The Historical Materialist Foundation of the New Form of Human Civilization

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that Chinese-path modernization is deeply rooted in fine traditional Chinese culture, embodies the advanced nature of scientific socialism, draws on and absorbs all outstanding achievements of human civilization, represents the direction of progress for human civilization, and presents a new picture different from the Western model of modernization; it is a completely new form of human civilization. This important exposition reveals the intrinsic, essential connection between Chinese-path modernization and the new form of human civilization, and points out the innovation and contribution of Chinese-path modernization to human civilization. Historical materialism reveals the basic laws of social and historical development, observes the generative logic and evolutionary trends of forms of human civilization, and is the fundamental method for understanding and grasping social history. As an important category of contemporary Chinese Marxism and 21st-century Marxist theory, the new form of human civilization contains a profound historical materialist foundation.

习近平总书记指出，中国式现代化，深深植根于中华优秀传统文化，体现科学社会主义的先进本质，借鉴吸收一切人类优秀文明成果，代表人类文明进步的发展方向，展现了不同于西方现代化模式的新图景，是一种全新的人类文明形态。这一重要论述揭示了中国式现代化与人类文明新形态之间的内在本质联系，指出了中国式现代化对于人类文明的创新与贡献。唯物史观揭示了社会历史发展的基本规律，观照了人类文明形态的生成逻辑与演进趋势，是认识、把握社会历史的根本方法。作为当代中国马克思主义、21世纪马克思主义理论的重要范畴，人类文明新形态蕴含深刻的唯物史观根据。

Innovation in the Mode of Production

生产方式的创新

Historical materialism reveals that the development of human society and its forms of civilization ultimately originate from the production of material goods, and the production of material goods depends on the objectively existing mode of production. The mode of production is the dialectical unity of productive forces and relations of production. The form of existence and the trend of development of human society and its forms of civilization should both be analyzed and explained from the dimension of the mode of production. Correspondingly, the dominant mode of production constitutes the economic base, and there is a dialectical unity between the economic base and the superstructure. In a certain sense, cultural forms and forms of civilization belong to the category of the superstructure. In short, generally speaking, cultural forms and forms of civilization are rooted in the economic base and the mode of production. What is particularly important is that historical materialism not only analyzes the relationship between the mode of production of material goods and culture and civilization from a structural, synchronic level, but also reveals the evolution of culture and civilization from a dynamic, diachronic dimension. Within the structure of a given social formation, productive forces and relations of production are basically coordinated and consistent, with relations of production basically adapting to the development of productive forces. However, with the continuous progress of productive forces, they gradually come into conflict and contradiction with the existing relations of production. At this stage, the relations of production become fetters restricting the further development of productive forces. To meet the development needs of productive forces, the relations of production will also develop further, thereby triggering changes in the dominant and ruling relations of production, i.e., the economic base, and subsequently triggering changes in the political superstructure and the ideological superstructure. The internal contradictions of the mode of production and their unfolding are not only the fundamental driving force of the historical development of human society, but also the internal root of the rise and fall of various forms of civilization. The resolution of the internal contradictions of the mode of production is the deep-seated driving force of historical development, and its evolutionary process marks the adjustment of the social structure and also implies the transformation of forms of civilization. In short, productive forces are the fundamental determining factor that continuously pushes human civilization forward, and the transformation and upgrading of productive forces is the key to innovating human civilization.

唯物史观揭示了人类社会发展及其文明形态，归根到底源自物质资料生产，而物质资料的生产取决于客观存在的生产方式。生产方式是生产力和生产关系的辩证统一，人类社会及其文明形态的存在形式与发展趋势，均应从生产方式的维度去分析并阐释。同此，占支配地位的生产方式构成了经济基础，经济基础与上层建筑之间存在辩证统一关系。在某种意义上，文化形式、文明形态属于上层建筑的范畴。简言之，一般看来，文化形式、文明形态植根于经济基础和生产方式。尤为重要的是，唯物史观不仅从结构的、共时性的层次分析了物质资料生产方式与文化、文明的关系，还从动态的、历时性的维度揭示了文化与文明的演变。在既定的社会形态结构内，生产力与生产关系基本协调一致，生产关系基本适配生产力的发展。然而，随着生产力的不断进步，逐渐与既有的生产关系发生冲突与矛盾，在此阶段，生产关系成为限制生产力进一步发展的桎梏。为满足生产力的发展需求，生产关系也将进一步发展，从而引发占主导与支配地位的生产关系即经济基础的变革，进而引发政治上层建筑和观念上层建筑的变革。生产方式的内在矛盾及其展开不仅是人类社会历史发展的根本动力，也是各种文明形态兴衰交替的内在根源。生产方式内在矛盾的解决是历史发展的深层次驱动力，其演变过程标志着社会结构的调整，也意味着文明形态的变迁。总之，生产力是推动人类文明不断向前发展的根本性决定因素，生产力的转型升级是创新人类文明的关键所在。

Chinese-path modernization continuously promotes the innovative development of the mode of production. From the perspective of productive forces, China strives to enhance its scientific and technological innovation capacity, empowering and driving the transformation and leap of productive forces in Chinese-path modernization. New quality productive forces are productive forces that take scientific and technological innovation as the main driving force, take the cultivation and formation of strategic emerging industries and future industries as the main support, and aim to promote efficient, high-quality, and sustainable development of the economy and society. From the perspective of historical materialism, productive forces include three elements: laborers, means of labor, and objects of labor. Among them, science and technology are the primary productive forces, and laborers are the most active factor in productive forces. Since the New Era, Chinese-path modernization has accelerated the implementation of the strategy of invigorating China through science and education, the strategy of strengthening the nation through human resources, and the innovation-driven development strategy, improved the new system of mobilizing resources nationwide for key core technology breakthroughs, built major scientific and technological innovation platforms, promoted the transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements, integrated cutting-edge and revolutionary technological innovations into the elements of productive forces such as laborers, means of labor, and objects of labor, and promoted the iterative development of productive forces. From the perspective of relations of production, China continuously adjusts relations of production to enhance the vitality and dynamism of the development of social productive forces. It adheres to the public ownership of the means of production as the foundation, and adheres to a distribution system combining distribution according to work with distribution according to factors of production; it continuously narrows the income distribution gap between urban and rural areas, between regions, and between industries; it ensures that the fruits of development benefit all the people more and more fairly, solidly promotes the realization of common prosperity for all the people, and promotes the harmonious development of socialist relations of production. The development of the mode of production will promote the renewal of forms of civilization. Currently, the fourth scientific and technological revolution, based on the rise of information technology, represented by tool systems such as big data, the internet, cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, as new quality productive forces, will profoundly change the mode of production and lifestyle of humanity and shape a new form of civilization.

中国式现代化不断推动生产方式的创新发展。从生产力的视角看，我国着力提升科技创新能力，赋能驱动中国式现代化生产力的变革飞跃。新质生产力是以科技创新为主要驱动力量，以培育、形成战略性新兴产业和未来产业为主要支撑，以推动经济社会高效率、高质量可持续发展为目标的生产力。在唯物史观看来，生产力包括劳动者、劳动资料、劳动对象三要素，其中，科技是第一生产力，劳动者是生产力中最为活跃的因素。新时代以来，中国式现代化加快实施科教兴国战略、人才强国战略、创新驱动发展战略，健全关键核心技术攻关的新型举国体制，打造重大科技创新平台，推进科技创新成果的转化，将前沿性、革命性的技术创新融贯于劳动者、劳动资料、劳动对象等生产力要素中，促进生产力的迭代发展。从生产关系的视角看，我国不断调适生产关系，增进社会生产力发展的生机与活力。坚持以生产资料公有制为基础，坚持按劳分配与按生产要素分配相结合的分配方式；不断缩小城乡之间、区域之间、行业之间的收入分配差距；让发展成果更多更公平惠及全体人民，扎实推动实现全体人民共同富裕，促进社会主义生产关系的和谐发展。生产方式的发展将促进文明形态的更新。当前，基于信息技术兴起的第四次科技革命，以大数据、互联网、云计算、区块链及人工智能等工具体系为代表的新质生产力，将深刻改变人类的生产、生活方式，塑造新的文明形态。

The Dialectical Relationship between Material Civilization and Cultural-Ethical Progress

物质文明与精神文明的辩证关系

Historical materialism points out the dialectical unity of material civilization and cultural-ethical progress. In the "Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy," Marx wrote: "The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life." This formulation clearly expounds the determining and conditioning role of material civilization over cultural-ethical progress; material life is the factual and logical starting point for understanding intellectual life. Material civilization also provides the material premise and realistic conditions for cultural-ethical progress. Engels once pointed out in a letter: "Although the material mode of existence is the primum agens, this does not preclude the ideological spheres from reacting upon it in their turn." This emphasizes the reaction of cultural-ethical progress on material civilization, highlights the active role and relative independence of cultural-ethical progress, and manifests the dialectical relationship between material civilization and cultural-ethical progress. Lenin further emphasized that without rich knowledge, technology, and culture, communism cannot be built, clearly highlighting the important role of cultural-ethical progress in the practical sphere. In short, from the perspective of historical materialism, material civilization and cultural-ethical progress have a relationship of mutual complementarity and mutual promotion. One-sidedly pursuing material wealth while neglecting cultural-ethical progress will deviate from the laws of social and historical development and progress, make sustainable development impossible, and fail to meet the requirements of Chinese-path modernization.

唯物史观指明了物质文明和精神文明的辩证统一关系。在《〈政治经济学批判〉序言》中，马克思写道：“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。”这一表述明确阐述了物质文明对精神文明的决定性与制约性作用，物质生活是理解精神生活的事实起点与逻辑起点。物质文明也为精神文明提供了物质前提和现实条件。恩格斯曾在信函中指出：“物质存在方式虽然是始因，但是这并不排斥思想领域也反过来对物质存在方式起作用。”这强调了精神文明对物质文明的反作用，突出了精神文明的能动作用与相对独立性，彰显了物质文明与精神文明的辩证关系。列宁曾进一步强调，没有丰富的知识、技术和文化就不能建成共产主义，鲜明突出了精神文明在实践领域中的重要作用。总之，在唯物史观看来，物质文明与精神文明具有相辅相成、互促发展的关系，片面追求物质财富而忽视精神文明，将背离社会历史发展进步的规律，无法实现可持续发展，不符合中国式现代化的要求。

The new form of human civilization manifests the dialectical relationship between material civilization and cultural-ethical progress in historical materialism. Western modernization one-sidedly pursues abstract material wealth, giving rise to a cycle of excessive production and wasteful consumption, with people reduced to tools for the self-expansion of capital. After the Second World War, Western modernization shifted from industrialization to a consumer society. Symbolism is the essence of the consumer society, where capital and technology are deeply integrated, reversely stimulating further expansion of production and the accelerated circulation of capital. To cater to the abstract, expansive material production of capitalism, rational spirit is one-sidedly defined as the calculative thinking of instrumental rationality, values are narrowed down to functionalism and utilitarianism, and the foundation of social ethical norms is abstracted into individualism. Thus, the one-sided development and even malignant expansion of instrumental rationality, utilitarianism, and individualism constitute the basic form of capitalist cultural-ethical progress. In contrast, Chinese-path modernization is a modernization where material civilization and cultural-ethical progress are coordinated. Its material production is not based on the logic of capital but on the logic of the human being, and its intrinsic pursuit is not the one-sided, abstract growth of material wealth; the growth of material wealth is only a means, not an end. Chinese-path modernization is a coordinated development of material civilization and cultural-ethical progress, enhancing the universality of human needs, abilities, and enjoyments, and shaping a new form of human civilization.

人类文明新形态彰显了唯物史观中物质文明与精神文明的辩证关系。西方现代化片面追求抽象的物质财富，过度的生产与浪费性的消费循环衍生，人沦为资本增殖的工具。第二次世界大战后，西方现代化由工业化转入消费社会，符号性是消费社会的本质，资本与技术深度结合，反向刺激生产的进一步扩张与资本的加速循环。为应和资本主义抽象的、扩张型的物质生产，理性精神被片面地定义为工具理性的计算思维，价值观念被窄化为功能主义与功利主义，社会伦理规范的基底被抽象为个人主义。由此，工具理性、功利主义、个人主义的片面发展乃至恶性膨胀，构成了资本主义精神文明的基本形态。与此不同，中国式现代化是物质文明和精神文明相协调的现代化，其物质生产并非基于资本逻辑而是基于人的逻辑，其内在追求也并非片面抽象的物质财富增长，物质财富的增长只是手段而非目的。中国式现代化是物质文明与精神文明相协调的发展，提升人的需要、才能、享用等的普遍性，塑造人类文明新形态。

The True Community

真正的共同体

In the capitalist stage, the relationship between the individual and the community is merely a relationship of externalization. In the relation between one person and others, each regards others as means and instruments for realizing his own ends. At the same time, the “community” takes the “market” as its form of realization. For the individual, the “market” is merely an external, instrumental existence; thus, money, capital and the market constitute the mediation of the “community” within the capitalist structure. In other words, the “community” manifests itself as money, capital and the market — this is the inversion and alienation of the community. Therefore, within the capitalist “community,” there is a lack of authentic sociality and rationalized interaction among people, while individuals, lacking a sense of spiritual belonging, degenerate into a lonely mass. It is evident that the “community” in the context of Western modernization lacks substantive cohesion, and society, because it lacks inner spiritual solidarity, degenerates into an external mechanical combination. Hence, Western modernization inevitably leads to alienation, estrangement and indifference among people. Consequently, the atomized individual cast into the crowded city is bound to become a drifting solitary. Against this backdrop, any moral appeal or educational guidance that attempts to enhance social cohesion appears pale and feeble, ultimately degenerating into empty preaching. The spiritual cohesion of society as a whole is replaced by the subtle and contingent emotional solace among individuals. In short, Western modernization produces a lonely mass society based on atomized individuals.

在资本主义阶段，个人与共同体的关系仅是一种外在化的关系。在人与他人的关系中，每个人都把他人视作实现自我目的的手段与工具。同此，“共同体”以“市场”为其实现形式，对于个人来说，“市场”只是一种外在的、工具性的存在，于是，货币、资本与市场，构成了资本主义结构中“共同体”的中介。换言之，“共同体”表现为货币、资本与市场，这是共同体的颠倒与异化。因此，在资本主义“共同体”中，人与人之间缺乏本真的社会性与交往的合理化，个人则缺乏精神的归属感而沦为孤独的大众。可见，西方现代化背景中的“共同体”缺失实质性的凝聚力，社会则因缺乏内在的精神团结而沦为外在的机械组合。所以，西方现代化必然导致人与人之间的异化、陌生化、冷漠化。于是，被抛于拥挤都市的原子化个人，势必沦为游离的个体。在此背景下，任何试图增进社会凝聚力的道德呼吁与教育引导都显得苍白乏力，终会沦为空洞的说教。社会整体的精神凝聚力被个人之间微妙而偶然的情感慰藉所取代。总之，西方现代化产生了以原子化个体为基础的、孤独的大众社会。

Historical materialism points to the practical pursuit of a genuine community. Marx put forward the idea of a “genuine community,” holding that “the essence of man is man’s genuine community.” [2]2 The quotation is from Marx’s early writings; the precise phrasing appears in his 1843 notes on James Mill, where he writes “the essence of man is man’s genuine community” (MECW, vol. 3, p. 217). *The German Ideology* delineates the relationship between the division of labor and the community. The genuine community is the community in the form of communist society, and it is also the “association of free individuals.” The genuine community transcends the illusory community mediated by money and the market in the context of Western modernization. The genuine community also means putting an end to competition and antagonism among people, bridging the split between individual interest and public interest, and at the same time, the individual is no longer dominated by an abstract “community.” Chinese-path modernization actively advances the construction of the community. On the domestic front, it builds a social governance community based on joint contribution, joint governance and shared benefits, optimizing the relationship between the individual and the community, between individual interest and public interest, and between individual value and common value. On the international front, building a community with a shared future for mankind has become a banner leading the advance of the present era. The “genuine community” heralds a new form of human civilization characterized by equality, harmony and mutual assistance.

唯物史观指明了对真正共同体的实践寻求。马克思提出了“真正的共同体”思想，认为“人的本质是人的真正的共同体”。《德意志意识形态》则刻画了分工与共同体的关系。真正的共同体是共产主义社会形态中的共同体，也是“自由人联合体”。真正的共同体超越了西方现代化语境中以货币、市场为中介的虚幻的共同体。真正的共同体也意味着，结束人与人之间的竞争与对立，弥合个人利益和公共利益的分裂，同此，个人不再受抽象“共同体”的支配。中国式现代化积极推进共同体的建设，从国内方面看，打造共建共治共享的社会治理共同体，优化个体与共同体、个人利益与公共利益、个人价值与共同价值的关系；从国际方面看，构建人类命运共同体已成为引领当今时代前进的旗帜。“真正的共同体”喻示着平等、和谐、互助的人类文明新形态。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗