Zuo Yuhe: Strengthening Cultural Confidence through Deepening Cultural Research
Prosperity in culture leads to prosperity for the state; strength in culture leads to strength for the nation. Standing firm in cultural self-confidence is a major issue concerning the rise or fall of national fortunes, cultural security, and the independence of the national spirit. Standing firm in cultural self-confidence cannot be separated from continuous and in-depth research into our country’s cultural development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Socialist culture with Chinese characteristics originates from China’s excellent traditional culture, which was nurtured by the Chinese nation’s civilization history of over 5,000 years; it is forged in the revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture created by the people under the Party’s leadership during the periods of revolution, construction, and reform; and it is rooted in the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics." On the new journey, if we are to better shoulder our new cultural mission, we must deepen cultural research. In particular, we must conduct in-depth research into the historical foundations, essential essence, and practical role of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, thereby providing theoretical support for standing firm in cultural self-confidence and promoting cultural development.
Culture is a complex, diverse, and interconnected organic whole that continuously accumulates and develops in the long river of history. Cultural research possesses characteristics such as diachronicity, empirical validity, and systematicity. The diachronicity of cultural research is primarily reflected in the study of the emergence, development, and transformation of culture in history, tracing the origins and development [1] of the national spirit. The empirical validity of cultural research requires the adoption of empirical methods to establish research on a solid foundation, reaching a profound understanding of what culture is. The systematicity of cultural research requires examining culture in connection with the political, economic, and social environment, analyzing various factors affecting cultural development, and seeking out and summarizing the laws of cultural development. To deepen cultural research, we must emphasize diachronicity, empirical validity, and systematicity, continuously researching new problems, constructing new theories, and opening up new paradigms.
We must deeply study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Culture to form scientific research methods. China is an ancient civilization with a glorious cultural history, possessing a peerless abundance of cultural relics and profound cultural traditions that have been passed down and evolved without end. From the day of its founding, the Communist Party of China has been both an active leader and practitioner of advanced Chinese culture and a faithful inheritor and promoter of China’s excellent traditional culture. Since the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward a series of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new judgments regarding cultural construction, forming Xi Jinping Thought on Culture. The connotations of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture are extremely rich and its discourses are profoundly deep, providing the fundamental adherence for deepening cultural research. For example, General Secretary Xi Jinping creatively proposed the important thought of the "Two Combinations" [2]. In particular, the "Second Combination," as yet another liberation of the mind [3], holds important guiding significance for deepening cultural research. Furthermore, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of China’s excellent traditional culture, guiding us to treat China’s excellent traditional culture correctly, and to persist in making the past serve the present, using the past as a mirror for the present, critical inheritance, dialectical selection, and upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground.
We must persist in a problem-oriented approach to construct an autonomous knowledge system for cultural research. Problems are the starting point of innovation. Only by persisting in a problem-oriented approach and proposing and solving original questions in cultural research can we construct an autonomous knowledge system for cultural research. Currently, a series of major issues in cultural research—such as the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s excellent traditional culture, the basic picture of the origin, formation, and development of Chinese civilization, the evolutionary paths of various regional civilizations in China, the spiritual traits and developmental forms of the Chinese nation, and the prominent characteristics of Chinese civilization—are all major issues requiring in-depth study and represent new areas of academic growth. Researching these issues is of great significance for us to better shoulder the new cultural mission of the New Era. We must persist in a problem-oriented approach, strive to resolve the "debate between the ancient, the modern, the Chinese, and the Western" [4], and refine and summarize identifying concepts and categories in the process of deepening research on major issues, forming new understandings and new viewpoints.
We must strengthen analysis and interpretation to reveal the deep-seated meaning of culture. The evolution of culture can be described and narrated, but the deep-seated meanings it contains can only be presented through analysis and interpretation. Deepening cultural research cannot be limited merely to clarifying social and cultural phenomena; it must also explore where their meaning lies. Only by conducting a "thick description" [5] of the cultural significance behind social and cultural phenomena can we reveal the deep-seated meaning of social and cultural activities and grasp the value of culture. To conduct sound deep analysis and interpretation, we must introduce methods of cultural analysis, cultural hermeneutics, and meaning interpretation to analyze social life phenomena, promoting the continuous deepening of cultural research. First, we must present social life phenomena to answer the question of "what is it"; second, we must explain the direct causes and surface meanings of social life phenomena to answer the question of "why"; finally, we must reveal the cultural connotations and cultural meanings hidden behind social life phenomena and how to improve and renew them, answering the question of "how." We must take "seeking solutions" on the basis of "seeking truth," and "deep interpretation" on the basis of "empirical evidence," as important paths for deepening cultural research.
We must update research paradigms to enhance explanatory capacity. A research paradigm is a theoretical explanatory system composed of specific perspectives, concepts, and propositions. Updating research paradigms implies a shift in the perspectives and standards of cultural research—for example, moving from causal analysis to the interpretation of meaning, starting research on cultural phenomena from the internal logic of cultural development and the internal structure of culture, explaining historical phenomena from the perspective of cultural construction, and excavating the cultural significance of historical phenomena to conduct cultural interpretation. The updating of research paradigms will inevitably expand the fields of cultural research, thereby strengthening and enhancing explanatory capacity.
We must promote integrated development and leverage the advantages of multi-disciplinary integration. Since the objects of study involve multiple fields, cultural research requires the joint participation of multiple disciplines. Disciplinary fusion can break down disciplinary barriers, allowing for joint examination from different research perspectives such as economics, politics, history, sociology, and ecological civilization. We must integrate the concepts, theories, and methods of history, political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines to open up new research fields and provide new interpretive paths in cultural research, promoting innovative development in research perspectives, techniques, and methods.