Lu Xiangfeng: Studying, Thinking, Practicing, and Understanding the Profound Philosophy of Xi Jinping’s Cultural Thought
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture integrates the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and fine traditional Chinese culture [1]. It advances cultural creation by continuing the historical cultural lineage and promotes cultural progress by inheriting Chinese civilization, endowing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with a more profound cultural connotation and a broader civilizational dimension. It requires our deep understanding, firm grasp, and earnest realization.
Persisting in the People-Centered Approach and Always Upholding the Value Orientation of Cultural Development in the New Era
The masses of the people are the creators of material and spiritual wealth, as well as the decisive force in social and historical transformation. Respecting the principal status of the masses is a fundamental requirement of Marxist theory. As Marx stated, "History does nothing, it 'possesses no immense wealth,' it 'wages no battles.'" Rather, it is the cultural practice of the masses that creates the spiritual achievements through which humanity is able to move forward. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "The greatest difference between human society and the animal kingdom is that humans have spiritual needs; the people's demand for spiritual and cultural life exists at every moment." Throughout the development of modern Chinese civilization, it is easy to see that as long as we adhere to the people’s standpoint, the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics will radiate vigorous vitality. As long as we stimulate the subjectivity [2] of the masses in cultural creation, the people will burst forth with exuberant cultural innovative energy in their cultural practices.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture stands at the theoretical height of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, examining the spiritual needs, cultural rights, and cultural subjectivity of the people in the New Era through the lens of a "Big View of History" [3]. It respects the initiative and proactivity of the masses in spiritual and cultural creation. In the cultural landscape of the New Era, the core thread of "the people" is woven throughout the entire roadmap and task list of cultural construction. Accurately judging the satisfaction and sense of gain of the vast majority of the people regarding cultural development is the fundamental value goal of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.
"The people’s aspiration for a better life is our goal." This is the solemn promise made to the people of all ethnic groups by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. Indisputably, the people’s aspiration for a better life includes a better spiritual life. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is rooted in the vibrant practice of developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. It holds high the banner of "educating through culture" and "benefiting the people through culture," adhering to a people-centered creative orientation to produce art that satisfies the people. We must perform literary and artistic work that resonates with the people's voices and meets their demands, ensuring that the "Hundred Flowers" of literature and art always bloom for the people. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Developing cultural undertakings is the basic way to meet the people's spiritual and cultural needs and guarantee their cultural rights." The Outline for the Study of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) emphasizes: "Focus on improving the level of public cultural services, allowing the people to enjoy a more substantial, diverse, and higher-quality spiritual and cultural life, and nurturing the high-spirited temperament of the entire nation."
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture encompasses a series of strategic deployments that benefit the people’s spiritual world: building public cultural service platforms, promoting cultural interaction and exchange between urban and rural areas, comprehensively launching cultural benefit activities such as national reading, national fitness, and national artistic activities, improving cultural systems and mechanisms, and constructing operational systems for cultural industries, cultural products, and non-profit professional management. These efforts make the spiritual world of the Chinese nation weightier and more profound. In short, the "people-centricity" of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture uses whether the people are satisfied, happy, or in agreement as the supreme standard for judging cultural construction in the New Era, and takes the realization, maintenance, and development of the fundamental spiritual and cultural interests of the broadest masses as the starting and ending point of cultural construction.
Adhering to Dialectical Thinking and Firmly Grasping the Key Thread of Cultural Construction in the New Era
The innovative development of culture in the New Era is a profound revolution in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. We must recognize, grasp, and handle a series of dialectical relationships involving the unity of opposites in cultural construction. As the core of materialist dialectics, the law of the unity of opposites reveals the fundamental content of universal connection and the fundamental driving force of eternal development; it answers the fundamental question of why things develop. To grasp the basic themes, era mission, historical responsibility, and world significance of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, we must fully recognize the dialectical contradictions in the process of cultural development. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture persists in using dialectical thinking to grasp a series of relationships—such as the national versus the global, the traditional versus the modern, and "Substance" (ti) versus "Application" (yong) [4]—within a panoramic view, considering New Era socialist culture and its development through the lens of the unity of opposites to firmly grasp the key thread of cultural construction.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture inherits and develops Marxist cultural theory regarding "world history" and spiritual exchange, advocating for the exercise of cultural subjectivity to promote exchange and mutual learning among civilizations. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Promoting exchange, integration, and mutual learning among various human civilizations is the only way to make the world more beautiful and the lives of people in all countries better." In short, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture takes the debate between "the ancient and the modern" and "China and the West" as its basic field. In the process of cultural development, it solves "ancient-modern" issues without neglecting "Sino-Western" issues, advocating for the correct understanding and handling of the relationship between the national and global character of culture. "That things are unequal is a matter of fact" [5]. Based on following the theoretical, practical, and historical logic of cultural development, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture insists on cultural subjectivity, upholding the fundamental position of fine traditional Chinese culture to achieve its creative transformation and innovative development. At the same time, it insists on cultural globality, adhering to the concepts of openness and inclusiveness to provide a continuous stream of Chinese wisdom and Chinese strength for solving world problems and promoting the progress of human civilization. The inherent differences in human civilizations are precisely where the charm of civilization lies; exchange and mutual learning across civilizational forms and cultural patterns are the best illustration of the dialectical unity between cultural nationality and globality.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture contains the innovative viewpoint that "we must continue the Chinese cultural lineage through creative transformation and innovative development," advocating for a correct understanding and handling of the dialectical relationship between tradition and modernity. The Outline emphasizes "advancing cultural creation while continuing the historical cultural lineage, and promoting cultural progress while inheriting Chinese civilization." Xi Jinping Thought on Culture further confirms the significance of the "Second Integration" [1] in emancipating the mind and further grasps the basic laws of the development of Chinese civilization. This indicates that our Party’s theoretical and practical innovations in cultural construction have reached a new height, and our understanding of the relationship between tradition and modernity has risen to a new level. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture defines the relationship between tradition and modernity from the overall height of civilizational evolution. It uses an open, developmental, and interconnected thinking model to grasp the tension between the two, while digging into the symbiotic relationship between fine traditional Chinese culture and modern civilization to resolve the paradox of tradition and modernity, achieving the leap from the traditional to the modern.
Upholding the Fundamentals and Breaking New Ground to Stimulate the Vitality of Cultural Construction in the New Era
General Secretary Xi Jinping has gained profound insight into the internal relationship between Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture. He has grasped the internal laws of Marxist theoretical innovation and socialist cultural development, clearly proposing the major proposition of combining the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture. This highlights the CPC's deepening understanding of the laws governing the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism, reveals the necessary path for our Party to promote theoretical innovation and cultural prosperity, and marks a new sublimation of the Party’s theoretical creativity, cultural subjectivity, and spiritual independence. The prominent continuity of Chinese civilization determines that Chinese cultural development must follow its own path; its prominent innovativeness determines that cultural development must be theoretical innovation based on practice. In the interaction between upholding fundamentals and breaking new ground, the "ancient state" of the Chinese nation fulfills its "new mission" [6]. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture adheres to the dialectical unity of "upholding the fundamentals" (shouzheng) and "breaking new ground" (chuangxin), ensuring the dominant status of Marxism as the mainstream ideology and the cultural subjectivity established through the inheritance and innovation of fine traditional Chinese culture, while meeting the people’s spiritual and cultural needs and enriching their spiritual lives.
The "fundamentals" (zheng) upheld by Xi Jinping Thought on Culture include both the "soul-vein" (hunmai)—the basic principles of Marxist cultural theory such as the relationship between social existence and social consciousness, the base and superstructure, the theory of all-around human development, spiritual production, world history, and the nature of culture and its subjects—and the "root-vein" (genmai) of fine traditional Chinese culture, including values such as "culture as a vehicle for the Way" (wen yi zai dao), educating through culture, moral cultivation, ethical norms, cultural exchange, and civilizational symbiosis. The "new ground" (xin) broken by Xi Jinping Thought on Culture involves, on the one hand, using the light of Marxist truth to activate the vitality of fine traditional Chinese culture and endow it with new era connotations, making traditional culture modern; on the other hand, it involves enriching the cultural life of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, promoting the continuous Sinicization and modernization of Marxism, and making Marxism Chinese.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture focuses on the specific practices and tasks of New Era cultural development, landing on our mission and responsibility in cultural construction. Based on the application of the Marxist worldview and methodology, it continuously promotes the modernization of fine traditional Chinese culture, making the past serve the present and bringing forth the new through the organic integration of history, the present, and the future. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture consistently maintains the guiding position of Marxism in the development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, contributing a dialectic of "upholding fundamentals and breaking new ground" to the cultural transformation and development of Chinese society. It scientifically grasps the major questions of our time, recognizes the internal logic and predicts the trends of cultural development, gives full play to the subjectivity of the masses, responds timely to dilemmas, breaks through traditional thinking, and innovatively proposes new concepts, methods, judgments, mechanisms, discourses, and measures, ensuring that the Party’s innovative theories take root in the hearts of hundreds of millions of people.