Historical Laws and Historical Subjects from the Perspective of Historical Materialism

“The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.” This is Marxism’s profound revelation concerning historical laws. The unfolding of this objective law must pass through “the real movement which abolishes the present state of things,” and the fundamental force driving this movement is precisely “the activity of the masses.” The scientific nature of the materialist conception of history lies in its profound grasp of the dialectical unity between the objective laws of historical development itself and the practice of the masses of the people as the subjects of history. Historical laws provide the objective direction of social change and the inevitability of historical development; the historical subject, i.e., the masses of the people, is the material force that understands, applies, and realizes these laws. The relationship between historical laws and the historical subject is a concrete historical unity on the basis of practice. This unity is not a static correspondence but a dynamic, developmental process of interaction, running through the entire course of human social development and constituting the most core theoretical kernel of historical materialism.

“物质生活的生产方式制约着整个社会生活、政治生活和精神生活的过程”，这是马克思主义关于历史规律的深刻揭示。这一客观规律的展开必须通过“消灭现存状况的现实的运动”，而推动这一运动的根本力量，正是“群众的活动”。唯物史观的科学性就在于它是深刻把握历史自身发展的客观规律和作为历史的主体的人民群众的实践之间的辩证统一。历史规律为社会变革提供了客观的运行方向和历史发展的必然性，历史主体即人民群众是认识、运用并实现规律的物质力量。历史规律与历史主体的关系，是在实践基础上具体的历史的统一。这种统一不是静态的契合，而是动态的、发展的互动过程，贯穿人类社会发展的始终，构成历史唯物主义最核心的理论内核。

The Unity of the Constraining Character of Historical Laws and the Agency of the Historical Subject

历史规律的制约性与历史主体的能动性的统一

As objective necessity, historical laws set the basic space of possibility and insurmountable boundaries for the historical process. By stipulating the basic tendencies of social development, historical laws provide fundamental constraints and preconditions for the activity of the historical subject, thereby furnishing the historical movement of the historical subject with a real stage, objective conditions, and a space of possibility. Human practical activity cannot escape the fetters of the productive forces, nor can it arbitrarily create history by transcending the universal laws of the succession of social formations. As Engels emphasized: “Only step by step can the present society be transformed; only after the necessary mass of means of production has been created can private property be abolished.” This indicates that the realization of historical laws has a staged and conditional character; no practical activity of any historical subject can detach itself from this objective constraint and create history as it pleases. It is like a “possibility frontier,” delineating the scope of people’s activity in a given era.

作为客观必然，历史规律为历史进程设定了基本的可能性空间与不可逾越的边界。历史规律通过规定社会发展的基本趋势，为历史主体的活动提供了根本的约束和前提，使历史主体的历史运动有了现实舞台、客观条件和可能性空间。人的实践活动，不能超脱生产力的桎梏，也不能超越社会形态更替的普遍规律来任意创造历史。正如恩格斯强调：“只能逐步改造现今社会，只有创造了所必需的大量生产资料之后，才能废除私有制。”这表明历史规律的实现具有阶段性和条件性，任何历史主体的实践活动都无法脱离这一客观约束而随心所欲地创造历史。它像一种“可能性边界”，划定了特定时代人们活动的范围。

The practical activity of the historical subject endows historical development with the characteristic of conscious agency. Historical laws possess objectivity, but the path of realization and concrete forms of historical laws depend on the level of understanding and practical choices of the historical subject. Marx emphasized: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.” This practice of “changing the world” is precisely the concentrated expression of the historical subject’s exertion of subjective agency on the basis of understanding historical laws. Engels further explained: “History is made in such a way that the final result always arises from conflicts between many individual wills, of which each in turn has been made what it is by a host of particular conditions of life. Thus there are innumerable intersecting forces, an infinite series of parallelograms of forces which give rise to one resultant — the historical event.” The practical activities of countless individuals pursuing their conscious purposes interact to form a “resultant force,” ultimately shaping the concrete features of the historical process.

历史主体的实践活动赋予历史发展以自觉能动性特征。历史规律具有客观性，但历史规律的实现路径和具体形态取决于历史主体的认识水平与实践选择。马克思强调：“哲学家们只是用不同的方式解释世界，问题在于改变世界。”这种“改变世界”的实践，正是历史主体在认识历史规律基础上发挥主观能动性的集中体现。恩格斯进一步阐释道：“人们总是通过每一个人追求他自己的、自觉预期的目的来创造他们的历史，而这许多按不同方向活动的愿望及其对外部世界的各种各样作用的合力，就是历史。”无数个体追求其自觉目的的实践活动，相互作用形成“合力”，最终塑造了历史进程的具体面貌。

In terms of social actuality, the constraining character of historical laws and the agency of the historical subject determine “why” and “how” historical events occur. The objectivity of historical laws stipulates the direction, limits, and ultimate results of the practical activity of the historical subject, drawing insurmountable boundaries for the practice of the historical subject. Any creation must proceed “under conditions inherited from the past”; these conditions themselves are the concretization of laws at a specific historical stage. At the same time, this reveals that the subject is by no means a passive follower of laws. Historical laws are not fate; they can only “come alive” through the practical activity of billions of people. Only within the space of possibility permitted by laws, by actively choosing a realistic path that conforms to fundamental interests and the direction of social progress, can the necessity of laws be realized through conscious practice, transforming from abstract possibility into concrete reality.

在社会现实性上，历史规律的制约性和历史主体的能动性决定了历史事件“为何发生”和“如何发生”。历史规律的客观性规定了历史主体实践活动的方向、限度和最终结果，为历史主体的实践划定了不可逾越的边界，任何创造都必须在“从过去承继下来的条件下”进行，这些条件本身即是规律在特定历史阶段的具体化。同时也启示着主体绝非规律的被动服从者，历史规律不是宿命，它必须通过亿万人的实践活动才能“活”起来，只有在规律所允许的可能性空间内，能动地选择符合根本利益和社会进步方向的现实路径，才能使规律的必然性通过自觉实践得以实现，从抽象可能性变为具体现实。

The Unity of the Necessity of Historical Laws and the Selectivity of the Historical Subject

历史规律的必然性与历史主体的选择性的统一

Historical laws are objective necessary tendencies running through the entire process of human social development; they are essential connections independent of human will. Marx profoundly revealed the core connotation of this law: “At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or — this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms — with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto.” The contradictory movement between the productive forces and the relations of production causes the entire social life to present a process of development conforming to law, allowing the objectivity of the process and laws of the successive replacement of social formations to manifest, thereby presenting an unswerving objective tendency that determines the replacement and direction of evolution of social formations.

历史规律是贯穿人类社会发展全过程的客观必然趋势，是不以人的意志为转移的本质联系。马克思深刻揭示了这一规律的核心内涵：“社会的物质生产力发展到一定阶段，便同它们一直在其中运动的现存生产关系或财产关系（这只是生产关系的法律用语）发生矛盾。”生产力与生产关系的矛盾运动，使整个社会生活呈现出合乎规律的发展过程，使社会形态依次更替的过程和规律的客观性得以体现，进而呈现出确定不移的客观趋势，决定着社会形态的更替与演进方向。

Within the framework of necessity provided by historical laws, the historical subject can, according to its own interests and demands, choose different paths, strategies, forms, and speeds to influence the manifestations of historical laws. The active practical activity of the historical subject causes the historical process to present different concrete features, detailed particulars, twists and turns, or contingent events. In class society, different classes, based on their position in the relations of production and their interests, have different understandings and attitudes toward historical laws, thereby pushing history to develop in different directions. This struggle between classes constitutes an important content of historical movement in class society; the class attribute of the historical subject profoundly influences the process of realizing historical laws. This is the concrete manifestation of the richness and vitality of historical laws in the concrete historical practice of the historical subject.

在历史规律提供的必然性框架之下，历史主体可以根据自己的利益要求选择不同的道路、策略、形式和速度来影响历史规律的表现形式。历史主体的能动性实践活动，使历史进程呈现出不同的具体面貌、详细细节、曲折过程或偶然事件。在阶级社会中，不同阶级基于自身在生产关系中的地位和利益诉求，对历史规律的认识和态度存在差异，进而推动历史朝着不同方向发展。这种阶级间的斗争构成阶级社会中历史运动的重要内容，历史主体的阶级属性深刻影响历史规律的实现进程。这是历史规律在历史主体的具体历史实践中丰富性和生命力的具体体现。

In terms of the processuality of historical development, the unity of historical laws and the historical subject determines the inevitable tendency of social formations to evolve from lower to higher stages, ultimately realizing the free and comprehensive development of the human person. The concrete path, form, and rhythm of this realization depend on the active choices of the historical subject at key nodes. Within the possibilities opened up by laws, different choices will cause the historical process to present different concrete features. However, the choice of the subject is not subjective arbitrariness; it is constrained by objective laws, historical conditions, and the subject’s own level of understanding, and is subject to the test and correction of laws in social practice. Choices that conform to historical laws can effectively propel society forward along the correct path; choices that violate laws, no matter how powerful they may be for a time, will ultimately be corrected by the inevitable tendency of history. Therefore, the evolutionary process of social formations not only profoundly embodies the objective necessity of historical laws but also vividly demonstrates the important significance of the active choices of the historical subject.

在历史发展过程性上，历史规律和历史主体的统一决定了社会形态由低级向高级演进，最终实现人的自由全面发展的必然趋势。其实现的具体道路、形式和节奏，则取决于历史主体在关键节点的能动选择。在规律所开辟的可能性中，不同选择会使历史进程呈现出各异的具体面貌。然而，主体的选择并非主观任意性，而是受制于客观规律、历史条件及自身认识水平，并在社会实践中接受规律的检验和校正。符合历史规律的选择，能够有效推动社会沿正确方向前进；而违背规律的选择，无论一时如何强大，终将被历史的必然趋势所纠正。因此，社会形态的演进过程，既深刻体现了历史规律的客观必然性，也生动彰显了历史主体能动选择的重要意义。

The Unity of Social Progress and the Free and Comprehensive Development of the Human Person

社会的进步与人的自由全面发展的统一

The objective operation of historical laws is the “inevitable background color” of social progress. Marxism holds that historical laws are not a transcendent “absolute spirit” or abstract “rational principles,” but the objective product of contradictory movement. This is the manifestation of non-volitionality in the process of social progress. The law of the movement of the basic contradiction of society stipulates the basic nature and basic tendency of the process of social development, and thereby stipulates the law of the replacement of social formations. As Marx stated: “No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed.” At the same time, historical laws endow this direction of social progress with determinacy; historical progress proceeds in an irreversible tendency, and each such advance is a form of the realization of historical laws.

历史规律的客观运行是社会进步的“必然性底色”。马克思主义认为，历史规律并非超验的“绝对精神”或抽象的“理性法则”，而是矛盾运动的客观产物。这是社会进步过程中非意志性的体现，社会基本矛盾运行规律规定着社会发展过程的基本性质和基本趋势，进而规定着社会形态更替的规律。正如马克思所言：“无论哪一个社会形态，在它所能容纳的全部生产力发挥出来以前，是决不会灭亡的。”同时，历史规律赋予这种社会进步方向规定性，历史的进步以不可逆的趋势进行，都是历史规律实现的形式。

As the carrier of realization and practical force of historical laws, the historical subject, while promoting social progress, simultaneously realizes its own free and comprehensive development. Historical laws are not an external “iron law” but an objective tendency within human practical activity; the direction of their effect is closely linked to human liberation. The law of the development of the productive forces reveals: the increase of the productive forces necessarily demands the adjustment of the relations of production, ultimately breaking the old system that fetters human development. While liberating the productive forces, capitalism also created the proletariat, the historical subject that overthrows itself and realizes human liberation. The law of the replacement of social formations reveals: from slave society to feudal society, to capitalist society, and then to socialist society and communist society, each stage expands the space for human freedom (albeit accompanied by contradictions). The essential requirement of socialism is precisely to provide institutional guarantees for the comprehensive development of the human person through the elimination of exploitation and alienation.

作为历史规律的实现载体和实践力量，历史主体在推动社会进步的同时实现自身自由而全面的发展。历史规律并非外在于人的“铁律”，而是人类实践活动中的客观趋势，其作用方向与人的解放紧密相连。生产力发展的规律揭示：生产力提升必然要求生产关系的调整，最终打破束缚人发展的旧制度。资本主义在解放生产力的同时，也创造了无产阶级这一推翻自身、实现人类解放的历史主体。社会形态更替的规律揭示：从奴隶社会到封建社会、资本主义社会，再到社会主义社会和共产主义社会，每一阶段都在扩大人的自由空间（尽管伴随矛盾）。社会主义的本质要求，正是通过消灭剥削和异化，为人的全面发展提供制度保障。

The trend of historical development manifests itself as the unity of social progress and the comprehensive free development of the human person. The process by which historical laws are realized and the process by which historical subjects develop are isomorphic processes that mutually promote and achieve each other. The social progress driven by historical laws is expressed in the continuous development of productive forces, the profound transformation of social relations, and the evolution and replacement of institutions. This creates increasingly favorable material foundations, social conditions, and spiritual space for the development of historical subjects. The more profoundly subjects understand historical laws and the stronger their practical capacity, the more consciously they can promote the adaptation of relations of production to the development of productive forces and the adaptation of the superstructure to the development of the economic base, thereby effectively accelerating the process of social progress. The three stages of human development revealed by Marx — from "relations of personal dependence" through "personal independence founded on objective dependence" to "free individuality" — are highly consistent with the evolutionary sequence of forms of human society, and this is precisely a vivid embodiment of this dialectical unity. In this process, freedom is not an escape from necessity, but "recognized necessity"; it is the self-affirmation and genuine liberation achieved by historical subjects in the practice of profoundly grasping and consciously applying laws to transform the world, and thereby further propelling society toward higher forms.

历史的发展趋势表现为社会的进步与人的自由全面发展的统一。历史规律的实现过程与历史主体的发展过程，是相互促进、彼此成就的同构进程。历史规律所驱动的社会进步，表现为生产力的持续发展、社会关系的深刻变革和制度的演进更替。这为历史主体的发展创造了日益优越的物质基础、社会条件和精神空间。主体对历史规律的认识越深刻，实践能力越强，便越能自觉地推动生产关系适应生产力的发展、上层建筑适应经济基础的发展，从而有效加速社会进步的进程。马克思所揭示的人从“人的依赖关系”经“以物的依赖性为基础的人的独立性”向“自由个性”发展的三阶段，与人类社会形态的演进序列高度契合，正是这一辩证统一的生动体现。在这一进程中，自由并非对必然的摆脱，而是“被认识了的必然”，是历史主体在深刻把握并自觉运用规律改造世界的实践中，所实现的自我确证和真正解放，并由此进一步推动社会向更高形态迈进。

(The authors are researchers at the Jiangxi New Era Civilization Practice Research Center of Jiangxi Normal University; professors at the School of Marxism, Jiangxi Normal University.)

（作者系江西师范大学江西新时代文明实践研究中心研究员；江西师范大学马克思主义学院教授）