Xiao Lujun: The Core Essence of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important Expositions on Revolutionary Culture
On June 2, 2023, while attending the Seminar on Cultural Inheritance and Development in Beijing, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Cultural confidence is established on the basis of the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture, the inheritance of revolutionary culture, and the development of advanced socialist culture, as well as on the basis of drawing upon and absorbing all the outstanding achievements of human civilization." Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the series of new ideas, viewpoints, and judgments issued by General Secretary Xi Jinping regarding revolutionary culture have served as the theoretical basis and guide for action for promoting revolutionary culture in the New Era.
First, promoting revolutionary culture is an inevitable requirement for maintaining the Party's original aspiration and founding mission and for conforming to historical development. First [1], promoting revolutionary culture provides cultural support for Party building in the New Era. Revolutionary culture germinated during the period of national peril; it has been continuously tested through practice along the arduous path of revolution, construction, and reform, demonstrating a powerful vitality and becoming the concentrated expression of the Chinese Communist Party's spiritual genome and fine traditions. In his important accounts of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated categorically: "It takes a good blacksmith to forge good steel" [2]. To ensure that the Party never changes its nature and that the "red germplasm" of the state [3] never changes its color, we must strengthen the building of the Party's advanced nature. Promoting revolutionary culture points the way for Party building and has become an important "magic weapon" [4] for the Party to maintain its advanced nature and purity forever. Furthermore, the revolutionary spirit, traditions, and style of work contained within revolutionary culture reinforce the governing consciousness and sense of mission of Party members and cadres in the New Era. The Marxist viewpoints, positions, and methods contained therein provide theoretical support for Party building and strengthen the Party's governing capacity, thereby consolidating its governing status. Second, promoting revolutionary culture provides ideological guarantees for safeguarding national ideological security. Entering the New Era, in the face of major changes unseen in a century, our country's ideological work faces new challenges and shifts. As the carrier through which ideological functions operate, culture is of great significance for maintaining ideological security. To command the leadership of ideological work in the New Era, we must further promote revolutionary culture, uphold the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological sphere, persist in using revolutionary culture to restore historical truth, eradicate historical nihilism [5], and use its unique appeal and advanced nature to inspire the masses to forge ahead in unity under the Party’s strong leadership. Third, revolutionary culture provides the spiritual momentum for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Revolutionary culture condenses the fine traditions and values of the Chinese nation, demonstrates a high degree of cultural confidence, and nourishes the socialist core value system. It has become the foundational belief of contemporary Chinese spirit, inspiring the Chinese populace to work together toward the great cause of national rejuvenation. In the historical process of Chinese-path modernization, we must persist in using revolutionary culture to stimulate the power of faith, providing an inexhaustible spiritual momentum for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Second, revolutionary culture is a complete system with rich connotations and open development. Revolutionary culture includes four major components: revolutionary ideals, revolutionary spirit, revolutionary morality, and revolutionary literature and art. First, lofty revolutionary ideals. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized many times: "Revolutionary ideals reach higher than the heavens." Communist ideals and beliefs are the fundamental manifestation of the nature of the vanguard and are the unique spiritual pillar and belief of Chinese Communists. Since its founding, the Chinese Communist Party has carried out an extremely arduous revolutionary struggle centered on revolutionary ideals, created great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention, and ushered in a great leap from standing up and becoming prosperous to becoming strong. Second, a firm revolutionary spirit. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Staying true to our original aspiration and founding mission means not forgetting that we are revolutionaries and not losing our revolutionary spirit." The revolutionary spirit is a spiritual form shaped and developed during the grand journey of the Party leading the people, fully reflecting the Party's pursuit of faith, morality, and professional excellence. Third, noble revolutionary morality. Revolutionary morality is the product of the combination of Marxist ethical thought with China's specific practice. It mainly includes moral qualities such as wholehearted service to the people, selflessness, willingness to sacrifice, arduous struggle, and diligence and frugality. It fully reflects the noble style and realm of Communists who are selfless, fearless, and serve the people. General Secretary Xi Jinping pays great attention to strengthening the moral education of Party members and cadres, explicitly requiring them to focus on "clarifying great virtues, abiding by public virtues, and being strict with private virtues" [6]. Fourth, advanced revolutionary literature and art. General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed: "Literature and art are the bugle of the times; they can best represent the character of an era and best lead the trend of an era." Revolutionary literature and art can exert a positive influence on the thoughts and emotions of the people, stimulating Party members, cadres, the people's army, and the masses to participate in the great cause of revolution, construction, and reform. In the process of saving, prospering, and strengthening the country, revolutionary literature and art have revolved around the Party's central work in different historical stages, using the unique methods of art to represent, inspire, educate, and serve the masses. The vast number of literature and art workers must inherit and develop the Party's literary and artistic traditions, stand on the glorious mission of the New Era, continue to adhere to the people-centered creative orientation, flourish the creation of revolutionary literature and art, and promote innovation in revolutionary literature and art.
Third, revolutionary culture is the spiritual thread running through the processes of China's revolution, construction, and reform. First, revolutionary culture is the spiritual thread running through China's New Democratic Revolution. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, the CPC led the people's army and the masses in a struggle for national survival. Through the baptism of the Great Revolution, the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation, a series of revolutionary spirits were formed, such as the Red Boat Spirit, the Jinggangshan Spirit, the Long March Spirit, the Yan'an Spirit, and the Xibaipo Spirit [7]. These movements overthrew the "three great mountains" [8] that hindered the New Democratic Revolution, won national independence and people's liberation, and established a new socialist China without oppression or exploitation. Second, revolutionary culture is the spiritual thread running through China's socialist revolution and construction. After the founding of New China, the CPC led the people of all ethnic groups to consolidate the nascent people's political power and carry out socialist construction, successfully realizing the transition from New Democracy to socialism, initially establishing a national economic and industrial system, and forming a series of revolutionary spirits such as the Spirit of Resisting U.S. Aggression and Aiding Korea, the Daqing Spirit, the Hongqigou Spirit, the Lei Feng Spirit, and the Jiao Yulu Spirit [9]. Third, revolutionary culture is the spiritual thread running through China's reform and opening up. Reform is a revolution, and comprehensively deepening reform is the conduct of an even more arduous and complex revolution. In the great journey of reform and opening up and the comprehensive deepening of reform in the New Era, the CPC has led the people based on national conditions to carry out the reform of national systems and mechanisms in a step-by-step manner, gradually improving governance efficacy, improving the quality of life for the masses internally, and improving the national image externally. This period has formed a series of revolutionary spirits, such as the Women's Volleyball Spirit, the Anti-Flood Spirit, the Anti-SARS Spirit, the Earthquake Relief Spirit, the Beijing Olympics Spirit, the Poverty Alleviation Spirit, and the Great Anti-Epidemic Spirit.
Fourth, revolutionary culture is the cultural banner for the CPC to carry out self-revolution and social revolution. General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly pointed out in the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC: "We must advance the great new project of Party building in the New Era and lead social revolution through the Party’s self-revolution." In the great journey of the New Era, the CPC discovered that the "second key" to escaping the historical cycle of rise and fall [10] is self-revolution. Strengthening the construction of revolutionary culture is the spiritual momentum that promotes our Party's leadership of social revolution through self-revolution. First, strengthening the construction of revolutionary culture is the cultural banner for advancing the Party's self-revolution in the New Era. Revolutionary culture contains all the Party character, value pursuits, and ideals and beliefs of the CPC over the past century; it is the spiritual wealth for Chinese Communists to stay true to their original aspiration, keep their mission in mind, and have the courage to conduct self-revolution. To vigorously promote revolutionary culture in the New Era, we must continuously improve the system of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party—characterized by self-purification, self-perfection, self-reform, and self-development—and guide and restrain the vast number of Party members and cadres to firm up their ideals and beliefs, strengthen the "Four Consciousnesses," firm up the "Four Confidences," and achieve the "Two Upholds," thereby forever maintaining the Party's revolutionary, advanced, and pure nature. Second, strengthening the construction of revolutionary culture is the cultural banner for advancing social revolution in the New Era. Continuously carrying out social revolution and vigorously promoting all-around human development is an important mission of the CPC, and developing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics in a way that advances with the times is a great social revolution. On the new journey of the New Era, we must persist in using Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to unify our thoughts and actions, providing powerful cultural strength and intellectual support for promoting the building of a great modern socialist country.
Fifth, revolutionary culture is an important foundation for the masses to strengthen their cultural consciousness, confidence, and self-reliance. First, revolutionary culture is an important driving force for strengthening cultural consciousness. The "roots" of the CPC's revolutionary culture include fine traditional Chinese revolutionary culture and Marxist revolutionary culture. Strengthening cultural consciousness in the New Era means persisting in upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground regarding these cultures. Second, revolutionary culture provides the deep foundation for firming up cultural confidence. Cultural confidence is the full affirmation and active practice of the Party and the people toward their own cultural values and their firm confidence in its vitality and cohesion; it allows for the maintenance of one's own cultural characteristics and advantages amidst the exchange, integration, and confrontation of various cultures. Having gone through the tests and baptism of revolution, construction, and reform, our Party ultimately chose to take Marxist theory as its guide, using the revolutionary spirit (centered on love for the Party, the motherland, the people, and socialism) and the spirit of the times (centered on reform and innovation) as its basic core. In the complex environment of cultural turbulence, it consistently demonstrates confidence in our path, theory, system, and culture, thereby becoming more determined in its cultural confidence than ever before. Third, revolutionary culture provides the important "backbone" [11] for firming up cultural self-reliance. Revolutionary culture condenses the value pursuits and spiritual character of the CPC, possesses a firm political stance, a broad mass base, a heavy historical foundation, and profound spiritual connotations; it is an important category for achieving cultural self-reliance in the New Era. Inheriting revolutionary culture in the New Era means always using the power of revolutionary culture to inspire people of all ethnic groups across the country to do their best and showcase their talents under the strong leadership of the Party, integrating diverse individual dreams into the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, continuously enhancing the ambition, integrity, and backbone of being Chinese, and being determined to develop modern Chinese civilization.