Activating the Excellent Factors in Traditional Chinese Culture with Marxism

Using Marxism to activate the excellent factors in traditional Chinese culture and endow them with new contemporary significance is an important pathway for developing the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. Deeply understanding the basic questions of how activation is possible and how it is realized, thereby grasping the subject, premise, process, and result of using Marxism to activate the genes of excellent traditional Chinese culture, helps us better shoulder the cultural mission of the New Era and strive unremittingly toward the strategic goal of building a culturally strong nation.

用马克思主义激活中华传统文化中的优秀因子并赋予其新的时代内涵，是发展新时代中国特色社会主义文化的重要途径。深入理解激活何以可能、如何实现等基本问题，以此把握用马克思主义激活中华优秀传统文化基因的主体、前提、过程、结果，有助于我们更好地肩负新时代的文化使命，为实现建成文化强国的战略目标而不懈奋斗。

One of the basic contents of the Second Integration [1]1 The Second Integration refers to the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s excellent traditional culture, as distinct from the first integration of Marxism with China’s concrete realities. is using Marxism to activate the genes of excellent traditional Chinese culture. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “Marxism brought advanced ideological theory to China, activating the genes of Chinese civilization with the light of truth, leading China into the modern world, and promoting the life renewal and modern transformation of Chinese civilization.” [2]2 Xi Jinping, speech at a symposium on cultural heritage, 2023. This important exposition fully elucidates the dominant position of Marxism in the process of “activation.” In fact, the character “同” (with/together) in “the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s excellent traditional culture” itself already indicates that within the parallel relationship there is also a distinction between primary and secondary. The reason for emphasizing the guiding role of Marxism is not only that it is a scientific worldview—only by adhering to its positions, viewpoints, and methods and consolidating its guiding position in the ideological domain can we always ensure the correct direction and better realize the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture—but also that it is a scientific methodology. Only by persistently following it as a guide can we fully excavate and effectively activate the excellent factors in traditional Chinese culture, enabling them to gain new connotations through full integration with the concrete realities of the New Era.

“第二个结合”的基本内容之一，就是用马克思主义激活中华优秀传统文化基因。习近平总书记指出：“马克思主义把先进的思想理论带到中国，以真理之光激活了中华文明的基因，引领中国走进现代世界，推动了中华文明的生命更新和现代转型。”这一重要论述，充分阐释了马克思主义在“激活”过程中的主导地位。事实上，“马克思主义基本原理同中华优秀传统文化相结合”中的“同”字，本身即已表明在两者并列关系中也存在主次之别。之所以强调马克思主义的指导作用，不仅在于它是科学的世界观，只有坚持其立场观点方法，巩固它在意识形态领域的指导地位，才能始终确保正确的方向，更好地实现中华优秀传统文化的创造性转化和创新性发展；而且在于它也是科学的方法论，唯有坚持以此为遵循，方可充分挖掘并有效激活中华传统文化中的优秀因子，使之在充分融合新时代的具体实际中获得新的内涵。

Only the excellent factors within traditional Chinese culture are the objects of activation, not all its content and forms. Therefore, deeply excavating and elucidating the spiritual connotations of excellent traditional Chinese culture constitutes a basic premise for using Marxism to activate the genes of excellent traditional Chinese culture. As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes, “We must earnestly absorb the ideological essence and moral marrow of excellent traditional Chinese culture, vigorously promote the national spirit centered on patriotism and the spirit of the times centered on reform and innovation, and deeply excavate and elucidate the contemporary value of excellent traditional Chinese culture’s emphasis on benevolence, valuing the people, upholding integrity, esteeming justice, advocating harmony, and seeking common ground.” [3]3 Xi Jinping, speech on the core socialist values, 2014. Nurtured in the development of Chinese civilization, excellent traditional Chinese culture is the crystallization and essence of the wisdom of Chinese civilization and the root and soul of the Chinese nation. In the more than five thousand years of Chinese civilization’s history, the Chinese nation has endowed the concept of benevolence with rich connotations such as broadly bestowing benefits to all, treating all people as one’s kin, and the unity of all things, providing strong spiritual cohesion for the political community; endowed the concept of valuing the people with profound meanings such as establishing the state for the people, the people being more important than the ruler, and the will of Heaven reflecting the people’s heart, enabling the nation and ethnicity to maintain the momentum of discarding the old and fostering the new; endowed the concept of integrity with deep implications such as the foundation of ethical relations, sincerity in thought and rectification of the mind, and truthfulness without falsehood, laying a solid foundation for social order; endowed the concept of justice with unique significance such as fairness and impartiality, rectifying oneself and others, and prioritizing righteousness over profit, providing a powerful value appeal for social life; endowed the concept of harmony with grand visions such as seeking common ground while reserving differences, the coexistence of all things, and the flow of vital energy, laying a cosmological foundation for the diverse and unified pattern of the world; endowed the concept of common good with value ideals such as the world being shared by all, equality and fairness, and peace and happiness, enabling all social strata to maintain an uplifting pursuit. These spiritual connotations are deeply integrated into the Chinese people’s worldview, view of the world, view of society, and view of morality, fully embodying the unique spiritual identity of the Chinese nation and the deepest value pursuits of Chinese civilization.

只有中华传统文化中的优秀因子才是激活的对象，而不是其全部内容和形式。由此，深入挖掘和阐发中华优秀传统文化的精神内涵，构成了用马克思主义激活中华优秀传统文化基因的一个基本前提。正如习近平总书记强调的，“要认真汲取中华优秀传统文化的思想精华和道德精髓，大力弘扬以爱国主义为核心的民族精神和以改革创新为核心的时代精神，深入挖掘和阐发中华优秀传统文化讲仁爱、重民本、守诚信、崇正义、尚和合、求大同的时代价值”。孕育于中华文明发展中的中华优秀传统文化，是中华文明的智慧结晶和精华所在，是中华民族的根和魂。在五千多年的文明历史长河中，中华民族赋予仁爱理念以博施济众、民胞物与、万物一体等丰富内涵，为政治共同体提供了强大的精神凝聚力；赋予民本理念以立邦为民、民贵君轻、天道民心等深刻意涵，使国家和民族维持革故鼎新的动力；赋予诚信理念以伦常之本、诚意正心、真实无妄等精深意蕴，为社会秩序稳固奠定了坚实基础；赋予正义理念以公平公正、正己正人、先义后利等独特意义，为社会生活提供了强大的价值感召力；赋予和合理念以求同存异、万物共生、气化流行等宏大图景，为多元一体的天下格局奠定了宇宙论基础；赋予大同理念以天下为公、均平公正、安乐和谐等价值理想，使社会各阶层都葆有昂扬向上的追求。这些精神内涵深刻融入中国人民的宇宙观、天下观、社会观、道德观之中，充分体现了中华民族的独特精神标识和中华文明最深层的价值追求。

The mutual compatibility between basic Marxist viewpoints and the excellent factors in traditional Chinese culture constitutes another basic premise for activation. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “Marxism and China’s excellent traditional culture have different origins, but there is a high degree of compatibility between them.” [4]4 Xi Jinping, speech at the symposium on the centenary of the CPC, 2021. So-called “compatibility,” in brief, means mutual integration, mutual connection, and mutual correspondence. The excellent factors contained in traditional Chinese culture, such as emphasizing benevolence, valuing the people, upholding integrity, esteeming justice, advocating harmony, and seeking common ground, are premised on valuing people themselves and placing people within the world. This aligns with the basic Marxist viewpoint of starting from real individuals and grasping the essence of people based on social relations; both oppose viewing people as abstract, isolated individuals. In excellent traditional Chinese culture, the fundamental spirit of humanistic cultivation runs through it consistently, which is logically connected to Marxism’s distinct theme and core essence—the realization of people’s free and comprehensive development. Furthermore, a series of important concepts inherent in excellent traditional Chinese culture, including following the Dao of nature and the unity of Heaven and humanity, the world being shared by all and cultivating trust and harmony, the people as the foundation of the state and governing with virtue, discarding the old and fostering the new and unceasing self-renewal, also exhibit a high degree of compatibility with the value propositions of scientific socialism, such as the dialectical unity of humanity and nature, human liberation, the association of free individuals, and highly developed cultural-ethical progress.

马克思主义基本观点同中华传统文化中优秀因子的彼此契合，这是激活的另一个基本前提。习近平总书记指出：“马克思主义和中华优秀传统文化来源不同，但彼此存在高度的契合性。”所谓“契合”，简言之是指相融、相通、相合。中华传统文化包含的讲仁爱、重民本、守诚信、崇正义、尚和合、求大同等优秀因子，是以重视人本身并把人安放在天下之中为前提的，这与马克思主义从现实的个人出发、基于社会关系来把握人的本质的基本观点相符合，它们都反对把人看作抽象的、孤立的个体。在中华优秀传统文化中，始终贯穿着人文化成的根本精神，这与马克思主义的鲜明主题和核心要义，即实现人的自由全面发展，在逻辑上是相通的。此外，内蕴于中华优秀传统文化中的一系列重要理念，包括道法自然、天人合一，天下为公、讲信修睦，民为邦本、为政以德，革故鼎新、自强不息等，同科学社会主义的价值主张，如人与自然的辩证统一、人类解放、自由人的联合体、高度发达的精神文明等，也具有高度的契合性。

Only under the leadership of a strong subject can the genes of excellent traditional Chinese culture be truly activated. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes: “Only mutual compatibility makes organic integration possible. It is in this sense that we say the Communist Party of China is both a steadfast believer and practitioner of Marxism and a faithful inheritor and promoter of China’s excellent traditional culture.” [5]5 Xi Jinping, speech on cultural confidence, 2016. Under the premise of mutual compatibility between Marxism and excellent traditional Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, as the subject bearing the great mission of realizing the integration of the two, stands on the magnificent history of more than five thousand years of Chinese civilization, consciously shoulders the responsibility for the continuity of the Chinese cultural lineage, deeply grasps the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization shaped by the excellent factors in traditional Chinese culture, and profoundly reveals the historical inevitability, cultural connotations, and unique advantages of the Chinese path. More importantly, in the process of using Marxism to activate the genes of excellent traditional Chinese culture, the more than one hundred years of Party history and the more than five thousand years of Chinese civilization history are connected. The Party’s more than one hundred years of struggle are integrated into the history of Chinese civilization, becoming a new stage in the development of Chinese civilization. This is a history of extending and expanding the development path of Chinese civilization into modernity; it is the history in which the CPC’s more than one hundred years of struggle have given Chinese civilization a modern form. While adhering to and applying the basic tenets of Marxism to carry forward Chinese civilization, the CPC also establishes its own cultural subjectivity on the deep foundation of Chinese civilization, on the basis of the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture. It is in this sense that the cultural subjectivity of Chinese civilization, the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation, and the cultural subjectivity of the CPC together constitute the cultural subjectivity of contemporary China.

在一个强大的主体作为领导力量下，才能真正激活中华优秀传统文化基因。习近平总书记强调：“相互契合才能有机结合。正是在这个意义上，我们才说中国共产党既是马克思主义的坚定信仰者和践行者，又是中华优秀传统文化的忠实继承者和弘扬者。”在马克思主义与中华优秀传统文化彼此契合的前提下，中国共产党作为实现这两者相结合的伟大使命的担纲主体，立足波澜壮阔的中华五千多年文明史，自觉肩负起中华文脉的永续之任，深刻把握中华传统文化中的优秀因子所塑造的中华文明的突出特性，深刻揭示出中国道路的历史必然、文化内涵与独特优势。更为重要的是，在用马克思主义激活中华优秀传统文化基因的过程中，百余年党史与五千多年中华文明史被贯通起来。党的百余年奋斗历程融入中华文明史中，成为中华文明发展的新阶段。这是把中华文明发展道路向现代拓展延伸的历史，是中国共产党的百余年奋斗让中华文明具有了现代形态。中国共产党在坚持和运用马克思主义基本原理来发扬光大中华文明的同时，也将自身的文化主体性建立在中华文明的深厚根基上，建立在中华优秀传统文化的创造性转化和创新性发展的基础上。正是在此意义上，中华文明的文化主体性、中华民族的文化主体性、中国共产党的文化主体性，共同构成了当代中国的文化主体性。

The result of mutual compatibility is organic integration, and the result of organic integration is mutual achievement. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “‘Integration’ is not a ‘patchwork,’ not a simple ‘physical reaction,’ but a profound ‘chemical reaction,’ creating a new cultural life form that is organically unified.” [6]6 Xi Jinping, speech at the symposium on cultural heritage, 2023. In the process of using Marxism to activate the genes of excellent traditional Chinese culture, the CPC, leading the Chinese people, has established cultural subjectivity on Chinese soil, created a new cultural life form, produced the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization, and inaugurated a new form of human civilization. It has expanded the path for developing the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, combining the promotion and flourishing of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics with the inheritance and development of Chinese civilization, and linking the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics directly with the more than five thousand years of Chinese civilization’s path; it has opened the treasure trove of excellent factors in traditional Chinese culture, established confidence in Chinese cultural ideals and cultural values, stimulated the creativity and vitality of Chinese culture, laid a solid foundation for strengthening cultural confidence and consolidating cultural subjectivity, and endowed Chinese civilization with distinctive cultural characteristics for exchange and mutual learning with other civilizations in the world.

彼此契合的结果是有机结合，而有机结合的结果则为相互成就。习近平总书记指出：“‘结合’不是‘拼盘’，不是简单的‘物理反应’，而是深刻的‘化学反应’，造就了一个有机统一的新的文化生命体。”在用马克思主义激活中华优秀传统文化基因的过程中，中国共产党领导中国人民在中国大地上建立起文化主体性，造就出一个新的文化生命体，创造了中国式现代化的文化形态，开创了人类文明新形态。它拓展了新时代中国特色社会主义文化发展的道路，将中国特色社会主义文化的弘扬与繁荣同中华文明的继承与发展结合起来，将中国特色社会主义道路与中华五千多年的文明道路一气贯通；打开了中华传统文化中的优秀因子宝库，确立起对中华文化理想和文化价值的信心，激发了中华文化的创造力和生命力，为坚定文化自信、巩固文化主体性奠定了坚实的基础，使中华文明具有了同世界其他文明交流互鉴的鲜明文化特征。

(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and deputy director of the Research Office for Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.)

（作者系中国社会科学院哲学研究所研究员、习近平文化思想研究室副主任）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧