Shang Wenjie: Expanding New Quality Productive Forces Requires the Spirit of Craftsmanship in the New Era
The spirit of craftsmanship [1] in contemporary China takes the Marxist principle of "people-centeredness" (人民性) as its base. While pursuing the elevation of material production levels, it further seeks the universal sharing of material developmental fruits among all people, as well as the improvement of the status of laborers and the guaranteeing of their benefits. The organic integration of contemporary China’s spirit of craftsmanship with new quality productive forces can significantly enhance the humanistic concern of the latter, allow new quality productive forces to obtain more powerful mass support [2], and promote the development of new quality productive forces by improving new relations of production. Therefore, to further strengthen new quality productive forces on the New Journey [3], we must correctly grasp and apply this spiritual driving force.
Significantly Enhancing the Humanistic Concern of New Quality Productive Forces
Contemporary China’s spirit of craftsmanship takes Marxism as its ideological guidance and the Marxist people-centeredness as its base; it contains the Marxist value ideals of achieving proletarian liberation, the liberation of all humanity, and the free and well-rounded development of every individual. The organic integration of the spirit of craftsmanship and new quality productive forces will powerfully promote the universal sharing of the developmental fruits of new quality productive forces, thereby significantly enhancing their humanistic concern.
The spirit of craftsmanship originated in material production activities and primarily concerns the sphere of material production. From antiquity to the present, craftsmen have relied on the spirit of craftsmanship, utilizing exquisite skills to provide a continuous stream of material products for social development. Craft products that "strive for perfection" (精益求精) [4] also satisfy the ever-growing needs of the people, providing a practical foundation for the inheritance and development of the spirit of craftsmanship, allowing it to remain fresh over time.
Thus, "striving for perfection" is the deep impression the spirit of craftsmanship leaves on people; in many contexts, exquisite products often serve as the spokesperson for this spirit. Contemporary China’s spirit of craftsmanship has sublated [5] previous typical forms of craftsmanship, taking "devotion and focus, striving for perfection, meticulousness, and the pursuit of excellence" as its primary content. It preserves the creative tradition of "striving for perfection" while creatively proposing the value goal of "pursuing excellence"—that is, while ensuring exquisite form and superior quality, products should be made as inclusive and practical as possible to broader improve the people's well-being. In the Mozi [6], Mo Di criticized Lu Ban for creating a bamboo and wood magpie that flew for three days without landing, saying: "What you have done is not as good as what a craftsman does in making a carriage axle-pin. In a short time, he carves three inches of wood, yet it can bear a weight of fifty dan. Therefore, for an achievement to be considered 'skillful' (巧), it must benefit the people; if it does not benefit the people, it is considered 'clumsy' (拙)." This passage expresses a similar sentiment. Technological inventions must concern the real lives of the masses; "extraordinary skills and meretricious ingenuity" (奇技淫巧) [7] detached from the masses are of no use. In an axiological sense, the "excellence" in the spirit of craftsmanship is similar to the "skill" spoken of by Mo Di: the more excellent a craft product is, the more it must focus on satisfying the needs of the masses. In other words, only products that truly satisfy the needs of the masses can be considered excellent. This point of value pursuit is particularly important for the development of new quality productive forces.
As General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, new quality productive forces are characterized by innovation playing the leading role; they move away from traditional economic growth models and paths of development for productive forces, featuring high technology, high efficiency, and high quality. They are an advanced state of productive forces that align with the new development philosophy. We must focus not only on the progress of new quality productive forces in material aspects such as science and technology but also on their adherence to the new development philosophy, particularly the practice of "sharing"—an essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. That is, we must persist in the principle that development is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people.
Securing More Powerful Mass Support for New Quality Productive Forces
Once new quality productive forces embody a deeper humanistic concern, the masses will inevitably support their development more staunchly, making the continuous strengthening of new quality productive forces the theme of the workers' movement in the New Era. The former is the premise of the latter; the latter is the logical continuation of the former. In fact, this developmental approach—demonstrating the benefits of developing productive forces to the masses and allowing them to tangibly share in the results to gain broader and more powerful mass support—has always been an effective measure used by the Communist Party of China (CPC) in leading the masses through socialist construction.
In the early period of the People’s Republic of China, everything was waiting to be rebuilt, and many production sectors, especially industrial ones, were "poor and blank" (一穷二白) [8]. How to secure a consensus across society for industrial development, achieve national socialist industrialization, and build China into a powerful industrialized country was a major issue facing the Party Central Committee with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core. In 1944, Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out that the primary reason for China's backwardness was the lack of modern industry. Why did Japanese imperialism dare to bully China so? It was because China lacked a powerful industry. But as a major agricultural country, how should China develop industry—especially heavy industry that could consolidate China’s national independence? In April 1956, in On the Ten Major Relationships, he pointed out that there are two ways to develop heavy industry: one is to develop less agriculture and light industry; the other is to develop more agriculture and light industry. In February 1957, in On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People, he devoted a special chapter to the path of China's industrialization. He said that China is a large agricultural country with a rural population accounting for over 80%; industrial development must proceed simultaneously with agricultural development. As machinery, fertilizers, water conservancy, electricity, transport, civilian fuel, and building materials serving agriculture increase, the fact that heavy industry takes agriculture as an important market will be more easily understood. Once heavy industry has a market and capital, it will develop faster. In this way, the speed of industrialization may seem slower, but in reality, it will not be, and might even be faster.
It can be said that the achievements of China's industrialization today are largely due to this unique industrialization path, which vividly practiced the Marxist method of seeking truth from facts in both thought and work. Care and service for the masses eventually won the broad support of workers and peasants for China’s industrialization. Today, the organic integration of the spirit of craftsmanship and new quality productive forces will continuously send a message to the masses: when the masses collectively support the development of new quality productive forces, the results will inevitably be enjoyed by them and serve their production and lives. Only then will the masses burst forth with greater enthusiasm for cultivating and strengthening new quality productive forces, allowing them to truly develop.
Improving New Relations of Production to Drive the Development of New Quality Productive Forces
Historical materialism holds that relations of production must adapt to the developmental requirements of productive forces. To develop new quality productive forces, we must further comprehensively deepen reform and form new relations of production that correspond to them. Promoting the spirit of craftsmanship in contemporary China is not only about creating more high-quality products to serve the masses but also about creating an environment in society that respects labor, knowledge, talent, and creativity; improving the treatment of talent; forming new relations of production; and attracting and cultivating more high-quality talent.
In ancient China, during the period of handicraft industry characterized by "examining the curves and surfaces to refine the five materials and distinguish the vessels of the people" [9], craftsmen formed a "spirit of the artisan" (匠人精神) through their struggle to transform the material world. This increased their creative capacity and labor efficiency, producing a large number of world-renowned technological achievements and securing a leading global technological position. However, due to the irreconcilable contradictions between the ruling and the ruled classes, important means of production were monopolized by the ruling class. The artisan group was divided into government artisans and civilian artisans, with the vast majority remaining in a long-term state of exploitation. Thus, viewed as a whole, the artisan spirit of ancient China only concerned material products; alienated [10] craft labor could hardly serve the self-development of the craftsmen themselves.
In contrast, contemporary China’s spirit of craftsmanship holds that the overall development of productive forces must rely on the development of people, and explicitly regards the development of "things" as a link in the development of "people." As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, we must strive to cultivate and create "Excellence Engineers" and "Great Country Craftsmen" (大国工匠) [11], continuously improving the quality of various types of talent, while also refining the mechanism where factors of production participate in income distribution to better reflect the market value of knowledge, technology, and talent. In this sense, the spirit of craftsmanship can play an important role in driving the reform of distribution relations and improving interpersonal relations in production, becoming an important entry point for developing and improving new relations of production. Furthermore, the promotion of the spirit of craftsmanship can drive the development of new quality productive forces via the medium of new relations of production, thereby promoting a virtuous cycle between the two and achieving high-quality development faster and better.
To further exert the important function of the spirit of craftsmanship in driving new quality productive forces, future labor policies and other support policies must fully manifest the status of the spirit of craftsmanship. They should guide society to improve the economic treatment and social status of laborers, fully implement existing policies, and timely clean up or adjust content in past policies that does not align with the values of the spirit of craftsmanship with Chinese characteristics. Moreover, the education system must fully implement the Marxist view of "combining labor and education," integrating cultural, technical, and moral education to forge the cultural proficiency, technical ability, and moral character of laborers. This will spark a new wave of workers' movements aimed at cultivating new quality productive forces and promoting high-quality development.
(The author is a researcher at the Industrial Culture Research Center, Hubei University of Technology) Source: CASS Online / China Social Sciences Daily Web Editor: Huihui