The Classic of the Era and the Era of the Classic

In his important speech at a symposium on philosophy and social sciences, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that adhering to the guidance of Marxism is the fundamental hallmark distinguishing philosophy and social sciences in contemporary China from those in other countries, and this must be upheld unequivocally. Marxism is an open theoretical system that continuously develops with the progress of the times, practice, and science; it does not end truth but opens the path to truth. The "Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century" points out that the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Xi Jinping as their chief representative, have adhered to combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific realities and with the fine traditional Chinese culture, thereby establishing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The concept of the "Two Integrations" is a scientific summary of how the Communist Party of China has unified upholding Marxism with developing Marxism, continuously making new theoretical creations in light of new practice. This scientific summary also provides methodological guidance for us to study classic works in their original form, diligently mastering Marxist philosophy as our fundamental skill. Starting from the perspective of the "Two Integrations," we can more authentically enter the era of the classic works of Marx and Engels, discovering the truth power and contemporary value of Marxist classic works.

习近平总书记在哲学社会科学工作座谈会上的重要讲话中指出，坚持以马克思主义为指导，是当代中国哲学社会科学区别于其他哲学社会科学的根本标志，必须旗帜鲜明加以坚持。马克思主义是随着时代、实践、科学发展而不断发展的开放的理论体系，它并没有结束真理，而是开辟了通向真理的道路。《中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议》指出，以习近平同志为主要代表的中国共产党人，坚持把马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合、同中华优秀传统文化相结合，创立了习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想。“两个结合”的观点，是中国共产党把坚持马克思主义和发展马克思主义统一起来，结合新的实践不断作出新的理论创造的科学总结。这一科学总结，也为我们原原本本学习和研读经典著作，努力掌握马克思主义哲学这一看家本领，提供了方法论指南。从“两个结合”的观点出发，我们得以更加真切地走进马克思恩格斯经典著作的时代，发现马克思主义经典著作的真理力量和时代价值。

Observing the Era: Discovering Fine Culture

观察时代：发现优秀文化

As Lenin pointed out, Marxism is by no means a doctrine that is self-contained, ossified, and unchanging, standing apart from the high road of development of world civilization. On the contrary, Marx's entire genius lies precisely in his having answered the questions that advanced human thought had already raised. Marx's doctrine is the legitimate successor to the finest achievements of humanity in the 19th century—German classical philosophy, English classical political economy, and French socialism.

正如列宁指出的那样，马克思主义绝不是离开世界文明发展大道而产生的一种故步自封、僵化不变的学说。恰恰相反，马克思的全部天才正是在于他回答了人类先进思想已经提出的种种问题。马克思学说是人类在19世纪所创造的优秀成果——德国古典哲学、英国古典政治经济学和法国的社会主义的当然继承者。

The development of German classical philosophy was itself a product of observing and reflecting on the emerging modern society and world history. For the young Marx, he first discovered Hegelian dialectics amid the debate between the Historical School of Law and the Rationalist School of Law. Although Marx at that time was not yet aware of the idealist essence of this dialectics, inspired by its critical spirit, he further moved toward the positions of self-consciousness philosophy and humanism. Going further, when Marx realized the limitations of the Young Hegelians, he still insisted on identifying the positive elements of Hegelian dialectics from within the determinations of alienation, making them an important dimension of the new worldview. The young Engels initially accepted the Young Hegelianism of Strauss, Bauer, and Feuerbach in the sense of opposing religious theology, discovering the immense historical sense in Hegel's philosophy, and further finding the theoretical resonance of this religious critique in English empiricism and French materialism. That is to say, Marx and Engels never simply accepted any single position within the Young Hegelian movement; rather, in the process of seeking human liberation and social revolution, they carefully discriminated, critically absorbed, and integrated German classical philosophy as the cultural tradition of their era.

德国古典哲学的发展，本身就是对正在兴起的现代社会和世界历史进行观察、反思的产物。就青年马克思来说，最初是在历史法学派和理性法学派的争论中发现黑格尔辩证法的。尽管马克思此时还没有意识到这种辩证法的唯心主义本质，但却在其批判精神的感召下，进一步走向了自我意识哲学和人本主义立场。更进一步，当马克思意识到青年黑格尔派的局限性之后，仍然坚持将黑格尔辩证法的积极环节从异化的规定内识别出来，作为构成新世界观的重要维度。青年恩格斯最初是在反对宗教神学的意义上接受了施特劳斯、鲍威尔和费尔巴哈的青年黑格尔主义，发现了黑格尔哲学中巨大的历史感，并进一步在英国的经验论和法国的唯物主义中找到了这种宗教批判的理论回响。也就是说，马克思和恩格斯从来就不是简单地接受了青年黑格尔运动中的某一立场，而是在寻求人的解放和社会革命的过程中，认真辨析、批判吸收了作为时代文化传统的德国古典哲学。

The emergence and development of classical political economy reproduced the theoretical demands of modern society in a more direct manner, while its differentiation and transformation since the 1820s reflected the historical limitations of the bourgeoisie. In their initial research, Marx and Engels first revealed the fact that political economy is based on private property but fails to explain this foundation. On this basis, focusing on the era's problem of industrial development, they distinguished between progressive and reactionary views within political economy. As their research progressed, after Marx and Engels obtained the "general result that served as the guiding thread for their studies," they not only used the achievements of political economy research to elucidate the essence of the modern bourgeois mode of production but also seriously refuted the "abuse" of political economy represented by Proudhon. Faced with the vulgarizing tendencies that appeared in economic theory after Ricardo, they engaged in a pointed critique. It can be said that Marx and Engels' research and critique of political economy was itself a theoretical exploration and expansion carried out in the process of observing the era. At the same time, in response to the chaotic and erroneous tendencies that emerged in political economy research, they consciously upheld and defended the scientific theoretical tradition.

古典政治经济学的出现和发展，以更为直接的方式再现了现代社会的理论诉求，19世纪20年代以来的分化和转型，则反映出资产阶级的历史局限性。在最初的研究中，马克思恩格斯首先揭示了政治经济学以私有财产为基础但却没有说明这个基础的事实。在此基础上，立足工业发展这一时代问题，他们区分了政治经济学内部进步的和反动的观点。随着研究的推进，当马克思恩格斯得到了“指导自己的研究工作的总的结果”后，不仅利用政治经济学研究的成果阐明现代资产阶级生产方式的本质，而且对以蒲鲁东为代表的政治经济学的“滥用”进行了严肃的驳斥，面对李嘉图之后经济学理论中出现的庸俗化倾向，更是进行了针锋相对的批判。可以说，马克思恩格斯对政治经济学的研究和批判，本身就是在观察时代的过程中所进行的理论探索与拓展。同时，针对政治经济学研究中出现的混乱和错误倾向，他们自觉坚持并捍卫了科学的理论传统。

As one of the "counter-currents" of 19th-century modern society, various socialist and communist currents of thought had received widespread attention since the 1830s. In their early theoretical explorations, Marx and Engels did not simply accept any particular socialism or communism; rather, based on observing the general trend of the era, they proposed and demonstrated scientific communism on the basis of historical materialism. As former theoretical representatives of "philosophical communism," Marx and Engels discovered the world-historical significance of industry and the historical power of the masses in the socialism and communism of France and England. This was precisely what the Young Hegelians had overlooked. Faced with the socialist currents of thought at the time, Marx and Engels focused on their explorations of the social organization of production and labor, while criticizing their utopian essence of evading private property. Faced with the communist movements at the time, Marx and Engels focused on the world-historical status of the proletariat, while criticizing their theoretical abstraction and mystification. In this sense, the proposal of scientific communism was itself the product of combining the new worldview created by Marx and Engels with the developing social and historical reality of Europe at the time, with the practice of the workers' movement, and with various advanced cultural traditions.

作为19世纪现代社会的“反潮流”之一，各种社会主义、共产主义思潮从30年代开始就得到了广泛的关注。马克思恩格斯在早期的理论探索中，并没有简单接受某种社会主义或共产主义，而是立足时代大势的观察，在唯物史观的基础上提出并论证了科学共产主义。作为曾经的“哲学共产主义”理论代表，马克思恩格斯在法国和英国的社会主义、共产主义中发现了工业的世界意义和群众的历史力量。而这恰恰是青年黑格尔派所忽视的东西。面对当时的社会主义思潮，马克思恩格斯关注其对生产和劳动的社会组织的探索，批判其回避私有制这一空想性本质。面对当时的共产主义运动，马克思恩格斯关注无产阶级的世界历史地位，批判其理论的抽象性和迷信化。在这个意义上，科学共产主义的提出，本身就是马克思恩格斯所创立的新世界观与当时欧洲正在发展着的社会历史现实相结合，与工人运动的实践相结合，与各种先进文化传统相结合的产物。

Grasping the Era: Transforming Traditional Culture

把握时代:变革传统文化

Classic works record the process of the formation, development, and dissemination of Marxist theory. Marxism is not a ready-made theoretical oracle, but rather the theoretical self-awareness formed by advanced intellectuals observing the era based on concrete realities. Marx and Engels never simply accepted any existing theoretical viewpoint or ideological tradition; rather, based on the concrete realities of the era, they absorbed and transformed existing intellectual achievements, thereby realizing the transformation and innovation of traditional cultural concepts.

经典著作记录了马克思主义理论形成、发展和传播的历程。马克思主义不是现成的理论谕示，而是先进知识分子，立足具体实际，观察时代所形成的理论自觉。马克思恩格斯从来没有简单接受某种既有的理论观点和思想传统，而是立足时代具体实际，在吸收、改造既有思想成果的基础上，实现了传统文化观念的变革和创新。

In the process of Marx and Engels' transition from idealism to materialism, there were two main materialist currents or concepts prevalent in the cultural tradition of the time: first, a common usage generally accepted by German intellectual circles, which Marx called "vulgar materialism" and Engels described as focusing only on "interests" while neglecting "principles"; second, the materialism formed during the 18th-century French Enlightenment, which, despite its strongly mechanistic character, emerged as a result of the struggle against the "existing political system," "existing religion and theology," and "17th-century metaphysics." Strictly speaking, although the publication of *The Essence of Christianity* "directly placed materialism back on the throne," Feuerbach himself refused to use the term "materialism" to describe his own views before 1848. And Marx and Engels, deeply influenced by Feuerbach's philosophy, turned to materialism from atheism and humanism in the sense of opposing religious theology and speculative metaphysics. Going further, when Marx and Engels settled accounts with the Young Hegelians and began to expound the new worldview, they simultaneously clarified and criticized the theoretical limitations of the existing materialism, formulating a new materialism, namely dialectical and historical materialism. Thus, the materialism to which Marx and Engels turned was not some predetermined philosophical school within the existing ideas of the time, but a new scientific theory that both preserved the positive elements of the existing cultural tradition and endowed them with new contemporary meaning. Going further, rather than calling this a theoretical turn, it is better to call it a creation of thought and a transformation of tradition. It is precisely in this sense that materialism acquired its modern, scientific form.

在马克思恩格斯从唯心主义转向唯物主义的过程中，当时的文化传统中流行的唯物主义思潮或概念主要有两种：一是为德国思想界普遍接受的一种日常用法，即马克思所说的“下流的唯物主义”，用恩格斯的话说，就是只关注“利益”，而忽视了“原则”；二是18世纪法国启蒙运动中形成的唯物主义，尽管这种唯物主义带有强烈的机械性特征，但它的出现是反对“现存政治制度”“现存宗教和神学”“17世纪的形而上学”斗争的结果。在严格意义上来说，虽然《基督教的本质》的出版“直截了当地使唯物主义重新登上了王座”，但是费尔巴哈在1848年之前一直拒绝使用“唯物主义”来表述自己的观点。而深受费尔巴哈哲学影响的马克思恩格斯是在反对宗教神学、反对思辨形而上学的意义上，从无神论和人本主义转向唯物主义的。更进一步，当马克思恩格斯在清算青年黑格尔派，着手阐发新世界观的过程中，也同时澄清并批判了当时存在的唯物主义的理论局限性，制定了新唯物主义，即辩证的历史的唯物主义。这样，马克思恩格斯所转向的唯物主义，就不是当时思想观念中某种既定的哲学派别，而是一种既保留了既有文化传统中积极因素，又为其赋予新的时代含义的新的科学理论。更进一步，与其说这是一种理论的转向，毋宁说是一种思想的创造和传统的变革。也正是在这个意义上，唯物主义才获得了它的现代的科学的形态。

When discussing the stand, viewpoint, and method of Marxism, one cannot avoid dialectical materialism and the question of the relationship between Marx and Hegel. Looking back at history, we can see: the Hegelian dialectics that the young Marx initially accepted—"seeking reason in reality"—was merely an abstract expression of a revolutionary critical spirit. Faced with the alienated reality of bourgeois society, Marx used Feuerbach’s "inversion of subject and predicate" to critique the mysticism and eclecticism of Hegelian dialectics. Going further, Marx discovered the intrinsic connection between Hegelian dialectics and classical political economy. On the basis of acknowledging that Hegel’s speculative philosophy was permeated with real content, he proceeded from the mode of material production to critique the domination and enslavement of human beings by abstract forces in reality. After the 1850s, faced with the epochal change that "the speculation of ideas has given way to the speculation of stocks," Marx, while scientifically narrating the theoretical results of his critique of political economy, further discovered the rational elements existing in Hegelian dialectics. In the process of editing and publishing the first volume of *Capital*, Marx also "openly avowed himself the pupil of that great thinker." This was not only because Hegel was "the first to present its general forms of motion in a comprehensive and conscious manner," but also because at that time, the bourgeois intellectual circles of Western Europe, especially Germany, were either indulging in fetishistic vulgar apologetics or attempting arrogantly to reconcile the inherent contradictions of the capitalist mode of production. In other words, Marx, in the sense of formulating the theory of surplus value and revealing the laws of motion of capitalism, completed the transformation of dialectics from its mystical form to its rational form. This, too, is a process of basing oneself on concrete reality, grasping the problems of the era, and analyzing, reorganizing, and transforming the fruits of human thought and historical and cultural traditions.

谈及马克思主义的立场观点方法，绕不开唯物辩证法，以及马克思与黑格尔的关系问题。回顾历史，可以看到：青年马克思最初接受的“到现实中去寻求理性”的黑格尔辩证法，不过是一种革命的批判精神的抽象表达。面对资产阶级社会的异化现实，马克思利用费尔巴哈的“主谓颠倒”，批判黑格尔辩证法的神秘主义和折中主义。更进一步，马克思发现了黑格尔辩证法与古典政治经济学的内在关联，在承认黑格尔思辨哲学中渗透着实在的内容基础上，从物质生产方式出发批判现实中抽象力量对人的统治和奴役。19世纪50年代以后，面对“观念的思辨已经让位给股票的投机”这一时代变化，马克思在科学叙述政治经济学批判的理论成果时，进一步发现了黑格尔辩证法中存在的合理的东西。在整理出版《资本论》第一卷的过程中，马克思还“公开承认是这位大思想家的学生”。这不仅是因为黑格尔“第一个全面地有意识地叙述了辩证法的一般运动形式”，更是因为当时西欧，特别是德国的资产阶级知识界要么沉迷于拜物教式的庸俗辩护，要么企图自负地调和资本主义生产方式的内在矛盾。换言之，马克思是在制定剩余价值理论、揭示资本主义运动规律的意义上，完成辩证法从神秘形式到合理形态的变革的。这同样是一个立足具体实际，把握时代问题，对人类思想成果和历史文化传统加以辨析、整理、变革的过程。

Leading the Era: Shaping Cultural Traditions

引领时代:塑造文化传统

In *Theses on Feuerbach*, Marx wrote with resounding force: "The philosophers have only *interpreted* the world, in various ways; the point is to *change* it." [6]6 This is a translation of Marx’s 11th thesis on Feuerbach, from his 1845 manuscript *Theses on Feuerbach*. With the aim of changing the world, Marx and Engels, integrating the concrete realities of various countries with their cultural traditions, committed themselves to promoting historical change in the unity of theory and practice. This was a great exploration of leading the development of the era, discarding the old and fostering the new, and shaping new and excellent cultural traditions through the innovation and dissemination of scientific theory.

在《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》中，马克思掷地有声地写道：“哲学家们只是用不同的方式解释世界，问题在于改变世界。” 以改变世界为宗旨，马克思恩格斯结合各国具体实际，结合各国文化传统，在理论和实践的统一中，致力于推动历史的变革。这是一个以科学理论的创新和传播，引领时代发展，革故鼎新，塑造新的优秀文化传统的伟大探索。

After the revolutions of 1848, Western European capitalism entered a period of relatively stable development. Positivism and individualism became prevalent cultural trends. At the same time, with the aid of developments in natural science, a vulgar materialism parading under the banner of science became rampant. The neo-Kantian Lange even used the phrase "the materialist sixties" to describe this historical trend. [7]7 Friedrich Albert Lange (1828–1875) was a German neo-Kantian philosopher and socialist. The phrase "the materialist sixties" refers to the 1860s, a decade in Germany marked by a surge of interest in materialist philosophy, often of a vulgar, mechanistic kind. In response, Marx and Engels also gave targeted replies. Represented by *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy*, the reason Engels, in his later years, re-discussed Feuerbach and reviewed the intellectual experiences of Marx and himself participating in the Young Hegelian movement in their early years was precisely to explain the relationship between Marxism and Hegelian dialectics and to clarify Feuerbach’s position in the materialist tradition. Criticizing Feuerbach was intended to "hit the sack and scold the donkey," [8]8 This is a Chinese idiom (拍麻袋打驴, pāi mádài dǎ lǘ) meaning to criticize someone indirectly by attacking a related person or thing. exposing the theoretical incompleteness of vulgar materialism since the 1850s. At the same time, considering that in the actual socialist movement in Germany at the time, Lassalle’s followers still largely adhered to the idealism of the Young Hegelians, the judgment that "the German workers’ movement is the inheritor of German classical philosophy" took on an even deeper meaning: it was necessary to uphold the principle of tracing things back to their roots and, in the retrospective of history, shape an excellent cultural tradition truly belonging to the era.

1848年革命之后，西欧资本主义进入一个相对稳定发展的时期。实证主义和个人主义成为普遍流行的文化思潮。同时，借助自然科学的发展，一种打着科学旗号的庸俗唯物主义甚嚣尘上。新康德主义者朗格甚至以“唯物主义的六十年代”来描述这一历史趋势。对此，马克思恩格斯也给出了针对性的回应。以《费尔巴哈论》为代表，恩格斯晚年之所以重新讨论费尔巴哈，回顾马克思和自己早年参与青年黑格尔运动的思想经历，就是为了说明马克思主义同黑格尔辩证法之间的关系，澄清费尔巴哈在唯物主义传统中的地位。批判费尔巴哈，意在“拍麻袋打驴”，揭露19世纪50年代以来庸俗唯物主义在理论上的不彻底性。同时，考虑到当时德国现实的社会主义运动中，拉萨尔的追随者们很大程度上仍然奉青年黑格尔派的唯心主义为圭臬。“德国工人运动是德国古典哲学的继承者”这一判断便具有了更为深刻的含义：必须坚持正本清源，在历史的回溯中塑造真正属于时代的优秀文化传统。

In the second half of the 19th century, the socialist movement in Western European countries entered a new phase. On the one hand, with the development of industrial capitalism, the strength of the working class increased significantly. On the other hand, the actual workers’ movement was also more or less influenced by bourgeois ideology, giving rise to various forms of petty-bourgeois socialism, such as Lassalleanism, Proudhonism, Bakuninism, and so on. Apart from directly criticizing these erroneous trends, Marx and Engels also helped the working class recognize its own position and mission and make correct choices by reviewing the history of struggle and shaping cultural traditions. In *Anti-Dühring*, Marx and Engels gave a systematic account of the history and theory of socialism. After processing and editing, *Socialism: Utopian and Scientific*, first published in French, actually played a role in helping the French working masses correctly understand their own intellectual traditions and consciously learn and accept scientific theory. Similarly, in works such as *On the History of the Communist League* and *Socialism in Germany*, Engels not only clarified the history of the German workers’ movement and socialist thought but also provided important insights for the German working masses to distinguish between different theoretical forms and choose the correct path. It is worth noting that these two aspects of effort were also reflected in Engels’ propaganda and explanatory work aimed at British readers. Engels keenly pointed out that although British workers, for various reasons, "still do not do enough," it was "the working class that preserves the finest qualities of the English national character." [9]9 This is a paraphrase of Engels’s argument in his 1892 introduction to the English edition of *Socialism: Utopian and Scientific*, where he discusses the character and potential of the English working class. In other words, the advance of the British working class was not only the concrete integration of scientific socialism with British reality but also a genuine integration with the excellent cultural traditions of Britain.

19世纪下半叶，西欧各国社会主义运动进入了一个新的阶段。一方面，伴随工业资本主义的发展，工人阶级的力量显著增强。另一方面，现实的工人运动也或多或少受到资产阶级意识形态的影响，出现了形形色色的小资产阶级社会主义，如拉萨尔主义、蒲鲁东主义、巴枯宁主义等。马克思恩格斯除了直接批判这些错误思潮外，还通过回溯斗争历史、塑造文化传统等方式，帮助工人阶级认清自身的地位和使命，做出正确的选择。在《反杜林论》中，马克思恩格斯对社会主义的历史和理论给出了系统的说明。经过加工整理，最先以法文出版的《空想社会主义和科学社会主义》，实际上起到了帮助法国工人群众正确理解自身思想传统，自觉学习接受科学理论的作用。同样，恩格斯在《关于共产主义同盟的历史》《德国的社会主义》等作品中，不仅澄清了德国工人运动和社会主义思想的发展史，而且对于德国工人群众辨别不同理论形态，选择正确道路具有重要的启示意义。值得注意的是，上述两个方面的努力，同样也体现在恩格斯面向英国读者所做的宣传和阐释工作中。恩格斯敏锐地指出：尽管英国的工人出于各种原因“还做得不够”，但“正是工人阶级保存着英国民族性格的最优秀的品质”。或者说，英国工人阶级的前进，不仅是科学社会主义同英国实际的具体结合，更是同英国优秀文化传统的真正结合。

We firmly believe that the establishment of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the opening of a new realm of Marxism in 21st-century China are not only innovative achievements of integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the best of traditional Chinese culture but also, in leading the era, preserve, nurture, and highlight the excellent cultural achievements of the Chinese nation. Let us return to the classics of the era, discover the epochal value of the classics, move toward the classics of the era, and demonstrate the truth-power of the classics!

我们坚信，习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的创立，21世纪中国的马克思主义新境界的开辟，不仅是马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合、同中华优秀传统文化相结合的创新成果，而且也在引领时代，保存、孕育并彰显中华民族的优秀文化成果。让我们回到经典的时代，发现经典的时代价值，走向时代的经典，展现经典的真理力量！

Online Editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗