Engels and the History of the Development of Marxism: 200 Years in Retrospect and Prospect
Engels and the History of the Development of Marxism: A 200-Year Retrospective and Prospectus — A Summary of the “Second National University Forum on the Disciplinary Construction and Development of the History of Marxist Development and the Academic Symposium Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Engels’s Birth”
Wei Yongan
On November 21–22, 2020, the “Second National University Forum on the Disciplinary Construction and Development of the History of Marxist Development and the Academic Symposium Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Engels’s Birth” was held at Sichuan University. The event was hosted by the National University Forum on the Disciplinary Construction and Development of the History of Marxist Development, the School of Marxism at Peking University, and the School of Marxism at Sichuan University, and organized by the School of Marxism at Sichuan University. More than 150 experts and scholars from 49 universities and research institutes—including Peking University, Sichuan University, Renmin University of China, Wuhan University, Fudan University, Jilin University, Nankai University, Sun Yat-sen University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shandong University, Lanzhou University, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences—attended the conference in person. At the opening ceremony, speeches were delivered by Gu Hailiang, Boya Chair Professor [1] at Peking University; Zhang Zhihuai, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Sichuan Provincial Federation of Social Sciences; and Cao Ping, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Sichuan University. Keynote speeches were delivered by Professor Gu Hailiang, Professor Wang Dong, and Professor Yang Xuegong of Peking University; Professor Liu Jianjun of Renmin University of China; Professor Yu Liangzao of Nanjing Normal University; Professor Zuo Yawen of Wuhan University; Professor Ma Yongjun of Fudan University; and Professor Li Bing of Sichuan University. Participating scholars engaged in in-depth discussions focused on the following three areas.
1. Research on Engels’s Thought
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Engels’s birth, participating scholars unanimously agreed that the best way to commemorate this giant of thought—who fought side-by-side with Marx for 40 years and played a massive role in the creation, interpretation, dissemination, and defense of Marxism—is to conduct deep research and elaboration on Engels’s unique contributions to several important themes and fields.
Professor Gu Hailiang of Peking University centered his remarks on Engels’s thought, spirit, and character. He pointed out that Engels and Marx jointly founded Marxism; representative works such as The Holy Family, The Communist Manifesto, Capital, and Anti-Dühring fully demonstrate that Marx and Engels were co-founders. The revolutionary practice of the proletariat served as the realistic basis for the formation and development of Engels’s thought. Engels’s assessment of Marx as being “before all else a revolutionist” applies equally to Engels himself. Engels made unique contributions to the formation and development of Marxism, manifested on one hand in the joint creation of basic Marxist theory and its system, and on the other hand in the many pioneering theoretical contributions he made after Marx’s death while upholding and developing Marx’s thought. Engels and his thought remain eternally present in the history and contemporary development of Marxism. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech at the conference commemorating the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth is of particular significance for understanding and grasping Engels’s thought, spirit, and style.
Professor Liu Jianjun of Renmin University of China analyzed Engels’s evaluations of Marx. He noted that in the history of Marxist development, Engels repeatedly offered high praise for Marx’s great personality, extraordinary talent, outstanding contributions, and immense influence on various occasions. Systematizing and interpreting these evaluative discourses possesses significant academic value and significance for the history of ideas. Upon Marx’s death, Engels provided a comprehensive assessment of Marx’s status and contributions in letters to friends and in his Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx. Following Marx's death, Engels also clarified his relationship with Marx on multiple occasions, specifying that Marx was the primary founder of the scientific theory. He conducted more profound evaluations of Marx’s works, thought, and activities from the two basic dimensions of academic theory and practical action. Engels’s evaluations were vivid, accurate, and full of emotion, providing profound insights.
Professor Zuo Yawen of Wuhan University focused on Engels’s theory of "historical resultant force" [2]. Regarding its theoretical origins and innovative development, Zuo argued that whether for Vico, Hegel, or Engels, the proposal of a “resultant force theory” was intended to elucidate the dialectical relationship between the subjective consciousness of individual life and the objective laws of human history. On this basis, they explored the contradiction between the immediate goals of every single desire and will versus the “total result” of society, as well as the foundations and prerequisites for consolidating historical resultant forces and constructing social harmony. Regarding the consciousness and spontaneity of the subject's will, the contradiction between human consciousness and spontaneity expands cumulatively, thereby driving human cognition and practice forward with accelerating momentum. Finally, concerning the issue of determining roles and interactions in the historical process, Zuo pointed out that the forces of interaction are imbalanced; the economic necessity that plays the decisive role in the final analysis of the historical process manifests itself through the interactions and interweaving relationships of many factors.
2. Research on Engels’s Literature
Scholars focused on Engels’s classic texts, exploring his contributions to the formation, enrichment, and development of Marx’s doctrine from multiple perspectives and dimensions, thereby deepening and expanding the theoretical horizon of research into classic Marxist literature.
Professor Ma Yongjun of Fudan University addressed the worldview theory in Engels’s Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy. He noted that Engels described the new worldview—historical materialism—in penetrating and clear language, providing a scientific intellectual weapon for understanding nature and human society. In the history of human thought, worldviews using God, human nature, or ideas to explain everything long dominated the understanding of social phenomena. Feuerbach's philosophical worldview held that the philosophical worldview was entangled with the religious worldview; the object of cognition was a man-made process, and the test was of "things-for-me." Feuerbach never wished to abolish religion; he hoped to perfect it. Philosophy itself was to be dissolved into religion. While Feuerbach preached sensuousness and the study of concrete reality on every page, he became completely abstract as soon as he spoke of relationships beyond pure human relations. Compared with Feuerbach’s old worldview, the new worldview of Marx and Engels takes the “real man” [3] as its starting point and is a new worldview oriented toward the masses.
Professor Zheng Dongfang of Xi’an Jiaotong University discussed the critique of Max Stirner in The German Ideology within the context of the MEGA2 [4] editorial background. She elaborated on three aspects: First, the starting point of the new worldview is not "pure matter," but must be material production. Material production and the real man are two sides of the same coin. Real individuals are people engaged in the activity of material production. Unlike Stirner, Marx took the real man as the subject; Marx spent considerable length criticizing the then-sensational Stirner from this perspective. Second, Marx and Engels believed that compared to Feuerbach, Stirner's views were even shallower; Stirner represented not just a return to Feuerbach, but a low-level return. Third, the ultimate goal and result of The German Ideology was the critique of abstract ideology and the critique of the concept of "man" in German historical idealism. From this perspective, Marx and Engels settled accounts with previous philosophical beliefs, including those of Hegel and Feuerbach. Ultimately, real individuals must be people engaged in material production.
Addressing the practice of Western scholars seeking "substantial differences" between the philosophical thoughts of Engels and Marx in works like Anti-Dühring, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Dialectics of Nature, Professor Yang Xuegong of Peking University argued that Engels’s interpretation of “Marx’s philosophy” is consistent with Marx in its main thrust. Simultaneously, there are individual differences in the angle of interpretation, emphasis, and style of expression. For example, while announcing the end of the old philosophy of nature, Engels attempted to reconstruct a dialectics of nature and confirmed the priority of the dialectics of nature over the historical dialectic; he also emphasized the study of the basic principles of historical materialism. These characteristics in Engels's elaboration of "Marx's philosophy" cannot serve as grounds for the "Marx-Engels Divergence" theory. In fact, there is no "Engels’s philosophy" existing in parallel with "Marx’s philosophy." This does not mean Engels had no philosophical thoughts of his own, but in terms of content and substance, these thoughts were an interpretation of "Marx's philosophy." Their views were consistent, though distinct in perspective and emphasis. The misreading of several of Engels's representative philosophical works by some Western scholars has had serious negative consequences that have yet to be fully clarified.
3. Frontier Research on Engels and the History of Marxist Development
Scholars focused on Engels’s unique status and contributions within the history of Marxist development, conducting in-depth discussions on contemporary hot spots, difficulties, and points of contention, thereby deepening and expanding the theory and disciplinary construction of the history of Marxist development.
Professor Wang Dong of Peking University summarized Engels’s status and role in the history of Marxist philosophy from six aspects: First, Engels actively participated in the original creation of Marxist philosophy, forcefully assisting Marx in achieving philosophical innovation. Second, while Marx’s own philosophical works remained unpublished for various reasons, Engels’s Anti-Dühring and Ludwig Feuerbach elucidated basic Marxist philosophical views in a concise and accessible manner, filling important theoretical gaps and laying a vital philosophical foundation for socialism and the workers' movement. Third, under the historical conditions of the 1870s and 1880s, Engels provided a philosophical summation of the practical and cognitive experience since the emergence of the Marxist philosophical worldview; this constitutes the initial attempt at the systematization, popularization, and mass-dissemination of Marxist philosophy, and was an innovative work for its time. Fourth, Engels’s works are characterized by their specificity, historicity, polemicism, and combativeness. Most were written against rivals of Marxism like Dühring or certain erroneous popular trends, helping the masses to master the new materialist philosophical worldview and overcome prevailing errors, thus consolidating the Marxist ideological front. Fifth, Engels was Marx’s first biographer and the earliest interpreter, researcher, and propagandist of Marx's philosophy. Sixth, Engels not only made independent innovations and unique contributions in fields such as the dialectics of nature, science and technology, military affairs, and history, but also personally advocated the “Engels Spirit”—the spirit of selfless dedication to Marxist doctrine and the cause.
Professor Yu Liangzao of Nanjing Normal University focused on Engels’s late-life conceptions of European revolution. He pointed out that after Marx’s death, particularly after the 1880s, Engels enriched and developed the theory of scientific socialism. This was evident in his study of the relationship between the Russian revolutionary movement and the Western revolution, where he proposed a "four-step" roadmap for the European revolutionary process (the outbreak of the Russian bourgeois-democratic revolution → the outbreak of the proletarian socialist revolution in Western Europe → the establishment of socialist society in Western Europe, setting an example and providing aid for Russia → Russia, with the help of Western European socialism and following its example, moving toward the path of socialism). The Russian and Western European revolutions were mutually influential; Russia would fire the first shot, promoting the victory of the Western revolution, and the establishment of socialism in the West would in turn facilitate Russia’s transition to socialism. Engels’s idea of the "mutual complementarity" of the Russian and Western revolutions had an important influence on Lenin’s strategic thinking for the October Revolution. Studying and grasping this idea today is beneficial for correctly understanding the history and reality of socialism since the 20th century.
Professor Li Bing of Sichuan University discussed Engels’s contributions to Marxism, noting that Engels was not only one of the founders of Marxism and its earliest and most important interpreter, disseminator, and defender, but also the pioneer of research into the history of Marxist development. As a comrade-in-arms who fought alongside Marx for over forty years, Engels consciously positioned himself as the "second fiddle." On one hand, with his extraordinary talent and rich knowledge, he made irreplaceable original contributions to the creation of Marxism, especially in the construction of the materialist view of nature, and influenced Marx’s “turn” toward political economy through his own early economic studies. On the other hand, with a humble attitude and noble character, he shared a great deal of heavy and trivial work for Marx during the latter's lifetime, including responding to various attacks and slanders against Marx and his thought. After Marx died, he unhesitatingly abandoned his own research and writing plans to devote himself fully to the compilation, editing, and publication of the second and third volumes of Capital, while independently shouldering the noble responsibility of guiding the international workers' movement. In-depth study of Engels's evaluation of Marx’s life's work and his own contributions to Marxism helps us understand Marxism theoretically as the doctrine of the liberation of the proletariat and humanity—namely, scientific socialism—and to grasp Marxism in terms of theoretical content as a critical analysis of the capitalist mode of production using the materialist conception of history and materialist dialectics, leading to the scientific conclusion that capitalism will inevitably be replaced by communism.
This symposium adopted a combined “offline + online” format, expanding participation, reach, and influence, with the online audience exceeding 30,000 people. The organizers also provided a playback function to facilitate online learning and research for teachers and students. Participating experts believed that the successful convening of this symposium is of great practical significance for promoting research into the thought of classic Marxist writers and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, as well as for advancing the disciplinary construction of the history of Marxist development.
(Author’s affiliation: School of Marxism, Sichuan University)