Cultivating the Whole Nation’s Spirited and Vigorous Ethos

A person cannot stand without spirit; a nation cannot be strong without spirit. The proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, reviewed and approved at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, states: “Guide cultural development with core socialist values, give play to the role of culture in nurturing aspirations and cultivating sentiments, and cultivate the whole nation’s spirited and vigorous ethos.” [1]1 The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. The “15th Five-Year Plan” refers to the national economic and social development plan for 2026–2030. The period of the 15th Five-Year Plan is a crucial stage for consolidating the foundation and making comprehensive efforts to basically realize socialist modernization, requiring strong spiritual strength as support. Adhering to the guidance of core socialist values and cultivating the whole nation’s spirited and vigorous ethos can provide deep and lasting spiritual impetus for forging ahead on the new journey.

人无精神不立，国无精神不强。党的二十届四中全会审议通过的《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十五个五年规划的建议》提出，“以社会主义核心价值观引领文化建设，发挥文化养心志、育情操的作用，涵养全民族昂扬奋发的精神气质”。“十五五”时期是基本实现社会主义现代化夯实基础、全面发力的关键时期，需要强大的精神力量作支撑。坚持以社会主义核心价值观为引领，涵养全民族昂扬奋发的精神气质，能够为奋进新征程提供深沉而持久的精神动力。

I

一

The national ethos is the core force for a nation’s survival and development, and the spiritual pillar that enables it to stand firm among the nations of the world. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “Spirit is the soul on which a nation relies for long-term survival. Only when it reaches a certain height in spirit can a nation stand firm and forge ahead courageously in the torrent of history.” [2]2 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping’s speech at the commemoration of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (2016). History proves that whenever a nation encounters moments of crisis, it is precisely this ethos, rooted in blood and accumulated over time, that gathers the mighty strength of hundreds of millions of people, inspires them to step forward and overcome difficulties together, and builds a Great Wall of steel with their flesh and blood to defend national dignity and independence. This fully demonstrates that the greatness of a nation lies not only in its long history, but also in the height and resilience of its spirit, and in the unity and indomitability it displays in times of crisis.

民族精神气质是一个民族生存与发展的核心力量，是其在世界民族之林中屹立不倒的精神支柱。习近平总书记指出：“精神是一个民族赖以长久生存的灵魂，唯有精神上达到一定的高度，这个民族才能在历史的洪流中屹立不倒、奋勇向前。”历史证明，每当民族遭遇危难时刻，正是这种植根于血脉、积淀于岁月的精神气质，凝聚起亿万人民的磅礴力量，激励人们挺身而出、共克时艰，以血肉之躯铸就捍卫国家尊严与民族独立的钢铁长城。这充分昭示：一个民族的伟大，不仅在于其悠久的历史，更在于其精神的高度与韧性，在于危难中展现的团结与不屈。

The spirited and vigorous ethos of the Chinese nation is concentratedly embodied in the strong resilience of standing together through storm and stress and remaining unyielding, which has long been deeply integrated into the nation’s bloodline. This spiritual trait can not only effectively rally people’s strength and coordinate social resources at critical moments, but also, amid the challenges of a complex international environment and intertwined multicultural influences, consolidate the foundation of cultural confidence and calmly respond to various risks. Looking back at history, those people of lofty ideals who faced adversity with courage and sacrificed their lives for righteousness not only practiced the national spirit with their lives, but also forged an eternal spiritual monument. In every test, Chinese Communists have always displayed a high degree of consciousness and a spirit of mutual assistance, continuously stimulating and guiding the common sentiments of the whole society. Today, the world is undergoing a complex process where economic globalization and changes unseen in a century are intertwined. [3]3 “Changes unseen in a century” is a standard phrase used by the CPC to describe the current era of global upheaval and transformation. The spiritual outlook of a nation directly affects its international image and discursive power. Only by maintaining a spirited, vigorous, confident, and composed posture can we demonstrate responsibility in global governance and win recognition and respect from the world. Promoting such a national spirit not only helps consolidate the cultural foundation and strengthen confidence in moving forward, but also enables the Chinese nation to maintain vitality in the currents of the times and steadily march toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Only by being guided by a spirited and vigorous spirit can we seize opportunities amid changes unseen in a century, break new ground amid risks and challenges, and achieve the nation’s sustainable development and prosperity.

中华民族昂扬奋发的精神气质，集中体现为同舟共济、不屈不挠的强大韧性，这早已深深融入民族血脉之中。这一精神特质，既能在危难关头有效凝聚人民力量、统筹社会资源，也能够在复杂国际环境与多元文化交织的挑战中，筑牢文化自信的根基，从容应对各类风险。回望历史，那些慷慨赴难、舍生取义的志士仁人，不仅以生命践行了民族精神，更铸就了永不褪色的精神丰碑。在每一次考验面前，中国共产党人总是展现出高度的自觉与互助精神，持续激发并引领全社会的共同情感。当今世界正经历经济全球化与百年变局交织的复杂进程，一个民族的精神风貌，直接关系到其国际形象与话语权。唯有保持昂扬奋发、自信从容的姿态，我们才能在全球治理中彰显担当，赢得世界的认同与尊重。弘扬这样的民族精神，不仅有助于筑牢文化根基、坚定前行信心，更能使中华民族在时代浪潮中始终保持生机活力，稳步迈向伟大复兴。只有以昂扬奋发的精神为引领，我们才能在百年变局中抓住机遇、于风险挑战中开拓新局，实现民族永续发展与繁荣昌盛。

II

二

When culture thrives, the nation thrives; when culture is strong, the nation is strong. As the core component of Chinese culture, core socialist values determine the fundamental direction and deep characteristics of China’s cultural development. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “Core values are the soul of cultural soft power and the focus of cultural soft power construction. They are the deepest-level elements that determine the nature and direction of culture. A country’s cultural soft power, fundamentally, depends on the vitality, cohesion, and appeal of its core values.” [4]4 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping’s speech at the 13th collective study session of the Politburo of the 18th Central Committee (2014). This important exposition scientifically clarifies the key role of core socialist values in consolidating the national spirit and strengthening the foundation of the country. When core socialist values are truly internalized as people’s spiritual pursuits and conscious actions, they can effectively stimulate the whole society’s aspiration for and practice of truth, goodness, and beauty, imperceptibly elevating moral realms and shaping a new trend of the times. This spiritual force, originating from value identification, can converge into a powerful synergy where the entire people share the same heart, same virtue, and same direction with the nation’s development, providing deep and lasting cultural support for national rejuvenation.

文化兴则国运兴，文化强则民族强。社会主义核心价值观作为中华文化的核心组成部分，决定着我国文化建设的根本方向和深层特质。习近平总书记指出：“核心价值观是文化软实力的灵魂、文化软实力建设的重点。这是决定文化性质和方向的最深层次要素。一个国家的文化软实力，从根本上说，取决于其核心价值观的生命力、凝聚力、感召力。”这一重要论述，科学阐明了社会主义核心价值观对于凝聚民族精神、筑牢国家根基的关键作用。当社会主义核心价值观真正内化为人们的精神追求和自觉行动，便能有效激发全社会对真善美的向往与践行，在潜移默化中提升道德境界、塑造时代新风。这种源自价值认同的精神力量，能够汇聚成全体人民与国家发展同心同德、同向同行的强大合力，为民族复兴提供深沉而持久的文化支撑。

General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “We must vigorously promote and practice core socialist values throughout society, making them as ubiquitous as air, present everywhere and at all times, becoming the common value pursuit of all people, the unique spiritual pillar for us as Chinese, and the behavioral norms that people use daily without conscious awareness.” [5]5 This is a paraphrase of Xi Jinping’s remarks at a symposium on the cultivation and practice of core socialist values (2014). The process by which core socialist values play the role of consolidating spirit, gathering energy, strengthening the foundation, and consolidating the base is embodied not only in the inheritance and development of fine traditional Chinese culture and the continued promotion of the spiritual lineage of Chinese Communists, but also in transforming abstract value concepts into people’s tangible life experiences through concrete practices in daily life. In this process, each individual finds spiritual belonging in value identification, strengthens cultural confidence in emotional resonance, and ultimately realizes the educational function of transforming people through culture and nurturing people through culture. Therefore, cultivating and practicing core socialist values throughout society is not a passive compliance imposed from the outside, but a deep integration derived from individual inner experience and moral cognition. Only through sincere value identification and genuine life practice can people’s moral consciousness be truly awakened, a social trend of respecting virtue and doing good be led, and the spiritual strength for forging ahead on the new journey and making contributions in the new era be gathered.

习近平总书记指出，“我们要在全社会大力弘扬和践行社会主义核心价值观，使之像空气一样无处不在、无时不有，成为全体人民的共同价值追求，成为我们生而为中国人的独特精神支柱，成为百姓日用而不觉的行为准则”。社会主义核心价值观发挥凝魂聚气、强基固本作用的过程，既体现为对中华优秀传统文化的传承发展、对中国共产党人精神谱系的赓续弘扬，也体现在通过日常生活的具体实践，将抽象的价值理念转化为人们真切可感的生命体验。在这一过程中，每个个体在价值认同中找到精神归属，在情感共鸣中坚定文化自信，最终实现以文化人、以文育人的教化功能。因此，在全社会培育和践行社会主义核心价值观，并非外在强加的被动遵守，而是源于个体内在体验与道德认知的深度融合。唯有通过真诚的价值认同与真切的生活实践，才能真正唤醒人们的道德自觉，引领崇德向善的社会风尚，凝聚起奋进新征程、建功新时代的精神力量。

III

三

General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “To do all work well, there must be strong support from value guidance, cultural cohesion, and spiritual impetus. Cultural construction must have a backbone. Core socialist values must be widely publicized, educated, and explored in practice, so that core socialist values become a powerful spiritual driving force guiding people forward.” [6]6 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping’s speech at a national conference on propaganda and ideological work (2018). On the new journey, only by adhering to guiding cultural development with core socialist values and strengthening the construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress can we consolidate the common ideological foundation for the united struggle of the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups in the country, and continuously cultivate the Chinese nation’s spirited, upward, vigorous, and promising ethos.

习近平总书记指出：“做好各项工作，必须有强大的价值引导力、文化凝聚力、精神推动力的支撑，加强文化建设要有主心骨，社会主义核心价值观要广泛宣传教育、广泛探索实践，使社会主义核心价值观成为引导人们前进的强大精神动力。”新征程上，只有坚持以社会主义核心价值观引领文化建设，加强社会主义精神文明建设，才能筑牢全党全国各族人民团结奋斗的共同思想根基，持续涵养中华民族昂扬向上、奋发有为的精神气质。

To this end, a variety of methods should be comprehensively used, including education and guidance, public opinion propaganda, cultural immersion, institutional guarantees, role model demonstration, and practice cultivation, to promote the internalization of core socialist values in the mind and their externalization in action, truly transforming them into people’s conscious behavior. In particular, equal emphasis should be placed on propaganda and education and institutional guarantees; this is the key path to shaping the national spirit and consolidating social consensus. Specifically, it is necessary to deeply carry out propaganda and education on core socialist values, adhere to fostering virtue through education and transforming people through culture, organically integrate them into daily life and social governance, transform core values from abstract concepts into the conscious spiritual pursuit of the entire people, continuously improve the moral quality and level of civilization of the whole society, and inject profound spiritual impetus into the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. At the same time, a long-term mechanism for guiding cultural development with core socialist values should be established and improved, incorporating their requirements into policy, law, and institutional design. By integrating core socialist values into law-based governance, transforming them into clear legal norms and institutional constraints, guiding people to form good behavioral habits, and making the advocacy and practice of core socialist values a common practice throughout society. In short, in the context of the New Era, cultivating the whole nation’s spirited and vigorous ethos with core socialist values requires both extensive, deep, and subtle propaganda and education, as well as systematic, complete, reliable, and strong institutional guarantees. Only when the two work in concert can the endogenous driving force for the whole nation’s united struggle, vigorous action, and promising endeavor be continuously stimulated in the process of solidly advancing the construction of cultural-ethical progress and the development of cultural and educational undertakings.

为此，应综合运用教育引导、舆论宣传、文化浸润、制度保障、榜样示范、实践养成等多种方式，推动社会主义核心价值观内化于心、外化于行，真正转化为人们的行动自觉。尤其要坚持宣传教育与制度保障并重，这是塑造民族精神、凝聚社会共识的关键路径。具体而言，需深入开展社会主义核心价值观宣传教育，坚持立德树人、以文化人，将其有机融入日常生活与社会治理，使核心价值观从抽象理念转化为全民自觉的精神追求，不断提升全社会的道德素养和文明程度，为中华民族伟大复兴注入深厚精神动力。同时，建立健全以社会主义核心价值观引领文化建设的长效机制，将其要求贯穿政策法规与制度设计之中。通过将社会主义核心价值观融入法治建设，转化为明确的法律规范和制度约束，引导人们形成良好的行为习惯，使崇尚和践行社会主义核心价值观在全社会蔚然成风。总之，在新时代背景下，以社会主义核心价值观涵养全民族昂扬奋发的精神气质，既要依靠广泛深入、润物无声的宣传教化，也离不开系统完善、有力可靠的制度保障。唯有两者协同发力，方能在扎实推进精神文明建设和文化教育事业发展的过程中，不断激发全民族团结奋进、奋发有为的内生动力。

(Author: Li Jinghua, Professor at the School of Marxism, Hainan Normal University)

（作者：李京桦，系海南师范大学马克思主义学院教授）