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 its fine traditional culture. It advances cultural creation by continuing the historical lineage [1] and promotes cultural progress by inheriting Chinese civilization, thereby bestowing a deeper cultural connotation and a broader civilizational dimension upon the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is incumbent upon us to deeply understand, grasp, and internalize this thought.
Adhering to a People-Centered Approach: Always Upholding the Value Orientation of Cultural Construction in the New Era
The masses are the creators of both material and spiritual wealth, as well as the decisive force in social and historical transformation. Respecting the principal position 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 fruits through which humanity moves forward. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly noted: "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 all times." Looking across the developmental trajectory of modern Chinese civilization, it is easy to see that as long as we adhere to the standpoint of the people, the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics will radiate vigorous vitality. As long as we stimulate the subjectivity of the masses in cultural creation, the people will burst forth with exuberant cultural innovative energy through their cultural practices.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture stands at the theoretical heights of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. It examines the spiritual needs, cultural rights, and cultural subjectivity of the people in the New Era through a "big picture view of history" [2]. It respects the initiative and proactivity of the masses in spiritual and cultural creation. In the cultural tapestry of the New Era, the "people-centered" thread consistently runs through the roadmap and task list of cultural construction. Accurately evaluating the satisfaction and sense of gain [3] of the vast majority of the people regarding cultural construction constitutes the 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 across the nation by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. Indubitably, the people’s aspiration for a better life includes a better spiritual life. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is rooted in the fervent practice of developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. It holds high the banner of "educating the people through culture" and "benefiting the people through culture," adhering to the orientation of creating for the people to produce art that satisfies them. We must perform literary and artistic work that resonates with the voices and demands of the people, ensuring the "hundred-flower garden" of literature and art always blooms for them.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Developing cultural undertakings is the basic way to satisfy the people’s spiritual and cultural needs and guarantee their cultural rights." The Outline for the Study of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture (hereafter The Outline) emphasizes: "Efforts should be made to improve the level of public cultural services so that the people can enjoy a more substantial, richer, and higher-quality spiritual and cultural life, thus nurturing the spirited character of the entire nation." Xi Jinping Thought on Culture encompasses a series of strategic deployments to benefit the people’s spiritual world: building public cultural service platforms, promoting cultural interaction and exchange between urban and rural areas, and comprehensively carrying out cultural benefit activities such as national reading, national fitness, and national artistic activities. By improving cultural systems and mechanisms and constructing management systems for cultural industries, products, and non-profit professional activities, the spiritual world of the Chinese nation becomes more profound and substantial. In short, the "people-centeredness" of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture means taking whether the people are satisfied, happy, and in agreement as the highest standard for evaluating socialist cultural construction in the New Era. It means taking the realization, maintenance, and development of the fundamental spiritual and cultural interests of the broadest masses as the starting point and endpoint of cultural construction.
Persisting in Dialectical Thinking: Firmly Grasping the Key Thread of Cultural Construction in the New Era
The innovative development of culture in the New Era represents 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 between opposites and unities within 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, answering the basic question of why things develop. To grasp the basic themes, era missions, historical responsibilities, and world commitments of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, one must fully recognize the dialectical contradictions within the process of cultural development. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture persists in applying dialectical thinking to grasp a series of relationships—nationality and worldliness, tradition and modernity, "substance" and "utility" [4]—in a panoramic manner. It evaluates socialist culture and its development in the New Era through the laws of the unity of opposites, firmly grasping 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 noted: "Promoting exchange, integration, and mutual learning among various human civilizations is the only path to making the world more beautiful and the lives of people in all countries better." Simply put, 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 resolves "ancient-modern" issues without neglecting "Sino-Western" issues, advocating for the correct understanding and handling of the relationship between cultural nationality and worldliness. "That things are uneven is the nature of things" [5]. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture emphasizes that based on following the theoretical, practical, and historical logic of cultural development, we must both maintain cultural subjectivity—sticking to the fundamental standpoint of fine traditional Chinese culture to achieve its creative transformation and innovative development—and persist in cultural worldliness. By upholding the concepts of openness and inclusiveness, it provides a continuous stream of Chinese wisdom and strength to solve global problems and promote the progress of human civilization. The inherent differences in human civilizations are precisely where their charm lies, and exchange and mutual learning across civilizational forms and cultural modes are the best illustration of the dialectical unity between cultural nationality and worldliness.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture contains the innovative viewpoint that "the Chinese cultural lineage must be continued through creative transformation and innovative development," advocating for the correct handling of the dialectical relationship between tradition and modernity. The Outline emphasizes "advancing cultural creation by continuing the historical lineage and promoting cultural progress by inheriting Chinese civilization." Xi Jinping Thought on Culture further confirms the significance of ideological liberation opened by the "Second Integration" [6]. It deeply grasps the basic laws of the development of Chinese civilization, signaling that our Party's theoretical and practical innovation in socialist cultural construction has reached a new height, and our understanding of 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 mode of thinking to grasp the tension between the two, while also unearthing the symbiotic relationship between fine traditional Chinese culture and modern civilization, thereby resolving the paradox of tradition versus modernity and achieving the leap from the traditional to the modern.
Upholding the Fundamentals and Breaking New Ground: Stimulating Vitality in Cultural Construction
General Secretary Xi Jinping has gained profound insight into the internal relationship between Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture and the internal laws of Marxist theoretical innovation and socialist cultural development. He clearly proposed the major proposition of "integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture." This demonstrates the CPC's deepening understanding of the laws governing the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism, reveals the necessary path for 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 this development must be theoretical innovation based on practice. In the interaction between "upholding the fundamentals" (shouzheng) and "breaking new ground" (chuangxin), the "old nation" of the Chinese people fulfills its "new mission" [7]. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture persists in the dialectical unity of these two concepts. It ensures the dominant position of Marxism as the mainstream ideology and the cultural subjectivity established through the inheritance and innovation of fine traditional culture, while also meeting the people's spiritual and cultural needs for a better life.
The "fundamentals" (zheng) upheld by Xi Jinping Thought on Culture include the "soul-vein" (hunmai) of basic principles—such as the relationship between social existence and social consciousness, the base and superstructure, the theory of all-around human development, and Marxist theories of spiritual production and world history. It also includes the "root-vein" (genmai) of important values in fine traditional Chinese culture, such as "conveying the Dao through literature" (wen yi zai dao), "educating people through culture," moral cultivation, ethical norms, cultural exchange, and civilizational symbiosis. The "new ground" (xin) broken by Xi Jinping Thought on Culture involves, on one hand, using the light of Marxist truth to activate the vitality of fine traditional culture and endow it with new era connotations, making the traditional modern. On the other hand, it involves enriching the cultural life of Marxism with fine traditional 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 cultural development in the New Era and settles on the mission and responsibility of cultural construction. By applying the Marxist worldview and methodology, it continuously advances the modernization of fine traditional culture. Through the organic combination of history, the present, and the future, it promotes "making the past serve the present" [8] and "weeding through the old to bring forth the new." Xi Jinping Thought on Culture consistently maintains the guiding role of Marxism in the development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, contributing a dialectic of upholding fundamentals and breaking new ground to China’s cultural transformation. It scientifically grasps the major era-defining issues and internal logic of cultural construction, predicts development trends, and fully exerts the subjectivity of the masses. By responding to dilemmas in cultural construction and breaking through traditional thinking, it innovatively proposes new concepts, methods, judgments, mechanisms, discourses, and measures, ensuring the Party's innovative theories take root in the hearts of hundreds of millions of people.