Xu Xiyuan and Liang Yanbing: The Historical Creation and Practical Achievements of "Combining Education with Productive Labor"
"Integrating education with productive labor" is both a vital component of Marxist educational theory and a consistently fine tradition of our Party. In September 2024, Xi Jinping emphasized at the second National Education Conference the need to "focus on cultivating socialist builders and successors with a well-rounded development in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor dimensions." This provided directional guidance and a fundamental follow-through for the development of "integrating education with productive labor" in the New Era. Among these, the "physical" and "labor" dimensions demonstrate that Party and state leaders attach great importance to labor education. At present, while artificial intelligence technology promotes the development of productive forces, it has also triggered concerns regarding practical issues such as the "obsolescence of labor education," "labor deskilling," and "technological unemployment," presenting certain challenges to the practice of "integrating education with productive labor." Therefore, examining the historical necessity of the proposal and development of "integrating education with productive labor," summarizing its practical achievements, and profoundly understanding the advanced nature of the Marxist thought on "integrating education with productive labor" and the superiority of education with Chinese characteristics are of great enlightening significance for better promoting the practice of "integrating education with productive labor" in the New Era.
I. The Necessity of the Proposal and Development of "Integrating Education with Productive Labor"
The proposal and development of "integrating education with productive labor" possess both historical necessity and conformity with the inevitable trends of social development. Looking back at history, the Communist Party of China's (CPC) practice of "integrating education with productive labor" has solved four problems: promoting socio-economic development; overcoming the separation of cognition from practice and theory from reality; overcoming the separation between "mental labor" and "manual labor"; and advancing the realization of well-rounded human development.
(1) The Practical Needs of Production and Construction to Promote Socio-Economic Development
During the Revolutionary War period, our Party's revolutionary base areas were located in impoverished rural regions. All work had to be predicated on solving basic production problems. Meanwhile, the toiling masses in the countryside required education to improve their cultural level and escape ignorance in order to undertake revolutionary production tasks. Under these historical conditions, "integrating education with productive labor" emerged as the times required. To run schools under the "poor and blank" [1] conditions of the countryside, teachers and students had to personally dig cave dwellings, build assembly halls, and reclaim wasteland for farming. "The integration of education and productive labor implemented in the revolutionary base areas was linked to solving the material difficulties of providing education."
During the full-scale War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, as the population continued to migrate in, the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region—originally sparsely populated with barren land and frequent natural disasters—faced extreme financial and economic difficulties. This situation was further exacerbated when the war entered the stage of strategic stalemate: the Kuomintang government stopped issuing pay to the Eighth Route Army and funding to the Border Region, while implementing a military encirclement and economic blockade. "We once reached the point where we had almost no clothes to wear, no oil to eat, no paper, no vegetables; soldiers had no shoes or socks, and staff had no blankets in winter." "We must get food to eat; we must pay attention to economic work. To talk about education or schools apart from economic work is nothing but superfluous empty talk." Based precisely on this, the CPC Central Committee decided to call for self-salvation through production. Various organs, schools, factories, and military units in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region launched large-scale production movements to achieve self-reliance. "Some organs, schools, and units must, under war conditions, strictly implement the growing of vegetables, raising of pigs, gathering of firewood, burning of charcoal, and the development of handicrafts and some grain cultivation." Regarding cadre education, various models of "integrating education with productive labor" were implemented. For example, the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political University (Red Army University) incorporated productive labor into the teaching plan, organizing all teachers and students to study on the one hand and participate in production movements on the other. At the Northern Shaanxi Public School, to complete the task of reclaiming 2,100 mu [2] of wasteland, the entire faculty and student body organized youth shock brigades and launched labor competitions. The Chinese Women's University integrated teaching with production; scenes of students knitting while listening to lectures were common, described as "neglecting neither study nor production." Overall, under the guidance of the Party's educational policy, various educational units in the base areas vigorously practiced "integrating education with productive labor," depicting a pedagogical scene where study and production advanced together, greatly helping to improve the material conditions of the base areas.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong pointed out: "Our country is still a very poor country, and it is impossible to fundamentally change this state in a short period. We must rely entirely on the youth and all the people to unite and struggle for several decades, creating a prosperous and powerful country with our own hands." In response, Zhou Enlai called on the people at the First Session of the 4th National People's Congress to "struggle hard and build the country through diligence and thrift." To answer this call, the education sector implemented "integrating education with productive labor," and an educational atmosphere of "running schools with diligence and thrift, and work-study programs" gradually formed. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the focus of the Party and state's work shifted to economic construction. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping pointed out at the National Education Work Conference: "Only when laborers possess a higher scientific and cultural level, rich production experience, and advanced labor skills can they play a greater role in modern production." This required "integrating education with productive labor" to adapt to the development of the times in terms of content and method. Deng Xiaoping further noted: "If what students learn is incompatible with the occupations they will engage in—learning what is not used and using what was not learned—would that not fundamentally undermine the policy of integrating education with productive labor?" Educational planning should consider the problem of employment "alignment" (duikuo), which profoundly revealed that "integrating education with productive labor" is also an issue of economic development. Currently, China's economic development has transitioned from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development; whether we can cultivate the capacity for innovation and creation has become an important prerequisite for achieving high-quality development. In this regard, "integrating education with productive labor" must serve innovative development, continuously enhancing students' practical innovation capabilities and empowering innovation education through labor education.
(2) The Need to Overcome the Separation of Cognition from Practice and Theory from Reality
During the Revolutionary War years, a situation where cognition was separated from practice once occurred within our Party. Some Party members only focused on burying their heads in books and slighted practical struggle, which resulted in turning Marxism into rigid dogma and committing dogmatist errors. Other Party members slighted theoretical study and only focused on actual struggle, which resulted in replacing scientific guidance with subjective experience and committing empiricist errors. Where does human knowledge come from? Regarding this, Mao Zedong pointed out: "There are two kinds of incomplete knowledge: one is ready-made book knowledge, and the other is knowledge that is perceptual and partial. Both are one-sided. Only by combining the two can a good and relatively complete knowledge be produced." He further noted: "What is relatively complete knowledge? All relatively complete knowledge is composed of two stages: the first stage is perceptual knowledge, and the second stage is rational knowledge, which is the higher stage of development of perceptual knowledge." Relying solely on book knowledge or solely on subjective experience is one-sided. To obtain complete knowledge, one must master the dialectical materialist epistemology of "practice, knowledge, again practice, and again knowledge; this form repeats itself in endless cycles." Productive labor is the basic activity of humanity and the fundamental path through which humans acquire knowledge and skills. It is through productive labor that humans can obtain perceptual knowledge and elevate it into scientific rational knowledge.
After the founding of the PRC, a separation of theory from reality once appeared in the field of education—namely, school learning was disconnected from actual social needs. In 1965, Mao Zedong pointed out the need to transform school education and let students come into contact with social reality. He said: "I have great doubts about this current educational system. From primary school to university, a total of sixteen or seventeen years, or over twenty years, they don't see the five grains [3], they don't see how workers work, they don't see how peasants farm, and they don't see how commodities are exchanged. Their health is also ruined. It's truly killing people." Mao Zedong suggested that liberal arts universities should let students engage in industry, agriculture, and commerce; students of science and engineering should not only intern in factories and conduct experiments in laboratories but also have appropriate contact with social reality; high school graduates should first do some practical work, such as going to the countryside, factories, shops, or military companies. During the new period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, Jiang Zemin reiterated that students should participate in social practice through "integrating education with productive labor." He said: "If students are only allowed to study behind closed doors, without participating in labor, without coming into contact with social practice, and without understanding how workers and peasants diligently create social wealth, their feelings for the working people will not be cultivated, which is detrimental to their healthy growth and well-rounded development." It can be seen that "integrating education with productive labor" is an important manifestation of the link between theory and practice in the field of education.
(3) The Need to Overcome the Separation of "Mental Labor" and "Manual Labor"
In the old society, labor was a shackle used to exploit and oppress the masses, while education was a "luxury" beyond their reach. The problem with education in old China was that education and scholarship were "kept on a high shelf" [4], not actively establishing realistic connections with social life, making the schools of that time generally "training grounds for big and small bookworms, and monasteries for world-avoidance." Meanwhile, the exploiters monopolized the right to education, using cultural knowledge as a tool to further exploit and oppress the laboring people, believing that mental laborers were superior to others, leading to the situation where "those who work with their minds govern others; those who work with their hands are governed by others" [5]. Whether in traditional academies or various types of schools, it was difficult for the masses to enter and study. To prevent scholarship from becoming a ruling tool for the few and to keep education from "becoming further isolated from the common society, resulting in the tragedy of an intellectual class enslaving the commoner class," it was necessary to resolve the chronic malady of the separation between mental and manual laborers—that is, the separation between book education and productive labor. "Marxism holds that if education is separated from productive labor, it is impossible to resolve the antithesis between mental labor and manual labor." Based precisely on this, the CPC began leading the promotion of a new education linked to the people and society. On one hand, the vast laboring people were to receive education; on the other hand, intellectuals were to go among the worker and peasant masses to "sweep away the remnants of the parasitic educational system where 'study' is separated from production, and instead closely link school education with productive labor."
In 1921, in the "Outline of the Organization of the Hunan Self-Study University"—a new type of "populist" university—Mao Zedong pointed out: "To break the habit of physical weakness, to seek the balanced development of mental and physical strength, and to bring the two stages of knowledge and labor closer together, the fellows of this university should pay attention to labor." "Balanced development of mental and physical strength" and "paying attention to labor" raised the issue of the common development of mental and physical faculties, especially the importance of labor education.
During the Land Revolutionary War period, our Party actively carried out new education in the Central Revolutionary Base Area to serve the toiling masses. In January 1934, at the Second National Soviet Congress, Mao Zedong pointed out that the general policy of Soviet cultural education "lies in educating the vast toiling masses in the spirit of communism, in making cultural education serve the revolutionary war and class struggle, and in linking education with labor." This policy was the product of combining the basic Marxist principle of "integrating education with productive labor" with the specific realities of China's revolutionary base areas. It possessed epoch-making significance and aimed to educate the vast laboring people to become revolutionary subjects with strong wills.
During the full-scale War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, "integrating education with productive labor" became an educational principle implemented in all base areas. Whether in primary and secondary education or in cadre education, schools led by the Party flexibly integrated "education and productive labor" into daily study and life. This not only enabled ordinary primary and secondary students to master theoretical knowledge comprehensively through productive labor but also reversed the notion of slighting manual labor and manual laborers. Furthermore, it cultivated revolutionary cadres who could adapt to the revolutionary environment and integrate with the masses, effectively breaking the separation between "mental labor" and "manual labor."
After the founding of New China, "combining education with productive labor" became a major direction of China’s educational reform and a vital link in developing socialist education. The Communist Party of China (CPC) placed great emphasis on using this combination to help the working people establish a revolutionary subjective outlook [6] of "labor creating the world" and a love for labor. For instance, addressing the prevailing atmosphere of hedonism in society, Mao Zedong criticized the fact that some young people "thought that once socialism arrived everything should be good, and they could enjoy a ready-made happy life without relying on hard work or exerting effort." In September 1958, the Directive on Educational Work issued by the CPC Central Committee categorized productive labor as a formal school subject. It proposed cultivating the "perspective of combining mental and manual labor" and the need to "struggle against views that despise manual labor and manual laborers or advocate for the separation of mental and manual work." After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping reaffirmed that "combining education with productive labor" is an important measure for gradually eliminating the distinction between mental and manual labor. He stated, "In order to cultivate qualified personnel needed for socialist construction, we must earnestly study how to better implement the policy of combining education with productive labor under new conditions." Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping has delivered multiple speeches pointing out the need to firmly establish the values that labor is most honorable, most sublime, most great, and most beautiful, ensuring everyone can work diligently, honestly, and creatively. Thus, it is evident that throughout the leadership's implementation of this educational practice, our Party has consistently focused on guiding and fostering a correct outlook on labor and the concept of integrating mental and manual work.
(4) The need for the value pursuit of achieving free and well-rounded human development
Promoting the realization of well-rounded human development [7] was proposed by Marx as a solution to the one-sided development of individuals caused by the system of the division of labor in large-scale machine industry. Marx believed that "combining education with productive labor" is the sole method for achieving well-rounded human development. As he noted, "From the factory system budded, as Robert Owen has shown us in detail, the germ of the education of the future, an education that will, in the case of every child over a given age, combine productive labour with instruction and gymnastics, not only as one of the methods of adding to the efficiency of production, but as the only method of producing fully developed human beings." The CPC has consistently advocated for promoting well-rounded human development in a socialist state—that is, "ensuring the broad masses of the people can freely develop their individuality within a communal life." In an exploitative society, "national oppression and feudal oppression cruelly restricted the development of the Chinese people's individuality," making it impossible to achieve well-rounded human development. To cultivate well-rounded individuals, socialism must integrate education with productive labor in educational practice, allowing for the simultaneous development of the human spirit and physique.
In February 1957, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People proposed the socialist educational policy for New China: "Our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually, and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture." In 1958, Mao Zedong pointed out: "The well-rounded development we advocate is to enable students to acquire relatively complete and broad knowledge, develop a healthy body, and develop communist morality." He added, "Because only such newly developed well-rounded individuals are fit to undertake the glorious and great task of building a socialist society." He noted that both moral and intellectual education "are related to engaging in labor," and therefore "the principle of combining education with labor is immutable." Cultivating a new generation of well-rounded individuals conforms not only to the needs of society but also to the laws governing the development of education itself. In 1982, while meeting representatives of the National Work Conference on Work-Study Programs [8] in Primary and Secondary Schools, Hu Qiaomu pointed out: "The Party's educational policy requires students to develop well-roundedly in morality, intelligence, and physique, becoming workers with socialist consciousness." "Combining education with productive labor" is "one of the effective ways to cultivate workers with socialist consciousness and culture who are well-developed morally, intellectually, and physically." As society develops, we have entered the era of the "knowledge economy," characterized by knowledge innovation and application. The innovative spirit and application capacity of workers have become key; thus, we must focus on improving students' comprehensive quality and molding socialist builders and successors who have "ideals, morality, culture, and discipline" (the "Four Haves") [9] and are well-developed in moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetic education.
II. Historical Achievements of "Combining Education with Productive Labor"
Our Party has always persisted in combining the basic Marxist principles of "combining education with productive labor" with China's specific realities. This has created many great practical achievements, which have profoundly changed the face of society, promoted social production and well-rounded human development, and powerfully advanced the cause of China’s revolution, construction, and reform.
(1) Transforming society: Realizing the people’s position as masters of the country
First, the working people gained the right to education. The CPC represents the fundamental interests of the broadest reaches of the Chinese working people. Guided by the idea of "combining education with productive labor," the CPC broke the monopoly on education held by the ruling classes, granting the broad masses the right to education. This allowed them to master more knowledge and skills and raise their class consciousness, thereby opening an educational path for the liberation of all China. Since its founding, the CPC actively established workers' supplementary schools to teach life skills and class struggle, popularizing Marxism-Leninism in a short time and raising the consciousness of the working class. During the Great Revolution period [10], the CPC actively founded peasant night schools and peasant schools to provide cultural education to the peasantry, realizing the combination of education and productive labor. During the full-scale War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the CPC-led base areas [11] conducted various forms of social education (such as "winter schools" in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, "morning schools" and "noon schools" in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region, and various production-based literacy classes), unifying production with study. This raised the cultural level and ignited the production enthusiasm of the people in the base areas. After the founding of New China, the CPC led a national literacy campaign; hundreds of millions of peasants learned to read and write in the fields, and tens of millions of workers mastered basic literacy in workshops. Schools of various levels actively recruited large numbers of worker and peasant youth. These measures effectively improved national quality and truly realized the combination of education with productive labor. Since its birth, the CPC has always attached importance to the education of the working people, allowing them to transform their subjective world while transforming the objective world, continuously achieving self-liberation and actively dedicating themselves to the cause of revolution, construction, and reform, truly becoming masters of their own country.
Second, realizing the integration of intellectuals with the worker-peasant masses. Most of China’s old-style intellectuals belonged to the petty bourgeoisie. Through "combining education with productive labor," the CPC "labor-ized" [12] the intellectuals, bringing them into the fold of the working people, strengthening their emotional ties with the masses, and fostering their proletarian consciousness. During the revolutionary war years, schools in the base areas arranged for intellectuals to undergo internships and tempering in the countryside, living and working alongside the laboring people to "educate them to approach the workers and peasants, resolve to serve them, and oppose the mindset of looking down on them," while fostering a love for labor. After the founding of New China, Mao Zedong pointed out: "Education must serve proletarian politics and must be combined with productive labor. The working people must be intellectualized, and intellectuals must be labor-ized." In 1968, Mao issued the call: "It is highly necessary for educated youth to go to the countryside to be re-educated by the poor and lower-middle peasants." Consequently, the "Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside" movement [13] swept the nation, which accelerated rural development to a certain extent and provided labor tempering for educated youth. In short, "combining education with productive labor" played a major role in transforming the worldview of old intellectuals, lifting the class consciousness of the Party’s own intellectuals, tempering youth, and driving intellectuals to struggle for the complete liberation of the working people worldwide.
Third, women's participation in social labor and the elevation of women's social status. For thousands of years, Chinese women were bound by feudal rites and ethics, possessing no personal or spiritual freedom. The "central relationship" behind this was economic. The cause of gender inequality was inequality in economic relations. Therefore, to achieve women's liberation and break the millennial confinement of women to the roles of "men managing the outside, women managing the inside" and "a woman’s lack of talent is a virtue," it was necessary to carry out educational practices combining education with productive labor. This allowed women to receive education while participating in labor, mastering production alongside knowledge. The CPC has always valued raising women's status through this combination. After the Land Revolution [14], women were also allocated land, creating the material conditions for their liberation. To encourage women to discard the old notion that they could not perform labor and to step out of the home to participate in social production, propaganda and education were required. For example, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, revolutionary base areas generally established literacy groups, half-day classes, night schools, and winter schools, widely admitting women and conducting educational activities during gaps in productive labor. By the later stages of the Great Production Movement [15], "production organizations and study organizations were unified—the production group leader was the study group leader," and women's production groups became collective study groups. With their economic status changed and cultural knowledge increased, women were no longer bound by feudal thought and began to participate in important social affairs, significantly raising their social status. Through the unremitting efforts of several generations in New China, women's economic, social, and political status has significantly risen—an achievement clearly linked to our national policy of combining education with productive labor.
History has proven that the great innovation of "combining education with productive labor" overturned the backward concept of "those who work with their minds rule others, while those who work with their hands are ruled by others" [16] that had persisted for millennia in China. It effectively overcame the opposition between "mental labor" and "manual labor" caused by the separation of education from production. Under the CPC’s leadership, these practices allowed the masses to establish a correct outlook on labor and realize their own liberation, providing a steady stream of strength for the cause of revolution, construction, and reform.
(2) Promoting production: Driving comprehensive socio-economic development
First, promoting social production and economic development. The great achievements of the 70-plus years since the founding of New China were forged precisely through the diligent and honest labor of hundreds of millions of Chinese people. The CPC united and led the people of all ethnic groups to carry out socialist construction through hard work, continuously improving social productive forces and driving social development. This enabled China to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects on a foundation of being "poor and blank," with GDP growing from 12.3 billion RMB in 1949 to 114 trillion RMB in 2021, becoming the world's second-largest economy. This reflects the significant effect of "combining education with productive labor" in adapting to national economic construction and supporting development through the cultivation of talent. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region launched the Great Production Movement during a period of extreme financial difficulty, and the people responded actively. In February 1940, the Central Ministry of Finance reported on the 1939 production summary: "Last year, the masses in the Border Region reclaimed 1.04 million mu [17] of wasteland, increased grain by 200,000 dan [18], and increased livestock by one million head, greatly improving lives and ensuring the collection of 50,000 dan of public grain for national salvation this spring." As an important practical form of combining education with productive labor, the Great Production Movement not only effectively improved the labor capacity of the people in the revolutionary base areas but also laid a solid material foundation for the subsequent victory of the New Democratic Revolution. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, these practices cultivated a large number of cadres and grassroots technical talents of worker-peasant origin, laying a solid foundation for China to establish a relatively complete industrial and national economic system. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, these practices fostered a large number of socialist workers who mastered science and technology and possessed innovative practical abilities, assisting China in achieving world-renowned economic achievements and rapid growth in GNP and per capita GNP.
Second, promote technological innovation and industrial upgrading. Since the 1980s, science and technology have increasingly become the primary productive force. Entering the 21st century, the spirit of innovation and practical ability have become the clarion call of the times. In response, the educational practice of "combining education with productive labor" has stimulated the innovative spirit of talent, promoted technological innovation and industrial upgrading, and made enormous contributions to economic and social development. At the same time, this combination has facilitated "industry-university-research" cooperation, accelerating the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements. On the new journey of the New Era, new quality productive forces—led by innovation—are advanced productive forces birthed by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. The practice of "combining education with productive labor" will continuously cultivate "new quality talent" possessing cross-disciplinary innovation capabilities and a global vision, introducing the latest scientific achievements into production practice to bolster their transformation and application.
The 20th CCP National Congress raised the interconnectedness of education, technology, and talent to a new height, noting the need to "implement the strategy for invigorating China through science and education and strengthen the talent support for modernization." To this end, we must continuously innovate the practical models of "combining education with productive labor," achieving synergistic development and positive interaction between education, technology, and talent, thereby seizing the initiative in the new round of scientific revolution and industrial transformation. In September 2024, at the National Education Conference [19], Xi Jinping pointed out: "Strengthen scientific research cooperation between universities and enterprises, and allow more scientific and technological achievements to be transformed into modern productive forces as quickly as possible. Build a vocational education system that integrates vocational and general education and combines industry with education, and vigorously cultivate Great Country Craftsmen [20], master craftsmen, and high-quality skilled talents." This provides a path for innovating the practical models for "combining education with productive labor" in the New Era.
(3) Cultivating Talent: Cultivating Well-Rounded Talent Developed Morally, Intellectually, Physically, Aesthetically, and Through Labor
As one of the principles of Marxist educational theory, a vital achievement of the practice of "combining education with productive labor" is "cultivating people" (yuren). As economy and society continue to develop, our Party's practice in this area has placed increasing emphasis on the well-rounded development of the individual, thereby cultivating a vast number of socialist builders and successors.
In February 1955, People's Education (Rénmín Jiàoyù) published the article "A Discussion on Several Issues in Implementing Well-Rounded Development Education," sparking a major debate on the subject. In February 1957, Mao Zedong proposed: "Our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture." This reflected Marxist thought on the well-rounded development of the individual and further clarified the links between moral, intellectual, and physical education and a person's comprehensive quality. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, Deng Xiaoping further emphasized this policy at the National Education Work Conference, noting it should be implemented across all sectors. In 1999, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Decision on Deepening Educational Reform and Comprehensively Promoting Quality Education, proposing the educational goal of "well-rounded development in morality, intelligence, physique, and aesthetics." It stated: "The combination of education with productive labor is an important path for cultivating well-rounded talent. Schools of all levels and types must proceed from reality to strengthen and improve productive labor and practical education for students."
As Chinese-path modernization entered the New Era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core—viewing the situation from the height of the development of the Party and the state—incorporated labor education into the general requirements for talent cultivation. They constructed an educational system for "comprehensive cultivation in morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor." This is of landmark significance in the history of education in New China and represents the latest achievement in combining the basic Marxist principle of "combining education with productive labor" with China’s concrete reality. As an essential component of the Chinese thought on this combination, labor education not only allows students to master basic modern production skills but also helps them develop a correct outlook on labor. It possesses comprehensive educational value—building virtue, increasing intelligence, strengthening the body, and nurturing aesthetic sense—serving as a contemporary response to the question: "How should we cultivate people?"
Generally speaking, the Party’s practice of "combining education with productive labor" has maintained a complete meaning across different historical periods, though with slightly different emphases. During the periods of New Democratic Revolution and Socialist Revolution and Construction, the achievements lay primarily in breaking the boundary between mental and manual labor, shaping equal social relations, and cultivating the subjectivity of the working people as constructors. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the practice inherited previous achievements while focusing primarily on liberating and developing the productive forces. In the New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the practice places more emphasis on the well-rounded development of the individual. These historical achievements fully prove the correctness of the Marxist classical writers’ view that "combining education with productive labor" is the fundamental path for transforming society, increasing social labor productivity, and cultivating well-rounded individuals.
III. Realistic Inspirations for Promoting the "Combination of Education with Productive Labor"
In the 21st century, intelligent technology has accelerated economic and social prosperity, but human forms of labor and concepts of labor have once again undergone seismic shifts. As material wealth grows more abundant, consumerism and money-worship have become prevalent, easily making people lazy and breeding a mindset of seeking gain without effort. For a time, productive labor was seen as "backward and obsolete," becoming a synonym for "dirty, tiring, and bitter" (zāng lèi kǔ). In the field of education, manual labor even showed a trend of gradually fading from view. Against this backdrop, the fine tradition of "combining education with productive labor" faces risks of being forgotten. Simultaneously, exam-oriented education affects the whole of society, hindering students' well-rounded development. In pursuit of higher test scores, students have degenerated into "question-solving machines" (shuātí jīqì), gradually detaching from social reality and losing the ability to truly understand and apply knowledge. A long-term lack of productive labor will have serious consequences for human development.
From the individual dimension, a weak concept of labor leads to a decreased sense of self-worth. On one hand, productive labor is the primary way for people to realize their self-worth; on the other hand, the absence of labor practice leads to an inability to acquire correct knowledge, as productive labor is the basic path for humanity to obtain knowledge. From the social dimension, a lack of productive labor practice will lead to a decline in overall social productivity, stagnation of economic development, and imbalance in the social structure. It will also block cultural inheritance, causing us to lose many traditional crafts and cultural heritages. Therefore, facing new challenges, we must unswervingly and comprehensively promote the "combination of education with productive labor."
(1) Adhering to the Party’s Leadership: The Fundamental Principle of Socialist Education
Marx and Engels proposed the "combination of education with productive labor" based on the development of modern large-scale machine industry and the sharpening of class contradictions to the point where class struggle became necessary. This thought was born during the proletariat's struggle against the bourgeoisie; it has a realistic historical direction and revolves around achieving victory in class struggle, abolishing private property, and realizing communism. In this sense, the Marxist "combination of education with productive labor" is a great pioneering feat in human history. One of its vital aspects is breaking the "alienated labor" of capitalism to create a new world where everyone receives an education and achieves free and well-rounded development through productive labor. The combination of education and productive labor implemented by capitalism is not for the well-rounded development of the individual, but to realize the abstract and rapid growth of productive forces driven by the logic of capital. The purpose of capitalism is to maximize the extraction of surplus value; the labor skills training it provides is oriented toward short-term employment, ignoring long-term human development. Therefore, the Marxist thought on "combining education with productive labor" is fundamentally different from capitalist social education.
The CPC has attached importance to this combination in every historical period. By leading relevant practices, it effectively changed the ideology through which the exploiting classes enslaved the working people for thousands of years, allowing the masses of working people to stand up and become masters of their own house. Within the new socialist trend of loving, advocating, and respecting labor, a large number of model figures have emerged, such as the "Iron Man" Wang Jinxi [21], the "Founding Father of the Two Bombs and One Satellite" Deng Jiaxian [22], the "Blue-Collar Expert" Kong Xiangrui, and the "Lei Feng of the New Era" Xu Hu. Represented by these model workers, the working people have strived with diligence, selfless dedication, and a spirit of hard work, providing a solid guarantee for the cause of revolution, construction, and reform, and shaping the glorious image of the working people. On the new journey of the New Era, the "combination of education with productive labor" must adhere to the Party's leadership to cultivate "era-newcomers" (shídài xīnrén) capable of shouldering the great responsibility of national rejuvenation. It must guide the masses to establish the concept of "diligent, honest, and creative labor," establish the value orientation that "labor uplifts the Chinese Dream," and continuously exert the spirit of ownership—characterized by hard struggle and the courage to strive—to gather strength for the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
(2) People-Centered: Promoting the Realization of Free and Well-Rounded Human Development
Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to practice the people-centered development philosophy—everything for the people, everything relying on the people, and the fruits of development shared by the people. In the journey to comprehensively build a modern socialist power, the practice of "combining education with productive labor" must remain "people-centered," focusing on the people's yearning for a better life, respecting the people's status as subjects, stimulating the people's creative potential, and consciously promoting free and well-rounded human development.
The "combination of education with productive labor" is an important path for the people to pursue a better life. Xi Jinping emphasized: "Labor is the source of wealth and the source of happiness. The beautiful dreams of the human world can only be realized through honest labor; the various difficulties in development can only be solved through honest labor; all the brilliance in life can only be forged through honest labor." All material and spiritual wealth of humanity is created through the process of productive labor, and productive labor always requires the consumption of human physical strength. Therefore, even in an era of high mechanization and intelligence, emphasizing manual labor is not obsolete. This practice not only helps cultivate a correct outlook on labor and master essential skills but also enhances the perception of self-worth, stimulates love for the motherland and the working people, and strengthens social responsibility, allowing people to consciously contribute to the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Furthermore, this combination is a crucial path for individuals to obtain complete knowledge. The essence of "combining education with productive labor" is the combination of cognition and practice. It allows students to develop the scientific literacy of deepening theoretical understanding through practice, and using practice to test and improve theory. Through this practice, students can broaden their horizons, discover problems, and solve them. They not only exercise their thinking, hands-on, and creative abilities but also learn to communicate and cooperate with others, cultivating teamwork, collective consciousness, and social responsibility. This "direct knowledge" cannot be replaced by the "indirect knowledge" found in books. Thus, only through the "combination of education with productive labor"—truly achieving the union of cognition and practice—can people obtain complete knowledge.
Finally, this is a vital path for self-realization, self-development, and self-perfection. Through this combination, students can fully engage with the world, using their bodies and minds to "measure" (zhàngliáng) the world, thereby establishing correct labor values and life ethics. Through productive labor, students learn knowledge, refine skills, expand capabilities, strengthen their bodies, improve mental health, and enhance their aesthetic abilities and cultural cultivation, bringing their body and mind toward perfection and shaping a sound personality to truly become well-rounded individuals developed in morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor.
(3) Innovating Practice Models: Injecting Strength into Chinese-path Modernization
Entering the New Era, we must continuously innovate the practice models of "combining education with productive labor," stimulating the creativity and enthusiasm of all working people and injecting constant strength into the realization of Chinese-path modernization.
First, using the school as the primary front to comprehensively strengthen labor education [23]. Labor education represents the innovation and development of the Communist Party of China’s concept of “combining education with productive labor” in the New Era; it is the development and refinement of the Marxist theory of education for the well-rounded development of the individual in the New Era. As the primary practical mode for schools to implement the “combination of education with productive labor,” labor education must give full play to the role of the school as the main front. This includes establishing compulsory labor education courses at all stages of primary, secondary, and tertiary education, imbuing professional curricula with labor education content, and arranging labor practices in extracurricular activities. Emphasis should be placed on teaching students in accordance with their aptitude [24]. Based on social needs and the laws of student growth, different stages of education should emphasize different contents of labor education. This should be integrated with moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetic education [25] to continuously cultivate high-quality talents who are well-rounded in "morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor" [26] and possess strong innovative capabilities, thereby providing human resource guarantees for Chinese-path modernization.
Second, strengthening social support and coordination to fully mobilize social resources. To strengthen labor education in the New Era, we should integrate resources from families, schools, and society, carry out top-level design and systematic deployment for labor education at all stages, and form a synergy between family, school, and social education. Labor education should be included in the comprehensive quality evaluation to achieve the "unity of knowledge and action" [27] and help students develop a correct worldview, outlook on life, and values. We should actively explore a socialist labor education model with Chinese characteristics in light of economic and social changes and the specific circumstances of students. This includes strengthening social support and cooperation, and developing vocational education that integrates vocational and general tracks as well as industry and education. Students should be encouraged to participate in productive labor within their capacities at enterprises, companies, factories, and farms, experiencing new forms of labor practice under modern technological conditions to provide continuous support for Chinese-path modernization.
Capitalism turns human beings into appendages of the machine, whereas socialist education enables laborers to become the masters. Currently, with the rapid development of information technology and artificial intelligence, problems such as "hedonism," "money worship," "labor deskilling," and "technological unemployment" have become increasingly prominent. Consequently, the educational theory of "combining education with productive labor" has become increasingly instructive. The goal of Marxist educational theory is to truly realize the fusion of education and productive labor, allowing humanity to achieve self-emancipation while transforming the objective world. Through the historical creation and practical achievements of the "combination of education with productive labor" led by the Communist Party of China, it can be seen that socialism with Chinese characteristics, through its institutional advantages, has opened a unique educational path to solve relevant problems. This has effectively advanced the construction of a great modern socialist country, actively promoted the well-rounded development of the individual, and contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese experience to the global cause of education.
(The authors are: Doctoral candidate at the School of Marxism, Xi'an University of Technology; Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Marxism, Xi'an University of Technology) Source: Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaping Theory Studies, Issue 2, 2025. Web Editor: Ma Jingren