How Marxism Understands the “View of History”

The Marxist view of history establishes the materialist principle in the historical domain, reveals the universal laws of the development of human society, and deciphers the code of human historical progress. So what is the Marxist “view of history”?

马克思主义历史观确立了历史领域的唯物主义原则，揭示了人类社会发展的普遍规律，解读了人类历史进步的密码。那么，什么是马克思主义的“历史观”呢？

The Marxist view of history takes “real individuals” as its starting point, unfolds a further exploration of historical laws through objective “historical laws,” and, in terms of its knowledge map, research foundation, and mode of thinking, surpasses the humanist view of history, achieving a revolutionary transformation and critical leap in the view of history. The formation and development trajectory of the Marxist view of history is not linear but presents a stepwise process of ascent from theoretical critique to theoretical discovery and then to theoretical transcendence. From the period of the *Rheinische Zeitung* to the *Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher*, Marx concentrated his critique on Hegel’s philosophy of right, initiating the turn toward historical materialism. In “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s *Philosophy of Right*: Introduction,” Marx, taking the real social foundation — “civil society” — as his starting point, critiques Hegel’s conception of the state, moving from the critique of religion and theology to the critique of law and politics, lowering the field of critique from “heaven” to “earth.” During the period of the *Paris Manuscripts*, Marx began to transcend the theoretical context of traditional philosophy, carrying out a critique of political economy within the horizon of human perceptual practical activity. In the *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, Marx for the first time uses “alienated labor” to dissect bourgeois society’s economy, describing history as an objective movement process; from then on, Marx’s “history” had a perceptual logical starting point. In 1845, in *The Holy Family*, Marx defines history through human practical activity, pointing out that humans can promote social change through the exercise of their agency. Thus, on the basis of materialism, he establishes the laws of historical materialism in the critique of reality. In *Theses on Feuerbach*, Marx explicitly states that the essence of history is human real, perceptual practical activity, clearly and accurately expressing his own view of practice and view of history. From 1845 to 1846, *The German Ideology*, co-authored by Marx and Engels, reveals the essence and developmental laws of human social history through the intrinsic connection between productive forces and relations of production, systematically expounding the basic principles of historical materialism, marking the formation of Marx’s historical materialism. The *Manifesto of the Communist Party*, published in 1848, solemnly declares that the ultimate goal of historical development is the communist society of the emancipation of all humanity, giving the Marxist view of history a distinct value orientation. Thereafter, with the successive publication of works such as *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy* (Preface) and *Capital*, the Marxist view of history was continuously enriched, perfected, and gradually matured.

马克思主义历史观以“现实的人”为出发点，以客观的“历史法则”展开对历史规律的进一步探索，在知识图谱、研究基点和思维范式上超越了人本主义历史观，实现了历史观的革命性变革与批判性跃迁。马克思主义历史观的形成与发展轨迹并非线性的显现，而是呈现出从理论批判到理论发现再到理论超越的阶梯式演进过程。从《莱茵报》到《德法年鉴》时期，马克思对黑格尔法哲学展开集中批判，开启了唯物史观转向。在《〈黑格尔法哲学批判〉导言》中，马克思以现实的社会基础——“市民社会”为基点，批判黑格尔的国家观，从宗教批判、神学批判走向法的批判、政治批判，把批判的领域从“天国”降至“尘世”。在《巴黎手稿》时期，马克思开始超越传统哲学的理论语境，在人的感性实践活动视域中开展政治经济学批判。在《1844年经济学哲学手稿》中，马克思第一次用“异化劳动”来解剖资产阶级社会经济，把历史描述为一个客观的运动过程，从此马克思的“历史”有了感性的逻辑起点。1845年，马克思在《神圣家族》中，用人的实践活动来定义历史，指出人可以通过能动性的发挥来推动社会变革。从而以唯物论为基础，在对现实的批判中确立历史唯物主义法则。在《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》中，马克思明确提出历史的本质就是人的现实的感性的实践活动，准确清晰地表述了自己的实践观和历史观。1845年至1846年，马克思和恩格斯合写的《德意志意识形态》，用生产力与生产关系的内在联系揭示了人类社会历史的本质和发展规律，系统地阐述了历史唯物主义基本原理，标志着马克思唯物史观的形成。1848年发表的《共产党宣言》庄严宣布历史发展的最终目的是实现全人类解放的共产主义社会，使马克思主义历史观有了鲜明的价值指向。之后，随着《〈政治经济学批判〉序言》《资本论》等著作相继问世，马克思主义历史观不断被充实完善并逐步走向成熟。

The Marxist view of history is a practical materialist view of history, initiating a shift in historical research from “how the world is possible” to “how human emancipation is possible,” displaying the distinctive characteristics and rich connotations of historical materialism.

马克思主义历史观是实践的唯物主义历史观，开启了从“世界何以可能”到“人类解放何以可能”的历史研究转向，展现出唯物史观的鲜明特质和丰富内涵。

The premise of the Marxist view of history is “real individuals.” “The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals.” Marx takes “man” as the premise and starting point of history, deeply reflecting on the problem of “society,” thereby establishing historical materialism. The “man” in Marx’s eyes is the “living individual” situated within social relations: “the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its actuality it is the ensemble of the social relations.” Marx replaces the self-movement of “disembodied” “self-consciousness” with human real, perceptual activity, achieving a shift in the understanding of history from “the logic of reason” to “the logic of man,” exploring the path of human emancipation and the laws of development of human social history within the real life of humanity, ultimately forming historical materialism.

马克思主义历史观的前提是“现实的人”。“全部人类历史的第一个前提无疑是有生命的个人的存在”，马克思把“人”作为历史的前提和出发点，深入思考“社会”问题，从而确立唯物史观。马克思眼中的“人”是处在社会关系中“有生命的个人”，“人的本质并不是单个人所固有的抽象物。在其现实性上，它是一切社会关系的总和”。马克思以人的现实的感性活动代替“无人身”的“自我意识”的自我运动，对历史的认知实现了从“理的逻辑”向“人的逻辑”转变，在人类的现实生活中探寻人的解放道路和人类社会历史发展规律，最终形成唯物史观。

The cornerstone of the Marxist view of history is “practice.” Marx says: “Social life is essentially practical.” The emergence of practice truly turns the subject of history toward the real material world; the inner logic of human historical development thereby acquires a “real” dimension. Real individuals and their creative practical activity constitute the basic point of the Marxist view of history. Marx holds that the first historical act of humanity is the production of the means to satisfy needs for subsistence such as food, clothing, and shelter; the most genuine driving force of human historical development lies in practical activity. Through the objectifying activity of practice, humans can transform the natural world and create the human world. The process of the generation of history is in fact the process of human creative practical activity. Thus, using the concept of “practice,” Marx achieves a paradigm shift in the view of history from “interpreting the world” to “changing the world,” discovering the laws of development of human history.

马克思主义历史观的基石是“实践”。马克思说：“社会生活在本质上是实践的。”实践的出场，使历史主体真正转向了现实物质世界，人类历史发展的内在逻辑便具有了“现实”维度，现实的人以及人的创造性实践活动构成了马克思主义历史观的基本点。马克思认为，人类第一个历史活动就是生产满足衣、食、住等生存需要的资料，人类历史发展最为本真的动力就在于实践活动，人可以通过实践的对象化活动改造自然世界、创建人类世界。历史的生成过程其实就是人的创造性实践活动的过程，从而用“实践”概念，实现从“解释世界”向“改造世界”的历史观范式转换，发现了人类历史的发展规律。

The basic theory of the Marxist view of history is “social being and social consciousness.” Marx points out: “It is not consciousness that determines life, but life that determines consciousness,” thereby constructing the first pair of categories of historical materialism — social being and social consciousness — indicating that social being is an objectified being, and that human objectifying activity is the productive activity of material means. It holds that production is not the production of isolated individuals; it inevitably gives rise to relations of production independent of their will. Relations of production are “the necessary forms of intercourse at a given stage of the development of the productive forces,” and the two are dialectically unified. Through the contradictory movement and tension between productive forces and relations of production, Marx reveals the “material laws” of human historical development, finds the real basis for changes in social systems and the true driving force of historical development, and outlines the complete structure of the development of human social history.

马克思主义历史观的基本理论是“社会存在与社会意识”。马克思指出，“不是意识决定生活，而是生活决定意识”，从而建构了唯物史观的第一对范畴——社会存在与社会意识，指明社会存在是一种对象化的存在，人的对象化活动就是物质资料的生产活动。认为生产不是孤立的个人的生产，一定会产生不以他们的意志为转移的生产关系。生产关系“是生产力发展一定阶段上必然的交往形式”，二者之间辩证统一。借由生产力同生产关系之间的矛盾运动和张力作用，马克思揭示了人类历史发展的“物质规律”，找到社会制度变迁的现实根据与历史发展的真正动力，勾勒出人类社会历史发展的完整结构。

The subject of the Marxist view of history is “the masses of the people.” In *The Holy Family*, Marx and Engels critique the heroic view of history, explicitly pointing out that the masses of the people are the subject that transforms ideas into real power, that it is the people who create history through the most basic labor practice, scientifically resolving the question of the role of the masses of the people in history. As the subject of history, man is the true master of history. Of course, as a unity of naturalness and super-naturalness, of being-in-itself and being-for-itself, man’s creative activity is constrained by social laws and objective conditions: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”

马克思主义历史观的主体是“人民群众”。马克思、恩格斯在《神圣家族》中批判了英雄史观，明确指出人民群众是将思想转变为现实力量的主体，是人民通过最基本的劳动实践活动创造历史，科学地解决了人民群众在历史上的作用问题。人作为历史的主体，是历史真正的主人。当然，人作为自然性和超自然性、自在性与自为性的统一体，其创造性活动要受社会规律和客观条件的约束，“人们自己创造自己的历史，但是他们并不是随心所欲地创造，并不是在他们自己选定的条件下创造，而是在直接碰到的、既定的、从过去承继下来的条件下创造”。

From the perspective of the Marxist view of history, the trend of human historical development is “toward communism.” In the *Manifesto of the Communist Party*, Marx and Engels point out: “the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” The “association of free individuals” is the communist social form pursued by historical materialism. In communism, the free and all-round development of the individual will be realized; humanity can then move from the “realm of necessity” to the “realm of freedom.” Marx holds that the emancipation of all humanity is a historical activity, a process of historical development brought about by the conditions of production and intercourse; communism is a “real movement which abolishes the present state of things.” That capitalism will ultimately move toward extinction and inevitably be replaced by socialist society and communist society thus becomes the trend of human historical development.

在马克思主义历史观看来，人类历史的发展趋势是“走向共产主义”。在《共产党宣言中》，马克思、恩格斯指出，“每个人的自由发展是一切人的自由发展的条件”。“自由人联合体”就是唯物史观追求的共产主义社会形态。到共产主义，人的自由而全面的发展才会得到实现，人类才能从“必然王国”走向“自由王国”。马克思认为全人类的解放是一种历史活动，是生产状况和交往状况促成的历史发展过程，共产主义就是一种“消灭现存状况的现实的运动”。资本主义最终走向灭亡，必将为社会主义社会和共产主义社会所代替就成为人类历史的发展趋势。

The Marxist view of history is the “only scientific view of history.” To uphold the Marxist view of history, one must oppose historical nihilism, deeply grasp the developmental脉络 of the Party’s century-long history and the laws of human historical evolution through a grand view of history, strengthen historical consciousness and take hold of historical initiative, and continuously advance the great cause of national rejuvenation in the living process of history. History is history; history cannot be arbitrarily chosen. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes, “History will

马克思主义历史观是“唯一的科学的历史观”，坚持马克思主义历史观，要反对历史虚无主义，以大历史观深刻把握百年党史发展脉络和人类历史演变规律，强化历史自觉、掌握历史主动，在鲜活的历史进程中不断推进民族复兴伟业。历史就是历史，历史不能任意选择。习近平总书记强调，“历史不会因时代变迁而改变，事实也不会因巧舌抵赖而消失”。我们要在马克思主义历史观指导下，旗帜鲜明地反对历史虚无主义，坚决维护党和国家的政治安全、文化安全以及意识形态安全。全面建构国史党史军史研究的学科体系、学术体系和话语体系，用准确的数据、详实的资料、科学的分析、可信的结论消除历史虚无主义影响。坚持马克思主义在意识形态领域的指导地位，正确把握宣传导向，巩固壮大主流舆论阵地，强化各类媒体使命感责任感，提高党史宣传的传播力、引导力、影响力、公信力，不断增强唯物史观的主导权和话语权。

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧