Ma Mingchong: Exploring the Methodology of the "Second Integration" in Creating a New Cultural Entity

At present, the great undertaking of comprehensively advancing the construction of a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization has entered a critical period. As a state's soft power, the importance of culture has become increasingly prominent. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development:

“The ‘combination’ is not a ‘medley’ ^[1], nor is it a simple ‘physical reaction,’ but rather a profound ‘chemical reaction’ that creates a new, organically unified cultural lifeform.” “To continue promoting cultural prosperity and building a leading cultural power from a new starting point” is “our new cultural mission in the New Era.” It is thus evident that activating fine traditional Chinese culture through the “second combination” ^[2]—making Marxism Chinese and making fine traditional Chinese culture modern—so as to create a new cultural lifeform, enhance the country's comprehensive strength and international competitiveness, and advance the construction of a strong country and the realization of national rejuvenation, has become a major task in opening up new frontiers in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. Focusing on the overall situation of socialist modernization, and particularly on building a socialist leading cultural power, it is of great theoretical and contemporary value to further clarify the methodological foundation, composition, and function of the “second combination” in creating a new cultural lifeform.

I. The Methodological Foundation of the “Second Combination” Creating a New Cultural Lifeform

The essence of the new cultural lifeform lies in approaching cultural theory through the connotations of “newness” and “lifeform.” These terms possess an inherent generativity and organic unity, embodying the essence of a lifeform’s self-renewal and self-evolution. The process by which the “second combination” creates a new cultural lifeform reflects the principle of the “negation of the negation” in dialectical materialism; it is a process of continuous “breakthrough” and “regeneration” from an “old” substrate, where intersection and fusion continuously form a new cultural lifeform. To grasp the methodological foundation of this process, one must begin with the philosophical ontology of the “second combination” and explore its philosophical origins and generative path.

1. Subjective Initiative and Practical Ontological Nature in Marxist Cultural Theory

Kantian philosophy had a significant influence on the formation of Marxist philosophical viewpoints. To deeply understand the subjective initiative of Marxist cultural theory, it is necessary to clarify the logic of Marx’s critical inheritance of Kant’s theory of subjectivity. Although Kant’s cultural theory emphasized subjectivity, what he called subjectivity was not grounded in practice but remained confined to the “dualistic opposition between subject and object.” The root of Kantian cultural theory lies in the constitutive command of transcendental subjectivity (understanding) over the world of phenomena. In the Critique of Judgment, he established the principle that “man prescribes laws to nature,” understanding cultural phenomena as the synthetic product of transcendental categories of understanding applied to sensory materials. The “I think” of “transcendental apperception” is the logical starting point of cultural subjectivity; “intuition of space and time” endows cultural symbols with spatio-temporal extension; and “categories of causality” construct the chain of meaning for cultural events. In the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant defined culture as the “ultimate purpose of nature in its generation toward man,” stating that “the highest good, consisting of the union of virtue and happiness, can only be realized through the postulate of God’s existence.” This “ultimate purpose” requires people to break free from the control of sensory desires and obey the “moral law.” Kant’s view of culture is a “deontology” in its highest form, built upon rational concepts; its essence is the mediated manifestation of transcendental freedom in the empirical world—that is, breaking natural limits through technical culture, regulating social conflicts through communicative culture, and finally pointing toward the cultivation of rational autonomy by moral culture. Ultimately, Kant constructed a tripartite logical chain of “transcendental subjectivity—phenomenal construction—cultural teleology,” viewing cultural evolution as a historical process in which the rational subject gradually realizes freedom through cognitive faculties.

Marx undertook a critical absorption of Kant’s cultural theory. First, Marx argued that the fatal flaw of Kantian cultural theory lay in its epistemological premise of “imprisoning subjectivity within the realm of speculation.” Culture in the Kantian sense is permeated by the illusory duality of transcendental apperception and is, in essence, an illusory culture. Kant believed that “art is the free harmony of the rules of understanding through the genius’s imagination.” Such harmony remains solely in the realm of fantasy, failing to recognize that “the question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question.” Marx, by contrast, emphasized that “consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence,” and that cultural forms are essentially created by the real-life processes of people. Second, Kant set the moral imperative of “man as an end” as the ultimate goal of cultural development but avoided the real contradictions between cultural production and human alienation in capitalist society. In Capital, Marx analyzed how “technical culture,” viewed by Kant as a means of realizing freedom, becomes instead an alienating force in large-scale machine industry where “dead labor dominates living labor.” The “aesthetic disinterestedness” touted by Kant actually masks the logical isomorphism between artistic production and the valorization of capital. Finally, Marx established the foundation of cultural production upon material objective activity, revealing that cultural phenomena are both cognitive objects mediated by practice and ideological products of practice itself. By establishing the historical materialist explanatory framework of “material production—social relations—cultural forms,” Marx achieved a fundamental transcendence of Kantian cultural theory. Marx’s critique not only deconstructed the cultural fictions of transcendental epistemology but also opened a realistic path for reconstructing cultural subjectivity through revolutionary practice.

Marxist cultural theory also transcends Hegel’s “Absolute Spirit.” Hegel understood cultural phenomena based on the “Absolute Spirit,” viewing the formation of culture as the “self-operation of concepts” rather than the result of human “actual labor.” On one hand, Hegel sought to “apprehend and express the true not only as substance, but equally as subject.” To a certain extent, the ontological commitment of Hegel’s “identity of thinking and being” resolved the contradiction of Kantian “subject-object dualism.” However, Hegel’s so-called substance consisted only of ideas and concepts; the dialectical movement of the concept itself forms the “Absolute Spirit” and “passes off the real world as the externalization of the Absolute Spirit (God).” Cultural creation was abstracted into a stage of the Absolute Spirit’s self-manifestation and reduced to “spirit unfolding in time.” On the other hand, Hegelian philosophy achieves a dynamic unity of subject and object through dialectical movement (the negation of the negation). In his philosophical system, the concept undergoes the dialectic of conscious experience in the Phenomenology of Spirit, the deduction of pure ideas in the Logic, and the externalized fall in the Philosophy of Nature, finally returning to the complete “Absolute Spirit” in the Philosophy of Mind. The generation of cultural forms is reduced to the self-unfolding of a conceptual system, constrained by the transcendental framework of logic. This dialectic uses logic to devour actual historicity, using the internal logic of thought to obscure the practical logic of reality. Consequently, Hegel ignored the subject of cultural creation and the practice of the broad masses; culture thus became an “incorporeal reason.”

Marxist cultural theory places the subjectivity of cultural creation upon the labor practice of the masses, breaking away from Hegel’s abstract “concept for-itself” and viewing the development of culture as the actual historical process of the masses' labor practice. Marx pointed out that if we detach ourselves from the actual historical movement of the relations of production, “we are forced to go to the movement of pure reason to find the origin of these ideas. How does pure, eternal, incorporeal reason give birth to these thoughts?” Starting from real human beings, Marx grounded the emergence of culture in the historical materialist perspective. By applying historical materialism to the study of political economy, he revealed the laws of the capitalist mode of production, thereby concluding that the masses are the subjects who create culture, completing the return to the primacy of labor. Marxist cultural theory ultimately points toward the ultimate proposition of human liberation. Cultural progress is manifested in the expansion of “free time” and the possibility of “the well-rounded development of the individual.” The practice of the working class will transform culture from a tool of class rule into a lever for human liberation. The cultural creative activities of the working class converge into a material force for “transforming the world,” with the goal of breaking the capital monopoly over spiritual production. On the basis of critiquing the cultural theories of Kant and Hegel, Marx endowed culture with subjective initiative and practical ontological nature—this is the methodological origin of the “second combination” creating a new cultural lifeform.

2. Fine Cultural Resources of the New Cultural Lifeform and Their Contemporary Activation

The contemporary activation of the core paradigms of traditional philosophy. The contemporary activation of fine traditional Chinese culture is essentially a deep interconnection between traditional philosophical paradigms and the genes of modern civilization. This process achieves the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture. The new cultural lifeform is by no means a static cultural specimen but a cultural lifeform generated within the dialectical tension between tradition and modernity, with the Chinese philosophical Dao of “perpetual renewal” (sheng sheng) ^[3] as its core. Its innovative logic is reflected in three aspects: First, the leap in governance philosophy from “the people are more important than the ruler” to “putting the people above all else.” The people-oriented (minben) advocacy proposed by Mencius—that “the people are of supreme importance; the altars of the gods of earth and grain come next; the ruler is the least important” (Mencius: Jin Xin II)—is a vital component of fine traditional Chinese culture. CPC members have activated this traditional minben advocacy with Marxism, allowing it to break through the “ruler-subject” dualistic structure and ascend to a philosophy of people's livelihoods centered on “people’s subjectivity.” Second, the contemporary smelting of concepts from “harmony among all nations” and “Great Unity” ^[4] into a “new form of human advancement.” The worldview of “preserving great harmony” ^[5] proposed in the Book of Changes and the ideal of “Great Unity” (Datong) in the Book of Rites are expressed today as the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity and a new form of civilization characterized by diverse coexistence. These provide Eastern wisdom for the evolution of human civilization, marking a paradigmatic breakthrough for the new cultural lifeform at the level of civilizational dialogue. Third, the sublimation of individual and social ethics into the Core Socialist Values and the common values of all humanity. The familial ethics of “filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty, and trustworthiness” have been sublimated into the foundation for civic morality; the normative system of “ritual, righteousness, integrity, and honor” ^[6] has been transformed into the bedrock for constructing a society of credit and honesty. In short, the contemporary activation of fine traditional Chinese culture enables it to form an organically unified whole with revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture, injecting an enduring spiritual momentum into the new cultural lifeform.

The philosophical contribution of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture interacts deeply with the “second combination,” jointly constructing a new cultural lifeform with Chinese characteristics. This process is both an instance of upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground in Marxist cultural theory and a modern activation of the genes of Chinese civilization. On one hand, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is essentially based on Marxist philosophy, achieving a dialectical unity between the basic tenets of Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture. On the other hand, the reason the new cultural lifeform created by the “second combination” can take shape is the mutual fit between the “soul-vein” of Marxism and the “root-vein” of fine traditional Chinese culture, particularly their mutual integration in terms of philosophical origins. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “The ‘combination’ is not a forced fit. Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture have different origins, but they possess a high degree of compatibility. For instance, the social pursuit of ‘the world belongs to all’ ^[7] and ‘fostering trust and harmony’ is linked to the ideals and beliefs of Communism and Socialism; the governance ideas of ‘the people are the foundation of the state’ and ‘governing by virtue’ are integrated with the political concept of putting the people above all else; and the sense of responsibility seen in ‘discarding the old to bring in the new’ ^[8] and ‘self-strengthening without cease’ ^[9] is consistent with the revolutionary spirit of Communists.”

II. The Methodological Composition of the “Second Combination” Creating a New Cultural Lifeform

The creation of a new cultural lifeform by the “second combination” contains rich philosophical methodological connotations, with strategic, historical, dialectical, systematic, and innovative thinking as its important components. These five dimensions of philosophical methodology possess profound meaning and rigorous logic; they are an organically connected whole that mutually influences and promotes one another, unified within the great practice of socialist modernization. The new cultural lifeform not only fits historical necessity and the requirements of the times but is also driven by a sense of problem-awareness, focusing on the new situations, tasks, and challenges facing cultural construction.

The strategic thinking behind the "second combination" creates a new cultural lifeform. The "second combination" has established long-term planning and provided a holistic vision for the construction of a culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is not only a methodological innovation in theoretical integration but also a revolution in strategic thinking with significance for global civilization. The new cultural lifeform it constructs is, in essence, a Chinese solution for breaking through the civilizational predicament of "Western-centrism" and reconstructing the global system of cultural governance. From a strategic height, the "second combination" answers fundamental questions concerning our nation’s cultural construction. Marxism holds that culture, as a form of social consciousness, is not an abstract existence independent of the material conditions of social life, but is determined by them. As an ideological superstructure, culture serves the political superstructure and the economic base. In combining Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, we must adhere to dialectical and historical materialism, and combine them consciously, with key emphasis and in measured steps, based on the realistic needs of our nation’s economic and social development and under the prerequisite of adhering to the socialist direction. Currently, all countries in the world are caught in a surging tide of cultural intermingling and turbulence. How to solve global cultural dilemmas, such as the clash of civilizations and crises of value identity, has become a major subject facing the people of all nations. The "second combination" proposed by the Communist Party of China (CPC) considers our nation’s cultural construction from a global strategic height. Standing on the right side of history, the "second combination" deconstructs the idealism-dominated Western capital-type and one-dimensional cultures. The new cultural lifeform marks China’s strategic leap from a "learner of civilizations" to an "innovator of civilizations." It not only answers the question of the era—"What is wrong with the world, and what should we do?"—but also reshapes a new global cultural order.

The historical thinking behind the "second combination" creates a new cultural lifeform. The "second combination" adheres to the fundamental standpoint of the materialist conception of history. In dealing with the issue of cultural construction in the New Era, it emphasizes the examination of historical processes, historical logic, and historical necessity. Within a grand historical perspective, it fully excavates fine traditional Chinese culture, resolutely rejects historical nihilism ^[10] and cultural nihilism, and strengthens cultural confidence and cultural subjectivity, thereby deeply rooting the historical foundations of the new cultural lifeform. With Marxism as its soul and the five-thousand-year-old genetic genealogy of Chinese civilization as its cultural resource, the "second combination" endows cultural development in the New Era with a sense of historical depth. The new cultural lifeform created by the "second combination" "gives the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics a more expansive and far-reaching historical depth, expanding the cultural foundations of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics." The grand goal of creating a new cultural lifeform deconstructs the "Western-centric linear historical view of culture," the "end of history" thesis, and the "myth of modern superiority," reflecting the historical consciousness of the CPC as a subject of civilizational inheritance and innovation. Amidst fierce ideological struggles, the CPC has consistently maintained the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field, laying a solid foundation for China to seize opportunities for historical change and achieve historic leaps.

The dialectical thinking behind the "second combination" creates a new cultural lifeform. The "second combination" insists on grasping the laws of cultural construction in the New Era from the relationship between the universality and particularity of contradictions in materialist dialectics. It grasps the interaction and dialectical development of the subject and object of contradictions in the process of constructing the cultural lifeform through practice, allowing the new cultural lifeform to burst forth with vigorous vitality through organic connections and interactive development. Marxism holds that: "Men are the producers of their conceptions, ideas, etc.—real, active men." Real, active men are men in practice; fundamentally, the practical activities of real people are the driving force of cultural development. Marxism advocates understanding truth from abstract thinking through to concrete practice, grasping universality within particularity, and recognizing particularity within universality. This universality is "not just an abstract universal, but a universal which comprises in itself the wealth of the particular, the individual, the single." To create a new cultural lifeform, we must adhere to the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and method; explore in practice a Chinese path that contains the spiritual core of fine traditional Chinese culture; view the relationship between culture and the economy, politics, society, and ecology dialectically; and comprehensively promote the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan. Although Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture have different origins, they possess a high degree of compatibility. We must find the substantive content where they match, highlight the excellent spiritual characteristics of traditional Chinese culture within a dialectical unity, and construct a cultural form for Chinese-path modernization.

The systems thinking behind the "second combination" creates a new cultural lifeform. The "second combination" is based on the three dimensions of integrity, systematicity, and synergy. It guides social practice with a systematic cognitive framework and coordinates cultural development from a global, strategic, and long-term height, thereby creating a diverse yet integrated new cultural lifeform. First, the "second combination" grasps fine traditional Chinese culture from a holistic perspective and understands the prominent unity of Chinese civilization. It interprets the genetic genealogy of Chinese civilization holistically, uses the Marxist method of contradiction analysis to grasp the integrity and diversity of fine traditional Chinese culture, and systematically organizes the coupling points between fine traditional Chinese culture and the issues of the era to achieve the creative transformation and innovative development ^[11] of fine traditional Chinese culture. Second, the "second combination" is an interacting and constantly updating system. The new cultural lifeform demonstrates the continuity and innovativeness of Chinese civilization. In the process of combining Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, the profound historical consciousness and the open and inclusive character of Chinese civilization—ready to embrace new things—are highlighted. Third, the "second combination" considers the complementarity between various elements and shapes the new cultural lifeform through synergy. Fine traditional Chinese culture emphasizes the exchange and collision between its own cultural elements and those of other ethnic civilizations, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and emphasizing the exchange and mutual learning between diverse cultures. This reflects China’s view of and approach to world civilizations: acting as a guardian of peace, a promoter of development, an advocate for cooperation, and a practitioner of win-win results, providing the world with a new cultural form.

The innovative thinking behind the "second combination" creates a new cultural lifeform. The "second combination" emphasizes thinking about the breakthrough and regeneration of the cultural lifeform in an original way during the exploration of problems. On this basis, it proposes brand-new ideas to continuously enrich and fill the cultural connotations of the cultural lifeform. Innovative thinking is not a blind negation of old things and old culture, but a sublation (Aufheben) of them. The key to achieving this sublation lies in adhering to the worldview and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Among these, putting the people first, maintaining self-confidence and self-reliance, upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, and staying problem-oriented are particularly important. We must put the people first; the purpose of cultural innovation is to better serve the people, better satisfy their spiritual needs, enrich their spiritual world, and promote well-rounded human development. Any so-called "innovation" that runs contrary to this is nothing more than seeking novelty for its own sake. We must maintain self-confidence and self-reliance; cultural innovation cannot involve the uncritical absorption of foreign cultures. Instead, we must strengthen cultural confidence, use the "soul-vein" (魂脉) of Marxism to activate the "root-vein" (根脉) of fine traditional Chinese culture, and critically absorb all positive achievements of human civilization. We must uphold the fundamentals and break new ground, unswervingly following the socialist direction of cultural construction and maintaining the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field. We must stay problem-oriented, focusing on the major practical tasks faced in the New Era, excavating cultural resources, and endowing culture with new connotations that meet the needs of the times.

III. The Methodological Function of the "Second Combination" in Creating a New Cultural Lifeform

There is no single uniform cultural form in the world, much less a universal cultural standard. The new cultural lifeform shaped by the "second combination" deconstructs "Western-centrism" based on Western culture and demonstrates a profound cultural foundation and the unique charm of Chinese culture. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The 'second combination' is another liberation of the mind, allowing us to fully utilize the precious resources of fine traditional Chinese culture within a broader cultural space to explore theoretical and institutional innovations oriented toward the future." To deeply grasp the methodological function of the "second combination" in creating a new cultural lifeform, we must clarify its creative construction at the philosophical level and return to specific practice to investigate its realistic guiding significance.

1. A Window into Revealing the Laws of Cultural Construction for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Since entering the New Era, the reason Chinese culture has been able to demonstrate the wisdom and strength to deal with the "two overall situations" ^[12] is primarily due to the adherence to the "second combination." The "second combination" has created an organically unified new cultural lifeform, making Marxism Chinese and fine traditional Chinese culture modern, and making the new culture formed through this "combination" the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization. The "second combination" has expanded the path of cultural development for socialism with Chinese characteristics, leading Chinese culture toward the world and the future. The "second combination" has created a new cultural lifeform that exhibits strong subjective originality, becoming an intuitive window for revealing the laws of cultural construction for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Creating a new cultural lifeform through the "second combination" reveals the laws and threads of China’s modern historical and cultural practice. Before the founding of the CPC, Chinese culture was an old cultural lifeform filled with feudal dregs, dependent on the production methods of the traditional natural economy. During this period, Chinese people experienced doubt and negation regarding their own cultural traditions, leading to radical anti-traditionalism and proposals for "total Westernization." The introduction of Marxism to China and the birth of the CPC meant that an unprecedented progressive force and vitality were unleashed to transform the spiritual world of the Chinese people and Chinese society. Marx and Engels pointed out: "The phantoms formed in the brains of men are also, necessarily, sublimates of their material life-process." Cultural dimensions such as spirit and thought originate in social life and are reflections of social existence; the production and reproduction of material life are the basis for the emergence of human culture and civilization. Engels pointed out: "The philosophy of every epoch, since it is a definite sphere in the division of labour, has as its presupposition certain educational material which has been handed down to it by its predecessors, from which it takes its start." This indicates that cultural development must be understood within historical laws; culture is a unity of stages, continuity, and practice, requiring the inheritance of the excellent cultural achievements of predecessors.

During the period of the New Democratic Revolution and the period of socialist revolution and construction, Mao Zedong, based on the core analytical framework of historical materialism, proposed cultural construction policies such as "discarding the feudal dregs and absorbing the democratic essence" and "making the past serve the present and foreign things serve China." Through the dialectics of practice, he reconstructed Marxist cultural theory, emphasizing the combination of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities. Mao Zedong emphasized that "culture serves politics" and stressed "making the past serve the present" and "weeding through the old to bring forth the new" ^[13], performing a sublation of traditional Chinese culture. Mao Zedong’s "serve the people" thought was a creative transformation of the idea that "the people are the foundation of the state" (民为邦本) from fine traditional Chinese culture, rooted in revolutionary practice, and highlighted the traditional cultural dimension of Sinicized Marxism. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, Deng Xiaoping, based on the specific practice of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics and guided by historical materialism, promoted the formation of a path for socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics. The theoretical innovations and practical explorations of culture in this period, such as the re-establishment of the "let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend" policy, not only provided rich theoretical connotations for the "second combination" to create a new cultural lifeform but also laid a solid foundation for the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the cause of propaganda, ideology, and culture has achieved historic accomplishments. The new cultural lifeform created by the "second combination" has activated the genes of Chinese civilization with the power of Marxist truth, promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture. This marks a leap from "theoretical transplantation" to "independent innovation" in the path of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics, signifying that our Party’s understanding of the laws of cultural construction has reached a new height, providing powerful spiritual impetus and cultural support for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Investigating the methodology of the "second combination" in creating a new cultural lifeform provides solid theoretical support and a practical path for our Party to recognize, master, and apply these laws. It has played a key role in constructing the socialist cultural theory of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

The importance of the methodology of the "Second Integration" in creating a new cultural life-form for deepening theoretical research can be analyzed across several dimensions. First, strategic thinking coordinates the balanced development of material and spiritual civilization from a strategic height, achieving a two-way elevation of the people's material and spiritual lives. Based on the "two overall situations" ^[14] of domestic and international circles, it maneuvers from a global strategic height to break through the predicament of "Western-centrism" and reshape the global cultural order, providing a Chinese solution for humanity to address the clash of civilizations. Second, historical thinking is rooted in the materialist conception of history; through a "macro-view of history" ^[15], it excavates the genes of continuity in Chinese civilization. While deconstructing linear views of history—such as the Western "end of history" ^[16]—it consolidates cultural subjectivity and confirms the historical self-consciousness of the Communist Party of China in continuing its civilization. That is, it activates five thousand years of cultural genes through civilizational continuity to dispel the mists of historical nihilism ^[17]. Third, dialectical thinking upholds the dialectical unity of the universality and particularity of contradictions, extracting the spiritual core of traditional Chinese culture from practice to construct a cultural life-form that possesses both historical roots and the universality of truth. Fourth, systems thinking is based on the triple dimensions of integrity, systematicity, and synergy to construct a new form of human civilization, deconstructing the Western "clash of civilizations" paradigm and providing a Chinese solution for global civilizational governance. Fifth, innovative thinking consolidates the subjectivity of Chinese culture through original theoretical construction, building cultural leadership while resolving the "principal contradiction in society" ^[18], and providing civilizational paradigm support for the well-rounded development of the individual. In short, the methodology of the "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form provides important ideological support from multiple levels and perspectives for enriching cultural theoretical research and exploring its application and development in practice.

2. Illuminating the Dialectical Method of Socialist Cultural Construction with Chinese Characteristics

The scientific nature of a theory must be based on specific spatial and temporal conditions and must be tested in the process of practice. Marx proposed: "The resolution of the theoretical antitheses themselves is possible only in a practical way, only through the practical energy of man." This explains that Marxist philosophy must face the fields of history and practice and cannot exist abstractly in the realm of pure thought. The creation of a new cultural life-form through the "Second Integration" is a theoretical innovation that aligns with the practical requirements of building a socialist cultural power; it contains dialectical considerations for correctly handling practical issues such as the active and the passive, the universal and the particular, and the traditional and the modern, playing an important guiding role in advancing the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.

The methodology of the "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form correctly handles the relationship between the active and the passive within the subject-object relationship. The theory of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics is built upon the foundation of Marxist cultural theory. For a long time, some scholars wearing the "tinted glasses" of the bourgeoisie have distorted Marxist cultural theory into "economic determinism." Among them, the philosopher Karl Popper, founder of Austrian critical rationalism, is most representative. In his book The Open Society and Its Enemies, he criticized Marxism as a form of "historicism," arguing that Marxism overemphasizes the deterministic role of economic factors in social development while ignoring the independence of other factors (such as culture and politics). The Marxist view on the relationship between the economic base and the ideological superstructure is by no means a rigid determinism of passive objects; rather, it regards cultural creative activities as the proactive subjective practice of people.

The methodology of the "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form emphasizes the independence and continuity of cultural development and its reaction back upon the economy. Human beings are beings with subjective concepts and cultural beings; they are the practical subjects who promote the development of human history and the inheritance and innovation of culture. This indicates that in the cultural construction of the New Era, we should give full play to the subjective initiative of people, enrich the people’s spiritual world, and enhance the people’s spiritual strength.

The methodology of the "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form correctly handles the relationship between tradition and modernity through inheritance and fusion. Within the perspective of historical materialism, the determining role of the economic base over social culture manifests as the dialectical unity of structural limitation and historical generativity. Culture possesses its own unique continuity and transmissibility; across different historical stages of humanity, culture develops and changes according to its own internal logic on the basis of socio-economic conditions. Marx pointed out that culture is created under "conditions immediately encountered, given and transmitted from the past." Through the "Second Integration," a new cultural life-form inherits and carries forward fine traditional Chinese culture under the guidance of Marxism, promoting the fusion of national identity and the spirit of the times. Marxist theory itself is a theory of modernity, characterized by openness and a future-oriented nature; the modernity of Marxism makes fine traditional Chinese culture become modern.

The methodology of the "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form correctly handles the relationship between universality and particularity through openness and interaction. Marxism holds that different types of civilizations produced under different socio-historical conditions possess different cultural foundations. The "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form enriches the interplay between the universal laws of cultural development and the particularity of developmental paths. In the process of self-renewal, reflection, and critique, Chinese civilization has completed its recreation, generating a modern form of Chinese civilization—namely, the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization. Chinese-path modernization is not merely a particular manifestation of the universal laws of historical development; the new form of human civilization it has pioneered foreshadows the universal trends of the future development of human society in a particular way. The "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form does not use the particularity of Chinese civilization to oppose the universality of world civilization, but rather provides the world with a diverse, universal cultural form. Through multi-dimensional interaction in an open environment, it regards universality and particularity as a dynamic unity. In this way, while maintaining national independence and a high degree of cultural confidence, it contributes Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the construction of a new form of human civilization.

The five-dimensional philosophical methodology contained in the "Second Integration" creating a new cultural life-form advances step-by-step in dialectical unity, constituting a rigorous and complete theoretical system. It constructs the philosophical coordinates for the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, points toward a civilizational breakthrough for Chinese-path modernization, and further signals a paradigm innovation in global governance. In a global context where civilizational conflicts are intertwined with value nihilism, the "Second Integration" deconstructs the hegemonic logic of "Western-centrism" through the coordinated development of "material and spirit"; it responds to the "question of the century" regarding "where the world is going" with the "new form of human civilization"; it reshapes the rules of civilizational dialogue through the dialectics of "breaking" and "establishing" ^[19], using the "genes of continuity" of Chinese civilization to shatter the linear narrative of the "end of history"; it fuses Marxism with the genes of Chinese civilization through an "integrity-synergy" framework; it coordinates traditional culture with contemporary issues through the method of contradiction analysis to transcend the alienation trap of the logic of capital; and it contributes a global solution through the dialectic of the "particular" and "universal," advocating for and promoting the common values of all humanity.