Special Guest Commentator of "Qiushi" Magazine: Creating a New Situation for Cultural Inheritance and Development Within the "Two Combinations"
Culture is a living organism, carrying the genes of history and the memories of tradition; only through a constant flow of "living water" and sufficient nutrients can it maintain a vigorous vitality. This dictates that culture is a process of development through inheritance, a dynamic evolution characterized by "upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground." The long and continuous history of Chinese civilization serves as an excellent positive example, while those ancient civilizations that vanished into ruins and failed to be passed down prove that the continuity of a cultural lineage [1] is by no means an inevitability. To continue advancing the inheritance and development of Chinese culture amidst the tides of the era is not only a respect for and continuation of history, but also a responsibility and commitment to the future.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) is both an active leader and practitioner of advanced Chinese culture, as well as a faithful inheritor and promoter of fine traditional Chinese culture. Marxism is the fundamental guiding ideology upon which we establish and prosper our Party and country, while fine traditional Chinese culture is the spiritual lifeblood of the Chinese nation. How to understand and grasp the relationship between the two is a fundamental issue concerning the inheritance and development of Chinese culture. "To clear a path for and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics on the deep foundation of over five thousand years of Chinese civilization, the 'Two Combinations'—combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with fine traditional Chinese culture—is the inevitable path." "The 'Second Combination' [2] 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." Two years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development provided a clear and powerful answer. In this brilliant document, the General Secretary took a global and historical perspective, providing a penetrating analysis of a series of major theoretical and practical issues regarding the inheritance and development of Chinese culture. In particular, he provided a rich and profound exposition of the great significance and internal mechanisms of the "Two Combinations," raising our understanding of the laws governing the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics to a new height. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is precisely the major achievement of consciously adhering to the "Two Combinations" and promoting the innovative development of Marxist cultural theory. We must deeply study and practice Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, consciously recognize and apply the "Two Combinations," and persist in taking the path of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics. We must develop advanced socialist culture, promote revolutionary culture [3], inherit fine traditional Chinese culture, and continuously promote the vital renewal and modern transformation of Chinese civilization.
The "Two Combinations" reveal the inevitable path for opening and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, as well as the inevitable path for promoting theoretical innovation and cultural prosperity, greatly expanding the cultural foundations of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In advancing cultural construction, we can only consolidate our cultural subjectivity and ensure that cultural inheritance and development proceed in the right direction by firmly adhering to the "soul-vein" [4] of Marxism and the "root-vein" of fine traditional Chinese culture. On the one hand, we must unswervingly use Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to coagulate the soul and build the spirit, solidly advancing the systematic and academic research and explanation of the Party’s innovative theories in the New Era, and continuously consolidating the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological sphere and the common ideological foundation for the united struggle of the whole Party and the people of the whole country. On the other hand, we must deeply tap into the ideological concepts, humanistic spirit, and moral norms of fine traditional Chinese culture, carrying out creative transformation and innovative development [5] in light of the requirements of the times, so that tradition and modernity intersect and blend, shining with new brilliance in the New Era.
Cultural heritage carries the genes and lifeblood of the Chinese nation; it is a non-renewable and irreplaceable resource of fine Chinese civilization. The prerequisite and foundation of cultural inheritance and development is the effective protection of cultural heritage. We must adhere to the principles of protection first, rational utilization, and minimal intervention. We must strengthen the systematic protection and unified supervision of cultural heritage, including cultural relics and historic sites, ancient buildings, famous historical cities and towns, historical districts, traditional villages, cultural landscapes, and intangible cultural heritage and folk customs. We must cherish, promote, and develop the treasures of Chinese civilization, allowing the historical cultural lineage to burst forth with vitality and take on a new appearance in contemporary China. We must accelerate the establishment of a new pattern for the "Great Protection" of cultural heritage, establish and improve the system of laws and regulations for cultural heritage protection, strengthen the monitoring, protection, and restoration of cultural heritage, deeply advance the construction and protection of National Cultural Parks, and severely crack down on various illegal and criminal acts that damage cultural heritage. Meanwhile, using methods welcomed by the masses [6] and forms imbued with the spirit of the times, we should allow more cultural heritage to be utilized rationally to enrich the historical and cultural nourishment of the entire society.
The inheritance and development of culture must be conditioned on genuine prosperity, marked by the competitive emergence of high-quality masterpieces, the growth and strengthening of cultural undertakings and industries, and the continuous appearance of outstanding cultural talents. This requires that we must adhere to the "Two Serves" direction [7] and the "Double Hundred" policy [8], develop academic and artistic democracy, and create a positive, healthy, relaxed, and harmonious atmosphere to catalyze more "tripod-lifting" [9] masterpieces and cultivate more cultural masters. We must ensure that Chinese theory, Chinese academia, Chinese literature and art, and Chinese aesthetics stand tall among the world's nations and lead the trends of the times. We must focus on improving cultural originality, integrating the production of achievements with the cultivation of talent, and linking the creation of works with the improvement of the environment. We must enhance and improve the production of literary and artistic creations and accelerate the construction of an autonomous knowledge system for Chinese philosophy and social sciences. We must focus on improving the supply quality and level of cultural products and services, promoting innovation in cultural formats, products, and services. We must adhere to the people-centered orientation of creation, actively promote the development of "New Mass Literature and Art," and better meet the diverse, multi-level, and multi-faceted spiritual and cultural needs of the masses. We must focus on cultivating a high-level team of cultural talents, improving mechanisms for talent selection, training, use, and incentives that fit the characteristics of the cultural field, respecting the laws of talent growth and cultural creation, and fully mobilizing the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the broad masses of cultural talents. Culture and technology coexist and promote each other; we must adapt to the trends of digitalization, networking, and intelligence, using internet-based thinking and information technology to improve the processes of cultural creation, production, and dissemination, continuously transforming China's rich and profound cultural resource advantages into advantages for cultural development.
Reform is an important "magic weapon" [10] for liberating and developing cultural productive forces. Currently, reform in the cultural field has entered the "deep-water zone" and a "period of critical engagement"; challenges and pressures are increasing, and opportunities are fleeting. We must deeply implement the deployments and requirements of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, unswervingly regarding the stimulation of innovation and creativity as the central link in deepening the reform of cultural systems and mechanisms. We must fully grasp the characteristic that culture possesses both industrial attributes and ideological attributes, focusing on key and difficult issues to plan and implement reform measures with urgency. We must accelerate the improvement of cultural management systems and production/operation mechanisms, build a modern public cultural service system, sound the modern cultural industry system, and improve cultural economic policies and legal systems, providing strong momentum and institutional guarantees for cultural inheritance and development.
Chinese culture has possessed the characteristics of openness and inclusiveness since ancient times; the exchange and mutual learning between different cultures is an important path for cultural inheritance and development. We must strengthen the concept of using culture to dialogue with the world, more proactively promoting "culture going out" [11]. We should encourage and support cultural enterprises, institutions, and talents to conduct external cultural exchange activities abroad, and encourage the launch of a batch of cultural products and services that bridge China and the West to enter international mainstream society, enhancing the appeal, influence, and competitiveness of Chinese culture. We must steadily and orderly expand the opening-up of the cultural field, learning from and drawing on all excellent achievements of human civilization with a more open mind and broader vision, absorbing the beneficial elements of foreign cultures to enrich and develop Chinese culture.
"All that is beneficial follows the path of moving with the times." [12] The inheritance and development of culture has a soul and a root, a source and a flow; it involves following heritage and adaptation, as well as reform and transformation. As we forge ahead on the new journey of building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation, an "expedition" to carry out cultural creation within the creation of practice, and to achieve cultural progress within historical progress, has also commenced. Let us focus our gaze on the strategic goal of building a cultural powerhouse, shoulder our sacred mission and heavy responsibilities, remain mindful of our origins, absorb external influence, and face the future, as we write a more brilliant and dazzling new chapter for Chinese civilization.