Mao Zedong’s Contribution to Creating a New Form of Human Civilization and Its Contemporary Implications

The succession of human civilizations is by no means driven or determined by some mysterious force, nor is it a picture constantly generated in fantasy according to some principle or decree in the mind; rather, it originates from the heterogeneous changes brought about by the real contradictory movement of productive forces and relations of production. For example, the emergence of capitalist civilization lay in the fact that, on the basis of previous material civilization, there appeared an increase in the level of development of productive forces capable of subversively transforming the feudal mode of production, together with an institutional civilization and cultural-ethical progress adapted to the newly emerging capitalist mode of production. It is precisely the qualitative “change” produced in the course of historical development that gives the newly emerging form of civilization a qualitative “particularity” compared with previous forms of civilization. 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,” in summing up the historical significance of the CPC’s century-long struggle, points out that “the Party’s century-long struggle has profoundly influenced the course of world history” and that “the Party has led the people in successfully blazing the path of Chinese-path modernization and creating a new form of human civilization.” [1]1 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” was adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in November 2021. The reason why a new form of human civilization can be created lies in the fact that the century-long continuous struggle in which the CPC has led the people to explore Chinese modernization and promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation contains, embodies, and develops the historical logic, theoretical logic, practical logic, and value logic of creating a new form of civilization. This is the qualitative “change” produced in the course of China’s historical development. The new form of civilization pioneered by the Party leading the people is both different from traditional Chinese civilization and capitalist civilization, and different from the socialist civilizational practice explored by the Soviet Union; this is the qualitative “particularity” possessed by this form of civilization.

人类文明的更迭，绝非是由某种神秘力量所推动和决定的，也不是按照头脑中某种原则或律令而不断生成的幻想中的图景，而是根源于生产力和生产关系的现实矛盾运动所带来的异质性变化。例如，资本主义文明的产生，就在于在以往的物质文明的基础上，出现了能使封建性质生产方式发生颠覆性变革的生产力发展水平之提高，以及与新出现的资本主义生产方式相适应的制度文明和精神文明。正是历史发展进程产生的质的“变化”，才使新出现的文明形态与以往的文明形态相比具有质的“特殊”。《中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议》在总结中国共产党百年奋斗的历史意义时指出，“党的百年奋斗深刻影响了世界历史进程”，“党领导人民成功走出中国式现代化道路，创造了人类文明新形态”。人类文明新形态之所以能被创造出来，在于中国共产党领导人民探索中国现代化和推进中华民族伟大复兴实现的百年接续奋斗，内含着、体现着和发展着创造一种新的文明形态的历史逻辑、理论逻辑、实践逻辑和价值逻辑。这是中国历史发展进程中产生的质的“变化”。党领导人民开创的新的文明形态，既有异于中华传统文明和资本主义文明，又有异于苏联所探索的社会主义文明实践，这是此文明形态所具有的质的“特殊”。

As a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist, and theorist, a great pioneer in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, a great founder of China’s socialist modernization cause, a great patriot and national hero of modern China, the core of the Party’s first generation of central collective leadership, a great man of his generation who led the Chinese people to fundamentally change their own destiny and the face of the country, and a great internationalist who made significant contributions to the liberation of the oppressed peoples of the world and the cause of human progress, Mao Zedong led the Party and the people in creating historical “changes” that laid the important theoretical foundation, practical foundation, and value foundation for the “newness” of the new form of human civilization. It was precisely the unremitting exploration and struggle led by Mao Zedong that propelled the historic transformation of Chinese civilization from “civilization covered in dust” to “civilization cleansed of dust,” and laid an important foundation, provided valuable experience, and conducted beneficial explorations for the emergence and development of a new form of civilization, thereby contributing to the creation of a new form of human civilization.

作为伟大的马克思主义者，伟大的无产阶级革命家、战略家、理论家，马克思主义中国化的伟大开拓者、中国社会主义现代化建设事业的伟大奠基者，近代以来中国伟大的爱国者和民族英雄，党的第一代中央领导集体的核心，领导中国人民彻底改变自己命运和国家面貌的一代伟人，为世界被压迫民族的解放和人类进步事业作出重大贡献的伟大国际主义者，毛泽东领导党和人民创造的历史之“变”，为人类文明新形态之“新”奠定了重要的理论之基、实践之基和价值之基。正是毛泽东领导党和人民进行的不懈探索与奋斗，推动了中华文明从文明蒙尘到文明祛尘的历史性转变，并为新的文明形态的产生与发展奠定了重要基础、提供了宝贵经验，为创造人类文明新形态进行了有益探索。

I. Propelling the Historic Transformation of Chinese Civilization from “Civilization Covered in Dust” to “Civilization Cleansed of Dust”

一、推动中华文明从“文明蒙尘”到“文明祛尘”的历史性转变

In modern times, against the backdrop of profound changes in world history, and in the process by which Western capitalist civilization attempted to “create a world in its own image,” [2]2 A paraphrase of a phrase from *The Communist Manifesto* by Marx and Engels. “the Chinese nation, which had created a splendid civilization, encountered a deep crisis in which its civilization could hardly be sustained, presenting to the world a scene of decline and desolation.” [3]3 Quoted from Xi Jinping’s speech at the ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC on July 1, 2021. The decline and internal crisis of Chinese civilization, which meant that civilization was covered in dust, implied that modern China faced not only the threat of war and a crisis of survival, but also, from the perspective of world history, a crossroads in the development of civilization: under the barbaric invasion of a heterogeneous modern capitalist civilization, what path of development should the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization, which had been brilliant for thousands of years, take in the future, and what direction of development should they choose? Therefore, how to achieve the cleansing of civilization from dust and ensure the continuation of Chinese civilization became the epochal theme successively explored by countless people of lofty ideals after modern times. However, whether it was the Westernization Movement, which took the modernization of material means as its method, or the Hundred Days’ Reform and the Xinhai Revolution, which introduced the institutional civilization of capitalism, none achieved the goal of civilizational rejuvenation; the early explorations of modern times all ended in failure. [4]4 The Westernization Movement (c. 1861–1895) was a self-strengthening effort to adopt Western military and industrial technology while preserving the Qing dynasty’s feudal order. The Hundred Days’ Reform (1898) was a failed attempt at institutional reform under Emperor Guangxu. The Xinhai Revolution (1911) overthrew the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China. Mao Zedong’s thinking on the path to saving Chinese civilization unfolded precisely against this historical background and epochal theme.

近代以后，在世界历史深刻变动的背景下，在西方资本主义文明企图“按照自己的面貌为自己创造出一个世界”的进程中，“创造了灿烂文明的中华民族遭遇到文明难以赓续的深重危机，呈现在世界面前的是一派衰败凋零的景象”。中华文明遭遇到的文明蒙尘的衰落历程和内在危机意味着，近代中国面临的不仅是战争威胁和生存危机，摆在中国人民面前的同时也是世界历史视野下的文明发展的分岔路口，即在异质的现代资本主义文明的野蛮入侵下，曾辉煌数千年的中华民族和中华文明今后要走上怎样的发展道路，应选择怎样的发展方向。因此，如何实现文明祛尘，使中华文明赓续下去，便成为近代以后无数仁人志士相继探索的时代主题。然而，无论是以器物现代化为手段的洋务运动，还是引入资本主义制度文明的戊戌变法和辛亥革命，都没有实现文明复兴的目标，近代早期的探索都归于失败。毛泽东对于挽救中华文明之道的思考正是在这样的历史背景和时代主题中展开。

Facing the fact that the capitalist world system had already deprived China of the possibility of pursuing wealth and power as an independent and sovereign state, and facing the repeated failures of early modern Chinese modernization and civilizational revitalization, Mao Zedong deeply realized that in order to solve the problem of how Chinese civilization could position itself within the global hierarchical order shaped by capitalist civilization and achieve the cleansing of Chinese civilization from dust, it was necessary to fundamentally and comprehensively reform Chinese society, the entire world system, and human civilization. As early as his youth, he had clearly pointed out: “Not only Hunan, but the whole of China still has no new culture. The whole world still has no new culture.” [5]5 From Mao Zedong’s letter to Xiang Ziyun, 1920. The “new culture” here refers precisely to a new worldview, a new practical plan, and a new human civilization capable of cleansing Chinese society and even the whole of human society. In the process of intense collision and mutual comparison between Chinese and Western cultures, and after repeatedly comparing various Western political propositions and doctrines, the young Mao Zedong chose to believe in Marxism. By participating in the founding of the CPC, leading the realization of national independence and the liberation of the people, and leading the people in establishing the socialist system, Mao Zedong led the Chinese people and the Chinese nation onto a new civilizational path that fundamentally reflected on and transcended capitalist civilization, changing the fate of the Chinese nation as subordinate to the bourgeois nations. The founding of the CPC, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the establishment of the socialist system are the historic landmarks of the transformation of Chinese civilization from being covered in dust to being cleansed of dust.

面对资本主义世界体系已经剥夺中国作为一个独立自主的国家以追求富强的可能性，面对近代中国早期现代化和文明振兴屡试屡败的境遇，毛泽东深刻意识到，要想解决中华文明在资本主义文明塑造的全球等级秩序中如何自处的问题，实现中华文明的文明祛尘，就必须从根本上、整体上对中国社会以至整个世界体系和人类文明进行革新。早在青年时期，他就曾清醒地指出：“不但湖南，全中国一样尚没有新文化。全世界一样尚没有新文化。”这里的“新文化”，指的正是能够涤荡中国社会以至整个人类社会的新世界观、新实践方案和新的人类文明。在中西方文化激烈碰撞和相互比较过程中，通过对西方各种政治主张和学说进行反复比较后，青年毛泽东选择了信仰马克思主义。通过参与创建中国共产党，领导实现民族独立和人民解放，带领人民建立社会主义制度，毛泽东带领中国人民和中华民族走上了一条从根本上反思和超越资本主义文明的新文明之路，改变了中华民族从属于资产阶级的民族的命运。中国共产党的成立、新中国的成立和社会主义制度的确立，是中华文明实现从文明蒙尘到文明祛尘转变的历史性标志。

First, he participated in forging a proletarian party capable of shouldering the great task of realizing China’s modernization and national rejuvenation, leading the Chinese people onto the path of pursuing socialist and communist civilization. With the lofty ideal of transforming China and the world, Mao Zedong participated in founding the CPC. As a revolutionary party established in accordance with the revolutionary theory and revolutionary style of Marxism-Leninism, the birth of the CPC completely changed the face of the Chinese revolution. From the perspective of the development of Chinese civilization, the reason why the face of the Chinese revolution was completely renewed because of the CPC lies in the fact that, from its birth, the CPC shouldered the historical mission of leading the Chinese people to realize China’s modernization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and this historical mission has always moved in the same direction and in concert with the practical goal of pursuing socialism and communism. This means that China’s pursuit of national independence and modernized development is not only a part of the world’s national liberation movements, nor merely one model among many countries’ paths to modernization, but also a historical process of reflecting on, criticizing, and transcending capitalist civilization that began with the birth of the CPC. The development of Chinese civilization has thus been embedded with the pursuit of the lofty goal of realizing communism. From this point on, the Chinese nation, which accounts for one-quarter of the world’s population, has created a splendid civilization spanning more than 5,000 years, and is the oldest and greatest nation in the world, will, under the leadership of the CPC, embark on a path of civilizational development that seeks and explores a form different from any previous form of civilization, greatly promoting the development and progress of human civilization. The birth of the CPC is precisely the historical starting point for the cleansing of Chinese civilization from dust and the creation of a new form of human civilization. As one of the main founders of the CPC, Mao Zedong undoubtedly made an indelible historical contribution to leading the Chinese people onto the path of pursuing socialist and communist civilization.

第一，参与缔造了一个能够担当实现中国的现代化和民族复兴大任的无产阶级政党，领导中国人民从此走上追寻社会主义和共产主义文明的道路。以改造中国与世界为远大理想，毛泽东参与创建了中国共产党。作为一个按照马克思列宁主义的革命理论和革命风格建立起来的革命党，中国共产党的诞生，使中国革命的面貌焕然一新。从中华文明发展的进程看，中国革命的面貌之所以因中国共产党而焕然一新，在于中国共产党自诞生起就肩负起带领中国人民实现中国的现代化和中华民族伟大复兴的历史使命，而这一历史使命始终与追求社会主义、共产主义的实践目标同向共行。这意味着，中国对民族独立、现代化发展的追求，不仅是世界民族解放运动中的一支，不仅是诸多国家实现现代化的模式的一种，更是自中国共产党诞生之日起对资本主义文明进行反思、批判和超越的历史过程，中华文明的发展由此内嵌着对实现共产主义远大目标的追求。至此，占世界人口1/4、创造了延绵5000多年的灿烂文明、世界上古老而伟大的民族，将在中国共产党的带领下，走上追寻和探索有异于以往任何文明形态的文明发展道路，极大地推动人类文明的发展与进步。中国共产党的诞生正是中华文明的文明祛尘，创造人类文明新形态的历史起点。作为中国共产党的主要缔造者之一，毛泽东对于带领中国人民走向追求社会主义和共产主义文明之路，无疑作出了不可磨灭的历史贡献。

Second, he opened up the correct path of the Chinese revolution, led the Chinese people to achieve national independence and the liberation of the people, founded New China, and fundamentally reversed the decline of Chinese civilization since modern times. Based on a profound grasp of the laws of world historical development and a scientific analysis of Chinese society’s nature, Mao Zedong pointed out that for China to develop into a modernized and prosperous country, it must liberate the productive forces. Since imperialism and feudalism had fettered the development of China’s productive forces, this goal could not be achieved without breaking the oppression of imperialism and feudalism over China. Taking the overthrow of the combined oppression of imperialism and feudalism as the revolutionary task, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, integrated the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with China’s concrete reality and, through arduous exploration, opened up a correct revolutionary path suited to China’s national conditions. After 28 years of valiant struggle, they ultimately won the victory of the New Democratic Revolution, achieved national independence and the liberation of the people, and established a brand-new China, from which point China’s development entered a new epoch. The founding of New China fundamentally reversed the decline of Chinese civilization since modern times and is a key historical marker of Chinese civilization’s casting off of its dust. [6]6 “Casting off its dust” (文明祛尘) is a metaphorical phrase suggesting the removal of the accumulated grime of historical decline and humiliation, restoring civilization’s original brilliance. The era in which the Chinese nation and the Chinese people were humiliated and Chinese civilization was ravaged is gone forever: “Our nation will henceforth join the great family of peace-loving and freedom-loving nations of the world, work with a brave and industrious attitude, create its own civilization and happiness, and at the same time promote world peace and freedom.” [7]7 Mao Zedong, “Opening Address at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference” (September 21, 1949).

第二，开辟了中国革命的正确道路，带领中国人民实现了民族独立和人民解放，成立了新中国，从根本上扭转了近代以来中华文明的衰落进程。基于对世界历史发展规律的深刻把握和对中国社会性质的科学分析，毛泽东指出，中国要发展成为现代化的、富强的国家，就必须解放生产力，而帝国主义和封建主义束缚了中国生产力的发展，不冲破帝国主义和封建主义对中国的压迫，就无法实现这一目标。以推翻帝国主义和封建主义的联合压迫为革命任务，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人将马克思列宁主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合，在艰苦探索中开辟出了一条符合中国国情的正确革命道路。经过28年的英勇斗争，最终取得了新民主主义革命的胜利，实现了民族独立和人民解放，建立了一个崭新的中国，中国的发展从此开启了新纪元。新中国的成立从根本上扭转了近代以来中华文明的衰落进程，是中华文明实现文明祛尘的关键历史性标识。近代以来中华民族和中国人民受人凌辱，中华文明遭受摧残的历史一去不复返，“我们的民族将从此列入爱好和平自由的世界各民族的大家庭，以勇敢而勤劳的姿态工作着，创造自己的文明和幸福，同时也促进世界的和平和自由”。

Third, he opened up a path of socialist transformation suited to China’s characteristics, led the people in establishing the socialist system, and made carrying out modernization and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation mutually reinforcing with building and developing socialist civilization. After completing the first step of the Long March of ten thousand li [8]8 “Long March of ten thousand li” (万里长征) is a metaphor for the arduous, long-term nature of the revolutionary struggle, drawing on the historical Long March (1934–1935). — winning nationwide victory — and following three years of recovery of the national economy, the domestic and international situation underwent tremendous changes. The conditions for the transition to socialism that Mao Zedong had previously proposed had matured. The Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, led the people in exploring a new path of transition to socialism, and the socialist system was established on Chinese soil. The establishment of the socialist system made carrying out modernization and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation mutually reinforcing with building and developing socialist civilization: all the modernization construction carried out by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the process of promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, simultaneously built and developed the socialist form of civilization; and building and developing the socialist cause was precisely for the purpose of advancing toward the goal of realizing modernization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In a country as vast in territory, large in population, and rich in history and culture as China, developing socialism, promoting modernization, and realizing national rejuvenation advance in the form of mutual dependence, integrated development, and joint promotion, and are continuously propelled forward toward the goal of transitioning to a higher form of civilization, even to communist civilization. On the basis of the arduous explorations of the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, a new form of human civilization will gradually emerge and become a reality in socialist China, inevitably profoundly influencing the course of world history and the development and progress of human civilization.

第三，开辟了一条适合中国特点的社会主义改造道路，带领人民建立了社会主义制度，进行现代化建设和实现中华民族伟大复兴从此与构建和发展社会主义文明互为表里。在走完夺取全国胜利的万里长征第一步后，经过三年国民经济的恢复，国内外形势发生巨大变化，毛泽东此前所提出的向社会主义过渡的条件已经成熟，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人领导人民探索出一条向社会主义过渡的新路，社会主义制度在中华大地上确立起来。社会主义制度的建立，使进行现代化建设和实现中华民族伟大复兴与构建和发展社会主义文明互为表里：中国共产党领导人民所进行的一切现代化建设，推动中华民族伟大复兴的历程，同时也在构建和发展社会主义文明形态；而建设和发展社会主义事业，也正是为了朝着实现现代化和中华民族伟大复兴的目标迈进。在中国这样一个幅员辽阔、人口众多、历史文化悠久的国家发展社会主义、推动现代化建设和实现民族复兴以相互依存、融合发展、共同推进为形式，以向更高的文明形态以至共产主义文明过渡为目标不断向前推进。在以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人的艰辛探索的基础上，新的人类文明形态将在社会主义中国逐步地显露出来并成为现实，必然深刻影响世界历史进程和人类文明发展进步。

II. Laying the Foundation for the Emergence and Development of a New Form of Civilization

二、为新的文明形态产生与发展奠定基础

Human society, as an organism constantly in a state of change, manifests its most significant form of development and progress through the extensive, systematic, and profound transformation of the elements that constitute the social structure — economy, politics, culture, society, and the natural environment — and their internal interconnections, leading to the metabolism of social forms. Among these, the transformation of the economic element plays a fundamental role in the renovation of other social elements and the entire social structure: “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.” [9]9 Karl Marx, “Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” (1859). The transformation of political life and intellectual life, which reflect the political superstructure and forms of social consciousness, must correspond to the economic base, while simultaneously exerting a tremendous counteractive force upon it. The patterns of people’s social life are mutually constraining and interconnected with elements such as the economy, politics, culture, and the natural environment. Humans and nature are objects of each other’s existence; human existence and development are inseparable from nature, and nature is continuously transformed by humans: “What is meant by the fact that man’s physical and spiritual life is linked to nature is simply that nature is linked to itself, for man is a part of nature.” [10]10 Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. The regular dialectical movement of the elements within the social structure is precisely this objective natural-historical process. On the one hand, it stipulates that the universal law of the historical development of human society manifests as the successive replacement of different social forms. On the other hand, it provides the space for agency and the limits of practice for people to consciously transform the material and spiritual worlds on the basis of adhering to objective laws, so as to achieve possible leaps in social forms.

人类社会作为一个经常处于变化过程中的有机体，最为显著的发展进步形式就是经济、政治、文化、社会、自然环境等构成社会结构的诸要素及其内在联系，经历一系列广泛的、系统的、深刻的变革，从而导致的社会形态的新陈代谢。其中，经济要素的变革对其他社会要素以至整个社会结构的革新起着基础性作用，“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”；反映政治上层建筑与社会意识形式的政治生活和精神生活，其变革必须与经济基础相适应，同时也给予经济基础以巨大的反作用；人的社会生活样态与经济、政治、文化、自然环境等要素呈现相互制约、相互联系的关系；人与自然界互为对象性存在物，人的存在和发展离不开自然界，自然界受到人的不断改造，“所谓人的肉体生活和精神生活同自然界相联系，不外是说自然界同自身相联系，因为人是自然界的一部分”。社会结构内部诸要素进行着有规律的辩证运动，正是这一客观的自然史过程，一方面规定了人类社会历史发展的普遍规律表现为不同社会形态依次更替，另一方面也为人们在坚持客观规律的基础上自觉改造物质世界和精神世界，以使社会形态实现可能的飞跃提供了能动空间和实践限度。

Since modern times, China gradually degenerated into a dependent, deformed semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The development of advanced modes of production was severely hindered; politically, there was no democracy whatsoever; ideology and culture suffered long-term feudal shackling and the paralyzing influence of imperialist aggression; social livelihood was in a state of exhaustion, with a hundred things waiting to be done; and the natural environment was severely damaged by years of war. This was the historical scene and the actual social structure that the Chinese nation faced in its quest for rejuvenation since modern times, and it was the “conditions directly encountered, given, and inherited from the past” [11]11 Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852). that the Chinese Communists encountered when creating a new world. After the founding of New China, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, adhered to integrating the basic principles of Marxism with China’s concrete reality, and led the Chinese people in initiating modern economic construction, establishing democratic politics, developing new ideology and culture, carrying out social construction, and transforming the natural environment in the new epoch of Chinese history. This brought about earth-shaking changes in China, which had a century-long history of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and laid a solid foundation and provided valuable experience for achieving the sublation of traditional Chinese civilization and the transcendence of capitalist civilization under socialist conditions, and for the emergence and coordinated development of a new form of civilization.

近代以来，中国逐步沦为依附性质的、畸形的半殖民地半封建社会，先进生产方式的发展窒碍难行，政治上毫无民主可言，思想文化遭到长期的封建禁锢和帝国主义的侵略麻痹，社会民生凋敝、百废待兴，自然环境因数年战乱破坏严重。这就是近代以来中华民族谋求复兴所面对的历史场景和现实社会结构，是中国共产党人创造一个新世界时“直接碰到的、既定的、从过去承继下来的条件”。新中国成立后，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人坚持将马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合，领导中国人民在中国历史的新纪元开启现代经济建设、建立民主政治、发展新的思想文化、开展社会建设、改造自然环境，使有着百年半殖民地半封建史的中国发生了翻天覆地的变化，为在社会主义条件下实现对中华传统文明的扬弃、对资本主义文明的超越，为新的文明形态的产生与协调发展奠定了坚实基础，提供了宝贵经验。

(I) Modern economic construction centered on “socialist industrialization” laid the material foundation for the emergence and development of a new form of civilization

（一）以“社会主义工业化”为核心的现代经济建设为新的文明形态的产生与发展奠定了物质基础

From the perspective of historical materialism, the transformation of the mode of production, which causes changes in the form of material civilization, is the fundamental prerequisite and decisive factor for the evolution of stages of human social development and the overall progress of human civilization. Applying historical materialism and grasping China’s economic conditions, Mao Zedong identified the economic manifestation of China’s semi-colonial and semi-feudal social nature since modern times: “In terms of the proportion of industry and agriculture in the national economy nationwide, before the War of Resistance Against Japan, modern industry accounted for about ten percent, while agriculture and handicrafts accounted for about ninety percent.” [12]12 Mao Zedong, “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship” (June 30, 1949). He further concluded that “the reason for China’s backwardness is mainly the lack of modern industry.” [13]13 Mao Zedong, “On Coalition Government” (April 24, 1945). This was a scientific judgment consistent with the state of modern China’s economic development and the world historical context in which it was situated. In his report to the Seventh National Congress of the CPC in 1945, Mao Zedong pointed out that after political conditions matured, it would be necessary to “gradually establish heavy and light industry over a number of years, transforming China from an agricultural country into an industrial country.” [14]14 Ibid. After the founding of New China, China embarked on a modernization process with industrialization as its core content and main driving force. In the exploratory practice of the transition to socialism, Mao Zedong explicitly put forward the concept of “socialist industrialization” and established a development model of achieving industrialization by taking the socialist road. Entering the period of socialist construction, Mao Zedong proposed that China’s industrialization construction should shift from taking the Soviet Union as a teacher to taking the Soviet Union as a mirror, leading China onto the path of independently exploring industrialization construction. Industrialization provided a solid material guarantee for modernization in other fields. While industrialization achieved certain development, Mao Zedong expanded China’s modernization goals, put forward the Four Modernizations strategy, [15]15 The Four Modernizations (四个现代化) — of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology — were first proposed by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in the 1960s as China’s long-term development goals. and set grand development objectives and clarified a practical direction for China’s modern economic construction and modernization process.

在唯物史观的视阈中，生产方式的革命所引起的物质文明形态的变革，是人类社会发展阶段演进和人类文明整体进步的根本前提与决定因素。毛泽东运用唯物史观，通过对中国社会经济状况的把握，找到了近代中国的半殖民地半封建社会性质在经济上的表现——“中国的工业和农业在国民经济中的比重，就全国范围来说，在抗日战争以前，大约是现代性的工业占百分之十左右，农业和手工业占百分之九十左右” ，进而认为“中国落后的原因，主要的是没有新式工业”。这是一个合近代中国经济发展状况和所处世界历史背景的科学判断。在1945年为党的七大所作的报告中，毛泽东指出，在政治条件成熟后，要“在若干年内逐步地建立重工业和轻工业，使中国由农业国变为工业国”。新中国成立后，我国开启了以工业化为核心内容和主要驱动力的现代化进程。在向社会主义过渡的探索实践中，毛泽东明确提出了“社会主义工业化”的概念，确立了走社会主义道路实现工业化的发展模式。进入社会主义建设时期，毛泽东提出我国工业化建设要实现从以苏为师向以苏为鉴的转变，领导我国走上自主探索工业化建设的道路。工业化为其他领域的现代化建设提供了坚实的物质保障，在工业化取得一定发展的同时，毛泽东对我国的现代化目标进行了扩充，提出了四个现代化战略，为我国的现代经济建设和现代化进程制定了宏伟的发展目标，指明了清晰的实践方向。

The modern economic construction led by Mao Zedong, centered on socialist industrialization, propelled historic transformations in China’s economy and society: the historic combination of two revolutions—the revolution in the economic system and the revolution in production technology—on the one hand provided the institutional foundation and institutional advantages for rapid industrialization, and on the other hand enabled socialism to be truly established on the conditions of the development of socialized production; the national industrialization process advanced historically, with the gross output value of industry and agriculture in China growing at an average annual rate of 8.2% from 1952 to 1978, of which industry grew at an average annual rate of 11.4%, and industry’s share of total GDP rising from 17.6% in 1952 to 44.3% in 1978; the level of national economic development rose historically, with China’s GDP increasing from 67.9 billion yuan in 1952 to 296.5 billion yuan in 1976 at constant prices, and per capita GDP rising from 119 yuan in 1952 to 319 yuan in 1976; on this basis, the social form of China’s economy achieved a historic leap, gradually transforming from a backward agricultural economic form in which “about 90 percent of economic life remained in antiquity” before the founding of New China into a modern economic form of a socialist nature that “established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system.” Although there were also twists and turns in this process of transformation, just as the Party’s second historical resolution [16]16 The “second historical resolution” refers to the “Resolution on Certain Historical Questions of the Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China,” adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC in 1981. It provides a comprehensive evaluation of Mao Zedong’s historical status and the period of socialist construction. gave full affirmation to the period of comprehensive socialist construction: “A large part of the material and technological foundation on which we now rely for modernization was built during this period; the backbone forces in national economic and cultural construction and their work experience were also largely cultivated and accumulated during this period.” The modern economic construction led by Mao Zedong provided the productive forces conditions, the economic system foundation, the industrial foundation, and the talent reserve for China’s subsequent “realization, after reform and opening up, of the industrialization and the commodification, socialization, and modernization of production that many other countries had achieved under capitalist conditions,” completed an important and foundational step for exploring Chinese-path modernization, which involves the superimposed development of industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, and laid a solid material foundation for the emergence and development of the economic form of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

毛泽东领导开展的以社会主义工业化为核心的现代经济建设，推动了我国经济社会发生历史性变革：经济制度革命和生产技术革命两种革命历史性结合，一方面使快速实现工业化获得了制度基础和制度优势，另一方面使社会主义能真正建立在社会化生产发展的条件之上；国家工业化进程历史性推进，从1952年到1978年，我国工农业总产值平均年增长率为8.2%，其中工业年均增长11.4%，工业GDP占总GDP的份额从1952年的17.6%增长到1978年的44.3%；国民经济发展水平历史性提高，按照不变价格计算，我国国内生产总值从1952年的679亿元增加到1976年的2965亿元，人均国内生产总值从1952年的119元增加到1976年的319元；在此基础上，我国经济的社会形态实现历史性飞跃，从新中国成立前“百分之九十左右的经济生活停留在古代”的落后的农业经济形态，逐步转变为“建立起独立的比较完整的工业体系和国民经济体系”的社会主义性质的现代经济形态。尽管在这个变革过程中也存在曲折，但正如党的第二个历史决议对全面建设社会主义时期所给予的充分肯定：“我们现在赖以进行现代化建设的物质技术基础，很大一部分是这个期间建设起来的；全国经济文化建设等方面的骨干力量和他们的工作经验，大部分也是在这个期间培养和积累起来的”，毛泽东领导开展的现代经济建设为我国改革开放以后进一步“去实现别的许多国家在资本主义条件下实现的工业化和生产的商品化、社会化、现代化”提供了生产力条件、经济制度基础、产业基础和人才储备，为探索工业化、信息化、城镇化、农业现代化叠加发展的中国式现代化走完了重要的、具有奠基性的一步，为中国特色社会主义经济形态的产生与发展奠定了坚实的物质基础。

(II) The construction of socialist democratic politics centered on people’s democracy laid the political foundation for the emergence and development of the new form of civilization

（二）以人民民主为核心的社会主义民主政治建设为新的文明形态的产生与发展奠定了政治基础

“People’s democracy is the lifeblood of socialism. Without democracy, there is no socialism, no socialist modernization, and no great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Realizing and developing people’s democracy has been the unremitting goal of the Communist Party of China since its founding, and Mao Zedong made pioneering contributions to the development of China’s socialist democratic politics. In May 1939, Mao Zedong put forward the concept of people’s democracy, clearly stating for the first time that the goal of the democratic revolution was to “establish a republic of people’s democracy” and “establish a system of people’s democracy.” In subsequent works such as *On New Democracy* and *On Coalition Government*, Mao Zedong elaborated more deeply on “the state system of new democracy,” laying the groundwork for the prototype of the state system after the founding of New China. In September 1948, Mao Zedong proposed for the first time at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee the establishment of “people’s democratic dictatorship” as a new type of state system. In the subsequent article *On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship*, Mao Zedong provided a systematic theoretical explanation of “people’s democratic dictatorship,” “laying the theoretical and policy foundation for the establishment of New China.” Adhering to people’s democratic dictatorship as the nature of the state power of New China, and through long-term exploration of the organizational form of state power during the New Democratic Revolution, Mao Zedong led the design of the system of people’s congresses corresponding to the state of people’s democratic dictatorship. In addition to establishing the state system and the form of government of New China, Mao Zedong also conducted a series of theoretical and practical explorations on developing party politics, promoting regional ethnic autonomy, strengthening intra-Party democracy, and ensuring people’s supervision: exploring the new type of party system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, realizing “the transformation of oligarchic autocracy into genuine democratic politics”; promoting the formation and implementation of the top-level design of the system of regional ethnic autonomy, guaranteeing the right of minority ethnic groups to be masters of their own affairs; strengthening the construction of intra-Party democracy based on the principle of democratic centralism, leveraging intra-Party democracy to drive people’s democracy; proposing and practicing the major proposition of a new path of democracy through people’s supervision, promoting the formation of a supervision system including supervision by people’s congresses, supervision by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, public opinion supervision, and supervision through letters and visits and reports.

“人民民主是社会主义的生命。没有民主就没有社会主义，就没有社会主义的现代化，就没有中华民族伟大复兴。”实现和发展人民民主是中国共产党自成立以来不懈追求的目标，毛泽东对我国社会主义民主政治的发展作出了开创性贡献。1939年5月，毛泽东提出人民民主的概念，首次明确指出，民主革命的目的是“建立一个人民民主的共和国”和“建立人民民主主义的制度”。在之后的《新民主主义论》和《论联合政府》中，毛泽东对“新民主主义的国家制度”进行了更为深入的阐述，奠定了新中国成立后国家制度的雏形。1948年9月，毛泽东于中央政治局会议上首次提出建立“人民民主专政”这一新型国体的主张。在之后的《论人民民主专政》一文中，毛泽东对“人民民主专政”进行了系统的理论阐释，“为新中国的建立奠定理论基础和政策基础”。坚持以人民民主专政为新中国的政权性质，经过新民主主义革命过程中对政权组织形式的长期探索，毛泽东领导设计了与人民民主专政的国家相适应的人民代表大会制度。除了确立新中国的国体和政体，毛泽东还对发展政党政治、推动民族区域自治、加强党内民主、保障人民监督进行了一系列的理论和实践探索：探索中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商的新型政党制度，实现“将寡头专制变为真正的民主政治”；推动民族区域自治制度顶层设计的形成和落实，保障少数民族人民当家作主的权利；加强以民主集中制为原则的党内民主建设，发挥党内民主对人民民主的带动作用；提出和践行人民监督的民主新路的重大命题，推动形成含有人民代表大会监督、人民政协监督、舆论监督、信访举报监督等监督形式的监督体系。

Marx and Engels pointed out: “What is democracy? It must have a certain meaning, otherwise it cannot exist. Therefore the whole question lies in determining the true meaning of democracy.” [17]17 This quotation is adapted from Marx’s early writings; the exact phrasing is not a direct citation from Marx and Engels’ collected works but reflects a common summary of their views on democracy. The basic framework and development ideas that Mao Zedong established for China’s socialist democratic politics fundamentally provided an answer in line with China’s actual conditions to the practical question of “the whole question lies in determining the true meaning of democracy.” In Mao Zedong’s view, “In the world, there are only concrete freedoms and concrete democracies, no abstract freedoms or abstract democracies.” Democracy, as part of the superstructure, ultimately serves the economic base. Mao Zedong scientifically revealed the essence of democracy and also pointed out the abstractness of the democratic views propagated by the Western bourgeoisie and the hypocrisy of their democratic systems: the people’s democratic dictatorship implemented in China clearly indicates the practice of democratic centralism within the ranks of the people, granting the people a supreme status and extensive political rights, while exercising dictatorship over enemies to resolve contradictions between ourselves and the enemy; “our socialist democracy is the broadest democracy that no bourgeois state could ever have.” The system of people’s congresses, corresponding to people’s democratic dictatorship, differs from the situation under the capitalist parliamentary system where “what truly manipulates the state power is not the people, nor the parliament, but the monopoly capital groups.” The system of people’s congresses, which implements the principles of combining legislative and executive powers and democratic centralism, enables the people to effectively participate in the management of various state and social affairs, with state power ultimately resting in the hands of the entire people; it is “a high degree of centralization on the basis of a high degree of democracy, a genuine people’s democracy, absolutely incomparable to the hypocritical democracy of the bourgeoisie.” The new type of party system, based on Marxist party theory and the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, absorbs the outstanding civilizational achievements of the development of Western party systems while overcoming the problems of fragmented interests, divergent goals, and low governance efficiency caused by the two-party and multi-party systems under the capitalist system. The system of regional ethnic autonomy conforms to the basic national condition of China’s historical tradition of a unified multi-ethnic state; it is a model of combining Marxist ethnic theory with China’s specific realities, and a great innovation capable of advancing the resolution of the problem of de facto inequality among ethnic groups left over from history, as raised by classical Marxist writers, and of strengthening and guaranteeing ethnic equality, ethnic unity, and the realization of common prosperity in China.

马克思恩格斯指出：“民主是什么呢？它必须具备一定的意义，否则它就不能存在。因此全部问题就在于确定民主的真正意义。”毛泽东为我国社会主义民主政治确立的基本框架和发展思路，从根本上对“全部问题就在于确定民主的真正意义”的现实之问给予了符合中国实际的解答。在毛泽东看来，“世界上只有具体的自由，具体的民主，没有抽象的自由，抽象的民主”，民主作为上层建筑，归根结底是为经济基础服务的。毛泽东科学揭示了民主的本质，也指明了西方资产阶级宣扬的民主观点的抽象性，以及其民主制度的虚伪性：我国实行的人民民主专政，明确表明在人民内部实行民主集中制，赋予人民至高无上的地位和广泛的政治权利，对于敌人则实施专政以解决敌我之间的矛盾，“我们的这个社会主义的民主是任何资产阶级国家所不可能有的最广大的民主”。与人民民主专政相适应的人民代表大会制度，不同于在资本主义议会制下“真正操纵国家大权的不是人民，也不是议会，而是垄断资本集团”。实行议行合一、民主集中制原则的人民代表大会制度使人民能够有效地参与国家和社会各项事务的管理，国家权力最终掌握在全体人民手中，“是高度民主基础上的高度集中，是真正的人民民主，是资产阶级虚伪的民主所绝对不可比拟的”。新型的政党制度，以马克思主义政党学说和无产阶级专政理论为基础，吸收了西方政党制度发展的优秀文明成果，又克服了资本主义制度下两党制、多党制造成的利益割裂、目标不一、治理低效的问题。民族区域自治制度符合我国多元一体大一统格局的历史传统的基本国情，是将马克思主义民族理论与我国具体实际相结合的典范，是一项能够推进解决马克思主义经典作家所提出的历史上遗留下来的民族间事实上的不平等的问题，加强和保障我国民族平等、民族团结和实现共同繁荣的伟大创举。

It was precisely the construction of socialist democratic politics centered on people’s democracy, led by Mao Zedong, that transformed China from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society possessing the “great shortcoming” of “lacking democracy” into a socialist country with a genuine and extensive democratic system. Political development advanced historically by a great step, laying the political foundation for the emergence of the new form of civilization.

正是毛泽东领导的以人民民主为核心的社会主义民主政治建设，使中国从拥有“缺乏民主”这个“很大的缺点”的半殖民地半封建社会，转变为拥有真实的、广泛的民主制度的社会主义国家，政治发展历史性地向前迈进一大步，为新的文明形态的产生奠定了政治基础。

(III) The construction of socialist culture centered on serving the people laid the cultural foundation for the emergence and development of the new form of civilization

（三）以为人民服务为核心的社会主义文化建设为新的文明形态的产生与发展奠定了文化基础

“A given culture (as an ideological form of culture) is the reflection of the politics and economy of a given society, and in turn exerts a great influence and effect upon the politics and economy of that society.” Mao Zedong was adept at grasping the relationship between culture and politics and economy from the standpoint of historical materialism, and he consistently attached importance to the role of cultural construction in social development. Faced with the prolonged oppression of the Chinese people by feudalism and imperialism, it was the inevitable task of the Communist Party of China, representing the fundamental interests of the people, to free the Chinese people from the shackles and constraints of feudal ethical codes and from imperialist cultural aggression. Mao Zedong pointed out that New China must “carry out large-scale economic construction and cultural construction, sweep away the poverty and ignorance left behind by old China, and gradually improve the people’s material life and raise their cultural life.” After the founding of New China, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, led large-scale socialist cultural construction: they clarified and consolidated the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological sphere, pointing out the need to “carry out, step by step and with caution, the reform of the old educational enterprise and the old social cultural enterprise”; they launched the rectification movement in literary and art circles [18]18 The rectification movement in literary and art circles (文艺界整风运动) refers to a campaign launched in the early 1950s to align literary and artistic work with the Party’s ideological and political line, following Mao’s Yan’an Talks. and strengthened socialist ideological education for youth, intellectuals, and the general public; they emphasized the work of education, launched the literacy campaign and the work of popularizing cultural and technical education, and put forward the socialist educational policy of “enabling everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually, and physically and become a cultured worker with socialist consciousness”; they strengthened the construction of political culture within the Party, launched the Party-wide rectification movement to “raise the ideological and political level of cadres and ordinary Party members,” and emphasized the fine style of work characterized by modesty and prudence, freedom from arrogance and rashness, and hard struggle; they advanced the construction of social ideology and morality, proposing that “love of the motherland, love of the people, love of labor, and love of public property be the public morals of all citizens,” and raised the overall level of ideology and morality in China through methods such as strengthening propaganda and education, extensively mobilizing the masses, setting up advanced models, and using Party style construction to drive the improvement of social atmosphere; they put forward the basic policies for flourishing New China’s cultural enterprise, such as letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, making the past serve the present and foreign things serve China, thereby mobilizing the enthusiasm of all parties to create advanced culture and promoting the drawing of lessons from the world’s excellent cultures and the transformation of traditional culture.

“一定的文化（当作观念形态的文化）是一定社会的政治和经济的反映，又给予伟大影响和作用于一定社会的政治和经济”，毛泽东善于以历史唯物主义的观点把握文化与政治、经济之间的关系，历来重视文化建设在社会发展中的作用。面对中国人民长期受到封建主义和帝国主义压迫的状况，使中国人民摆脱封建礼教的束缚禁锢和帝国主义的文化侵略，是代表人民根本利益的中国共产党的必然任务。毛泽东指出，新中国要“进行大规模的经济建设和文化建设，扫除旧中国所留下来的贫困和愚昧，逐步地改善人民的物质生活和提高人民的文化生活”。新中国成立后，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人领导了大规模的社会主义文化建设：明确和巩固马克思主义在意识形态领域的指导地位，指出要“有步骤地谨慎地进行旧有学校教育事业和旧有社会文化事业的改革工作”，开展文艺界整风运动，加强对青少年、知识分子和社会大众的社会主义意识形态教育；强调抓好教育工作，开展扫盲运动和文化技术教育普及工作，提出“使受教育者在德育、智育、体育几方面都得到发展，成为有社会主义觉悟的有文化的劳动者”的社会主义教育方针；加强党内政治文化建设，开展全党整风运动以“提高干部和一般党员的思想水平和政治水平”，强调谦虚谨慎、戒骄戒躁、艰苦奋斗的优良作风；推进社会思想道德建设，提出“爱祖国，爱人民，爱劳动，爱护公共财产为全体国民的公德”，通过加强宣传教育、广泛发动人民群众、树立先进典型、以党风建设带动社会风气好转等途径和方法提高我国整体思想道德水平；提出百花齐放、百家争鸣，古为今用、洋为中用等繁荣新中国的文化事业的基本方针，调动各方创造先进文化的积极性，推动对世界优秀文化的借鉴和对传统文化的改造。

In the process of cultural construction, Mao Zedong always emphasized the issue of the value stance of the cultural enterprise. In *On New Democracy*, Mao Zedong clearly stated that the new-democratic culture is national, scientific, and popular, and that “it should serve the toiling masses of workers and peasants who constitute more than 90 percent of the nation’s population, and gradually become their culture.” At the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, Mao Zedong profoundly pointed out, “The question of ‘for whom?’ is a fundamental question, a question of principle,” and “our literature and art are for the masses of the people, first and foremost for the workers, peasants, and soldiers”; the Party’s literary and art work “is subordinate to the revolutionary tasks set by the Party during a given revolutionary period.”

在进行文化建设过程中，毛泽东始终强调文化事业的价值立场问题。在《新民主主义论》中，毛泽东明确新民主主义文化是民族的科学的大众的文化，“它应为全民族中百分之九十以上的工农劳苦民众服务，并逐渐成为他们的文化”。在延安工作座谈会上，毛泽东深刻指出，“为什么人的问题，是一个根本的问题，原则的问题”，“我们的文学艺术都是为人民大众的，首先是为工农兵的”，党的文艺工作，“是服从党在一定革命时期内所规定的革命任务的”。

After the founding of New China, the policy of serving the people in the cultural enterprise was written into the *Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference*, which served as a provisional constitution. Subsequently, on the basis of the ideas put forward by Mao Zedong of serving the masses of the people, serving the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and serving the revolutionary tasks, the “two-for” direction [19]19 The “two-for” direction (二为方向) is the policy of serving the people and serving socialism, which became the guiding principle for socialist cultural development in China. of socialist cultural development—serving the people and serving socialism—was formed. The people’s stance running through cultural construction makes China’s advanced socialist culture fundamentally different from feudal culture, which uses obscurantism as a means and has the substantive purpose of maintaining feudal rule; different from capitalist culture, which uses “universal values” as a slogan and has the substantive purpose of safeguarding the interests of the bourgeoisie; rather, it is a culture that truly represents the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people and takes the free and comprehensive development of the individual as its fundamental purpose, and “in its spiritual aspect, it has already surpassed the entire capitalist world.”

新中国成立后，文化事业为人民服务的方针被写入具有临时宪法性质的《中国人民政治协商会议共同纲领》。之后，在毛泽东提出的为人民大众、为工农兵、为革命任务的思想基础上，形成了为人民服务、为社会主义服务的社会主义文化发展的“二为”方向。贯穿于文化建设中的人民立场，使我国的社会主义先进文化从本质上不同于以愚民为手段，以维护封建统治为实质目的的封建文化；不同于以“普世价值”为口号，以维护资产阶级利益为实质目的的资本主义文化；而是真正代表最广大人民根本利益、以实现人的自由全面发展为根本目的的文化，“就其精神方面来说，已经超过了整个资本主义的世界”。

It was precisely the socialist cultural construction led by Mao Zedong, with serving the people as its core, that propelled the rebirth and reshaping of China’s millennia-old culture, realized the transformation of modern Chinese culture from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal cultural form to a socialist cultural form, brought about an unprecedented change in the spiritual outlook of the Chinese nation, and laid the foundation for the socialist cultural form with Chinese characteristics, which is guided by Marxism, takes the modernization of the individual and the free and comprehensive development of the individual as its fundamental purpose, absorbs and draws lessons from the outstanding achievements of human civilization, is deeply rooted in fine traditional Chinese culture, revolutionary culture, and advanced socialist culture, and develops in the process of Chinese-path modernization.

正是毛泽东领导的以为人民服务为核心的社会主义文化建设，推动开启了中国几千年文化的重生和重塑，实现了近代以来中华文化从半殖民地半封建文化形态向社会主义文化形态的转型，中华民族的精神面貌得到前所未有的改变，为以马克思主义为指导，以实现人的现代化和人的自由全面发展为根本目的，吸收借鉴人类优秀文明成果，厚植于中华优秀传统文化、革命文化和社会主义先进文化，发展于中国式现代化进程中的中国特色社会主义文化形态奠定了基础。

(4) Social construction centered on building a new society laid the social foundation for the emergence and development of the new form of civilization

（四）以建立新社会为核心的社会建设为新的文明形态的产生与发展奠定了社会基础

In modern China, under conditions of accumulated feudal ills and foreign invasion, society suffered from problems such as disease and famine, war and turmoil, poverty and ignorance; the social security system was extremely fragile and developed slowly, and the people’s living standards and the level of social development were extremely low. Transforming the old society in order to “build a new society and a new state for the Chinese nation” and solving the long-accumulated social ills to effectively raise the people’s living standards were Mao Zedong’s unremitting pursuits. After the founding of New China, the launch of the socialist revolution and socialist construction provided the social system conditions and material basis for cleansing the filth and mire of the old society and building a new society to improve the people’s lives. The Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, taking the fundamental interests of the people as their starting point, and focusing on the practical problems of China’s livelihood development and grassroots governance, led large-scale social transformation and social construction on the basis of emphasizing the principle of overall consideration and coordination.

近代中国在封建积弊和外来入侵的状况下，社会遭受疾病灾荒、战争动荡、贫穷愚昧等问题，社会保障系统脆弱不堪、发展缓慢，民众生活水平和社会发展水平极为低下。通过改造旧社会以“建设一个中华民族的新社会和新国家”，解决长期以来积累的社会痼疾以切实提高人民的生活水平，是毛泽东的不懈追求。新中国成立后，社会主义革命和社会主义建设的开展，为涤荡旧社会的污泥浊水，建设一个新社会以改善人民群众的生活提供了社会制度条件和物质基础。以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人以人民的根本利益为出发点，针对我国民生发展和基层治理的现实问题，在强调统筹兼顾原则的基础上领导进行了大规模的社会改造和社会建设。

First, solving the unemployment problem. Mao Zedong repeatedly stressed that steps should be taken to help the unemployed find jobs, solve the unemployment problem, and adopt measures to relieve and resettle the unemployed. To this end, China promulgated documents such as the “Directive on Relieving Unemployed Workers” (June 1950) and the “Decision on the Issue of Labor Employment” (July 1952), step by step resolving the resettlement of the unemployed and the employment of workers, intellectuals, and other personnel. Second, raising the level of medical care and education. In response to the prevalence of epidemic diseases and the low level of people’s health since modern times, Mao Zedong proposed gradually raising China’s medical and health standards, attaching importance to epidemic prevention work, and demanding that “health, epidemic prevention, and general medical work be regarded as a major political task.” [20]20 Mao Zedong, “Directive on Health Work,” in *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, vol. 6, p. 176. In view of the slow development of education since modern times and the need to improve the people’s knowledge level and cultural quality, Mao Zedong called for vigorously developing public education, advancing literacy education, supporting script reform, and paying attention to the addition of public kindergartens and primary, secondary, and tertiary schools. Third, strengthening social security. In response to the fragility of China’s social security system since modern times and the difficulty of safeguarding the basic social rights of the people, Mao Zedong made important expositions and directives on work concerning labor insurance, workers’ working conditions and collective welfare, rural social security, social relief, and preferential treatment and resettlement. To this end, China promulgated a series of documents and regulations, including the “Trade Union Law of the People’s Republic of China” (June 1950), the “Labor Insurance Regulations of the People’s Republic of China” (February 1951), the “Charter of the Chinese People’s Relief Association” (1952), and the “Directive on Several Issues Concerning Workers’ and Staff Members’ Livelihood” (January 1957). Through practical exploration, a relatively complete social security system was gradually formed, including social insurance, social welfare, and social relief. Fourth, raising the status of women. Mao Zedong vigorously supported women’s participation in social productive labor and national political life, attached importance to raising women’s status and promoting gender equality. Under the guidance of Mao Zedong’s thought on women’s emancipation, women’s basic rights in politics, economy, culture, and other aspects were confirmed in laws such as the “Constitution of the People’s Republic of China,” the “Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China,” and the “Land Reform Law of the People’s Republic of China,” thus liberating women from the shackles of “political power, clan power, theocratic power, and husband power” [21]21 Mao Zedong, “Report on the Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan,” in *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, vol. 1, p. 31. The four types of authority are the political authority of the landlords, the clan authority of the ancestral temples, the theocratic authority of the gods and spirits, and the husband authority of men over women. in the old society. Fifth, carrying out social governance. In response to the situation since modern times of Chinese society being a sheet of loose sand, chaotic social order, and damaged social mores, Mao Zedong stressed correctly handling contradictions among the people. On the one hand, he combined the establishment of and reliance on grassroots organizations with the extensive mobilization of the masses to participate. In this process, the “Fengqiao experience” [22]22 The “Fengqiao experience” originated in the early 1960s in Fengqiao Township, Zhuji County, Zhejiang Province, as a method of resolving contradictions among the people through mass-line education and mediation rather than through coercive state organs. It was later promoted nationwide and remains a model for grassroots social governance. of grassroots social governance explored by the Party and the people received Mao Zedong’s focused attention and was promoted, and it has been continuously developed and innovated since then. On the other hand, by emphasizing lifestyles and ideological styles such as diligence and thrift, hard struggle, the glory of labor, patriotic dedication, scientific progress, and unity and fraternity, he achieved the transformation of customs and the purification of social mores, using fine social customs to enhance social cohesion, maintain social order, and promote social governance.

一是解决失业问题。毛泽东多次强调，要有步骤地帮助失业者就业，解决失业问题，采取救济和安置失业人员的办法。为此，我国颁布了《关于救济失业工人的指示》（1950年6月）、《关于劳动就业问题的决定》（1952年7月）等文件，有步骤地解决失业人员安置问题和工人、知识分子等人员的就业问题。二是提高医疗和教育水平。针对近代以来疫病成灾和人民卫生健康水平不高的情况，毛泽东提出要逐步提高我国医疗卫生水平，重视防疫工作，要求“把卫生、防疫和一般医疗工作看作一项重大的政治任务”。对于近代以来教育事业发展缓慢，民众的知识水平和文化素质有待提高的状况，毛泽东要求大力发展公共教育，推进扫盲教育，支持文字改革，关注公立幼儿园和大中小学校的增设。三是加强社会保障。针对近代以来我国社会保障系统脆弱，民众基本社会权益难以得到保障的情况，毛泽东对劳动保险、工人劳动条件和集体福利、农村社会保障、社会救济、优抚安置等方面的工作作出了重要论述和指示。为此，我国颁布了《中华人民共和国工会法》（1950年6月）、《中华人民共和国劳动保险条例》（1951年2月）、《中国人民救济总会章程》（1952年）、《关于职工生活方面若干问题的指示》（1957年1月）等一系列文件和法规，在实践探索中逐步形成了包括社会保险、社会福利、社会救济等内容的、相对完备的社会保障体系。四是提高妇女地位。毛泽东大力支持妇女参与社会生产劳动和国家政治生活，重视提升妇女地位和促进男女平等，在毛泽东妇女解放思想的指导下，妇女在政治、经济、文化等方面的基本权利在《中华人民共和国宪法》《中华人民共和国婚姻法》《中华人民共和国土地改革法》等法律中得到确认，使妇女从旧社会的“政权、族权、神权、夫权”束缚中解放出来。五是开展社会治理。对于近代以来中国社会一盘散沙、社会秩序混乱、社会风气遭到破坏的状况，毛泽东强调要正确处理人民内部矛盾。一方面将建立和依靠基层组织与广泛动员人民群众参与相结合，在这个过程中，党和人民探索出的社会基层治理的枫桥经验得到毛泽东的重点关注和推广，并在之后不断发展和创新；另一方面是通过强调勤俭节约、艰苦奋斗、劳动光荣、爱国奉献、科学进步、团结友爱等生活方式和思想作风，实现移风易俗和社会风气的净化，以优良的社会风尚增强社会凝聚力、维护社会秩序、促进社会治理。

It can be seen that although Mao Zedong did not explicitly propose or use the concept of social construction, his exploration of caring for the people’s livelihood, granting the people tangible material welfare, and maintaining social stability and order ran through socialist revolution and socialist construction. Under the large-scale social transformation and social construction led by Mao Zedong, New China, born from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, transformed from a state of waste and ruin awaiting reconstruction and devastation to a completely new look. The people’s lives were practically improved, and the level of social development reached new heights. During that period, the ideological and moral level of the Chinese nation was raised; the relationship between cadres and the masses was harmonious, and there was basically no gap between rich and poor; the ugly phenomena left over from the old society were despised by people, society was pure, people’s hearts were pure, and social trust was high; the suicide rate, mental illness rate, and social crime rate were the lowest in the world, and China was considered the safest country with the best social order in the world. The social construction led by Mao Zedong, centered on establishing a new society, achieved major successes, laying an important social foundation for the emergence and development of a new form of civilization. It also provided theoretical resources and practical exploration experience for the people-centered development thought and for contemporary Chinese social construction, whose fundamental tasks are to ensure and improve people’s livelihoods and to strengthen and innovate social governance.

可以发现，尽管毛泽东没有明确提出和使用社会建设概念，但他对于关心群众生活、给予人民现实的物质福利以及维护社会安宁稳定进行的探索，始终贯穿在社会主义革命和社会主义建设之中。在毛泽东领导的大规模社会改造和社会建设下，从半殖民地半封建社会中脱胎而出的新中国从百废待兴、满目疮痍到呈现出翻天覆地的新面貌，人民群众的生活得到了切实的改善，社会发展水平达到了新的高度。在那一时期，中华民族的思想道德水平得到提高；干群关系融洽，基本没有贫富差距；旧社会遗留下来的丑恶现象为人所不齿，社会纯洁、人心纯净、社会诚信度高；自杀率、精神病率、社会犯罪率全世界最低，被认为是世界上最安全、社会秩序最好的国家。毛泽东领导的以建立新社会为核心的社会建设，取得了重大成就，为新的文明形态的产生与发展奠定了重要的社会基础，也为以人民为中心的发展思想、以保障和改善民生与加强和创新社会治理为根本任务的当代中国社会建设提供了理论资源和实践探索经验。

(5) Ecological construction centered on understanding and transforming nature provided ideological resources for contemporary Chinese ecological civilization construction

（五）以认识和改造自然为核心的生态建设为当代中国生态文明建设提供了思想资源

After the founding of New China, the conditions and tasks faced by the Party and the people in improving the natural environment were special and complex: China’s geographical environment is unique, with large climate differences and complex terrain, while in the early days of New China, infrastructure such as water conservancy facilities, transportation facilities, energy facilities, and information facilities was weak, limiting the capacity to resist various natural disasters; due to prolonged warfare and inadequate governance since modern times, China’s ecological environment and urban-rural living environment were severely damaged, and the tasks of ecological restoration and urban-rural environmental transformation were arduous; after the founding of New China, China’s ecological protection and environmental transformation were not based on a relatively developed industry but were carried out at the beginning of the development of socialist industrialization, accompanying the more urgent task of developing production. Faced with this situation of highly strained relations between humans and nature, Mao Zedong adhered to the proposition of understanding and transforming nature and conducted many beneficial explorations in ecological construction in the process of leading the Party and the people in advancing socialist industrialization and socialist construction.

新中国成立后，党和人民所面对的改善自然环境的条件与任务特殊而复杂：我国地理环境特殊，气候差异大，地形复杂，而新中国成立初期水利设施、交通设施、能源设施、信息设施等基础设施薄弱，抵御各类自然灾害的能力有限；由于近代以来的长期战乱以及治理不足，我国生态环境和城乡生活环境破坏严重，生态修复和城乡环境改造的任务艰巨；新中国成立后，我国的生态保护和环境改造并不是建立在工业较为发达的基础上，而是进行于社会主义工业化起步发展之时，与更为迫切的发展生产任务相伴。面对这种人与自然关系高度紧张的状况，毛泽东坚持认识和改造自然的主张，在领导党和人民推进社会主义工业化和社会主义建设的进程中对生态建设进行了诸多有益的探索。

Mao Zedong placed great emphasis on understanding the laws of nature, demanding the study of nature: “If we have no understanding of nature, or if our understanding is unclear, we will hit snags, and nature will punish us and resist.” [23]23 Mao Zedong, “Speech at the Conference of Provincial, Municipal, and Autonomous Region Party Committee Secretaries” (January 1957), in *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, vol. 5, p. 340. In analyzing the relationship between humans and nature, Mao Zedong pointed out that for people to gain freedom in nature, “they must use natural science to understand nature, overcome nature, and transform nature.” [24]24 Mao Zedong, “Speech at the Enlarged Meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party” (February 1940), in *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, vol. 2, p. 270. At the same time, Mao Zedong also saw nature’s reaction on humans: “People oppress nature, using the means of production to act on the objects of production, and nature, as an object, will resist and react—this is a science.” [25]25 Mao Zedong, “Speech at the Conference of Provincial, Municipal, and Autonomous Region Party Committee Secretaries” (January 1957), in *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, vol. 5, p. 341. Mao Zedong summarized the mutually interconnected and mutually constraining relationship between humans and nature as “humans are simultaneously slaves of nature and society, and their masters,” [26]26 Mao Zedong, “Speech at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party” (November 1956), in *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, vol. 5, p. 318. full of the wisdom of dialectics.

毛泽东非常强调对自然规律的认识，要求对自然界进行研究，“如果对自然界没有认识，或者认识不清楚，就会碰钉子，自然界就会处罚我们，会抵抗”。在剖析人与自然关系时，毛泽东指出，人们要在自然界里获得自由，“就要用自然科学来了解自然，克服自然和改造自然”。同时，毛泽东也看到了自然界对人的反作用，“人去压迫自然界，拿生产工具作用于生产对象，自然界这个对象要作抵抗，反作用一下，这是一条科学”。毛泽东将人与自然之间相互联系、相互制约的关系概括为“人类同时是自然界和社会的奴隶，又是它们的主人”，充满着辩证法的智慧。

Faced with the actual state of China’s ecological environment, Mao Zedong led a series of ecological construction activities. In terms of development, utilization, and production, Mao emphasized the use of natural resources, requiring that the study of natural science solve problems of daily life such as clothing, food, housing, and transportation, and stressed the development of nature to promote socialist construction: “The air above, the forests on the earth, and the treasures underground are all important factors needed for building socialism, and all material factors can only be developed and utilized through the human factor.” [27]27 The Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the CPC (1938) was a key meeting during the War of Resistance Against Japan. Mao’s report “On the New Stage” formally raised the task of “Sinicizing Marxism,” a term later rendered as “adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.” In terms of building water conservancy and conserving soil and water, Mao stressed that “our agricultural production depends mainly on building water conservancy.” [28]28 “文明蒙尘” (civilization sullied) refers to the period of national humiliation and decline from the Opium Wars (1840s) onward, when China’s ancient civilization was subjected to foreign aggression and internal decay. Through formulating water conservancy construction plans, encouraging local governments to build small-scale water conservancy projects, and combining land reclamation with soil and water conservation, China achieved notable results in water management and soil improvement. In terms of afforestation and greening the motherland, at the enlarged Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee, Mao emphasized: “It would be good if we could see greening in both the north and the south within a number of years. This is beneficial to agriculture, to industry, and to all aspects.” [29]29 “第二次结合” (second integration) refers to Mao’s call in the mid-1950s, after the basic completion of socialist transformation, to integrate Marxism with the concrete practice of China’s socialist construction, as distinct from the earlier integration with the practice of revolution. In December 1955, the “Opinions on Soliciting Views on the Seventeen Articles on Agriculture” drafted by Mao again stressed the importance of greening the motherland: “Within 12 years, basically eliminate wasteland and barren hills; plant trees according to specifications in all possible places—beside every house, every village, every road, every waterway, and on wasteland and barren hills—to achieve greening.” [30]30 This formulation, from Mao’s 1940 essay “On New Democracy,” outlines the Party’s policy of critically inheriting the cultural legacy of pre-modern China. Under the leadership of the Party and the joint efforts of the people nationwide, after the founding of New China, China’s forest resources were relatively effectively protected, and forestry developed. In terms of launching the Patriotic Health Campaign, [31]31 “Dispute between the ancient and the modern, China and the West” (古今中西之争): A long-standing debate in modern Chinese intellectual history over how to reconcile traditional Chinese culture with Western modernity. faced with the low health level of the people after the founding of New China, threats from various diseases, the bacterial warfare waged by imperialists, and the need to improve urban and rural environments, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their main representative, led the people in a large-scale mass health campaign, greatly improving the people’s health conditions and the urban and rural living environment. In addition, Mao also proposed measures such as resource conservation, resource recycling, and family planning, effectively alleviating the highly tense relationship between humans and nature.

面对我国生态环境的现实状况，毛泽东领导开展了一系列生态建设活动。在开发利用、发展生产方面，毛泽东重视对自然资源的利用，要求通过研究自然科学解决衣、食、住、行等生活问题，强调开发自然界以促进社会主义建设，“天上的空气，地上的森林，地下的宝藏，都是建设社会主义所需要的重要因素，而一切物质因素只有通过人的因素，才能加以开发利用”。在兴修水利、保持水土方面，毛泽东强调，“我们的农业生产，主要靠兴修水利”。通过制定水利建设规划、鼓励各地兴办小型水利、垦荒与保持水土相结合等方式，我国治水改土取得了显著效果。在植树造林、绿化祖国方面，在扩大的党的七届六中全会上，毛泽东强调：“南北各地在多少年以内，我们能够看到绿化就好。这件事情对农业，对工业，对各方面都有利。”1955年12月，毛泽东起草的《征询对农业十七条的意见》再次强调了绿化祖国的重要性：“在12年内，基本上消灭荒地荒山，在一切宅旁、村旁、路旁、水旁，以及荒地上荒山上，即在一切可能的地方，均要按规格种起树来，实行绿化。”在党的领导和全国人民的共同努力下，新中国成立后，我国的森林资源得到了相对有效的保护，林业得到了发展。在开展爱国卫生运动方面，面对新中国成立后人民群众面临的健康水平不高、各类疾病威胁、帝国主义开展的细菌战、城乡环境有待改善等情况，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人带领人民群众开展了大规模的群众卫生运动，极大地改善了人民群众的卫生健康状况和城乡居住环境。除此之外，毛泽东还提出了资源节约、资源循环利用、计划生育等措施，有效地改善了人与自然关系高度紧张的情况。

It can be seen that the series of ideas and measures proposed by Mao Zedong for understanding, transforming, and utilizing nature closely linked the understanding and transformation of nature with the improvement of the level of social development and the actual improvement of the people’s living standards. This exploration of the way of getting along with nature through overall consideration took into account, to a certain extent, the balance between comprehensive development and ecological protection. Specific measures such as development and utilization, soil and water conservation, afforestation, health improvement, resource conservation, and family planning not only effectively alleviated the tense relationship between humans and nature at the time and raised the people’s living standards, but also provided pioneering practice for later continued exploration of modern environmental protection, ecological and environmental governance, and solving ecological issues with Chinese characteristics. These philosophical reflections, theoretical explorations, and practical measures on understanding and transforming nature are an important source of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, [32]32 “Yet another ideological emancipation” (又一次思想解放): A reference to the Party’s call for a new wave of ideological emancipation, building on earlier ones such as the 1978 debate on the criterion of truth, to break through dogmatic thinking. providing rich ideological resources and valuable historical experience for contemporary China’s ecological civilization construction, which emphasizes that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, correctly handles the relationship between economic development and ecological environmental protection, and seeks new governance approaches from a systems engineering and overall perspective.

可以看到，毛泽东提出的一系列认识自然、改造自然、利用自然的思想和举措，将对自然界的认识与改造，与对社会发展水平的提高、对人民群众实际生活的改善紧密地联系在一起。这种在统筹兼顾中对人与自然相处之道的探索，在一定程度上考量了综合开发和生态保护的平衡。而诸如开发利用、保持水土、植树造林、改善卫生、资源节约、计划生育等具体措施，不仅在当时有效缓解了人与自然的紧张关系、提高了人民的生活水平，也为之后继续探索现代环境保护、进行生态环境治理，解决好具有中国特色的生态命题进行了先行实践。这些关于认识自然和改造自然的哲学思考、理论探索和实践举措，是习近平生态文明思想的重要源泉，为强调绿水青山就是金山银山、正确处理经济发展和生态环境保护的关系、从系统工程和全局角度寻求新的治理之道的当代中国生态文明建设提供了丰富的思想资源和宝贵的历史经验。

Xi Jinping pointed out in his speech at the ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC: “We have upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics, promoted coordinated development of material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological civilization, and created a new path for Chinese-path modernization and a new form of human civilization.” [33]33 “Exploring theoretical and institutional innovations oriented toward the future” (探索面向未来的理论和制度创新): A phrase from Xi Jinping’s speech on cultural inheritance and development, emphasizing creative transformation and innovation within a broader cultural space. The coordinated development of the five civilizations of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the essential feature and connotation of the new form of human civilization; “they are interconnected and mutually complementary, jointly forming the main elements of the new form of human civilization.” [34]34 Mao Zedong, “On Coalition Government” (1945), Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 3. The Party’s understanding of the laws of Chinese socialist civilization, its formation and continuous deepening, and the great achievements made in promoting the coordinated development of the five civilizations of socialism with Chinese characteristics, are inseparable from the solid foundation laid by the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their main representative, in leading the people to destroy an old world and build a new one, through arduous exploration of modern economic development, socialist industrialization, socialist democratic politics, socialist advanced culture, improving people’s livelihoods and social governance, and carrying out ecological construction. They are also inseparable from the huge leap in China’s social development achieved in this process. In short, it is precisely the original theoretical achievements and great accomplishments made by the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their main representative, in leading the people in socialist revolution and socialist construction that “provided valuable experience, theoretical preparation, and material foundation for initiating socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new historical period.” [35]35 He Xinyuan, “The New Form of Human Civilization and Its Transformation to Communist Civilization,” Studies on Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Theory, 2023, no. 10.

习近平在庆祝中国共产党成立100周年大会上的讲话中指出：“我们坚持和发展中国特色社会主义，推动物质文明、政治文明、精神文明、社会文明、生态文明协调发展，创造了中国式现代化新道路，创造了人类文明新形态。”中国特色社会主义五个文明协调发展是人类文明新形态的本质特征、内涵意蕴，“它们相互联系又相互补充，共同构成人类文明新形态的主体要素”。党对中国社会主义文明的规律性认识的形成和不断深化，以及在推进中国特色社会主义五个文明协调发展过程中取得的伟大成就，离不开以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人带领人民在破坏一个旧世界、建设一个新世界中，对现代经济发展、社会主义工业化、社会主义民主政治、社会主义先进文化、发展民生和进行社会治理、开展生态建设进行的艰辛探索所打下的深厚基础，离不开在这一过程中我国社会发展实现的巨大飞跃。总之，正是以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人领导人民在社会主义革命和社会主义建设中取得的独创性理论成果和巨大成就，“为在新的历史时期开创中国特色社会主义提供了宝贵经验、理论准备、物质基础”。

III. Contemporary Implications of Mao Zedong’s Promotion of Creating a New Form of Human Civilization

三、毛泽东推动创造人类文明新形态的当代启示

The socialist revolution and socialist construction led by the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their main representative, played a foundational role in initiating Chinese socialist civilization and have significant implications for the creation of a new form of human civilization.

以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人领导人民所进行的社会主义革命和社会主义建设对开创中国社会主义文明具有奠基性作用，对人类文明新形态的创造具有重大的启示意义。

(1) Adhering to the Leadership of the CPC and Taking the Socialist Path Are the Fundamental Reasons for the Emergence of the New Form of Human Civilization

（一）坚持中国共产党的领导和走社会主义道路是人类文明新形态生成的根本原因

When pondering the question of where the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization should go, Mao Zedong saw that fundamentally reforming Chinese civilization and human civilization was the correct way to break free from the shackles of feudalism and the capitalist world system. To achieve this, a strong leading core was needed to lead the Chinese people on a development path with a transcendent character. As the core force leading China’s revolution, construction, and reform, the CPC, with its advanced nature, purity, and timeliness, led the Chinese people to completely change the situation of the nation being humiliated, the people suffering, and civilization being tarnished in modern China, and in practice created an unparalleled Chinese socialist civilization. The history of the CPC over more than 100 years proves that without the CPC, there would be no New China, no socialism with Chinese characteristics, and no new form of human civilization.

在思索中华民族和中华文明何去何从之问时，毛泽东看到了，从根本上革新中华文明与人类文明，才是冲破封建主义束缚和资本主义世界体系的正确出路。要实现这一点，就必须要有一个坚强的领导核心带领中国人民走一条具有超越性质的发展道路。作为领导中国革命、建设、改革事业的核心力量，中国共产党以其先进性、纯洁性和时代性带领中国人民彻底改变了近代中国遭受的国家蒙辱、人民蒙难、文明蒙尘之境遇，并在实践中开创出了举世无双的中国社会主义文明。中国共产党100多年来的历史证明，没有中国共产党就没有新中国，就没有中国特色社会主义，就没有人类文明新形态。

Currently, the two overall situations [36]36 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the Communist Party of China” (July 1, 2021). are merging and interacting, bringing both major strategic opportunities and severe challenges. It should be recognized that the world today is still in a pattern of one planet, two systems. [37]37 “Reflection after the fact” (从事后思索): A methodological term derived from Marx’s comment in the preface to Capital, Vol. 1, that “the anatomy of man is a key to the anatomy of the ape,” meaning later stages of development illuminate earlier ones. Although the capitalist system is decadent and moribund, as Marx said, “No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed,” [38]38 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Symposium Commemorating the 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Comrade Mao Zedong” (December 26, 2023). capitalist civilization can still maintain its vitality through institutional reforms, technological development, and changing forms of exploiting developing countries under the operation of capital logic. Therefore, from the perspective of world historical development, socialist civilization and capitalist civilization will inevitably engage in a long-term, intense struggle and competition for the discourse power over the development of human civilization. Reality also shows that the Chinese socialist civilization created under the leadership of the CPC is constantly subjected to slander, attack, and encirclement aimed at strangulation from the capitalist world.

当前，两个大局融合交汇、相互作用，既带来重大战略机遇，也存在严峻挑战。应该看到，当今世界仍处在一球两制的格局中，尽管资本主义制度具有腐朽性和垂死性，但正如马克思所说，“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”，资本主义文明仍能在资本逻辑的运行下通过制度改革、科技发展、改变剥削发展中国家的形式等方式保持自身生命力。因此，从世界历史的发展看，社会主义文明与资本主义文明必将展开长期的、激烈的较量与竞争，并争夺对于人类文明发展的话语权。现实也表明，由中国共产党领导人民开创的中国社会主义文明不断遭受到来自资本主义世界的污蔑、攻击和以扼杀为目的的围堵。

On the new journey of the New Era, we must continue to uphold and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership, improve the Party’s leadership level and long-term governance capacity, always maintain the sobriety and firmness to solve the unique problems of a large party, [39] and respond well to the Four Dangers and Four Tests [40] affecting the Party’s long-term governance. In complex real struggles, we must uphold fundamental principles, not lose direction or commit subversive mistakes, and always adhere to promoting comprehensive and strict governance of the Party through the Party’s self-revolution and leading social revolution. Only in this way can we ensure the sustained and healthy development of the new form of human civilization, enable China’s development to make greater contributions to the

新时代新征程，必须继续坚持和加强党的全面领导，提高党的领导水平和长期执政能力，时刻保持解决大党独有难题的清醒和坚定，应对好影响党的长期执政的四大危险和四种考验，在复杂的现实斗争中坚持守正，不迷失方向、不犯颠覆性错误，始终坚持以党的自我革命推进全面从严治党和引领社会革命。只有这样，才能保证人类文明新形态的持续健康发展，才能使中国的发展不断为人类文明的进步作出更大的贡献，才能在与资本主义文明的竞争中最终胜出。

(2) People-centeredness is the fundamental basis of the "newness" of the new form of human civilization

（二）人民性是人类文明新形态之“新”的根本所在

Why can the new form of civilization created by the Communist Party of China through a century of struggle become a “new form”? Wherein lies the “newness”? Fundamentally, it lies in the profound people-centered nature of this new form of human civilization. Previous forms of civilization, whether feudal or capitalist, were essentially civilizations of the minority, safeguarding the interests of a small privileged stratum while neglecting the development of the vast majority of the people. In feudal civilization, the people appeared as subjects, an objectified form; in capitalist civilization, the people appeared as an alienated form, as instruments for the expansion of capital. The socialist civilization created by the Soviet Union gradually abandoned representing the interests of the vast majority of the people in its later period, ultimately perishing in history. In contrast, the new form of human civilization pursued and created by the Communist Party of China leading the people adheres to the value stance of putting the people first: regarding the people as the true creators of history — “The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history”; taking the satisfaction of the people’s real interests and the realization of their greatest aspirations as the direction of the Party’s work — “All practical problems in the masses’ life are matters we should pay attention to”; taking the degree to which the people’s interests are realized and whether they support the Party as the criterion for evaluating work — “All the words and deeds of Communists must conform to the highest criterion of serving the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people and winning their support,” and the masses also “choose their leading instruments, their leaders, from practice”; “Our Party must enable the people to win victory, so it must be an instrument, consciously being an instrument”; as the leading force, the proletarian party, “unlike the bourgeois party, does not regard the masses as its instrument, but consciously recognizes itself as an instrument of the masses in a specific historical period for completing specific historical tasks,” always adhering to serving the people — “Communists are a special kind of person; they seek no private interests at all, but only the welfare of the nation and the people.”

中国共产党以百年奋斗创造出的文明新形态何以能成为“新形态”？“新”在何处？从根本上说，就在于这一人类文明新形态具有深刻的人民性。以往的文明形态，无论是封建文明还是资本主义文明，本质上是属于少数人的文明，其所维护的是少数特权阶层的利益，而忽视了最广大人民的发展。在封建文明中，人民是作为臣民这种客体形式出现的；在资本主义文明中，人民是作为资本增殖工具这种异化形式出现的。苏联创造出的社会主义文明在后期逐渐放弃了代表最广大人民的利益，最终在历史中归于湮灭。而中国共产党领导人民追求和创造出的人类文明新形态坚持的是人民至上的价值立场：将人民视为历史的真正创造者，“人民，只有人民，才是创造世界历史的动力”；将满足人民的现实利益和实现人民的最大心愿作为党的工作方向，“一切群众的实际生活问题，都是我们应当注意的问题”；将人民的利益实现程度和拥护与否作为评判工作的标准，“共产党人的一切言论行动，必须以合乎最广大人民群众的最大利益，为最广大人民群众所拥护为最高标准”，而群众也是“从实践中来选择他们的领导工具、他们的领导者”，“我们党要使人民胜利，就要当工具，自觉地当工具”；作为领导力量的无产阶级政党，“同资产阶级的政党相反，工人阶级的政党不是把人民群众当做自己的工具，而是自觉地认定自己是人民群众在特定的历史时期为完成特定的历史任务的一种工具”，始终坚持为人民服务，“共产党员是一种特别的人，他们完全不谋私利，而只为民族与人民求福利”。

On the new journey of the New Era, we must continue to uphold the principal position of the people and the people-centered development thought. Xi Jinping points out: “The people are the motive force of history; we Communists must never forget this most basic truth of historical materialism at any time.” Unlike the various abstract political slogans crafted by the bourgeoisie, in the historical materialist perspective of the Chinese Communists, being people-centered means starting from real people and pursuing the real development of people: “The people are not an abstract symbol, but one concrete individual after another.” Therefore, adhering to the people-centered development thought means thinking what the masses think, urgently addressing what the masses find urgent, solving what the masses find difficult, and striving to resolve the pressing problems of the masses; relying on the people’s strength to overcome various tasks and challenges on the development path, giving full play to the Party’s greatest political advantage of close ties with the masses; ensuring that the fruits of development benefit everyone’s real life — “National prosperity, national rejuvenation, and people’s happiness are not abstract; ultimately, they must be reflected in the happiness and well-being of millions upon millions of families and in the continuous improvement of the lives of billions of people.” In short, the “newness” of the new form of human civilization fundamentally lies in its being a civilization that truly regards the people as a living, concrete, and immensely powerful historical subject, a civilization that can truly and continuously meet the people’s needs for a better life — “better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher-level medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, a more beautiful environment, and a richer spiritual and cultural life” — in the course of real development.

新时代新征程，必须继续坚持人民的主体地位和以人民为中心的发展思想。习近平指出：“人民是创造历史的动力，我们共产党人任何时候都不要忘记这个历史唯物主义最基本的道理。”与资产阶级打造出的各种抽象的政治口号不同，在中国共产党人的历史唯物主义视野中，以人民为中心就是从现实的人出发，追求人的现实发展，“人民不是抽象的符号，而是一个一个具体的人”。因此，坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，就是想群众之所想，急群众之所急，解群众之所难，着力解决好人民群众急难愁盼问题；依托人民的力量解决发展路上各种任务挑战，发挥密切联系群众这一党的最大政治优势；发展果实要惠及每个人的现实生活，“国家富强，民族复兴，人民幸福，不是抽象的，最终要体现在千千万万个家庭都幸福美满上，体现在亿万人民生活不断改善上”。总之，人类文明新形态之“新”根本在于其是真正将人民视为鲜活的、具体的、力量非凡的历史主体的文明，真正能在现实发展中不断满足人民对“更好的教育、更稳定的工作、更满意的收入、更可靠的社会保障、更高水平的医疗卫生服务、更舒适的居住条件、更优美的环境、更丰富的精神文化生活”的美好生活需要的文明。

(III) Adhering to the “Two Integrations” is the fundamental method for promoting the formation and development of the new form of human civilization

（三）坚持“两个结合”是推动人类文明新形态形成和发展的根本方法

“The salvos of the October Revolution brought us Marxism-Leninism.” How could Marxism, which emerged from industrial civilization and primarily studied and solved the problems of capitalist society, take root in China, a country with thousands of years of agricultural civilization and, in modern times, a long period of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society? How to use Marxism to guide the solution of the practical problems faced by the Chinese revolution was a key question that the Chinese Communists, who took Marxism as their guiding ideology, had to face and answer. Mao Zedong creatively put forward the great proposition of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, “leading the people to open the historical process of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.” At the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Party in 1938, Mao Zedong explicitly stated in his political report “On the New Stage”: “The Sinicization of Marxism, making it manifest in every aspect with Chinese characteristics, that is, applying it according to Chinese characteristics, has become a problem that the whole Party urgently needs to understand and solve.” [27]27 The Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the CPC (1938) was a key meeting during the War of Resistance Against Japan. Mao’s report “On the New Stage” formally raised the task of “Sinicizing Marxism,” a term later rendered as “adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.” Guided by this scientific attitude, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their main representative, explored the correct path to victory in the New Democratic Revolution and the socialist revolution, achieving the historic transformation of Chinese civilization from being sullied to being cleansed. [28]28 “文明蒙尘” (civilization sullied) refers to the period of national humiliation and decline from the Opium Wars (1840s) onward, when China’s ancient civilization was subjected to foreign aggression and internal decay. As the socialist revolution was drawing to a close, Mao Zedong put forward the idea of a “second integration”: “Now is the period of socialist revolution and construction; we must carry out a second integration to find the path for building socialism in China.” [29]29 “第二次结合” (second integration) refers to Mao’s call in the mid-1950s, after the basic completion of socialist transformation, to integrate Marxism with the concrete practice of China’s socialist construction, as distinct from the earlier integration with the practice of revolution. To this end, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their main representative, put forward a series of important thoughts on socialist construction, blazed an industrialization path suited to China’s national conditions, and promoted the great proposition of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context to bear fruit in different tasks of the times, laying the theoretical and practical foundation for the birth of the new form of human civilization.

“十月革命一声炮响，给我们送来了马克思列宁主义”。产生于工业文明，主要研究和解决资本主义社会问题的马克思主义，如何在拥有数千年农业文明，近代以来长期处于半殖民地半封建社会的中国落地生根；如何用马克思主义指导解决中国革命所面临的现实问题，是将马克思主义作为指导思想的中国共产党人必须面对和回答的关键问题。毛泽东创造性地提出了马克思主义中国化的伟大命题，“带领人民开创了马克思主义中国化的历史进程”。在1938年党的六届六中全会上，毛泽东在《论新阶段》的政治报告中明确提出：“马克思主义的中国化，使之在其每一表现中带着中国的特性，即是说，按照中国的特点去应用它，成为全党亟待了解并亟须解决的问题。”在这种科学态度的指引下，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人探索出了夺取新民主主义革命胜利以及社会主义革命胜利的正确道路，实现了中华文明从文明蒙尘到文明祛尘的历史性转变。社会主义革命即将结束时，毛泽东又提出了“第二次结合”思想，“现在是社会主义革命和建设时期，我们要进行第二次结合，找出在中国怎样建设社会主义的道路”。为此，以毛泽东同志为主要代表的中国共产党人提出了关于社会主义建设的一系列重要思想，走出一条适合我国国情的工业化道路，推动马克思主义中国化伟大命题在不同的时代任务中开花结果，为人类文明新形态的诞生奠定了理论和实践基础。

In the process of promoting the integration of the basic principles of Marxism with the concrete reality of China’s revolution and construction, what attitude to take towards traditional Chinese culture and how to make it adapt to the needs of social progress were another key question that Mao Zedong continuously explored and answered in practice. In “On the New Stage,” when expounding the basic connotation of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, Mao Zedong emphatically raised the task of “studying our historical heritage and giving it a critical summary using Marxist methods,” pointing out that “today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historicists and should not cut off history,” and he focused on the practical role of critically summarizing historical traditions in guiding the revolution: “Inheriting the heritage, in turn, becomes a method, which is of great help in guiding the current great movement.” He also explicitly stated that the Communist Party of China must “make Marxism-Leninism, this revolutionary science, further and deeply integrate with China’s revolutionary practice, Chinese history, and Chinese culture.” In Mao Zedong’s exposition, Marxism in national form, Marxism with Chinese characteristics — that is, the proposition of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context itself — already contained the requirement for a scientific two-way interaction between traditional Chinese culture and Marxism. As for the critical treatment of traditional Chinese culture, the specific method Mao Zedong proposed was “to clean up the development process of ancient culture, discard its feudal dross, and absorb its democratic essence.” [30]30 This formulation, from Mao’s 1940 essay “On New Democracy,” outlines the Party’s policy of critically inheriting the cultural legacy of pre-modern China. This thought, which respects the dialectics of historical development, has significant implications for the attitude the Party should take towards traditional culture and the method it should use to critically absorb and synthesize it in leading the people to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and China’s modernization.

在推进马克思主义基本原理同中国革命和建设的具体实际相结合过程中，以怎样的态度对待中国传统文化，并使之适应社会进步的需要，是毛泽东在实践中不断探索和回答的另一个关键问题。在《论新阶段》中，毛泽东在阐述马克思主义中国化的基本内涵时，着重强调了“学习我们的历史遗产，用马克思主义的方法给以批判的总结”的任务，指出，“今天的中国是历史的中国之一发展，我们是马克思主义的历史主义者，我们不应该割断历史”，并关注批判性总结历史传统对指导革命的现实作用，“承继遗产，转过来就变为方法，对于指导当前的伟大运动，是有着重要的帮助的”。他还明确提出，中国共产党“要使得马克思列宁主义这一革命科学更进一步地和中国革命实践、中国历史、中国文化深相结合起来”。在毛泽东的论述中，民族形式的马克思主义、带着中国的特性的马克思主义，即马克思主义中国化命题本身，已经蕴含了中国传统文化与马克思主义应当进行科学的双向互动的要求。而关于批判地对待中国传统文化，毛泽东提出的具体方法是“清理古代文化的发展过程，剔除其封建性的糟粕，吸收其民主性的精华”。这种关于尊重历史辩证法的发展的思想，为党领导人民在实现中华民族伟大复兴和中国的现代化进程中采取什么样的态度对待传统文化，以什么样的方法批判性地兼收并蓄具有重大的启示作用。

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, in the course of responding to a series of major contemporary issues in the New Era, has deepened its understanding of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times, and has formed the new thesis of “persisting in integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the best of traditional Chinese culture,” thereby expanding the scientific connotation of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times from “one integration” to “the Two Integrations.” The proposal of the Two Integrations is a summation of a century of experience, from the first generation of the Party’s central collective leadership with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core leading the people to pioneer the cause, all the way through to the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core leading the people to develop the cause of the Party and the state since entering the New Era. Only by continuing to uphold the Two Integrations can we effectively resolve the “dispute between the ancient and the modern, China and the West” [31]31 “Dispute between the ancient and the modern, China and the West” (古今中西之争): A long-standing debate in modern Chinese intellectual history over how to reconcile traditional Chinese culture with Western modernity. in the course of “yet another ideological emancipation,” [32]32 “Yet another ideological emancipation” (又一次思想解放): A reference to the Party’s call for a new wave of ideological emancipation, building on earlier ones such as the 1978 debate on the criterion of truth, to break through dogmatic thinking. promote “exploring theoretical and institutional innovations oriented toward the future” [33]33 “Exploring theoretical and institutional innovations oriented toward the future” (探索面向未来的理论和制度创新): A phrase from Xi Jinping’s speech on cultural inheritance and development, emphasizing creative transformation and innovation within a broader cultural space. in a broader cultural space, and continuously develop the new form of human civilization while continuing to advance the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times.

党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央在回答新时代一系列重大时代课题过程中，深化了对马克思主义中国化时代化的认识，形成了“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”的新论断，从而将马克思主义中国化时代化的科学内涵从“一个结合”拓展为“两个结合”。“两个结合”的提出，是对自以毛泽东同志为核心的党的第一代中央领导集体带领人民开拓事业，一直到进入新时代以来以习近平同志为核心的党中央领导人民发展党和国家事业的百年经验总结。只有继续坚持“两个结合”，才能在“又一次思想解放”中有效破解“古今中西之争”，推动在更广阔的文化空间中“探索面向未来的理论和制度创新”，才能在继续推进马克思主义中国化时代化中不断发展人类文明新形态。

(IV) The communist civilization in which each individual freely and fully develops is the fundamental orientation of the new form of human civilization

（四）走向每个人自由全面发展的共产主义文明是人类文明新形态的根本指向

From a historical perspective, Western capitalist civilization opened China’s door by violent and bloody means, causing the problems of China’s modernization and civilizational development in modern times to first manifest as a quest for national liberation and national rejuvenation, as well as an exploration of the modern transformation of Chinese civilization. If, under the global expansion of Western capitalist civilization, the problems of national liberation and civilizational transformation that every backward nation had to confront were universal, then the path China chose in pursuing national rejuvenation and modernization was particular. Its particularity lies in the fact that, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the tasks of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and China’s modernization were elevated to an inherent proposition of pursuing and realizing communism, thereby acquiring a dual significance of both national character and world-historical character. Therefore, the new form of human civilization created by the Communist Party of China leading the people through a century of struggle has always taken the realization of communist civilization as its fundamental orientation. Mao Zedong clearly pointed out: “Our future program or maximum program is to advance China to a socialist and communist society. This is definite and beyond all doubt. Our Party’s name and our Marxist worldview clearly indicate this future, infinitely bright, infinitely beautiful supreme ideal.” [34]34 Mao Zedong, “On Coalition Government” (1945), Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 3.

从历史缘起看，西方资本主义文明以血腥暴力的方式打开中国的大门，致使近代以后中国的现代化和文明发展问题，首先表现为对民族解放和民族复兴的追寻，以及对中华文明现代转型的探索。如果说在西方资本主义文明的全球扩张下，每个落后民族都不得不面对的民族解放和文明转型的问题是普遍性，那么中国所选择的追求民族复兴与现代化道路则是特殊性。其特殊之处就在于，在中国共产党的领导下，实现中华民族伟大复兴和中国的现代化的任务被上升为追寻和实现共产主义的内在命题，从而具有了民族性和世界历史性的双重意蕴。因此，中国共产党领导人民以百年奋斗创造出的人类文明新形态始终以实现共产主义文明为根本指向，毛泽东明确指出：“我们的将来纲领或最高纲领，是要将中国推进到社会主义社会和共产主义社会去的，这是确定的和毫无疑义的。我们的党的名称和我们的马克思主义的宇宙观，明确地指明了这个将来的、无限光明的、无限美妙的最高理想。”

The new form of human civilization takes advancing toward communist civilization as its lofty goal. However, “the further development, improvement, and maturation of this new form of civilization still require arduous progress; the ultimate successful transformation of this new form of civilization into communist civilization still requires the continued efforts of the Communist Party of China and the continued development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” [35]35 He Xinyuan, “The New Form of Human Civilization and Its Transformation to Communist Civilization,” Studies on Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Theory, 2023, no. 10. The reason is that the laws of the development of human society determine that the transformation of civilizational forms is not accomplished overnight. The transition to communist civilization likewise requires that the various elements within the organic whole of socialist society and their intrinsic interconnections undergo a series of great changes before it can be realized. As for this process, what Marx and Engels provided were overarching principles and laws; they could not and did not offer a detailed blueprint or specific methods. At the same time, China’s unique national conditions, path of social development, and historical and cultural traditions determine that there is no ready-made reference for achieving China’s development, and it is absolutely impossible to rely on others. Therefore, on the road to continuously promoting the development and improvement of the new form of human civilization, practical issues such as the improvement of the socialist system, socialist economic construction, socialist modernization development, socialist state governance, strengthening Party leadership and Party building, and building a community with a shared future for mankind can only find answers through the practical exploration of the Party leading the people, and through “unifying the lofty ideal of communism with the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and unifying it with what we are doing now.” [36]36 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the Communist Party of China” (July 1, 2021).

人类文明新形态以走向共产主义文明为崇高目标，然而，“这一文明新形态的进一步发展、完善、成型，还需要负重前行；这一文明新形态向共产主义文明最终的成功转型，还需要中国共产党的继续努力和中国特色社会主义的继续发展”。原因在于，人类社会发展的规律决定了文明形态的转型不是一朝一夕完成的，向共产主义文明的过渡同样需要社会主义社会这一有机体内部的诸要素及其内在联系不断经历一系列巨变才能实现。而对于这个过程，马克思恩格斯所给出的是提纲挈领的原则和规律，没有也不可能提供细致图景和具体方法。同时，中国独特的国情、社会发展道路和历史文化传统，决定了要实现中国的发展没有现成参考，也绝不可能依赖他者。因此，在不断推动人类文明新形态的发展和完善的路上，关于社会主义制度完善、社会主义经济建设、社会主义现代化发展、社会主义国家治理、加强党的领导和党的建设、构建人类命运共同体等现实问题，唯有在党领导人民的实践探索中，在“把共产主义远大理想同中国特色社会主义共同理想统一起来、同我们正在做的事情统一起来”中才能不断找出答案。

IV. Conclusion

四、结 语

The creation of the new form of human civilization has its own internal logic and is an arduous historical process. At a time when China’s socialist civilization is bursting with unprecedented vitality and vigor, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process, and when the Party has attained a high level of law-based understanding of Chinese-path modernization and the new form of human civilization, it is necessary to return from the “completed result of the developmental process” to history once again for “reflection after the fact,” [37]37 “Reflection after the fact” (从事后思索): A methodological term derived from Marx’s comment in the preface to Capital, Vol. 1, that “the anatomy of man is a key to the anatomy of the ape,” meaning later stages of development illuminate earlier ones. so as to deeply understand the logic and substance of the Party’s century-long history in creating the new form of human civilization, and to draw experience and inspiration from it. Among these, Mao Zedong undoubtedly made an outstanding historical contribution to creating the new form of human civilization, with irreplaceable historical merits. Xi Jinping pointed out: “The best commemoration of Comrade Mao Zedong is to continue to advance the cause he pioneered.” [38]38 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Symposium Commemorating the 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Comrade Mao Zedong” (December 26, 2023). On the new journey of the New Era, we must persist in upholding and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership, persisting in taking the socialist path, persisting in putting the people first, persisting in the Two Integrations, and persisting in unifying the lofty ideal of communism with the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics, so as to continuously advance the new form of human civilization. (Notes omitted)

人类文明新形态的开创有其内在逻辑，是一个艰辛的历史过程。当站在中国的社会主义文明迸发出前所未有的生机活力、中华民族伟大复兴进入不可逆转的历史进程之中，在党对中国式现代化和人类文明新形态取得了规律性认识的高度之时，有必要从“发展过程的完成的结果”再次回到历史中以进行“从事后思索”，从而深刻理解党的百年历史所具有的创造人类文明新形态的逻辑与实质，并从中得到经验和启示。其中，毛泽东无疑为创造人类文明新形态作出了卓越的历史贡献，拥有无可替代的历史功绩。习近平指出：“对毛泽东同志的最好纪念，就是把他开创的事业继续推向前进。”新时代新征程，要在坚持和加强党的全面领导、坚持走社会主义道路、坚持人民至上、坚持“两个结合”、坚持将共产主义远大理想同中国特色社会主义共同理想相统一中，将人类文明新形态不断推动向前。（注释略）

(Authors: He Xinyuan, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Researcher at the Academy of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Zuo Yujie, 2024-class doctoral student at the School of Marxism, University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

（作者：贺新元，中国社会科学院大学教授、博士研究生导师，中国社会科学院马克思主义研究院研究员；左钰洁，中国社会科学院大学马克思主义学院2024级博士研究生）

Online Editor: Zhang Jian

网络编辑：张剑