A Historical-Political-Science Interpretation of the Modern Civilization of the Chinese Nation

The mode of state governance is a concentrated summary of civilization. The modern civilization of the Chinese nation is a great civilization centered on politics, transformed and developed from traditional Chinese civilization. The key transformations in China’s state governance mode have a commanding and decisive status in the formation and development of Chinese civilization. The modern civilization of the Chinese nation and the contemporary Chinese state governance mode are both the product of the Communist Party of China leading the Chinese people in persisting in integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the best of traditional Chinese culture, and also the product of the modern transformation of traditional Chinese civilization and the ancient Chinese state governance mode, possessing historical continuity. To understand the formation and development of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation, one should respect historical continuity and pay close attention to the major transformations in the state governance mode. This requires returning to the key nodes in the evolution of Chinese civilization history and, based on the path of historical political science, analyzing some major key historical events of far-reaching significance.

国家治理模式是文明的集中概括。中华民族现代文明是从中华传统文明发展转型而来的以政治为中心的伟大文明。中国国家治理模式的关键性变革，对于中华文明的形成和发展具有统领性、决定性地位。中华民族现代文明、当代中国国家治理模式既是中国共产党带领中国人民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的产物，也是中华传统文明、古代中国国家治理模式现代性转化的产物，具有历史连续性。理解中华民族现代文明形成和发展，应当尊重历史连续性并高度关注国家治理模式重大变革。这就需要回到中华文明史演进上的关键节点，基于历史政治学路径对一些具有深远意义的重大关键历史事件展开剖析。

The Zhou-Qin Transition was the most important event in Chinese history before the late Qing dynasty and one of the most important historical events in world history, exerting a major and far-reaching influence on Chinese and world history. Based on the cycle of state and civilizational evolution, the Zhou-Qin Transition can be defined as an all-round and fundamental transformation of Chinese civilization, led by changes in the state governance mode and state form, occurring from the Zhou to the Qin and up to the mid-Western Han dynasty. It began with the establishment of the Zhou dynasty (1046 BCE) and ended with the death of Emperor Wu of Han (87 BCE), spanning over 900 years. The Zhou-Qin Transition was not a simple change of dynasty or regime, but the most important and profound all-round transformation in ancient Chinese history. Its most direct result was the gradual decline of the state form of the Son of Heaven and feudal lords system (commonly known as the enfeoffment state) represented by the Zhou dynasty, and the formation of the unified, centralized, monarchical-bureaucratic state form represented by the Qin and Han dynasties, abbreviated as the monarchical-bureaucratic state form or the unified Chinese state form. More importantly, the Zhou-Qin Transition enabled Chinese civilization to complete a great transformation and self-upgrade, moving it from an early form to a mature form. For most civilizations, only by leaping over the “chasm” between the early form and the mature form can they become self-consistent, self-reliant, and self-strengthening, and have the opportunity to move toward a modern form.

周秦之变是晚清之前中国史上的最重要事件，是世界史上最重要的历史事件之一，对中国和世界历史产生了重大而深远的影响。基于国家和文明演进周期，周秦之变可以界定为中国于周、秦直到西汉中叶发生的以国家治理模式和国家形态变革为统领的中华文明全方位根本性变革，始于周朝建立（公元前1046年），止于汉武帝去世（公元前87年），跨度为900多年。周秦之变不是简单的朝代之变、政权之变，而是古代中国历史上最重要最深刻的全方位变革，其最直接的结果就是以周朝为代表的天子诸侯制国家形态（俗称分封制国家）逐步衰亡，形成以秦汉王朝为代表的大一统中央集权君主官僚制国家形态，简称君主官僚制国家形态或大一统中华国家形态。更重要的是，周秦之变使中华文明完成了一次伟大转型和自我升级，使之从早期形态迈向成熟形态。对于多数文明而言，只有飞跃早期形态和成熟形态之间的“鸿沟”，才能自洽、自立、自强并有机会迈向现代形态。

The particularity of the Zhou-Qin Transition lies in its being a great transformation of the ancient state with partial modern characteristics, of great and far-reaching significance. It not only reconstructed the basic form, identifying features, and development path of Chinese civilization and the Chinese state, but also exerted a major influence on the formation and development of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. The Zhou-Qin Transition shaped the core structure and basic paradigms of Chinese civilization, including: the first formation of China’s centralized state paradigm, which became a constitutional tradition; the establishment of the paradigm of a unified multi-ethnic state; the crucial reshaping and stabilization of the paradigm of the Tianxia (all-under-heaven) state, which occupied the mainstream state paradigm in ancient China and East Asia; the generation of the unified state paradigm and the paradigm of a super-large-scale state; and the establishment of the secular state paradigm. These core structures and basic paradigms are both the core content of the Chinese state governance mode since the Zhou-Qin Transition and the substantive content of Chinese civilization since the Zhou-Qin Transition, occupying an extremely important position. Although the above five aspects of important content and six basic paradigms are not the entirety of Chinese civilization and the Chinese state governance mode, they constitute its most important and distinctive structure and mechanism, belonging to the first level. They interact and interplay with each other, giving rise to many other elements and identifying features of Chinese civilization and the Chinese state governance mode, including the unitary system, the prefecture-county system, the bureaucracy, state-centrism, a strong state, the combination of state power and ideological power, collectivism, benign civil-military relations, the standing army system, strong social mobility, the isomorphism of heaven, earth, family, and state, the system of governing according to local customs, people-centeredness, meritocracy, and so on. The order in which major things arrive has a profound impact on the direction and process of historical evolution. These basic paradigms, basic elements, and identifying features constituted the basic political and social environment in which the old democratic revolution, the new democratic revolution, and the socialist revolution occurred, profoundly influencing the Chinese people’s choice, acceptance, and creation of modern civilization, and serving as an important foundation for constructing the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. Without these foundations, the construction of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation would lose its “roots.”

周秦之变的特殊性在于它是一场带有局部现代特征、意义重大而深远的古代国家巨变，不但重构了中华文明和中华国家的基本形态、标识特征和发展道路，而且对中华民族现代文明的形成和发展也产生重大影响。周秦之变塑造了中华文明的核心结构和基本范式，包括：中国中央集权国家范式的首次形成并成为宪制传统；多元一体的多民族国家范式得以确立；居于古代中国和东亚主流国家范式地位的天下型国家范式得到关键性重塑并稳定了下来；大一统国家范式和超大规模国家范式得以生成；世俗型国家范式得以确立。这些核心结构和基本范式既是周秦之变以来中华国家治理模式的核心内容，也是周秦之变以来中华文明的主体性内容，地位极其重要。虽然上述五方面重要内容、六大基本范式不是中华文明和中华国家治理模式的全部，但构成其最重要最鲜明的结构和机理，处于第一层次。它们之间相互联动、相互作用，衍生出中华文明和中华国家治理模式许多其他要素和标识性特征，包括单一制、郡县制、官僚制、国家中心主义、强国家、国家权力和意识形态权力结合、集体主义、良性文武关系、常备军制、强社会流动、天地家国同构、因俗而治制度、民本主义、能力主义等。重大事物到来的先后次序对历史演进方向和进程有着深刻影响。这些基本范式、基本要素和标识性特征构成了旧民主主义革命、新民主主义革命、社会主义革命发生的基本政治社会环境，深刻影响中国人民对现代文明的选择、接受和创造，是建构中华民族现代文明的重要基础。脱离这些根基，中华民族现代文明构建就会丧失“根脉”。

Of course, as the concentrated embodiment of the achievements of early Chinese civilization, the Zhou system and Zhou culture also have a profound influence on the formation and development of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. Broadly speaking, this influence is also part of the influence of the Zhou-Qin Transition on the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. First, the Qin dynasty was nurtured within the Zhou dynasty, and a considerable amount of the content of the Qin dynasty’s state governance mode and culture was inherited and developed from the Zhou dynasty, including the ideology of royal power, the ideology of the Mandate of Heaven, Tianxia doctrine, the patriarchal clan system, and the bureaucratic system. Second, Confucianism, based on the Zhou dynasty’s system and culture, was the state ideology from the Han to the Qing dynasties, exerting a profound influence on traditional China for over two thousand years and deeply shaping Chinese civilization. The Confucian emphasis on ruling the state with rites and law, governing with virtue, prioritizing virtue over punishment, practicing benevolent governance, regarding the people as the foundation of the state, focusing on moral education, and lightening taxes and corvée labor also has a profound impact on building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation.

当然，作为早期中国文明成就的集中体现，周制和周朝文化对于中华民族现代文明形成和发展亦有深远影响。从广义来看，这种影响亦属于周秦之变对于中华民族现代文明的影响的一部分。第一，秦朝孕育于周朝，秦朝国家治理模式和文化相当多的内容继承发展自周朝，包括王权思想、天命思想、天下主义、宗法制度、官僚制度等。第二，以周朝制度和文化为基底的儒家是汉朝至清朝的国家意识形态，对于传统中国有着两千多年的深远影响，深度塑造中华文明。儒家所强调的礼法治国、为政以德、德主刑辅、施行仁政、民惟邦本、注重教化、轻徭薄赋等主张对建设中华民族现代文明的影响亦是深刻的。

However, the Zhou system and culture, and the Qin system and culture, are not without limitations, nor is the Zhou-Qin Transition itself. The limitations of the Zhou system and culture lie in insufficient state centralization, an indirect rule model, the enfeoffment system weakening central authority and bringing about separatism, overly rigid class boundaries, severe insufficiency of social mobility, and the proliferation of hereditary clan-based aristocracy. The Qin system and culture overcame the limitations of the Zhou system to a considerable extent but brought new problems, including excessive centralization of monarchical power, over-reliance on harsh legal rule, overly rigid operation of power, excessive burdens on the people, the difficulty of institutionalizing people’s rights, the breeding of an official-standard culture, excessive emphasis on uniformity suppressing ideological diversity and the development of science and technology, a strong-state-weak-society structure leading to insufficient social development, and the prioritization of agriculture over commerce. In summary, the Zhou system and the Qin system both have limitations in dimensions such as state building, monarchical centralization, rule of law, civil rights, state-society relations, economic form, and social freedom. These limitations are, to a considerable extent, the limitations of traditional Chinese civilization itself, greatly influencing and constraining the development of Chinese civilization.

但是周朝制度和文化、秦朝制度和文化并非没有局限，周秦之变亦然。周朝制度和文化的局限在于国家集权不够、属于间接统治模式、分封制削弱中央权威并带来分裂主义、阶级界限过于森严、社会流动严重不足、家族世袭主义泛滥等。秦朝制度和文化相当程度克服了周制的局限，但带来新问题，存在君主过度集权、过于倚重严厉的律法统治、权力运行过于刚性、民众负担过重、民众权利难以得到制度化保障、滋生官本位文化、过分强调一元性抑制了思想多元性和科学技术发展、强国家—弱社会结构带来社会发育不足、重农抑商等问题。概言之，周制和秦制在政权建构、君主集权、法治、民权、国家和社会关系、经济形态、社会自由度等维度都存在局限。这些局限相当程度上就是中华传统文明的局限，极大影响和制约了中华文明的发展。

With the invasion of Western powers armed with industrial civilization, China encountered “changes unseen in three thousand years.” [1]1 The Zhou-Qin transition refers to the period from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States eras to the unification of China under the Qin dynasty (roughly 770–221 BCE), which saw the replacement of feudal states with a centralized bureaucratic empire. The great achievements of traditional China made it a rare major Eastern power that was neither colonized nor dismembered, while the fundamental limitations of traditional China also provided conditions for the outbreak of a general crisis in Chinese society. To save the nation from sub

随着被工业文明武装起来的西方列强入侵，中国遭遇“三千年未有之大变局”。传统中国的巨大成就使得中国成为罕见的既未沦为殖民地同时也未被肢解的东方大国，传统中国的根本性局限也为中国社会爆发总体性危机提供了条件。为了救亡图存和文明赓续，迫在眉睫的全方位深层次根本性的社会革命和文明转型呼之欲出。辛亥革命是第一步。在辛亥革命的基础上，中国共产党以马克思列宁主义为指导，坚持“两个结合”，领导了近现代中国伟大的政治革命和社会革命，继承发展了传统中国的中央集权国家范式、多元一体的多民族国家范式、天下型国家范式、大一统国家范式、超大规模国家范式、世俗型国家范式等六大基本范式以及大量标识性特征，加入社会主义、民主共和、法治、政党政治、人民代表大会制度、中国共产党领导的政治协商制度、民族区域自治制度、工业化等众多新元素新制度并进行革命性重组，革故鼎新、返本开新，实现了对传统中国的传承、超越和发展，推动中华文明和中华国家实现了从古代形态向现代形态的伟大飞跃，开启了建设中华民族现代文明的新篇章。

For Chinese civilization, historical continuity and major historical changes are dialectically unified. The historical continuity of Chinese civilization means that its roots, core, soul, and fundamental paradigms, though subject to gains and losses, have never been interrupted or severed; major historical changes refer to important evolutions and transformations on the basis of the roots of Chinese civilization, constituting its discarding the old for the new and its development and evolution. Historical continuity is embodied within major historical changes; major historical changes have not led to the destruction of historical continuity but have instead consolidated it through discarding the old for the new and pushing out the new. The dialectical unity of the historical continuity of Chinese civilization and major historical changes is fully manifested in two key major transitions: the Zhou-Qin transition [1]1 The Zhou-Qin transition refers to the period from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States eras to the unification of China under the Qin dynasty (roughly 770–221 BCE), which saw the replacement of feudal states with a centralized bureaucratic empire. and the great transformation since the end of the Qing dynasty [2]2 The great transformation since the end of the Qing dynasty refers to the collapse of the imperial system in 1911 and the subsequent century of revolution, war, and reform leading to the establishment and development of the People's Republic of China.. The former fundamentally shaped Chinese civilization and the governance model of the Chinese state, and also played an important foundational and shaping role for the modern civilization of the Chinese nation; the latter, on the basis of the former, advanced the modern transformation of Chinese civilization and the governance model of the Chinese state. The two constitute a civilizational relay separated by more than two thousand years, pushing Chinese civilization from its early form through a mature form to a modern form. The two are neither separate nor a simple inheritance.

对于中华文明而言，历史连续性和重大历史变迁是辩证统一的。中华文明的历史连续性是指中华文明的根脉、内核、灵魂、根本范式虽有损益但没有中断或者中绝；重大历史变迁是指在中华文明根脉基础上的重要演进和变革，构成中华文明的革故鼎新和发展演化。历史连续性寓于重大历史变迁中，重大历史变迁并没有导致历史连续性遭到破坏，反而因为革故鼎新、推陈出新而巩固了历史连续性。中华文明历史连续性和重大历史变迁的辩证统一在周秦之变、清末以来的巨大变迁两次关键性大变迁中得到充分体现。前者从根本上型塑了中华文明和中华国家治理模式，对于中华民族现代文明也有重要的奠基和型塑作用；后者在前者的基础上推进中华文明和中华国家治理模式的现代转型。两者构成一场事隔两千多年的文明接力，推动中华文明从早期形态演进到成熟形态再发展到现代形态。两者并不割裂，亦非简单继承。

In fact, both of these great transformations began with changes in the state governance model and state form. This once again confirms that Chinese civilization is a civilization centered on politics, that major changes in Chinese civilization often begin with changes in the state governance model and state form, and that the cycle of evolution of Chinese civilization is, to a considerable extent, synchronized with the cycle of the state governance model and the cycle of state form. Nourishing the Chinese state with Chinese civilization, continuing Chinese civilization and advancing the construction of the Chinese nation with the Chinese state, and advancing Chinese civilization with the Chinese nation—the trinity of the construction of the Chinese nation, the construction of the Chinese state, and the construction of Chinese civilization—is an important reason why Chinese civilization is the only great civilization in the world that has continued uninterrupted and developed to the present day in the form of a state.

事实上，这两次伟大变迁都是从国家治理模式和国家形态变迁开始的。这再次映证了中华文明是以政治为中心的文明，中华文明的重大变迁经常从国家治理模式和国家形态变革开始，中华文明的演变周期相当程度上与国家治理模式周期和国家形态周期同步。以中华文明滋育中华国家，以中华国家延续中华文明、推进中华民族构建，以中华民族推进中华文明，中华民族构建、中华国家构建、中华文明建设三位一体推进，是中华文明是世界上唯一绵延不断且以国家形态发展至今的伟大文明的重要原因。

Precisely because Chinese civilization and the Chinese path exhibit obvious human universality, the construction of the knowledge system of political science for humanity today cannot exclude China. Excluding Chinese civilization and Chinese experience makes it difficult to achieve genuine human universality. Similarly, when we base ourselves on Chinese history itself, adhere to Chinese subjectivity, while at the same time maintaining a global perspective, and insist on combining history and theory to understand modern China historically, we will find that the Chinese path is bright. Modern China is precisely walking on a correct and great path with Chinese subjectivity, historical continuity, and human universality. This path is the result of civilizational renewal, not the product of civilizational rupture. On this path, the trinity of the construction of the Chinese nation, the construction of the Chinese state, and the construction of Chinese civilization will ultimately build a more complete modern form of the Chinese state, a modern civilization of the Chinese nation, and a modern form of Chinese civilization, becoming the "supreme peak" [3]3 "Supreme peak" (极峰) is a classical Chinese expression for the highest point or culmination, used here to emphasize the unparalleled achievement of Chinese civilization in world history. in the history of world states and world civilization.

正是因为中华文明和中国道路呈现出明显的人类普遍性，今天的人类政治学知识体系建构，是不能将中国排除在外的。排除中华文明和中国经验，就很难有真正的人类普遍性。同样，当我们基于中国历史本身，坚持中国主体性，同时秉持世界眼光，坚持历史和理论结合，历史地理解现代中国，就会发现中国道路是光明的。现代中国恰恰走在一条具有中国主体性、历史连续性和人类普遍性的正确大道上，这条道路是文明更新的结果，不是文明断裂的产物。在这条道路上，中华民族构建、中华国家构建、中华文明建设三位一体推进，最终将建构起更加完备的中华国家现代形态、中华民族现代文明和中华文明现代形态，成为世界国家史和世界文明史上的“极峰”。

(Author's bio: Huang Tao, researcher at the Research Office of the General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Ph.D. in Political Science)

（作者简介：黄涛，全国人大常委会办公厅研究室研究人员、政治学博士）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心