Marxist Research Is the Foundational Project of Ideological and Theoretical Development

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “The project for the study and development of Marxist theory is the foundational and strategic project of the Party’s ideological and theoretical development.” This important statement profoundly elucidates the status and role of the project for the study and development of Marxist theory, and it carries rich implications.

习近平总书记指出：“马克思主义理论研究和建设工程是党的思想理论建设的基础工程、战略工程。”这一重要论述深刻阐明了马克思主义理论研究和建设工程的地位和作用，有着丰富的含义。

Marxist research is the foundational task of the Party’s ideological and theoretical development. Political steadfastness cannot be separated from theoretical steadfastness. The term “theory” in Party documents generally refers specifically to the scientific ideological system of Marxism, especially the theoretical weapon forged by the classical Marxist writers for the proletariat to understand and transform the world. “Theory is the cornerstone of ideology. The deeper theoretical research goes, the stronger and more solid the support for ideology becomes.” The Communist Party of China has always attached importance to ideological and theoretical work and to theoretical arming, and Marxism is precisely the theoretical foundation guiding our thought. Mao Zedong said as early as the end of 1939: “I have read the *Communist Manifesto* no fewer than a hundred times.” Theory refers to systematic scientific knowledge and principles. Marxism has conducted in-depth investigation of its era and the world, profoundly grasping and creatively revealing the laws of development of human society. Theory is a powerful guide: “The depth of one’s grasp of Marxist theory determines the degree of political sensitivity, the breadth of one’s perspective, and the height of one’s ideological realm.” Marx had profound insight into human development. Unlike utopian thinkers, he did not proceed from a priori abstract concepts, but instead established his moral stance on the scientific truth of the laws of development of human society revealed by historical materialism, pointing the way to human freedom and liberation from the depth of the foundation of material relations of production. Marx firmly believed that “a higher form of society, whose fundamental principle is the full and free development of every individual,” is the form that human society ought to take. Marxism today still displays the power of scientific thought and still occupies the commanding heights of truth and morality.

马克思主义研究是党的思想理论建设的基础任务。政治上的坚定离不开理论上的坚定。“理论”这一术语，在党的文献里一般特指马克思主义科学的思想体系，特别是马克思主义经典作家为无产阶级锻造的认识世界和改造世界的理论武器。“理论是意识形态的基石。理论研究越深入，对意识形态的支撑就越坚强有力。”中国共产党一直重视思想理论工作、重视理论武装，而马克思主义正是指导我们思想的理论基础。毛泽东在1939年底就说过：“《共产党宣言》我看了不下一百遍。”理论是指科学的系统知识和原理，马克思主义对所处的时代和世界做了深入考察，深刻地把握和创造性地揭示了人类社会发展规律。理论是强大的指导，“掌握马克思主义理论的深度，决定着政治敏感的程度、思维视野的广度、思想境界的高度”。马克思对人的发展有着深刻的洞识，不同于空想家，不是从先验的抽象观念出发，而是把道义的立场奠立在唯物史观揭示的人类社会发展规律的科学真理基础上，从物质生产关系这一根基的深度指明人的自由与解放途径，马克思坚信“一个更高级的、以每一个个人的全面而自由的发展为基本原则的社会形式”是人类社会应有的形态。马克思主义在今天依然显示出科学思想的伟力，依然占据着真理和道义的制高点。

Persisting in using Marxism to observe the era, interpret the era, and lead the era, and continuously opening up new realms of contemporary Chinese Marxism and Marxism in the 21st century, is an important mission of the project for the study and development of Marxist theory. Deeply studying the basic theories of Marxism and thoroughly understanding and practically applying Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is an important task. Marxism is the theoretical foundation guiding our thought. Upholding Marxism’s guiding position in the ideological domain has been established as a fundamental institution of socialism with Chinese characteristics. With the development of social history and practice, Marxism is also constantly advancing with the times, manifesting new forms of the era.

坚持用马克思主义观察时代、解读时代、引领时代，不断开辟当代中国马克思主义、21世纪马克思主义的新境界，是马克思主义理论研究和建设工程的重要使命。深入学习马克思主义基本理论，学懂弄通做实习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想是一项重要任务。马克思主义是指导我们思想的理论基础，坚持马克思主义在意识形态领域的指导地位，被确立为中国特色社会主义的根本制度。随着社会历史和实践的发展，马克思主义也在不断地与时俱进，展现出时代的新形态。

Contemporary Chinese Marxism provides theoretical guidance for our socialist modernization cause that possesses practical breadth, realistic depth, and historical thickness. We are facing changes unseen in a century in the world, and the international situation we confront is increasingly complex. Amidst a volatile and unpredictable environment, planning the strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation requires coordinating the advancement of reform, development, and stability in all areas and doing our own work well. Facing entirely new circumstances and challenges, how to understand this era requires us to have theoretical and ideological steadfastness, to recognize the general trend of history, and to grasp the laws of society. The cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new stage of development. It requires grasping new demands, carrying out struggles with new historical characteristics, opening up new realms of Marxism, presenting a new atmosphere, and making new achievements.

当代中国马克思主义为我们的社会主义现代化事业提供了具有实践广度、现实深度、历史厚度的理论指南。我们面临着世界百年未有之大变局，面临的国际形势日益复杂，在波谲云诡的环境中，谋划中华民族伟大复兴的战略全局，需要协同推进改革发展稳定各项工作，做好自己的事情。面对全新的环境和挑战，如何认识这个时代，需要我们有思想理论的定力，认识历史大势，把握社会规律。中国特色社会主义事业进入了新的发展阶段，需要把握新要求，进行新的历史特点的斗争、开辟马克思主义新境界，呈现新气象，要有新作为。

The project for the study and development of Marxist theory requires upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. Based on the summation of our practical explorations on the new journey of socialist modernization, the Party continuously advances theoretical innovation, putting forward a series of new thoughts, new viewpoints, and new judgments. These require theoretical elucidation, academic expression, and systematic construction, so that they can better play a guiding role. Historical materialism holds that “mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, it will always be found that the task itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation.” Grasping the idea of self-consciousness is a modern undertaking; philosophy can accurately grasp the spirit of the era only when an era has reached maturity.

马克思主义理论研究和建设工程，需要守正创新。立足于我们在社会主义现代化建设新征程中的实践探索的总结，党不断推进理论创新，提出了一系列新思想、新观点、新论断，需要学理化阐释、学术化表达、体系化构建，使之更好地发挥指导作用。唯物史观认为，“人类始终只提出自己能够解决的任务，因为只要仔细考察就可以发现，任务本身，只有在解决它的物质条件已经存在或者至少是在生成过程中的时候，才会产生”。把握自我意识的理念乃是现代的事业，哲学能准确把握时代的精神才是一个时代成熟的标志。

Our socialist modernization cause is not merely modernization at the material and institutional levels. The great rejuvenation of the nation also involves the self-affirmation of the national spirit and modernization at the spiritual level. The principal contradiction in Chinese society has been transformed into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. In grasping the spirit of the New Era, ideological concepts have also taken on new forms. Traditional concepts are no longer sufficient. Cultural subjectivity has given rise to a culturally determined and steadfast self. The construction of the discipline of ideological and political education in the process of the Chinese nation’s modernization faces new challenges and inevitably possesses its own specific connotations and forms to respond to new demands.

我们的社会主义现代化建设事业，不只是物质层面和制度层面的现代化，民族的伟大复兴也有民族精神的自我肯认，有精神层面的现代化。我国社会主要矛盾已经转化为人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾，对于新时代的精神的把握，思想观念也有了新的形态，传统的理念已经不敷使用，文化主体性造就出文化意义上的坚定自我，中华民族现代化进程中的思想政治教育学科建设面临着新的挑战，必然有其特有的内涵、形态，以回应新的要求。

Under the circumstances of changes unseen in a century in the world and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the two overall situations [n1] deeply interact and accelerate their evolution. The ideological state of members of society is becoming more diverse and complex. We need to place greater emphasis on the soul of Marxism, highlighting the Marxist foundation of theoretical development; and to emphasize the root of fine traditional Chinese culture as a cultural gene, endowing ideological theory with distinct Chinese characteristics. For a nation’s culture to stand firmly and go far among the nations of the world, spiritual independence has the significance of a national soul. Behind the competition among major powers lies essentially a contest of values. In the process of the Chinese nation’s modernization, to break the assertion that “today China exports television sets rather than ideas,” it is necessary to bring into play the value of spirituality itself. In 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to strengthen cultural confidence and confidence in values, providing rich cultural nourishment for constructing an independent knowledge system. “In the New Era, on the basis of confidence in the path, confidence in the theory, and confidence in the system, we have added confidence in the culture. Cultural confidence comes from our cultural subjectivity.” This spiritual independence is precisely the source of our confidence in exercising historical initiative. Possessing the guidance of Marxist scientific theory is the fundamental reason why our Party can firmly believe in its ideals and grasp historical initiative.

在世界百年未有之大变局和实现中华民族伟大复兴的情势下，两个大局深度互动加速演进，社会成员的思想状况更趋多元、复杂，我们需要更加强调马克思主义这个魂脉，体现出理论建设的马克思主义底色；强调中华优秀传统文化这个根脉作为文化基因，赋予思想理论以鲜明的中国特色。一个民族的文化要立于世界民族之林行稳致远，精神上的独立自主有其民族魂的意义，大国竞争背后的实质是价值观之争。在中华民族现代化进程中，打破“今日中国出口的是电视机而不是思想观念”的断言，就要发挥精神性自身的价值。2014年，习近平总书记就强调要增强文化自信和价值观自信，为建构自主知识体系提供了丰沃的文化涵养，“新时代我们在道路自信、理论自信、制度自信的基础上增加了文化自信。文化自信就来自我们的文化主体性”。这种精神的独立性，正是我们发挥历史主动精神的底气所在，拥有马克思主义科学理论指导是我们党坚定信仰信念、把握历史主动的根本所在。

Mao Zedong pointed out that the ideological weapons and political plans that the Chinese people were forced to learn from the homeland of imperialism, namely the era of the Western bourgeois revolution, had gone bankrupt. “Ever since the Chinese people learned Marxism-Leninism, the Chinese people have moved from passivity to initiative in spirit.” The Chinese people have achieved a fundamental transformation from standing up, becoming prosperous, to becoming strong. China has become a major socialist country with a pivotal position in the world and playing an important leading role. This great change is, in the final analysis, because Marxism works, and because Marxism adapted to the Chinese context and the needs of the times works.

毛泽东指出，中国人被迫从帝国主义的老家即西方资产阶级革命时代学来的思想武器和政治方案，宣告破产了。“自从中国人学会了马克思列宁主义以后，中国人在精神上就由被动转入主动。”中国人民实现了由站起来、富起来到强起来的根本改变，中国已经成为世界上有举足轻重地位、发挥重要引领作用的社会主义大国，这一巨变，归根到底是马克思主义行，是中国化时代化的马克思主义行。

In the disciplinary paradigms of international social science, there was also a time when Western learning was followed. In the decades after World War II, the social science concepts dominant in Europe and North America also held a dominant position outside the West. Today, non-Western developing countries are gradually breaking free from the state of Western discursive hegemony and moving toward independence. We, on the other hand, are constructing an independent discursive system of social science, moving toward confidence and self-reliance. In May 2016, at the Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed “building a disciplinary system, academic system, and discursive system with our own characteristics.” In 2022, during an inspection of Renmin University of China, he proposed “constructing an independent knowledge system of China.” The independence we emphasize does not mean isolated, self-enclosed seclusion, but rather a difficult intellectual creation that does not forget the original, absorbs from abroad, and faces the future in a comprehensive synthesis. An independent knowledge system involves the research questions, the environment of the era, and prominent characteristics. The knowledge itself is a coherent, integrated structure composed of concepts, propositions, laws, relations, methods, paradigms, and so on. Knowledge consists of truth and belief. Through the analysis of the formation and development process of the disciplinary knowledge system, revealing the elements of the knowledge system and forming iconic concepts is an important link.

在国际社会科学的学科范式上，也曾是遵从西学，二战之后的几十年里，在欧洲和北美居于主导地位的社会科学观念，在西方以外的地区同样也居于主导地位。而今非西方的发展中国家正逐渐摆脱西方话语霸权的状态而走向自立，我们则在构建社会科学的自主话语体系，走向自信自强。2016年5月，习近平总书记在哲学社会科学工作座谈会上提出“构建具有自身特质的学科体系、学术体系、话语体系”，2022年在考察中国人民大学时提出“建构中国自主的知识体系”。我们强调的自主性并不是指孤立的隔绝的自我封闭，而是不忘本来、吸收外来、面向未来进行综汇的艰巨的思想创造。自主知识体系，涉及研究的问题、时代环境、突出特征，知识本体是由概念、命题、规律、关系、方法、范式等组成的圆融一体的整体性结构，知识由真理与信念构成，通过对学科知识体系形成和发展过程的探析，揭示知识体系要素，形成标识性概念，是重要的环节。

The evolution of knowledge forms originates from the comprehensive interplay and powerful impetus of practice and socio-historical conditions. Delving deeply into principles, revealing laws, and deepening the study and interpretation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thereby forming an academic support system, constitutes a completely new innovation in a knowledge system that synthesizes the ancient and the modern and integrates China and the West. This independent knowledge system embodies the immense courage of the Party’s theoretical innovation and derives from applying the Two Integrations [2]2 The Two Integrations (两个结合) refers to the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the best of traditional Chinese culture. to ideological and theoretical construction. One of the important tasks of the Marxist Theoretical Research and Construction Project is to base itself on the great historical practice and contemporary practice of the Chinese nation, use Chinese principles to summarize Chinese experience well, elevate Chinese experience into Chinese theory, and while safeguarding the “soul vein” and the “root vein” [3]3 “Soul vein” (魂脉) refers to Marxism, and “root vein” (根脉) refers to traditional Chinese culture., create new ideas, new discourses, new mechanisms, and new forms, thereby continuing the historical cultural lineage and composing a contemporary chapter. Constructing an independent knowledge system, constructing philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, and advancing the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times is an unprecedented undertaking, and the Marxist Theoretical Research and Construction Project is precisely the backbone of this great endeavor.

知识形态的演进，源自实践与社会历史条件的综合作用和强有力的推动。深耕道理、揭示规律，深化对习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的研究阐释，形成学术支撑体系，是一个全新的熔铸古今、汇通中西的知识体系创新。这种自主知识体系，体现了党的理论创新的巨大勇气，来源于把“两个结合”运用于思想理论建设。马克思主义理论研究和建设工程的重要任务之一就是立足中华民族伟大历史实践和当代实践，用中国道理总结好中国经验，把中国经验提升为中国理论，在守护好“魂脉”与“根脉”的同时，创出新思路、新话语、新机制、新形式，赓续历史文脉、谱写当代华章。建构自主知识体系，建构中国特色哲学社会科学，推进马克思主义中国化时代化，是一项前无古人的事业，马克思主义理论研究和建设工程，正是这一伟大事业的中坚力量。

(The author is a professor at the School of Marxism, Fudan University.)

（作者系复旦大学马克思主义学院教授）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧