，直接或间接地参与社会发展和历史演进的运动，并在其中发挥重要作用。

(1) Revealing the Objective Reality of the Essence of Art through Materialism

(一)以唯物主义揭示了艺术本质的客观实在性

The materialist essence determines the scientific atheistic premise of Marx’s entire system of thought: “Materialist philosophy is the theoretical foundation of atheism, and atheist thought is the logical conclusion of materialist philosophy.”[10]10 Lü Daji, *Introduction to Atheism* (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2004), p. 1. The dialectical materialism and historical materialism founded by Marx and Engels found the ultimate resolution for the philosophical problems of the modern era and made philosophy begin to focus on humanity itself. This is the materialist philosophical foundation of Marx’s thought on art, and also the basic premise for reflecting on scientific atheism from the perspective of art. Materialist dialectics and the materialist conception of history thoroughly criticized all idealism, transcended the limitations of previous old materialism, established the “primacy of matter” as the origin of the world, and, starting from practice, revealed the inner connection between humanity and objective existence and social history.

唯物主义本质决定了马克思全部思想体系的科学无神论前提，“唯物主义哲学是无神论的理论基础，无神论思想则是唯物主义哲学的逻辑结论”10。马克思、恩格斯创立的辩证唯物主义与历史唯物主义为近代以来的哲学问题找到最终归宿，并使哲学开始关注人本身。这是马克思艺术思想的唯物主义哲学基础，也是从艺术视域反思科学无神论的基本前提。唯物辩证法和唯物史观彻底地批判了一切唯心主义，并超越以往旧唯物主义的局限性，确定世界本原的“物质第一性”,从实践出发揭示人与客观存在、社会历史的内在关联。

From the perspective of materialist dialectics, art is not the creation of God’s omnipotence; artistic creation cannot be separated from objective reality. In fact, theoretical reflections on art and the creation of works are often inextricably linked to religion and God. Especially in the Western world, from ancient Greek philosophy to classical German philosophy, theoretical constructions concerning artistic issues have “bound” art together with religion and divinity. The root cause of this phenomenon lies in the fact that idealist philosophy serves as the foundation for the study of art; the philosophy of art of the classical German philosopher Schelling is a clear representative example. Schelling’s philosophy of art redefined a more sacred art as “a tool of the gods,”[11]11 F. W. J. Schelling, *The Philosophy of Art*, trans. Wei Qingzheng (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1995), p. 27. holding that only this “divine art” is true art and can be the object of philosophy. In Schelling’s view, art in the real world is a reproduction of the artistic idea in the world of will—that is, “divine art”—“merely a necessary phenomenon flowing directly from the Absolute,”[12]12 Ibid., p. 28. lacking reality and an “original form.” This idealist essence determines the fundamental divergence between the idealist thought on art represented by Schelling’s philosophy of art and Marx’s materialist thought on art. Marx held that material substances are the basis of art. When humans endow material objects with aesthetic concepts, those material objects are transformed into aesthetic objects, acquiring the attribute of beauty. For example, the aesthetic attributes of precious metals such as gold and silver “make them the natural material for satisfying needs of luxury, adornment, magnificence, and festivity.”[13]13 Karl Marx, *Capital*, vol. 1, in *Collected Works of Marx and Engels*, vol. 44 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2001), p. 121. In this regard, objective matter like precious metals is the realistic premise of art—art is humanity’s transformation and processing of objective matter. Furthermore, the appreciation of beauty also requires an objectively existing subject: “For an ear that has no sense for music, the most beautiful music is meaningless,” while “the ear that has a sense for music” and “the eye that can perceive the beauty of form”[14]14 Karl Marx, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, in *Collected Works of Marx and Engels*, vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2002), p. 305. are the unfolding of the essential forces of a human being with sociality and subjectivity.

从唯物辩证法的视角来说，艺术并非神的全能性的创造物，艺术创作离不开现实的客观存在。实际上，关于艺术的理论思考与作品创作往往都与宗教和神有着千丝万缕的联系。尤其在西方世界，从古希腊哲学开始到德国古典哲学，涉及艺术问题的理论构建都将艺术与宗教、神性“捆绑”在一起。究其原因，以唯心主义哲学为艺术研究根基是导致这一现象的主要症结所在，德国古典哲学家谢林的艺术哲学就具有鲜明的代表性。谢林的艺术哲学重新定义了一种作为“诸神的一个工具”11的更为神圣的艺术，他认为只有这种“神性艺术”才是真正的艺术、才能作为哲学的对象。在谢林看来，现实世界的艺术是对“神性艺术”即意志世界中艺术理念的复现，“仅仅是一个从绝对者那里直接流溢出来的必然现象”12,不具有实在性和“原本的样子”。这种唯心主义本质决定了以谢林艺术哲学为代表的唯心主义艺术思想与马克思唯物主义艺术思想的根本分歧。马克思认为，物质材料是艺术的基础，当人将审美观念赋予物质对象时，物质对象就转变为审美的对象，具有了美的属性。比如金银等贵金属的美的属性“使它们成为满足奢侈、装饰、华丽、节日需要的天然材料”13,就此而言，贵金属这种客观物质就是艺术的现实性前提——艺术是人对客观物质的改造加工。此外，对于美的欣赏也需要客观存在的主体，“对于没有音乐感的耳朵来说，最美的音乐毫无意义，”而“有音乐感的耳朵”“能感受形式美的眼睛”14则是具有社会性、主体性的人的本质力量的展开。

From the perspective of historical materialism, art is a product of the historical development of human society, not something derived from the absolute will of a deity. Among idealist philosophers, consciousness is the fundamental cause of all material generation, and the deity is the highest absolute will; art is thereby implanted with the deity’s will and becomes an appendage of divinity. For example, Schelling held that “the immediate cause of all art is God.”[15]15 F. W. J. Schelling, *Philosophy of Art* (Chinese translation), p. 28. [n] From the perspective of historical materialism, art arises from human practical activity, and the social division of labor promotes the “independence” and development of art. Further, the fundamental precondition for the emergence and development of art is the economic base of each epoch; only when the basic necessities of life—clothing, food, shelter, and transport—are met to a certain degree can human beings engage in the superstructural activities of art, religion, and so on. But the economic base is not immutable; changes in the economic base of different epochs determine inevitable changes in the superstructure. Marx pointed out that “with the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed.”[16]16 Karl Marx, “Preface to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy*,” in *Marx/Engels Collected Works*, vol. 29, p. 263. [n] The transformation of the superstructure includes both changes in the “economic conditions of production” and changes in ideology, including art. Marx revealed the historical-materialist foundation of art from the dialectical relationship between the economic base and the superstructure, the movement of social history, and other aspects. Thus it can be seen that the scientific character of dialectical materialism provides the philosophical premise for atheist art.

从历史唯物主义方面来说，艺术是人类社会历史发展的产物，而不是来自于神的绝对意志。在唯心主义哲学家那里，意识是一切物质生成的根本原因，神则是最高的绝对意志，艺术由此被植入神的意志，成为神性的附庸。如谢林认为：“全部艺术的直接原因是上帝。”15在唯物史观视域下，艺术产生于人的实践活动，社会劳动分工促成了艺术的“独立”和发展。进一步说，艺术产生和发展的根本前提是各个时代的经济基础，当人的生存所需的衣食住行得到一定满足时，才能够进行艺术、宗教等上层建筑的活动。但经济发展的基础并不是一成不变的，不同时代经济基础的变更决定了上层建筑的必然变革。马克思指出，“随着经济基础的变更，全部庞大的上层建筑也或慢或快地发生变革”16,上层建筑的变革既包括“生产的经济条件”发生的变革，也包括艺术在内的意识形态的变革。马克思从经济基础与上层建筑的辩证关系、社会历史运动等方面，揭示了艺术的历史唯物主义基础。由此可见，辩证唯物主义的科学性为无神论艺术提供了哲学前提。

(2) It reveals that art is in essence human practical activity

(二)揭示了艺术本质上是人的实践活动

In medieval Europe, the view that art was created by God persisted for a long time. From Schelling’s positioning and interpretation of art, true art must be a “masterpiece” of God; although the deity may also be given the meaning of an origin in the realm of philosophy, the two are essentially equivalent. This is the “common destination” of idealist philosophy: the highest origin of philosophy and even of all things is ultimately reduced to God or divinity. Schelling held that although works of art are created by human beings, they are created only because they are governed by God: “The immediate producer of the work of art—or of the particular actual thing that makes the Absolute into a real-objective thing in the world of ideas—is the eternal concept or idea of ‘the human being in God,’ which is united with the soul itself and closely bound to it.”[17]17 Schelling, *Philosophy of Art*, p. 29. [n] Thus, in Schelling’s system of the philosophy of art, the true creator of the work of art is God himself; God establishes a connection with human beings through the idea, and as “the human being in God” reproduces the eternal concept of all works of art in the world of ideas as an objective thing—that is, the actual work of art is created. Moreover, Schelling also believed that the reason human beings can create works of art lies in their “genius” nature, but this “genius” nature is not something internal to human beings; rather, it is a divinity “intuited” from God: “Genius is a part that has fallen out of God’s absoluteness.”[18]18 Schelling, *Philosophy of Art*, p. 29. [n] In other words, works of art are not created by human beings themselves; they merely imitate the eternal concept of art in the world of ideas. In this way, thinking about artistic questions and the activity of artistic creation are confined to the category of divinity, detached from human activity and the real world.

在中世纪欧洲，神创艺术的观点长期存在。从谢林对艺术的定位和诠释来看，真正的艺术必然是上帝的“杰作”,尽管神也会在哲学领域中被赋予本原的意义，但二者在本质上等同。这是唯心主义哲学的“共同归宿”,哲学乃至一切事物的最高本原最终被归结为上帝或神性。谢林认为，艺术作品虽然由人创造，却因受上帝支配才被创造出来，“艺术作品或个别的现实事物——它们使绝对者在观念世界里成为一个实在—客观的东西——的直接生产者，乃是‘上帝之内的人’这一永恒概念或理念，它和灵魂本身合为一体，与之紧密结合”17。可见，在谢林的艺术哲学体系中，艺术作品的真正创造者是上帝本身，上帝通过理念与人建立关联，作为“上帝之内的人”将一切艺术作品在理念世界的永恒概念复现为一个客观东西即现实的艺术作品被创作出来。不仅如此，谢林还认为，人之所以能够创造出艺术作品，是由于人的“天才”本质，但这种“天才”本质不是内在于人的东西，而是从上帝那里“直观”而来的神性，“天才是从上帝的绝对性里掉出来的一部分”18。换言之，艺术作品并不是人自己创造的，只是摹仿理念世界中艺术的永恒概念。这样一来，关于艺术问题的思考以及艺术创作活动就被限定在脱离了人的活动和现实世界的神性范畴。

Marx’s redefinition of the human being has already clarified the scientific-atheist essence of his system of thought. The view of divine art emphasizes that the reason human beings create works of art can only be attributed to God’s guidance—although the capacity for artistic creation resides within the human being itself, it is nevertheless a divine thing bestowed by God. Clearly, this mode of understanding misplaces the relationship between the human being and art; that is, it negates the practical character of the human being as subject, instead reducing the human being to a mere “vessel” of divine art. In Marx’s view, the human being is not an “abstract human being” but a real, sensuous human being. Marx’s determination of the essence of practice returns art from the divinity of the world of ideas to the humanity of the real world.

马克思对人的重新界定已经明确了其思想体系的科学无神论本质。神性艺术的观点强调，人创造艺术作品的原因只能归于上帝的指引——艺术创作能力虽然处于人的自身之内，却又是被上帝赐予的神性之物。显然，这种理解方式错置了人与艺术之间的关系，也就是否定了作为主体的人的实践性，反而使人沦为神性艺术的“载体”。在马克思看来，人不是“抽象的人”,而是现实、感性的人。马克思关于实践本质的规定性使艺术从理念世界的神性回归到现实世界的人性。

In a broader sense, the view of art, artistic creation, works of art, and so forth all belong to the category of artistic practice. Among these, the view of art is the spiritual-practical dimension of the human being; artistic creation is a special practical activity of the human being; and the work of art is the product of the human being’s practical activity. Tracing back to the root, practice is the inner essence of all social life. Marx’s establishment of the practical character of human activity shows that art has already been integrated into social life and has become an important component of social life whose essence is practice; there is an internal linkage between it and human practical activity. Under the intervention of divinity, all human activity loses its free, conscious practical character; God governs the purpose and outcome of human activity, so the human being is reduced to a “tool” for God’s self-demonstration, and art is created by God’s “tool” to manifest the existence of the deity. Marx, by explaining the essence of art on the basis of the practical character of human activity, makes art into a conscious aesthetic creation of the human being. The human being creates or produces objective materials according to aesthetic standards, ultimately forming a work of art, and this practical activity of creation or production necessarily incorporates human consciousness. Beauty is the fundamental attribute of art; all of the human being’s practical activities concerning art must unfold according to the human being’s own specific inner aesthetic sense. Marx held that, compared with animal activity, human practical activity consciously follows the laws of beauty: “man also forms things in accordance with the laws of beauty.”[19]19 Karl Marx, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, in *Marx/Engels Collected Works*, vol. 3, p. 277. [n] The creative activity that consciously follows aesthetic consciousness and the laws of beauty directly reveals the practical character of art, providing an atheist practical foundation for art—that is, art is the conscious practical activity of the human being.

从更广泛的意义来说，艺术观、艺术创作、艺术作品等都从属艺术实践范畴，其中艺术观是人的精神实践层面，艺术创作是人的特殊实践活动，而艺术作品则是人的实践活动的产物。究其根源，实践是全部社会生活的内在本质。马克思确立人的活动的实践性表明，艺术已经融入社会生活，并成为以实践为本质的社会生活的重要组成部分，它与人的实践活动之间存在着内在联动。在神性的干预下，人的一切活动失去了自由自觉的实践性，上帝支配着人的活动的目的性及其结果，因而人沦为上帝进行自我证明的“工具”,艺术则由上帝的“工具”创作而来，用以彰显神之存在。马克思基于人的活动的实践性阐释艺术本质，使艺术成为人有意识的审美创造。人对客观物质进行符合审美标准的创作或生产，最终形成艺术作品，而这种创作或生产的实践活动必然融入人的意识的。美是艺术的根本属性，人关于艺术的一切实践活动都要根据自身特有的内在审美展开。马克思认为，与动物性活动相比，人的实践活动是自觉遵循美的规律的，“人也按照美的规律来构造”19。自觉遵循审美意识和美的规律的创造活动直接揭示了艺术的实践性，为艺术提供了无神论的实践基础，即艺术是人的有意识的实践活动。

(3) It reveals that art is in essence for the purpose of satisfying human beings’ social survival needs

(三)揭示了艺术本质上是为了满足人的社会生存需要

The birth of art is a product of human beings’ aesthetic needs, and also a practical result continuously formed in the course of human historical development through the pursuit of beautiful things. Art is a practical activity carried out to satisfy human beings’ needs for social survival; human beings’ artistic practice and its results are generated on the basis of the emergence of social history, unfold with the development of social history, and reflect the real social conditions. Clearly, the essence of art lies in reflecting human beings’ social existence, not the illusory world of the deity. Human beings’ artistic practice gradually matures along with the development of human social history; the accumulation of artistic achievements created through practice also grows increasingly rich and displays the epochal connotations of each distinctive era.

艺术的诞生是人的审美需要的产物，也是人类历史发展过程中因追求美好事物而不断形成的实践结果。艺术是为满足人的社会生存所需而进行的实践活动，人的艺术实践及其结果基于社会历史的产生而生成、随着社会历史的发展而展开，并且反映出真实的社会现状。显然，艺术的本质在于反映人的社会存在，而不是神的虚幻世界。人的艺术实践伴随人类社会历史发展逐渐成熟，通过实践创作的艺术成果积累也日臻丰富并展现出各具特色的时代内涵。

In his *Excerpts from Lewis Henry Morgan’s “Ancient Society”*, Marx pointed out that the epic *Iliad* depicts the basic conditions of social life at that time, mentioning that “coinage was not yet known, so commerce was still barter,” “gold in ingots, used by weight and reckoned in talents,” “articles made of gold, silver, copper, and iron, various textiles of flax and wool, houses, palaces, etc.”[20]20 Karl Marx, *Excerpts from Lewis Henry Morgan’s “Ancient Society”*, in *Marx/Engels Collected Works*, vol. 42, p. 346. [n] Strictly speaking, the poet Homer’s *Iliad* is not a historical documentary in the true sense; it is more an epic masterpiece with legendary and artistic features, but its historical and archaeological value cannot be ignored. Real-life content such as equivalent exchange without the use of coins, the method of weighing gold, daily necessities, and residential architecture is recorded and transmitted, presenting the social scene under the historical conditions of that time through the artistic form of the epic. In this sense, art assumes a distinct social function from the attribute of survival. Marx also pointed out, when mentioning clans and tribes, that “the songs handed down from ancient times are their only historical records and chronicles,”[21]21 Karl Marx, *Excerpts from Lewis Henry Morgan’s “Ancient Society”*, in *Marx/Engels Collected Works*, vol. 42, p. 347. [n] and these songs more or less carry a mystical color of praising the gods for protecting survival, etc.

马克思在《摩尔根〈古代社会〉一书摘要》中指出，史诗《伊利亚特》描绘了当时社会生活的基本现状，其中提到了“当时尚不知铸币，因此商业还是物物交换”“按重量来使用并以塔兰特为计算单位的金块”“用金、银、铜和铁制造的物品，用麻和毛纺织的各种纺织品，房屋，宫室等等”20。严格来说，诗人荷马的《伊利亚特》并不是真正意义上的历史纪实文献，而是更倾向于带有传奇色彩和艺术特征的史诗巨著，但其中的历史性和考古价值仍然不容忽视。不使用钱币的等价交换、黄金的计重方式、生活用品、居住建筑等现实生活内容得以记录并流传下来，以史诗的艺术化呈现方式展现当时历史条件下的社会场景。在这个意义上，艺术从生存属性上承担了鲜明的社会功能，马克思在提到氏族部落时也指出“自古相传的歌谣是他们唯一的历史记录和编年史”21,而这些歌谣或多或少带有歌颂神明庇佑生存等神秘色彩。

Beyond the material conditions of existence, art can also reflect the actual social system, social movements and social forms, and participate as a specific form of ideology in the process of socio-historical development. In revealing the political situation in Germany, Marx used tragedy to allegorize the stubbornness of the old system in historical development. He pointed out: “When the old system, as the existing world order, was still struggling against a newly emerging world — when the old system itself still believed, and had to believe, in its own validity — its history was tragic.” [22]22 Karl Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law: Introduction,” *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, Vol. 3, p. 207. [The original Chinese text cites the Chinese edition of the *Collected Works*; the English rendering here follows the standard English edition.] The old system, in order to maintain its original ruling position, engaged in struggle with the newly emerging world. Fundamentally, this was the contradiction between the backwardness of the old system and the progressiveness of socio-historical development, which determined the tragic character of the old system’s demise. At the same time, Marx affirmed the way tragic works allude to real social movements. In his correspondence with Ferdinand Lassalle, he pointed out that the tragic conflict in the play *Franz von Sickingen* was “the tragic conflict that necessarily led to the ruin of the revolutionary party of 1848–49,” and that Sickingen’s downfall represented “the new form of opposition to the existing system.” [23]23 Karl Marx, “Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, April 19, 1859,” *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, Vol. 40, p. 419. Furthermore, Marx also analyzed the basic characteristics of social formations through art. Because the division of labor had confined people to specific spheres of activity, they could only engage in one “specialized” occupation, such as hunting, fishing, or herding. Marx pointed out in this regard that in communist society, people can transcend the limitations of a specific sphere of activity, freely choose any productive activity, and engage in hunting, fishing, herding, or criticism according to their interests, [24]24 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *The German Ideology*, *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, Vol. 5, p. 47. without being fixedly restricted to being a hunter, fisherman, shepherd, or critic.

除了物质生存状态之外，艺术也能够反映现实的社会制度、社会运动和社会形态，并作为一种特殊的意识形态参与到社会历史发展过程。马克思在揭示德国政治现状时，用悲剧来寓意历史发展中旧制度的顽固性，他指出：“当旧制度还是有史以来就存在的世界权力，自由反而是个人突然产生的想法的时候，简言之，当旧制度本身还相信而且也应当相信自己的合理性的时候，它的历史是悲剧性的。”22旧制度为了维护原有的统治地位而与新生的世界发生斗争，从根本上说，这就是旧制度的落后性与社会历史发展的进步性之间的矛盾，决定了旧制度灭亡的悲剧性。同时，马克思肯定了悲剧作品对现实社会运动的影射，他在与斐·拉萨尔的通信中指出，《弗兰茨·冯·济金根》这一悲剧作品的悲剧冲突是“使1848—1849年的革命政党必然灭亡的悲剧性的冲突”,而济金根的覆灭则代表了“反对现存制度的新形式”23。此外，马克思也曾通过艺术分析社会形态的基本特征。因分工的出现导致了人被局限于特定的活动范围，仅能从事一项“专属性”工作，如狩猎、捕鱼、放牧等。马克思就此指出，在共产主义社会中，人可以超越特定活动范围的限制，自由地选择任何生产活动，按照兴趣从事狩猎、捕鱼、放牧或批判等24,而不会被固定地限制为猎人、渔夫、牧人或批判者。

Thus it can be seen that Marx’s interpretation of artistic issues from the social base reveals the atheistic premise of the essence of art, profoundly reflecting that the foundation for people to engage in artistic practice and achieve practical results lies in the objective, real human society, and that people’s conscious artistic practice takes social reality as its source and reflects real social existence and survival needs. Although many artistic creations and works take religion or deities as their subject matter, the essence of art has nothing to do with divinity. The creators and appreciators themselves are people with social attributes, and the works both draw inspiration and materials from the real world and are created according to the needs of human material and spiritual social existence. This determines that the fundamental premise of human artistic practice is rooted in real society, not in divinity.

由此可见，马克思从社会基础对艺术问题的阐释，揭示了艺术本质的无神论前提，深刻反映出人进行艺术实践、取得实践成果的根本在于客观、现实的人类社会，而人有意识的艺术实践正是以社会现实为来源，并映现真实的社会存在和生存需要。尽管很多艺术创作的对象及作品都以宗教或神祇为题材，但艺术的本质与神性无关，创作者、鉴赏者本身是具有社会属性的人，而作品既从现实世界获得灵感和材料，也根据人类物质及精神的社会生存所需而创作，因而决定了人的艺术实践根植于现实社会而非神性的根本前提。

III. Marx’s Discussion of “Artistic Production” as a Scientific Refutation of Divine Art

三、马克思关于“艺术生产”论述对神性艺术的科学驳斥

Marx used “artistic production” to reveal the problem of alienation in literary and artistic creation and works within capitalist relations of production, providing a realistic basis for the artistic-critical construction of scientific atheism. Marx’s theory of artistic production directly establishes a connection between art and human production, using art to directly point to the fundamental problems of capitalist society, and cutting into the essence of human survival activities from the productive activities of modern society. In this way, it discards the theory of divine creation of art and returns art to the real world of human beings.

马克思使用“艺术生产”揭示了文艺创作及作品在资本主义生产关系中的异化问题，为科学无神论思想的艺术批判构建找到现实根据。马克思的艺术生产理论直接将艺术与人的生产建立联系，通过艺术直接指向资本主义社会的基本问题，从现代社会的生产活动切入到人的生存活动本质，从而抛开艺术的神创论，使艺术回归人的现实世界。

(1) Art as a Mode of Production in the Real World

(一)艺术是现实世界的生产方式

Marx first affirmed that art is a mode of production existing in the real world, separating human subjectivity from divinity. Through human artistic creation and its reality, he negated the divine origin of art and established the real world as the source of art’s generation. In the *Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right*, Marx pointed out that the prehistoric period of ancient peoples was permeated with imagination and myth. [25]25 Karl Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law: Introduction,” *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, Vol. 3, p. 175. It was precisely from these fantasies and myths that religion and the gods were born. Through artistic creation, humanity erected illusory objects of worship for itself. Thus, gods arise from human conscious activity, with imagination playing an important role. Through the imaginative processing of consciousness, people create the deities they worship, and through primitive artistic creation, they construct the images of the gods and describe “divinity.” Thereafter, the gods who rule over all things are elevated above humanity. In their thirst for the unknown and their worship of natural forces, people make themselves appendages of the gods. In this way, humanity loses its due independence, and all of people’s production and life, including artistic activities, unfold under the “guidance” of the gods.

马克思首先肯定了艺术是存在于现实世界的生产方式，将人的主体性与神性相剥离。通过人的艺术创作及其现实性，否定了艺术的神性来源，确定现实世界为艺术的生成根源。马克思在《〈黑格尔法哲学批判〉导言》中指出，古代各民族的史前时期贯穿着想像和神话25。正是由于这些幻想和神话诞生了宗教和众神，人类通过艺术化创造为自身树立起膜拜的虚幻对象。因而，神产生于人的意识活动，想象力起到重要作用，通过意识的想象加工创造出自身崇拜的神祇，并通过原始的艺术创作构建神之形象、描述“神性”。此后，主宰万物的众神凌驾于人类之上，人在对未知事物的渴求和对自然力量的崇拜中将自身作为神明的附庸。这样一来，人类失去了应有的独立性，包括艺术活动在内的人的一切生产生活都在众神的“指引下”展开。

Marx’s writings discuss the relationship between art and production in many places. In the *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, he proposed: “Religion, family, state, law, morality, science, art, etc., are only particular modes of production.” [26]26 Karl Marx, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, Vol. 3, p. 297. Here, Marx had not yet used the concept of “artistic production,” but he already understood art and religion as a mode of human production, a mode of production that acts on the production of mental activity. As a specific social ideology, art arises from human mental activity; artistic activity is a form of “the production of ideas, conceptions, consciousness.” In *The German Ideology*, Marx emphasized that human productive activity can be divided into material production and spiritual production. People are not only producers of material life but also “producers of their own conceptions, ideas, etc.” [27]27 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *The German Ideology*, *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, Vol. 5, p. 36. That is to say, art should not be subject to the gods, but is the result of human activity in the real world and becomes a special mode of production; religion is also not something external to human beings; like art, it is a specific social ideology and becomes a special mode of human production.

马克思著述中多处论及艺术与生产之间的关系问题，他在《1844年经济学哲学手稿》中提出：“宗教、家庭、国家、法、道德、科学、艺术等等，都不过是生产的一些特殊的方式。”26在这里，马克思尚未使用“艺术生产”的概念，但已将艺术和宗教理解为人的一种生产方式，这种生产方式作用于思维活动生产。作为特殊社会意识形态，艺术产生于人的思维活动，艺术活动是“思想、观念、意识的生产”的一种形式。在《德意志意识形态》中，马克思强调，人的生产活动可以分为物质生产和精神生产，人不仅是物质生活的生产劳动者，同时也是“自己的观念、思想等等的生产者”27。也就是说，艺术不应该受制于神，而是人在现实世界活动的结果并成为生产的特殊方式；宗教也并不是人的身外之物，它同艺术一样是特殊社会意识形态，成为人的特殊生产方式。

Marx’s theory of artistic production, by treating artistic activity as a form of “the production of ideas, conceptions, consciousness,” profoundly reveals the internal connection between art and religion. Artistic production consciously transcends activities or phenomena that belong purely to the category of art, and, starting from the actual conditions of modern human life under the rule of the capitalist mode of production, reconstructs the political, economic and other social attributes of artistic production. Religion also acts on the sphere of consciousness, and its alienation in production also occurs in the spiritual world of human beings. Whether it is art or religion, the premise of their production lies in the objective existence of human society. The profound connection between art and religion shows that the “divinity” of art can be “traced” in religion, but religion is itself an alienation of the human spiritual world, a distorted existence in the real world. Therefore, divine art cannot gain a firm foothold in the real world.

马克思的艺术生产理论将艺术活动作为“思想、观念、意识的生产”的一种形式，深刻揭示了艺术与宗教之间的内在关联。艺术生产自觉地超越纯粹从属于艺术范畴的活动或现象，从资本主义生产方式统治下人的现代生活实际出发，重构艺术生产的政治、经济等社会属性。宗教同样作用于意识领域，其生产的异化也发生于人的精神世界。无论是艺术还是宗教，其生产的前提都在于人类社会的客观存在。艺术与宗教之间的深刻关联表明艺术的“神性”在宗教那里“有迹可循”,但宗教又是人的精神世界的异化、现实世界中扭曲了的存在，因而神性艺术无法在现实世界站稳脚跟。

From Marx’s determination of art, it can be seen that its nature as a mode of production can only be discovered in human productive activity, and that art is necessarily subject to the laws of production. Marx reduced art and religion to special modes of human production, thereby determining their reality and objectivity, thus negating the control of the gods over art and religion, and causing art and religion to break free from their divine essence and return to the real world of human beings.

从马克思对艺术的规定性中可以看出，只有在人的生产活动中才能发现其作为生产方式的本性，而艺术同时必然受到生产规律的制约。马克思将艺术与宗教归结为人的生产的特殊方式，由此决定二者的现实性和客观性，从而否定了神对艺术与宗教的掌控，使艺术与宗教脱离神性本质回归到人的现实世界。

(2) Art as a Critical Mode of Production

(二)艺术是实生产的批判方式

Theologians are keen to explain the world, but in the end they can only appeal to “God,” pinning their hopes on the existence of a superhuman force. This necessarily requires proving the existence of God. Art can more intuitively present the image of the so-called “God.” Therefore, for theologians, art is the way God manifests himself in the human world. For example, Schelling held that “art is the real presentation of the various forms of the thing-in-itself, and therefore the real presentation of the various forms of the archetype.” [28]28 F. W. J. Schelling, *System of Transcendental Idealism* (1800), Part VI, Section 3. [The original Chinese text cites a Chinese edition; the English rendering follows the standard English translation.] The “thing-in-itself” he refers to is the thing within the Absolute, that is, God himself; the “archetype” is the mode or eternal concept of the thing within God, in the world of ideas. Although Schelling emphasized the absolute identity of subject and object when he endowed God with the meaning of a philosophical principle, he still could not eliminate the idealist essence of God as the principle based on the absolute self, nor could he avoid the divine essence and religious attributes of God in his theoretical construction and in Western cultural tradition. Precisely for this reason, the idealist philosophers represented by Schelling interpreted or defined art with the aim of “divinizing” art, setting the ultimate task of art as serving God.

神学家热衷于解释世界，但最终唯有向“神”求助，寄希望于凭借超人间力量的存在。这必然需要证明神的存在。艺术能够更为直观地将所谓的“神”的形象呈现出来，因而，在神学家那里，艺术是神在人的世界展现自身的方式。如谢林认为：“艺术是自在的事物具有的各种形式的实在呈现，因此是原型的各种形式的实在呈现。”28他所指的“自在的事物”就是绝对者即上帝本身之内的事物，“原型”亦即事物在上帝之内、理念世界的样态或永恒概念。尽管谢林在赋予上帝哲学本原意义时强调了主客双方的绝对同一性，但仍然不能祛除上帝基于绝对自我而成为本原的唯心主义本质，也无法避免上帝在其理论构建和西方文化传统中的神性本质和宗教属性。正因如此，以谢林为代表的唯心主义哲学家对艺术的阐释或规定，目的在于“神化”艺术，将艺术的最终任务规定为服务上帝。

By contrast, the fundamental orientation of Marx’s theory of artistic production lies in answering real questions about human social life and social relations of production: it neither explains the mysterious origin of art nor its expression in relation to the divine, nor does it develop theoretical construction from within the pure categories of art. Instead, starting from the real society controlled by the modern capitalist system, it takes art as a special mode of criticizing capitalist production and exposes the exploitative nature of the capitalist system. In his writings, Marx discusses the relationship between art and production in many places, and in the “Introduction to a Critique of Political Economy” he formally uses the concept of “artistic production.” Marx points out: “Once artistic production emerges as artistic production, it can no longer be created in the classical form that was epoch-making in world history.”[29]29 Karl Marx, “Introduction to a Critique of Political Economy,” in *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, vol. 12 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1962), p. 761. The pure artistic creation of the ancient Greek era cannot be realized in the modern life dominated by capitalism; artistic production has already become “the ‘artistic production’ of the ‘spiritual production departments’ of capitalism.”[30]30 Karl Marx, *Theories of Surplus Value*, in *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, vol. 26, book 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1972), p. 443. In Marx’s view, the art of the ancient Greek era was purer art; this kind of art followed the laws of beauty and was created for the purpose of realizing human aesthetic needs, producing “art forms of major significance” within the artistic sphere and transforming artistic production into a mode of human spiritual production with aesthetic value. The capitalist mode of production and its highly developed social division of labor, however, directly link the social function of art to capital. In Marx’s view, the various functions of bourgeois society presuppose one another and serve only the capitalist. Therefore, as a spiritual mode of production under capitalism, artistic production takes satisfying the capitalist’s accumulation of capital as its main function.

相比之下，马克思艺术生产理论的根本指向在于解答关于人的社会生活、社会生产关系等现实问题：既不是解释艺术的神秘来源或者与神相关的表达方式，也不是从纯粹的艺术范畴下展开理论构建，而是从现代资本主义制度控制的现实社会出发，将艺术作为批判资本主义生产的特殊方式，揭露资本主义制度的剥削本质。马克思在著述中多处论及艺术与生产之间的关系问题，在《〈政治经济学批判〉导言》中正式使用了“艺术生产”的概念。马克思指出，“当艺术生产一旦作为艺术生产出现，它们就再不能以那种在世界史上划时代的、古典的形式创造出来”29,古希腊时代的纯粹艺术创作不可能在资本主义统治的现代生活中实现，艺术生产已经作为“资本主义的精神生产部门的‘艺术生产’”30。在马克思看来，古希腊时代的艺术是更为纯粹的艺术，这种艺术的生产遵循美的规律，并以实现人的审美需要为目的进行创造，产生了艺术领域内“有重大意义的艺术形式”,把艺术生产变为具有审美价值的人类精神生产方式。而资本主义生产方式及其高度发达的社会分工，使艺术的社会职能直接与资本相关。在马克思看来，资产阶级社会的各种职能互为前提且只为资本家服务。因此，艺术生产作为资本主义的精神生产方式，以满足资本家的资本积累为主要职能。

From the perspective of art, Marx profoundly exposes the central position of capital in capitalist society. Whether in the sphere of material production or spiritual production, there always exists the exploitative essence of the capitalist dominating labor and squeezing the productive labor of workers in all social production. Marx points out: “A writer is a productive worker not because he produces ideas, but because he enriches the publisher who publishes his works, or because he is a wage laborer for a capitalist.”[31]31 Karl Marx, *Theories of Surplus Value*, in *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, vol. 26, book 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1972), p. 149. The capitalist production process, including artistic production, “is a process of absorbing unpaid labor”; the capitalist extracts capital gains in the process of dominating the labor of workers. By combining art with production, Marx exposes the internal contradictions of capitalist society, and art becomes a real mode of criticizing capitalist production. Clearly, the core issue of artistic production lies in “production.” Although capitalist artistic production is an “alienated” form of production serving the capitalist, it also indicates that art has shifted from its long-standing mode of divine expression to the real function of humans understanding and transforming the world. Art draws a clear line with divinity and no longer serves as the self-expression of God in the human world.

从艺术视野出发，马克思深刻地揭露了在资本主义社会中资本的中心地位，无论是物质生产领域还是精神生产领域，始终存在着资本家在一切社会生产中支配劳动、压榨劳动者生产劳动的剥削本质。马克思指出：“作家所以是生产劳动者，并不是因为他生产出观念，而是因为他使出版他的著作的书商发财，或者说，因为他是一个资本家的雇佣劳动者。”31包括艺术生产在内的资本主义生产过程“是一个吸收无酬劳动的过程”,资本家在支配劳动者劳动的过程中攫取资本利益。马克思将艺术与生产相结合，揭露了资本主义社会的内在矛盾，艺术成为批判资本主义生产的现实方式。显然，艺术生产的核心问题重在“生产”,尽管资本主义的艺术生产是服务于资本家的“异化式”的生产，但也表明艺术从长期以来的神性表达方式落位于人认识和改造世界的现实功能，艺术与神性划清界限，不再作为神在人间的自我表达。

(3) Artistic Production Is a Real Activity of Grasping the World

(三)艺术生产是掌握世界的现实活动

The mode of thinking of divine art neglects the real basis of human existence and practical capacity. Marx, by contrast, affirms the value of human beings, elucidates human subjectivity and the foundation of their social existence, and liberates humans and their own activities from the domination of God. The combination of art and production further indicates that Marx is concerned with the real life of human beings, which is also where the transcendence and progressiveness of his artistic thought lie. Fundamentally, production is human production, and the objects and products of production must also take humans as the subject. Humans can only obtain the necessities of survival through productive labor, which God cannot provide. Artistic production is likewise based on material premises and real human beings, providing productive labor for humans themselves to meet the needs of social life. Therefore, Marx’s theory of artistic production directly establishes a connection between art and human production, directing art toward the fundamental problems of capitalist society, cutting from the production activities of modern society into the essence of human survival activities, and returning human artistic production activities to the actual state of social life and the reality of human social development, thereby discarding the theory of divine creation of art.

神性艺术的思维方式忽视了人们生存的现实基础和实践能力。马克思则肯定人的价值，阐明了人的主体性及其社会存在基础，使人与自身活动从神的支配下得以摆脱。艺术与生产的结合更加表明，马克思关注的是人的现实生活，这也是其艺术思想的超越性和先进性所在。从根本上说，生产是人的生产，而且生产的对象和产品也必须以人为主体，人只有通过生产劳动才能获得生存所需，这是神无法给予的。艺术生产同样是基于物质前提和现实的人，为人自身提供满足社会生活需要的生产劳动。因此，马克思的艺术生产理论直接将艺术与人的生产建立联系，使艺术直接指向资本主义社会的基本问题，从现代社会的生产活动切入到人的生存活动本质，使人的艺术生产活动回到社会生活现状和人类社会发展实际，从而抛开艺术的神创论。

Since the Renaissance, human reason has gradually begun to free itself from the shackles of religious theology, and art has experienced a high tide of development. Art began to become an important means for people to resist religious oppression and divine ignorance. In a large number of artworks used to manifest divine miracles, the radiance of humanity is everywhere revealed. Art, seemingly subservient to God and religion, was instead used to express human reason, freedom, creativity, and so on. Through long-term research on artworks, rich experience in literary creation, and profound literary criticism, Marx formed an artistic view premised on atheism and unique insights into artistic issues. He applied his understanding and creation of art to the real production of human beings. Through the real activity of artistic production, he defined the artistic mode by which humans grasp the world. Thus, the discourse mode of art is no longer the self-manifestation of divinity, but the self-expression of human subjectivity and creativity; artistic production becomes a real activity through which humans grasp the world.

文艺复兴以来，人的理性开始逐渐从宗教神学的束缚中解脱出来，艺术迎来了一个发展高潮。艺术开始成为人们反抗宗教压迫、神性愚昧的重要手段，在大量用以显扬神迹的艺术作品中，处处显露着人性的光辉。看似臣服于神和宗教的艺术，反而被用以表达人的理性、自由性、创造性等。长期对艺术作品的研究、丰富的文学创作经历以及深刻的文艺批判，马克思形成了以无神论为前提的艺术观以及对艺术问题的独到见解。他将对艺术的理解和创造运用到人的现实生产，通过艺术生产这一现实活动，规定了人掌握世界的艺术方式。由此，艺术的话语方式不再是神性的自我显现，而是人的主体性与创造性的自我表达，艺术生产成为人掌握世界的现实活动。

Production makes the free spiritual activity of humans a mode of grasping reality, and artistic production is one of the modes by which humans grasp reality. Although Marx emphasizes that artistic production is an activity of mental production, he also affirms its material characteristics. Marx’s theory of artistic production analyzes artistic issues from the perspective of economics and politics, combining art with real production, and thereby revealing the divergence between the capitalist mode of production and the essence of artistic production. In the modern capitalist mode of production, art is not as beautiful as divine conception would have it, nor can it reflect the so-called highest reason or the will of God. Marx profoundly elucidates the “false relations” of capitalist society — materializing all relations into “pure money relations,” so that even so-called noble labor such as artistic labor becomes a pure money relation. The capitalist mode of production alienates the essence of art. Through artistic production, Marx criticizes the exploitative relations of production and production activities within the capitalist production system: the product of artistic labor is no longer an artwork expressing aesthetic value, but a commodity premised on capital gain. In this production process, in order to complete the activity of artistic production, the laborer adopts a limited-scale capitalist production. Marx illustrates the exploitative relationship with an example: “A writer who compiles a multi-author joint encyclopedia exploits other writers as assistants.”[32]32 Karl Marx, *Theories of Surplus Value*, in *Marx and Engels Collected Works*, vol. 26, book 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1972), p. 444. Therefore, the bourgeoisie, through money relations, turns artistic producers into its wage laborers, while the entire capitalist production system generates among artistic producers a wage-labor relationship with a form “transitional to capitalism.” In this regard, artistic production as a real activity causes art itself to lose its function as a spiritual mode of grasping the world. The problems of capitalist production and the alienation of artistic production pointed out in Marx’s theory of artistic production exist in reality and are rooted in the internal contradictions of capitalism. These real problems cannot be solved by God; they can only be realized through human practice and human liberation.

生产使人的自由的精神活动成为人对现实的掌握方式，艺术生产就是人掌握现实的方式之一。马克思虽然强调艺术生产是思维生产活动，但同时也肯定艺术生产的物质性特征。马克思的艺术生产理论立足于经济与政治视域来分析艺术问题，并将艺术与现实的生产相结合，进而揭示资本主义生产方式与艺术生产本质的背离。在现代资本主义生产方式中，艺术并未如神性构想的那般美好，也无法映现所谓的最高理性或神的意志。马克思深刻阐释了资本主义社会的“虚假关系”——将一切关系物质化，变成“纯粹的金钱关系”,艺术劳动等所谓的高尚劳动也变成纯粹的金钱关系。资本主义生产方式使艺术本质发生异化。马克思通过艺术生产批判了资本主义生产体系中剥削的生产关系和生产活动：艺术劳动的产品已经不再是表现审美价值的艺术作品，而是以资本利益为前提的商品。在这一生产过程中，劳动者为完成艺术生产活动，采用了有限规模的资本主义生产，马克思以事例说明了其中的剥削关系：“一个作家在编一部多人的共同著作百科全书时，把其他许多作家当做助手来剥削。”32因此，资产阶级通过金钱关系使艺术生产者成为其雇佣劳动者，而整个资本主义生产体系又在艺术生产者之间产生了一种具有“向资本主义过渡”形式的雇佣关系。就此而言，艺术生产作为一种现实活动却使艺术本身失去了作为掌握世界的精神方式的功能。马克思艺术生产理论中所指出的资本主义生产、艺术生产异化等问题是现实存在的，根源于资本主义的内在矛盾。这些现实问题是神无法解决的，唯有通过人的实践、人的解放才能实现。

IV. Conclusion

四、结语

Through literary creation, Marx expresses his atheistic reflections on the relationship between art and divinity, indicating that art originates from objective existence, not from divine revelation. Based on reflections on the philosophical, practical, and social foundations of art, he profoundly reveals the atheistic essence of art, showing that art is a practical activity of human social life, not the “spokesperson” of God in the real world. Through the analysis of artistic production, he points out from the standpoint of political economy that although art under the conditions of capitalist social production cannot maintain its original meaning, it also profoundly shows that art is a mode of production of human society, not a means for God to dominate humans or a tool to deceive people in the name of God. Marx’s construction of artistic criticism based on literary creation, the revelation of the essence of art, and the theory of artistic production reflects the theoretical thread of Marx’s atheism gradually maturing, and also clearly outlines the ideological thread of Marx’s atheism from the perspective of art: from the basic conception of artistic creation, to the fundamental premise of theoretical reflection, and then to the practical critique of artistic production.

马克思借助文学创作表达了对艺术与神性之间关系的无神论思考，指明艺术根源于客观存在，而不是神性启示；立足于对艺术的哲学基础、实践基础和社会基础的反思，深刻揭示艺术的无神论本质，表明艺术是人类社会生活的实践活动，而不是神在现实世界的“代言”;通过对艺术生产的分析，从政治经济学立场指出了在资本主义社会生产条件下的艺术虽无法保持自身的原有之意，但也深刻地表明艺术是人类社会的生产方式，而不是神驾驭人的手段或以神为名蛊惑人心的工具。马克思基于文学创作、艺术本质揭示和艺术生产理论进行的艺术批判构建，反映出马克思无神论思想逐步走向成熟的理论脉络，也清晰勾勒出艺术视域下马克思无神论思想从艺术创作的基本构想到理论反思的基础前提，再到艺术生产的实践批判这一思想线索。

(Author’s bio: Jiang Xuebin, Associate Professor, School of Marxism, Heilongjiang University)

（作者简介：姜学斌，黑龙江大学马克思主义学院副教授）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心