Introduction: On February 7, Beijing time, Xi Jinping continued the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the opening ceremony of the seminar on the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and delivered a speech on how to correctly understand and vigorously promote Chinese-style modernization.
In his speech, Xi Jinping reiterated the characteristics of the five aspects of Chinese-style modernization (modernization with a huge population, modernization with common prosperity for all people, modernization with harmonious material and spiritual civilization, modernization with harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and peaceful development. road to modernization), and bluntly stated that Chinese-style modernization broke the myth of "modernization = Westernization", showed another picture of modernization, expanded the path choices for developing countries to modernize, and provided human beings with a better social system. The Exploration offers Chinese programs.
When it comes to "modernization", many Chinese are familiar with it.
Because since the Opium War, China, which was knocked open by the strong ships and guns of the West, has been seeking modernization with difficulty under the "stimulus-response" mode.
From the modernization of utensils in the Westernization Movement, to the modernization of the system in the Reform Movement of 1898, to the cultural roots of the May Fourth Movement, the modern history of China is not only a history full of wars and chaos, but also a history of exploring the road to Chinese-style modernization. history.
A few days ago, a reporter from "Hong Kong 01" interviewed Yao Yang, dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, focusing on issues such as Chinese-style modernization and the Sinicization of Marxism.
The following is the first interview.
Hong Kong 01:
Before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, you published a long article "Sinicization of Marxism and the Construction of Modern Chinese Civilization", which talked about the impact and response of the West that China has experienced since the Opium War, the Sinicization of the Chinese Communist Party, and Chinese civilization world meaning.
In the report made by Xi Jinping at the 20th National Congress, he specifically talked about Chinese-style modernization, the modernization of Marxism in China, and the combination of the two. It can be said that it is very consistent with the issues that your article focuses on and discusses.
Based on your previous thinking, combined with the exposition of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, how do you understand Chinese-style modernization?
Many people are familiar with "Chinese characteristics". This time the modernization uses "Chinese style". How is it different from "Chinese characteristics"?
Yao Yang:
I won't repeat the content of the article you mentioned, but in light of your question, we can roughly sort out China's modernization process since 1860.
Yao Yang, Dean of the National School of Development, Peking University.
(VCG)
From 1860 to 1894, we practiced learning from barbarians to control barbarians, emphasizing the Chinese body and the western use, because China at that time had already felt the impact of the West, but we did not recognize the impact of the West at the institutional and cultural levels. I still feel that there is no problem with the system and culture, but the skills are not as good as people.
However, when the Sino-Japanese War was defeated in 1894, although China's navy was still the most powerful in Asia at that time, it was defeated by "students" like Japan. Under the impact of the Sino-Japanese War, people began to think that it might not just be due to inferior skills People, but the system also had problems. Thinking about the system has been brewing until the Reform Movement of 1898.
Although the reform failed in the end, in fact the pace of change has not stopped.
In 1911, when the imperial system was overthrown and the Republic of China was established, the system changed, but what people saw was warlords in melee, surrounded by foreign enemies. Under such circumstances, people began to seek cultural revolutions other than system changes, and thus came the May Fourth Movement. New Culture Movement.
At the time of the New Culture Movement, World War I had just ended, and there was a sense of pessimism in the entire Western world, thinking that Western civilization had come to an end.
At this historical juncture, the Russian Revolution sent a strong signal to Chinese progressive intellectuals, that is, radical revolutions in backward countries can not only succeed, but also solve all the problems of the entire country in one package. This is the early Russian-style Marxism .
This trend of thought had a great impact on the progressive intellectuals in China at that time, such as Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu. As the prophets of that era, they began to introduce Marxism, and thus the Chinese Communist Party was born.
The Communist Party of China is the product of the west wind spreading eastward, and the product of China absorbing the impact of the West.
This is why after the reform and opening up, the Chinese Communist Party itself wants to be sinicized, because as a product of the westward wind, the Chinese Communist Party must return to China, and it is a return at a higher level, and the traditional structure that has been impacted by the West will be improved. recalibration.
Therefore, based on this premise, the Chinese Communist Party has locked its core mission on the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, which was also repeated in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China - "From now on, the central task of the Chinese Communist Party is to unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups in the country to build a comprehensive society." We will build a strong socialist modernized country, achieve the second centenary goal, and comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization.” With this goal, the return of the Communist Party of China to China is a matter of course, and it is also mentioned in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that “ Integrate the essence of Marxist thought with the essence of Chinese excellent traditional culture, and integrate with the common values that the people use every day without realizing it.” That is to say, the country’s system must conform to the basic psychological structure of the people.
On October 31, 2017, Xi Jinping and members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee paid homage to the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai and the red boat on Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang.
(Xinhua News Agency)
As for the Chinese-style modernization explained in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China you mentioned, why is it not "Chinese characteristics"? According to my understanding, the superficial reason is that there is already "socialism with Chinese characteristics", which is called "modernization with Chinese characteristics". , a bit repetitive; the deep meaning is that when socialism with Chinese characteristics was proposed back then, it was assumed that there was already an orthodox socialist model, that is, Soviet socialism, so China proposed "socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the 1980s. Compared with the orthodox one, the specific features are that the one major and the second public are abolished, the household contract responsibility system is implemented in rural areas, and the state-owned enterprises need to be reformed, etc.
The "Chinese-style modernization" intends to emphasize that there is no longer a so-called orthodox modernization path, and China must embark on its own modernization path. This is a more profound meaning of Chinese-style modernization.
So what are the characteristics of Chinese-style modernization?
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China summarized the five characteristics, which I also discussed in detail in my article a year ago, so I won’t repeat them here.
However, combined with the 20th National Congress report, I would like to add one more point, that is, the first cultural shock experienced by Chinese civilization in the past two thousand years. Although it was mentioned in that long article, it was not discussed in detail. .
We know that Li Hongzhang said at the end of the 19th century that China was undergoing major changes unseen in three thousand years. It can be seen that he saw it very clearly, because China will soon enter a new historical cycle after the end of the imperial system.
But in fact, before there were major changes in the past three thousand years, Chinese civilization had already had an impact from foreign cultures, and that was the introduction of Buddhism.
The impact of Buddhism on Chinese culture was limited, but it took more than a thousand years for Chinese culture to absorb Buddhism. In the end, Zen Buddhism became the mainstream Buddhist sect in China, and Neo Confucianism transformed traditional Confucianism by absorbing the practice method of Buddhist personal awareness. Finally It was completely absorbed by Wang Yangming, which in fact promoted the great emancipation of Chinese thought.
In other words, the emancipation or secularization of people's minds was completed in China before the West, and we must dare to point this out.
When I say secularization, I mean that people have finally begun to exist apart from God and "Heaven." Western philosophy and religions emphasize God, and China has always said that "fate is determined by heaven."
But when it came to Wang Yangming, when he realized Taoism in Longchang, he "suddenly realized the purpose of studying things and extending knowledge" in the middle of the night.
This is a great discovery. Although it did not lead to a great social change and did not produce a Western-style enlightenment movement, it has achieved complete secularization in thought. There is no God, no "heaven", and I myself am morality This is a great achievement of our assimilation of Buddhism.
Thinking about Chinese-style modernization from this perspective actually boils down to how to absorb the impact of the West.
Many of the contradictions and problems we encounter today can actually be attributed to this point.
Judging from the previous absorption, it must be based on me, put Western civilization in the basket of Chinese civilization, and finally become our own.
Just like the absorption of Buddhism, when it comes to Buddhism, especially Zen, many people may have forgotten that it came from India, and Zen has become a native religion in China.
On the day when all these things from the West become our local things, China's modernization process will be considered complete.
But in this process, China must be the main focus, not the West. The Chinese Communist Party has realized this problem at the practical level, so it is constantly carrying out the Sinicization of Marxism, although the Sinicization of Marxism is not just proposed today , but today it has become a more urgent issue, so the report of the 20th National Congress once again clearly emphasized the "combination of the two".
Understanding Chinese-style modernization from this dimension is the height it should be.
Xi Jinping delivered a report at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
(Screenshot from CCTV)
Hong Kong 01:
For Chinese-style modernization, the outside world is used to interpreting it as another expression of the Chinese model.
For example, Yang Kaihuang, director of the Cross-Strait Research Center of Ming Chuan University in Taiwan, said that Chinese-style modernization intends to integrate Chinese culture and socialism equally, facing the future, and announcing to the West that a new "Chinese model" is coming.
We know that the international community has been discussing the "China model" for a long time, and many scholars in the Chinese academic circle are also calling for it, such as Zhang Weiwei.
However, Chinese officials seem to have been avoiding applying this concept. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China uses the "Chinese path", "Chinese wisdom" and "Chinese plan", and emphasizes that China will not impose its own plan on other countries, but rather It just "provides a new choice for those countries and nations in the world who want to speed up their development while maintaining their independence."
How do you understand the "Chinese model" behind Chinese-style modernization?
Does this mean that the "Chinese model" is coming?
Yao Yang:
The Chinese model needs to be understood from two dimensions, one is to summarize the past, and the other is to face the future. I think the current Chinese model is still biased towards summarizing the past, but facing the future, the Chinese model is still an open system, because A stable Chinese socialism has not yet been formed.
The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October 1987 put forward the theory of "primary stage of socialism". According to the definition of the primary stage at the 13th National Congress, we have basically completed the primary stage.
But according to official judgments, China is still in the primary stage of socialism, which means that the theory has not yet been finalized, practice has not been finalized, and Chinese socialism has not yet been finalized. We still need a theory of Chinese socialism.
I don't know how long it will take for this theory to be established. It may take 10 years, 20 years or even longer. Maybe it will take until 2035 to fully realize modernization, or until 2049 to achieve the second centenary goal before we can say that we have formed If the stable model of Chinese socialism is established, by that time, the word "characteristics" must be removed. In fact, we must be the same as Chinese-style modernization. We must have this confidence.
Chinese socialism is a form of socialism, and facts have proved that there is no so-called orthodox socialism. The orthodox Soviet socialism we once thought has failed, and China does not want to repeat the same mistakes. We want to build our own socialism.
Therefore, I think it is too early to talk about the so-called Chinese model. A more appropriate term is the Chinese way.
China is adhering to the Chinese path of Chinese-style modernization, and is constantly exploring the Chinese model.
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7｜Chinese-style modernization: modernization of spirit, society, nature and peace