Wang Weiguang: Deeply Grasp the "Second Combination" by Focusing on Systematic and Academic Theorization
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping, applying the stand, viewpoints, and methods of Marxism, has reflected deeply on a series of major theoretical and practical issues concerning propaganda, ideological, and cultural work. He has profoundly answered fundamental questions regarding which banner to fly, which path to follow, which principles to uphold, and which goals to achieve in China’s cultural construction in the New Era. He has systematically addressed the major task of what kind of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics to uphold and develop in the New Era, and how to do so, thereby forming Xi Jinping Thought on Culture. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture has deepened our Party’s understanding of the laws governing the development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, enriched and developed Marxist cultural theory, and pointed out the forward direction, established basic principles, and provided scientific methods for cultural construction. It constitutes a systematic, complete, and logically rigorous scientific theoretical system. An important aspect of deeply studying and comprehending Xi Jinping Thought on Culture lies in taking systematization and academic institutionalization as the focal points for profoundly grasping the "second combination" [1], and effectively achieving deep understanding through the scientific mastery of the relations between upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, between the soul-pulse and the root-pulse, and between "substance" (ti) and "function" (yong) [2].
The "second combination" points out the inevitable path for upholding and developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics
General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: "To open up and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics on the deep foundation of more than five thousand years of Chinese civilization, the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with fine traditional Chinese culture is the inevitable path." Xi Jinping Thought on Culture examines the major task of upholding and developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics within the historical process of the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. It conducts holistic research and systematic planning for cultural construction within the general layout of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, guiding and promoting the bidirectional interaction between practical and theoretical innovation in cultural construction. As a major innovative viewpoint of this important thought, the "second combination" points out the inevitable path for upholding and developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and provides a blueprint for building a leading socialist cultural power.
It enriches and develops Marxist cultural theory. The "second combination" profoundly summarizes the historical experience of the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism and represents a profound grasp of the laws governing the development of Chinese civilization. Marxism holds that culture is a reflection of a given society’s economy and politics, while also exerting a tremendous influence upon them. Different nations, throughout long-term social productive practices, have formed and passed down their respective cultures, while continuously achieving cultural self-renewal, self-perfection, and self-transcendence through cultural inheritance and exchange. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that fine traditional Chinese culture is the crystallization of the wisdom and the essence of Chinese civilization; it is the root and soul of the Chinese nation and the foundation upon which we stand firm amidst the surging tides of global culture. The "second combination" profoundly reveals the high degree of compatibility between Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture, vividly proposes the epochal proposition of promoting the "organic combination" of the two, and clearly points out that the result of this "combination" is mutual achievement. It allows Marxism to become Chinese and fine traditional Chinese culture to become modern, ensuring that the new culture formed through this "combination" becomes the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture profoundly elucidates the basic conditions, realization paths, and significant importance of the "second combination," achieving the enrichment and development of Marxist cultural theory.
It is an inevitable requirement for continuously advancing the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. Marxism is a product of its time and develops alongside the times. As the essence of the spirit of the age, Marxism can only manifest its scientific truth that transcends time and geography when it is combined with China’s specific realities and fine traditional Chinese culture. Only then can Sinicized and modernized Marxism be used to observe Chinese reality, solve Chinese problems, and guide Chinese practice. Since its founding, our Party has been both an active leader and practitioner of advanced Chinese culture and a faithful inheritor and promoter of fine traditional Chinese culture. For over a century, our Party has integrated the ideological essence of Marxism with the finest elements of traditional Chinese culture and harmonized them with the common values that the masses "use daily without realizing" [3]. Throughout the historical periods of revolution, construction, and reform, the Party has carried out the creative transformation and innovative development of the philosophical thought, humanistic spirit, value concepts, and moral norms contained within fine traditional Chinese culture, continuously advancing the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture profoundly grasps the historical process and practical experience of our Party’s advancement of Marxist Sinicization and modernization, creatively proposing the major viewpoint of the "second combination," thereby providing a deep cultural foundation for Sinicized and modernized Marxism and for socialism with Chinese characteristics. Insisting on combining the basic principles of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture reflects the inevitable requirement of the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. It embodies the high degree of cultural self-awareness and cultural confidence of the Communist Party of China in this historical process, providing scientific ideological guidance for cultural creation within practical creation and for cultural progress within historical progress.
It is an intrinsic requirement for the prosperity and development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. The development and progress of a nation are often marked and sustained by cultural prosperity and development, which in turn leads to a great flourishing of culture. Socialist culture with Chinese characteristics originates from the fine traditional Chinese culture nurtured by the nation’s five-thousand-year history of civilization; it is fused within the revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture created by the people under the Party’s leadership during revolution, construction, and reform; and it is rooted in the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture profoundly grasps the laws of development for both Chinese civilization and socialist cultural construction. It profoundly elucidates that the "second combination" provides the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics with a more expansive and profound historical depth and expands its cultural foundation. It is precisely within the historical process of the "second combination" that socialist culture with Chinese characteristics has become increasingly prosperous, serving as a powerful spiritual force inspiring the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups to forge ahead. To further develop socialist culture with Chinese characteristics under new historical conditions, we must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, persist in combining the basic principles of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, expand a broader cultural space for exploring future-oriented theoretical and institutional innovations, and provide a powerful spiritual force for promoting the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.
Continuously advancing the "second combination" while upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground
As a comprehensive accumulation of human social life, the formation and development of culture embody the law-governed characteristic of the organic unity of tradition and modernity, inheritance and innovation. To better shoulder our new cultural mission, we must advance the "second combination" with the integrity of upholding the fundamentals and the vigor of breaking new ground, continuing the Chinese cultural lineage and writing a contemporary chapter of Chinese culture in this process. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture adheres to the Marxist stand, viewpoints, and methods, offering profound insight into the general laws of human cultural development and the specific laws of socialist cultural construction. It profoundly reveals the primary contradictions and the primary professional aspects of contradictions in cultural inheritance and development, pointing out the important relationships that must be handled well. This provides a "golden key" for continuously advancing the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture while upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground.
Properly handling the relationship between upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground. Cultural development is a kinetic process of development within inheritance and innovation within development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "For cultural construction, only by upholding the fundamentals can we avoid losing our true selves or losing our direction; only by breaking new ground can we grasp and lead the times." To consolidate cultural subjectivity within the "second combination" and explore future-oriented theoretical and institutional innovations, we need to profoundly realize that upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground are two sides of the same coin, complementing each other and representing the dialectical unity of change and invariance, inheritance and development, and principle and creativity. Among these, upholding the fundamentals is the prerequisite, while breaking new ground is the driving force. To uphold the fundamentals, we must always regard Marxism as the fundamental guiding ideology for the founding and thriving of the Party and the country; we must staunchly defend the Party’s leadership over culture and the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation; we must uphold the "correctness" (zheng) of the socialist path, system, and culture; and we must safeguard the integrity, justice, and positive spiritual essence and energy within fine traditional Chinese culture. To promote innovation, we must take Marxism as the guide and main body, and on this basis, innovate in ideas, discourse, mechanisms, and forms. We must use Marxism to activate the life-affirming, excellent elements within fine traditional Chinese culture and endow them with new epochal connotations, injecting the great spirit and rich wisdom of the Chinese nation at a deeper level into Marxism to achieve an organic connection between the traditional and the modern. Only by using the "upholding of fundamentals" to solidify the soul of innovation and using "breaking new ground" to inject vitality into those fundamentals can we continuously promote the thorough integration of the essence of Marxism with the finest elements of traditional Chinese culture. This will provide the correct direction, open up broad space, and provide strong momentum for promoting the Party’s theoretical innovation, the vital renewal and modern transformation of Chinese civilization, and the ascent to the heights of human thought and culture.
Properly handling the relationship between innovation and combination. To persist in advancing the "second combination" while upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, and to continuously promote cultural innovation and creation within the "second combination," the key is to correctly understand and handle the relationship between innovation and combination, achieving innovation through combination and better realizing combination through innovation. Chinese culture has a long history and profound depth. Values contained within it—such as "the world belongs to all" [4], "the people are the foundation of the state," "governing with virtue," "discarding the old to bring in the new," "appointing the virtuous and capable," "the unity of heaven and humanity," "self-strengthening without cease," "holding the world with great virtue," "valuing good faith and harmony," and "being kind to neighbors"—are important manifestations of the worldview, outlook on the world (Tianxia), social outlook, and moral outlook accumulated by the Chinese people over long-term production and life. These are highly compatible with the values and propositions of scientific socialism. To better advance the "second combination," we must deeply excavate and elucidate the essence of fine traditional Chinese culture, profoundly analyze and keenly grasp the points, mechanisms, and paths for combining the basic principles of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture. We must continuously replenish and enrich the content and form of Sinicized and modernized Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, effectively ensuring that innovation is promoted through combination and combination is enhanced through innovation. In upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, we shall promote the prosperity and development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, ensuring that Sinicized and modernized Marxism possesses more Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese manner.
Continuously advancing the "second combination" while adhering to the soul-pulse and the root-pulse
Promoting cultural innovation and creation within the process of global modernization inevitably involves the question of how to view and handle cultural relations such as tradition versus modernity and the indigenous versus the foreign. Solving the "dispute between the ancient and the modern, the East and the West" [5] has been an important historical task for China since the beginning of the modern era and remains a major epochal task in promoting Chinese-path modernization and shouldering our new cultural mission. Promoting cultural innovation and creation and building a leading socialist cultural power within the "second combination" is neither building "castles in the air" nor "working behind closed doors." It must rely on a solid and stable foundation of history and culture. In the exchange and mutual learning between world civilizations, we must maintain a firm sense of self in a cultural sense, clearly understanding the questions of "who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going," achieving the ability to discern within inheritance and to stand firm within integration.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The major proposition of the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism itself determines that we must never abandon the soul-pulse (hunmai) of Marxism, and we must never abandon the root-pulse (genmai) of fine traditional Chinese culture." These terms, "soul-pulse" and "root-pulse," profoundly point out the basis and prerequisite for promoting the Party’s theoretical innovation; they grasp the essence, core, substance, and key to promoting cultural innovation and creation. They demonstrate the new height and realm of understanding that Chinese Communists in the New Era have achieved regarding Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture. To promote the Party’s theoretical innovation and to uphold and develop socialist culture with Chinese characteristics within the "second combination," we must steadfastly guard the soul-pulse of Marxism and the root-pulse of fine traditional Chinese culture; the soul-pulse and root-pulse exist in a dialectical unity. To guard these pulses, we must always adhere to Marxism as our guide, using Marxist stands, viewpoints, and methods to distinguish between the essence and the dross, and between the advanced and the backward in traditional culture. We must inherit what is to be "upheld" and critique what is to be "discarded," drawing spiritual nourishment from the "essence" and the "advanced." We must consciously use fine traditional Chinese culture to replenish the cultural life of Marxism, continuously promoting its Sinicization and modernization, and increasing the people’s level of recognition of and identification with Marxism.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture profoundly indicates that for any culture to stand firm, travel far, and possess the power to lead, cohere, shape, and radiate, it must possess its own subjectivity. With cultural subjectivity comes a firm sense of self in a cultural sense, providing a fundamental support for cultural confidence. This ensures the Communist Party of China possesses a powerful cultural force to lead the era, provides the Chinese nation and the Chinese people with a solid cultural foundation for national identity, and grants Chinese civilization distinct cultural characteristics for exchange and mutual learning with other civilizations. Continually advancing the “Second Combination” while adhering to the soul-conduit (the soul-pipe) and the root-conduit (the root-pipe) [6], and resolving the “dispute between the ancient and the modern, the Chinese and the Western” through the “Second Combination,” is precisely for the purpose of consolidating the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation. We must take the scientific nature, truth, people-centeredness, practicality, openness, and zeitgeist of Marxism as our theoretical basepoint, and take the prominent continuity, originality, unity, inclusiveness, and peaceful nature of Chinese civilization as our cultural origin. In the bidirectional convergence and mutual fulfillment of this basepoint and origin, we let Marxism become Chinese and of the era, and let fine traditional Chinese culture become modern and global. In the exchange and mutual learning of world cultures, we must fully demonstrate the distinct qualities, deep wisdom, and unique contributions of Chinese culture, and continuously consolidate the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation.
Continually advancing the “Second Combination” through the clarity of the Essence and its practical application, and the integration of Essence and Function.
Culture manifests both in concrete material forms and in abstract theoretical forms; cultural inheritance and development possess both distinct theoretical and practical characteristics. As the theoretical summary of the Party’s practical experience in leading cultural construction in the New Era, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture originates from practice and guides practice, having been tested and continuously developed within practice. It clarifies not only what and why, but also what to do and how to do it. It deploys the tasks for “crossing the river” while simultaneously providing guidance on solving the problem of the “bridge or the boat” [7]. It contains both innovations and breakthroughs in cultural theoretical perspectives and strategic deployments and requirements for the layout of cultural work. It offers both macro-level holistic guidance and specific-level practical paths, manifesting the theoretical quality and open character of “clarifying the Essence for practical application, and integrating Essence and Function” [8].
From the dimension of the “Second Combination,” Xi Jinping Thought on Culture creatively proposes the combination of the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture; it posits that the “Second Combination” is a profound summary of our Party’s historical experience in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism, representing another liberation of the mind [9]. This allows us to fully utilize the precious resources of fine traditional Chinese culture within a broader cultural space to explore future-oriented theoretical and institutional innovations. It points out that the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics was blazed under the guidance of Marxism and emerged from over five thousand years of Chinese civilization; the “Second Combination” provides the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics with a more expansive and far-reaching historical depth, expanding its cultural foundations... These major innovative viewpoints profoundly clarify the significant question of what the “Second Combination” is from an epistemological level, raising our Party’s understanding of the laws governing the development of Chinese civilization and the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics to a new height.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture focuses on the ambitious goal of building a leading socialist cultural power. It offers profound insight into a series of theoretical and practical issues in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, directly addressing key problems in cultural inheritance and development. It emphasizes the necessity of upholding the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism, promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture, and encouraging the localization of foreign cultures. We must continuously cultivate and create a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics for the New Era. Under the guidance of Marxism, we must truly “make the past serve the present and foreign things serve China” [10], engage in dialectical selection, and “weed through the old to bring forth the new” [11], achieving an organic link between the traditional and the modern... These major innovative viewpoints profoundly clarify the practical requirements for advancing the “Second Combination” from a methodological level, sketching a clear blueprint for advancing the “Second Combination” and building a leading socialist cultural power. On the new journey, we must insist on taking Xi Jinping Thought on Culture as our guide, ensuring that learning and thinking are integrated, that knowledge is applied, and that knowledge and action are unified. Within the framework of “clarifying the Essence for practical application and integrating Essence and Function,” we must promote a better combination of the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, striving to create a new situation for publicity, ideological, and cultural work in the New Era.
(The author is a Life Professor at Nankai University) Web Editor: Zhang Jian Source: People's Daily, October 17, 2024, Page 9.