Zhu Wei: Mao Zedong's Reflections and Practices Regarding the "Second Integration" During the Yan'an Period
Mao Zedong Thought is a significant theoretical achievement of the Sinicization of Marxism; its formation and development are inseparable from Mao Zedong’s respect for, absorption of, and sublation of the history and culture of the Chinese nation. During the Yan'an period, Mao Zedong Thought "was systematically summarized, expanded in multiple aspects, and reached maturity." Standing upon the profound accumulation of thousands of years of Chinese national history and culture, Mao Zedong proposed the thesis of the Sinicization of Marxism and demanded that Marxism be "deeply combined" with "Chinese history and Chinese culture," embodying a theoretical consciousness and practical initiative for the "second combination." Sorting through and exploring the specific paths, methods, forms of expression, and main characteristics of Mao Zedong's "deep combination" of Marxism with Chinese history and culture during this period provides important enlightenment for us today as we strengthen our historical and cultural confidence, continue to promote cultural prosperity at a new starting point, and build a leading cultural power.
I. Mao Zedong’s proposal of the thesis of the Sinicization of Marxism during the Yan’an period inherently contained the meaning of combining the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture
After the Central Red Army arrived in Northern Shaanxi, Mao Zedong—having experienced a "comparison between two victories and two defeats" [1] during the Great Revolution and the Agrarian Revolutionary War, and having "fully recognized the laws of the Chinese revolution"—deeply contemplated how Marxism-Leninism should be applied and developed in China on the basis of summarizing the Party's historical experience and the practical experience of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. He proposed the thesis of the Sinicization of Marxism, which included the intent of combining the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture.
(1) Mao Zedong proposed the thesis of the Sinicization of Marxism based on the profound accumulation of thousands of years of Chinese history and culture.
In October 1938, at the Enlarged Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee, Mao Zedong proposed the thesis of the Sinicization of Marxism for the first time. He presented three study tasks to "all Communist Party members with a fair capacity for research": namely, to "study the theories of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin," "study our national history," and "study the circumstances and trends of the current movement." He stated: "For a party leads a great revolutionary movement, it is impossible to achieve victory without revolutionary theory, without historical knowledge, and without a deep understanding of the actual movement." This effectively placed Marxist theory, the concrete realities of the Chinese revolution, and Chinese history and national culture side-by-side and linked them together.
More notably, in the specific elaboration of the section "Study our historical legacy," Mao Zedong purposefully proposed the concept of the "Sinicization of Marxism." He pointed out: "Our great nation has several thousand years of history; it has its own laws of development, its national characteristics, and its many precious qualities. Regarding these, we are still schoolboys," therefore we not only cannot "sever history" but must also "inherit the legacy." On this basis, Mao Zedong explicitly proposed: "For Communist Party members who are part of the great Chinese nation and are linked to it by flesh and blood, to talk about Marxism apart from Chinese characteristics is only abstract and empty Marxism. Therefore, the Sinicization of Marxism—making it carry Chinese characteristics in every one of its manifestations, that is to say, applying it according to China's characteristics—is a problem that the whole Party urgently needs to understand and solve." It can thus be seen that the thesis of the Sinicization of Marxism proposed by Mao Zedong was directed not only at the particularity of the concrete realities of the Chinese revolution but was also based on the broad background of Chinese history, national characteristics, and cultural traditions.
(2) The "first combination" proposed and contemplated by Mao Zedong contained the dual implication of combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s concrete realities and with fine traditional Chinese culture.
Following his proposal at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee that "Marxism must be combined with our country’s concrete characteristics and can only be realized through a definite national form," in October 1939, Mao Zedong for the first time proposed "combining the theory of Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution" in a relatively complete form in his "Introducing The Communist." Mao Zedong pointed out that if Party cadres wanted to "learn more" about this combination, they must have "a further understanding of China's historical and social conditions, the characteristics of the Chinese revolution, and the laws of the Chinese revolution." This further clarified that understanding Chinese history and traditional culture is one of the necessary conditions for achieving the "first combination." In February 1942, in the article "Rectify the Party's Style of Work," Mao Zedong explicitly divided "reality" into "historical reality" and "revolutionary reality," arguing that Chinese Communists must "further make theoretical creations that suit China's needs through serious research into Chinese historical reality and revolutionary reality," so as to truly achieve "linking theory with reality."
On May 26, 1943, Mao Zedong presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which passed the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Proposal of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International to Dissolve the Communist International," which he had reviewed and revised. This decision formally proposed the issue of "deeply combining" the basic tenets of Marxism with Chinese history and culture. The Decision made it clear that "Chinese Communists are the finest descendants of the Chinese nation" and are "the inheritors of the finest traditions of all the culture, thought, and morality of our nation," emphasizing that "the Yan’an Rectification Movement against subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing [2] carried out by the Chinese Communist Party in recent years is intended to make the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism more deeply combined with the practice of the Chinese revolution, Chinese history, and Chinese culture." That evening, at a meeting of Yan'an cadres convened by the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Mao Zedong further proposed the task of "making the Chinese Communist Party more nationalized."
Therefore, although Mao Zedong did not provide a clear and precise theoretical summary or systematic explanation of the "second combination" [3] during this period, it is evident that the inherent meaning of the "second combination" was contained within the thesis of the Sinicization of Marxism that he proposed.
II. Reasons why Mao Zedong emphasized the study of Chinese history and cultural traditions during the Yan’an period and found points of integration with Marxism
During the Yan’an period, Mao Zedong always emphasized the study of Chinese history and cultural traditions in the process of the Sinicization of Marxism, out of various profound considerations. His success in finding the internal points of fit and integration between Marxism and fine traditional Chinese culture was also closely related to his high regard for and deep understanding of both.
(1) Mao Zedong’s emphasis on Chinese history and culture was closely related to his opposition to "Left" dogmatism within the Party, represented by Wang Ming.
Mao Zedong contemplated and proposed the issue of combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China's concrete realities in the process of struggling against the erroneous tendency of dogmatizing Marxism and sanctifying the resolutions of the Communist International and Soviet experience. Dogmatists not only failed to proceed from China's realities; they also did not understand or emphasize the study of Chinese history and cultural traditions. Regarding this, Mao Zedong once provided this vivid portrayal: "Many Marxist-Leninist scholars also 'speak of Greece every time they open their mouths' [4], but as for their own ancestors, they are sorry, they have forgotten them." "They have no interest at all in studying the China of today or the China of yesterday," and "are in the dark about the face of China yesterday and the day before." It is precisely because they "have no knowledge of their own things that they are left with only Greek and foreign stories, which is quite pathetic—scraps picked up from foreign piles of old paper." Mao Zedong also criticized dogmatists for "not knowing any of their own history, or knowing very little, yet not feeling ashamed but rather taking pride in it."
On October 20, 1938, Wang Ming [5] requested to make a long speech at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, and in the final part of his speech, he expressed his attitude toward traditional Chinese culture and his "worries" regarding the "Sinicization of Marxism." He placed the "issue of the Sinicization of Marxist-Leninist theory—the nationalization of Marxist-Leninist theory" under the sub-heading of "strengthening the study of Marxism-Leninism to raise the Party's theoretical level." Although on the surface he had to admit that "only by making Marxism-Leninism deeply and widely Sinicized... and becoming the inheritor of the excellent traditions of Chinese culture (from Confucius to Sun Yat-sen) can it truly become a household word and enter deep into the hearts of the people," he still emphasized as his first priority the "special importance of theory under current conditions" and "first of all, the necessity of studying Marxism-Leninism," and so on. In this speech, which frequently cited the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin and the reports of the Communist International, he showed a rare "caution" toward Chinese history and culture, posing four "points for attention": namely, "it cannot be vulgarized or strained," "one cannot replace materialist dialectics with the eclecticism and pedantic philosophy of Confucius," "one cannot misinterpret Marxism-Leninism with old Chinese cultural theories, but must use Marxism-Leninism to understand and develop Chinese culture," and "one must not, under the misunderstanding of 'nationalization,' neglect the study and application of international experience."
(2) It reflects Mao Zedong’s significant contemplation on the cultural future of the Chinese nation at a critical juncture when Japanese imperialism was intensifying its aggression and the national crisis was becoming increasingly severe.
Since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, the Chinese ideological and cultural circles had consistently exhibited two erroneous tendencies regarding traditional culture: cultural nihilism, which held a completely negative attitude, and cultural revivalism, which held a completely positive attitude. In the 1930s, facing the encroachment of the Japanese invaders, the questions of where China was going and where Chinese culture was going became increasingly prominent and serious. On May 4, 1938, the Cultural Association for National Salvation of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region issued "Our Opinions on the Current Cultural Movement," clearly pointing out that "Chinese culture, like its own nation, is facing a catastrophe unprecedented in history." It stated, "In the War of Resistance, in the war to defend the motherland, we must defend the culture of the motherland and develop the motherland's new culture," "We are the true inheritors of the traditions of Chinese culture and Eastern culture. We must not only 'open the future' (kailai) but also 'continue the past' (jiwang)," and emphasized "understanding the history of one's own nation and paying attention to its characteristics, while simultaneously rejecting revivalism, arbitrariness, dogmatism, superstition, and blind following."
Shortly thereafter, in "On New Democracy," Mao Zedong explicitly identified "establishing a new culture for the Chinese nation" as "our goal in the cultural field." He disagreed with the "advocacy of 'total Westernization'" [6] since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, believing it to be "an erroneous viewpoint. Absorbing foreign things formalistically has caused great harm in China's past"; he also opposed "the advocacy of honoring Confucius and reading the classics, and promoting old ethical codes and old ideas," as well as "all feudal ideas and superstitious ideas." He emphasized that this new culture is "national, scientific, and for the masses," both "combined with national characteristics" and "giving history a certain scientific position," while "led by proletarian cultural thought, that is, communist thought." This demonstrated Mao Zedong's rationality and maturity in dealing with national culture, making it possible for him to recognize the historical responsibility he bore to combine the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture.
(3) Mastering the essence of Marxism-Leninism while being well-versed in Chinese history and cultural traditions provided Mao Zedong with the conscious awareness and theoretical ability to find the point of fit between the two.
The impression Mao Zedong left on Edgar Snow in 1936 was that of "an accomplished scholar well-versed in the old Chinese learning." Agnes Smedley, who visited Yan'an slightly later, also believed: "Mao Zedong is famous as a theorist, and his set of ideas and theories is deeply rooted in Chinese history and military experience." Zhao Chaogou, who visited Yan'an in 1944 with the Northwest Visiting Delegation of Chinese and Foreign Reporters, also pointed out: "Mao Zedong is a Communist activist most familiar with Chinese historical traditions. Mao Zedong is proficient in Communist theory while simultaneously familiar with Chinese history." Similarly, "how familiar he is with Chinese history," "erudite in both ancient and modern knowledge," "profoundly learned in the old classics," and "making the reading and research of Chinese literature and history an indispensable part of his work and life" were deep impressions Mao Zedong left on many comrades within the Party during the Yan'an period.
It is worth noting that while applying Marxism to China’s concrete reality and contemplating as well as practicing the Party’s theories and policies, Mao Zedong was able to understand Chinese social customs and public psychology. He respected the value systems that the broad masses of the people "use daily without being aware of them" [7] and paid close attention to the "relationship between the Way of Confucius and the culture of the peasantry." As early as the period of the Great Revolution (1924–1927), Mao taught classes on the Chinese peasant problem to students at the sixth term of the Peasant Movement Training Institute. By combing through peasant uprisings across various dynasties from the late Qin to the late Qing, he pointed out while summarizing the reasons for the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement: "When Hong Xiuquan raised his troops, he opposed Confucianism and promoted Catholicism, which did not cater to the psychology of the Chinese people; Zeng Guofan utilized this tactic to suppress him. This was a mistake in Hong Xiuquan’s methods." This profound understanding and respect for China’s historical and cultural traditions and national conditions endowed Mao—who was simultaneously proficient in Marxism—with the conscious awareness and theoretical capacity to find the point of convergence between the two, thereby further opening the space for innovation in "combination."
III. Using Marxist Standpoints, Viewpoints, and Methods to Analyze, Summarize, Inherit, and Transform China’s Historical and Cultural Heritage
Based on the reality of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao Zedong proposed the attitudes, principles, methods, and approaches for treating China’s historical and cultural heritage under the guidance of Marxism. Through the practice of the Sinicization of Marxism, he achieved the inheritance and transformation of fine traditional Chinese culture, thereby using Marxism to activate the vital, excellent elements within Chinese culture and endowing them with new connotations for the era.
(1) Attitude: "Respect our own history and never sever history"
Mao Zedong possessed a confident yet clear-headed understanding of the brilliant civilization created by the Chinese nation. He referred to the five thousand years of Chinese civilization as the "history of the enlightenment of the Chinese nation," emphasizing that the Chinese nation "has a reputedly developed agriculture and handicraft industry, many great thinkers, scientists, inventors, statesmen, military strategists, men of letters, and artists, and rich cultural classics." With the four great inventions of papermaking, gunpowder, printing, and the compass, "China is therefore one of the earliest countries in the world with a developed civilization." At the same time, Mao also noted the great spirit and fine traditions of the Chinese nation. He said, "The Chinese nation is not only famous throughout the world for its stamina and industriousness, but also as a freedom-loving people with a rich revolutionary tradition." "In the thousands of years of the history of the Chinese nation, many national heroes and revolutionary leaders have emerged. Therefore, the Chinese nation is also a nation with a glorious revolutionary tradition and an excellent historical heritage."
Based on historical materialism, Mao further emphasized the continuity of Chinese history and cultural development, opposing any severance of history. He said, "We must understand not only the China of today but also the China of yesterday and the day before yesterday." "Today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historicists, and we should not sever history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should provide a summary and inherit this precious legacy." He quoted Han Yu’s ancient poem, "If a person does not understand the past and present, they are but a horse or cow in human clothes," [8] to explain that "not knowing the past and present is equivalent to cattle or horses wearing clothes." He emphasized that "it is not enough for us to only understand the present; we must also understand the past," and "especially for us Communists, we need to know more about the past and present." Similarly, Mao noted the continuous characteristics of Chinese civilization and culture, emphasizing that "present-day new culture in China is also developed from the old culture of ancient times; therefore, we must respect our own history and never sever history."
(2) Principles: "Make the past serve the present" and "Weed through the old to bring forth the new"
Mao Zedong first introduced the phrase "weed through the old to bring forth the new" (tuī chén chū xīn) within the category of Marxist philosophy. He used it in his essay On Contradiction to describe the mutual transformation of the two sides of a contradiction. In October 1942, he inscribed these four characters as a gift to the newly established Yan’an Pingju (Beijing Opera) Research Institute; it later gradually became one of the CCP’s important guidelines for developing culture. Although Mao did not explicitly propose concepts such as "learning from the ancients is for the sake of the living today" and "make the past serve the present" until after the founding of New China, during the Yan’an period he already attached great importance to excavating "beneficial things" from historical and cultural heritage to serve the needs of the actual struggle, emphasizing that "the purpose remains for the sake of the masses of the people."
After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered the stage of strategic stalemate, Mao Zedong set new requirements for He Ganzhi, a historian aspiring to study national history using the materialist conception of history: "If you can prove in your book which of the two lines—national resistance or national surrender—was right or wrong, and bitingly condemn the group of national capitulationists from the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Southern Song, the late Ming, and the late Qing, while praising the national resisters, it would be helpful for the current War of Resistance." On January 9, 1944, Mao watched the Pingju opera Driven to Join the Liangshan Outlaws—adapted from Water Margin—at the Grand Auditorium of the Central Party School. This play not only used peasant struggle as its main thread but also satirized Chiang Kai-shek’s face of passive resistance to Japan and active opposition to the Communists and the people, characterized by "holding great power in hand, determined to be a dictator." It became a paradigm of "making the past serve the present" in traditional drama. Mao was "extremely happy" after watching it and wrote an enthusiastic letter to the writers and directors that very night, praising the play as "the epoch-making beginning of the revolution in old drama." He also said: "History is created by the people, but on the stage of old drama (and in all old literature and art divorced from the people), the people became the dregs, while the stage was dominated by lords, ladies, young masters, and misses. This reversal of history is now reversed back by you, restoring the face of history. From this, old drama has opened a new life."
(3) Method: "Providing a critical summary using Marxist methods"
Historical traditions and cultural heritage, having undergone long-term accumulation, possess a certain complexity wherein essence and dross are often permeated together. Mao Zedong proposed to critically inherit historical and cultural heritage on the basis of making historical and dialectical distinctions. In July 1944, he told Chinese and foreign journalists visiting Yan’an: "We critically receive China’s long tradition, inheriting the good traditions while discarding the bad ones." He used the human digestion of food as an analogy, arguing that all foreign things "must be chewed by one's own mouth and moved through the stomach and intestines, mixed with saliva, gastric juice, and intestinal juice to be broken down into essence and dross; then the dross is excreted and the essence absorbed before it can be beneficial to our body. We must never swallow things whole and absorb them uncritically." Consequently, "regarding ancient Chinese culture, similarly, we neither reject it across the board nor blindly transplant it, but receive it critically." Proceeding from the materialist conception of history, he believed that ancient Chinese culture was rooted in "China’s long-term feudal society." Distinguishing "essence" from "dross" meant using Marxist standpoints, viewpoints, and methods to distinguish what is "feudal dross" and what is "democratic essence"; what is "the decaying matter of the ancient feudal ruling classes" and what is "the excellent culture of the ancient people, which is to some extent democratic and revolutionary," and finding the "precious items" therein to inherit.
On one hand, Mao Zedong actively promoted the use of the materialist conception of history to "clear accounts with the study of the classics" [9] and guided the compilation of a general history of China. In early 1940, Fan Wenlan gave a lecture on the brief history of Chinese classical studies at the annual meeting of the Yan’an New Philosophy Society. He used the materialist conception of history to comb through the developmental trajectory and periodic characteristics of Chinese classical studies since Confucius, proposing that "the classics were an important tool for the feudal ruling class to oppress the people ideologically," but "the classics contain more or less democratic and revolutionary things (there are quite many in the Zuo Zhuan), especially maxims on how to conduct oneself... if transplanted into proletarian culture, they can likewise become useful." Fan Wenlan also attempted to express the CCP’s attitude toward traditional Chinese culture, including classical studies: "Use the yardstick of Marxism-Leninism to estimate the value of traditional Chinese culture, and critically adopt the excellent parts to enrich the new culture of the Chinese proletariat." Mao was very pleased after reading Fan Wenlan’s lecture outline, praising him by saying "this is the first time Marxist methods have been used to clear accounts with classical studies." Connecting this to the fact that "at present, the restorationist reaction of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie is very rampant," he suggested, "if your work in historiography continues, it will certainly have a great influence on this struggle."
Entrusted and encouraged by Mao, Fan Wenlan devoted himself fully to the compilation of A Brief General History of China. In this set of works, considered "the first work to systematically narrate Chinese history using a Marxist viewpoint," Fan Wenlan summarized several "fundamental differences" from "old history books written with the viewpoint of the feudal landlord class or the bourgeoisie": "affirming that the masters of history are the laboring people"; "dividing the periods of Chinese history according to the general laws of social-historical development"; "writing about class struggle, focusing on describing how the corrupt and brutal ruling classes oppressed the peasants and how the peasants were forced to rise in uprising"; "paying attention to collecting materials on the struggle for production"; and so on. After the book was published, Mao evaluated it saying: "This shows that we, the Chinese Communist Party, have gained the right to speak regarding the thousands of years of our own country’s history and have also written a scientific work."
On the other hand, Mao Zedong personally participated in a series of discussions using materialist dialectics to evaluate ancient Chinese philosophical thought. Between February and March 1939, as Chen Boda responded to the call by writing articles such as "The Philosophical Thought of Confucius," "The Philosophical Thought of Laozi," and "The Philosophical Thought of Mozi," Mao not only reviewed the drafts multiple times and offered specific suggestions for revision but also gave key guidance on correctly making dialectical materialist evaluations of important issues. Regarding the philosophical thought of Confucius, Mao first proposed the general principle that "one should provide a historical materialist critique and place it in its proper position." Concerning "Confucius’s theory of morality," he proposed: "One should give it a materialist observation and apply more critique, so as to have a principled distinction from the Kuomintang’s view of morality (the Kuomintang loves to cite Confucius most in this regard)." Regarding Confucius’s "epistemology" and "social theory," Mao pointed out characteristics like "having many elements of dialectics" and "emphasizing subjective initiative," believing that "we should mention these strengths of Confucius." He advocated for re-evaluating "the issue of the Mean" [10] and "going beyond is as bad as falling short" under the guidance of the principle of the mutual transformation of quality and quantity in materialist dialectics. A few months later, while reading the Selected Works of Philosophy compiled by Ai Siqi, Mao further proposed that "the thought of the Mean originally contained elements of eclecticism," "the thought of the Mean is anti-dialectical," and "it is only an element of dialectics, just as the law of identity in formal logic is only an element of dialectics, but is not dialectics itself."
(4) Approach: Using Marxism to "Transform" and "Create," making it "become something revolutionary that serves the people"
Mao Zedong opposed the "uncritical mechanical transplanting and imitation" of the ancients, believing that "inheritance and borrowing can never become a substitute for one’s own creation." He particularly emphasized using Marxism to transform "old forms," adding "new content," and creating new "revolutionary things that serve the people," thereby "turning these legacies into one's own."
First, Mao Zedong used the basic principles and methodology of dialectical materialism to endow certain essences of traditional culture with new meanings and explanations, enhancing and transforming them so that they displayed new vitality and influence.
For example, the Eastern Han historian Ban Gu once used the phrase "seek truth from facts" (shí shì qiú shì) to praise Liu De, the son of Emperor Jing of Han, for his rigorous scholarly attitude of seeking the true meaning of ancient books based on facts rather than relying on strained interpretations or flattery, calling it "cultivating learning and loving antiquity, seeking truth from facts." Mao was familiar with this historical material and once said at a working meeting of the CCP Central Committee: "There is a Hejian County in Hebei Province. In the Han Dynasty, a king was enfeoffed there called King Xian of Hejian, Liu De. Ban Gu said of him in the Book of Han: Biography of Liu De, King Xian of Hejian that he 'sought truth from facts.' This phrase has been passed down to this day."
What kind of attitude should Chinese Communists take toward Marxism? After March 1941, Mao Zedong read the fourth edition of the Chinese translation of A Course in Dialectical Materialism. A few years earlier, he had earnestly read the third edition of this book three or four times, writing 12,000 characters of annotations. Reading it again, Mao thought deeply about the problem of how to connect "Marxism-Leninism and the Chinese Revolution" with a "definite object in mind" [11]. On May 19, he gave the report Reform Our Study at a meeting of Yan’an cadres. Moving from "having a definite object in mind" to "seeking truth from facts," he redefined concepts such as the "target" (dì), the "arrow" (shǐ), "facts" (shí shì), "seek" (qiú), and "truth" (shì) using the Marxist viewpoint of the unity of subjective and objective, and of knowledge and practice. By re-explaining "seeking truth from facts," he not only summarized the scientific attitude, correct method, and good style of study for the CCP in treating Marxism but also developed it into the Party’s ideological line, becoming one of the three basic aspects of the living soul of Mao Zedong Thought.
To take another example, Ban Gu [12] once used the phrase "mutually opposing yet mutually reinforcing" (xiāngfǎn xiāngchéng) in the History of the Former Han: Treatise on Literature to evaluate the various schools of thought, noting that although their contents differed, they reached the same goal by different routes and possessed an inner identity. Mao Zedong introduced the Marxist theories on the identity and struggle of contradictions, defining "opposing" as "the mutual exclusion or mutual struggle of the two contradictory aspects" and "reinforcing" as "the interconnection of the two contradictory aspects under certain conditions, whereby they attain identity." He used this to elaborate the Marxist philosophical principle that "struggle resides within identity; without struggle there is no identity." In 1939, when Ai Siqi [13] discussed the "law of the negation of the negation" in his book Selected Essays on Philosophy, he viewed "the 'mutual opposition and mutual reinforcement' in old Chinese thought (Laozi's saying that 'reversal is the movement of the Way')" as "promoting forward movement through a method of retreat." Mao Zedong disagreed with this view, arguing that there should be a concrete analysis of whether this "phenomenon of retreat" was a "quantitative change" within the "internal process" or a "qualitative change" where "a new process replaces the old," thereby identifying the transformation of the process from "opposing" to "reinforcing."
Secondly, Mao Zedong combined the characteristics of the era of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression with the requirements of the New Democratic Revolution to derive and transform new propositions, concepts, and formulations from traditional culture that met the needs of Marxist practical struggle. Mao borrowed concepts such as "knowledge and action" (zhīxíng) and "practice" (jiànlǚ) from traditional Chinese philosophy, transforming them into Marxist propositions on cognition and practice. He borrowed the story of the man from Chu "selling shields and spears" told by Han Fei [14] to use the "law of contradiction in things" to explain the most fundamental law of materialist dialectics—the unity of opposites. He took the word "subtlety" (miào) from the phrase "the subtlety of application lies in the mind" found in the History of the Song: Biography of Yue Fei [15] and extended it to mean the "talent of a commander to flexibly employ troops" based on objective conditions in guerrilla warfare, "assessing the timing and evaluating the situation" (this "situation" (shì) including the enemy's situation, our situation, the terrain, etc.) to adopt timely and appropriate methods of disposal. He offered a critical extension of Laozi's "knowing the world without leaving one's door," arguing that only because others have "attained 'knowledge' through practice, which then reaches the hands of the 'scholar' (xiùcai) through written and technical transmission, can the scholar indirectly 'know the affairs of the world.'"
IV. Enriching and Developing Marxism with Fine Traditional Chinese Culture
Mao Zedong repeatedly compared the relationship between the "Chinese nation" and the "Communist Party of China" to that of ancestors and descendants, or parents and children, believing that "without the Chinese nation, there would be no Communist Party of China." He explicitly stated: "Our belief that Marxism is the correct method of thought does not mean we ignore the Chinese cultural heritage." He emphasized drawing ideological essence and cultural nourishment from fine traditional Chinese culture to deepen, nourish, enrich, and develop Marxism with the great spirit and abundant wisdom of the Chinese nation.
(1) Distilling the unique spiritual identity of the Chinese nation from fine traditional Chinese culture and combining it with the practice of the War of Resistance to enrich the spiritual lineage of Chinese Communists
Fine traditional Chinese culture preserves the deepest spiritual pursuits of the Chinese nation and represents its unique spiritual identity. The great national spirit nurtured, inherited, and developed by the Chinese people through long-term struggle is precisely its most fundamental, core, and permanently valuable part. Mao Zedong paid special attention to highlighting, absorbing, and integrating the national spirit of the Chinese nation into the process of the Sinicization of Marxism.
As Japanese aggression intensified, Mao focused on promoting the spirit of resistance and the patriotic tradition that the Chinese nation has always possessed to foster national self-esteem and self-confidence. He used the long, continuous history of the Chinese nation to prove: "We, the Chinese nation, have the spirit to fight the enemy to the last drop of our blood, the determination to recover our lost territory on the basis of self-reliance, and the ability to stand among the family of nations of the world." Facing a powerful enemy, he emphasized that "the Chinese nation is by no means a flock of sheep" and that "our method is war and sacrifice, using war to oppose war, and using revolutionary just war to oppose barbaric aggressive war." He praised Wen Tianxiang and Yue Fei as "sages who were loyal to the state and filial to the nation," and lauded the "tenacious spirit of resistance of the Chinese people who refused to submit to imperialism and its running dogs" since the beginning of the modern era. Mao also linked the spirit of patriotism with the spirits of internationalism and communism, believing that "we must unite with the proletariat of all capitalist countries" to "liberate our nation and people, and liberate the nations and peoples of the world."
Faced with the difficult and arduous environment of the War of Resistance, Mao vigorously advocated the glorious tradition of the Chinese nation’s hard struggle. On April 1, 1938, at the opening ceremony of the second term of the Northern Shaanxi Public School, he made a vivid metaphor: he compared "Marxism" to the "head" of a Communist, and "our nation's style of industriousness, thrift, and hard struggle" to the Communist's "feet." He also gave the students "a firm and correct political orientation" and "a work style of hard struggle" as two gifts. On May 1, 1939, Mao attended the May Day rally in Yan'an and again emphasized: "Our nation has always had a style of hard struggle, and we must carry it forward. We must fundamentally change the current prevailing atmosphere among many people of selfishness, fear of death, corruption, and listlessness." He further elaborated on the relationship between a Marxist political orientation and the national tradition of hard struggle: "Without a firm and correct political orientation, one cannot stimulate a work style of hard struggle; without a work style of hard struggle, one cannot implement a firm and correct political orientation."
From 1938 until the Seventh National Congress of the Party held on the eve of the victory of the War of Resistance, Mao repeatedly told the fable of "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" [16] on various occasions, calling on the whole Party to learn from his spirit. On April 30, 1938, at the graduation ceremony of the second detachment of the third term of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, he called on Communists to "implement Marxism in practice," stating they must "learn the spirit of the Foolish Old Man digging the mountains" to remove the three mountains of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism. Later, he summarized this spirit as "being determined, fearing no sacrifice, and surmounting every difficulty to win victory." This became a powerful spiritual force guiding the Party and the people to victory in the War of Resistance and the New Democratic Revolution, and a bright spiritual hallmark of the Chinese Communists' unity and struggle to overcome difficulties.
(2) Excavating and drawing upon the crystallization of wisdom and ideological essence from fine traditional Chinese culture to enrich the connotation of Mao Zedong Thought, thereby enriching and developing Marxism
Regarding the military strategy of the revolutionary army, Mao Zedong during the Yan'an period paid special attention to the study and absorption of ancient Chinese war experience, military thought, and military wisdom. In September and October 1936, Mao twice wrote to comrades working in Xi'an, requesting them to purchase the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He later recalled: "When I arrived in northern Shaanxi, I read eight books, including The Art of War... I read those then to write Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War and to summarize the experience of the revolutionary war." When discussing how military commanders should study and apply the laws of war, and understand the war situation and actions comprehensively to seize the strategic initiative, he repeatedly emphasized "Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat" from Sun Tzu's Planning Attack. He believed "Sun Tzu's law... remains a scientific truth" and that "we must not underestimate this saying." He used "Avoid the enemy when his spirit is keen, and attack him when it is sluggish and his soldiers are homesick" and "contending for advantage from a position of ease" from Sun Tzu's Military Maneuver to explain the importance of strategic retreat in the third counter-campaign against "encirclement and suppression." He also drew on "Sun Tzu's so-called 'feinting' (making a feint to the east while attacking in the west)" to propose that in anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare, "one can artificially create the enemy's mistakes" to achieve strategic withdrawal. Mao deeply studied famous historical examples of war in China, creatively and flexibly applying them to the military practice of the Land Revolutionary War and the War of Resistance, and thereby summarized "a series of strategies and tactics of people's war, such as concentrating a superior force to destroy the enemy forces one by one," making an "extremely outstanding contribution" to the "military theory of Marxism-Leninism."
To take another example, in terms of Party building, Mao borrowed the phrase "possessing both political integrity and professional competence" (cáidé jiānbèi)—often used to describe heroic figures in the Yuan Dynasty Zaju play Marrying Little Qiao and the Ming Dynasty novel The Biographies of Heroes—to summarize the standards for cadres of the Communist Party of China. He said: "The Communist Party of China is a party leading a great revolutionary struggle in a nation of hundreds of millions of people, and it cannot accomplish its historical task without a majority of leading cadres who possess both political integrity and professional competence." On the issue of employing cadres, he used history as a mirror and proposed the cadre line of "appointing people on their merit": "In our national history, there have always been two opposing lines representing the upright and the evil: one is 'appointing people on their merit' (rènrén wéixián), and the other is 'appointing people by favoritism' (rènrén wéiqīn). The former was the policy of enlightened rulers and virtuous ministers; the latter was the policy of faint-hearted rulers and treacherous ministers. Today, our discussion of employing cadres is from a revolutionary standpoint and is fundamentally different from the past, yet it cannot be separated from the standard of 'appointing people on their merit.'" Mao focused on borrowing the moral concept of "self-cultivation as the foundation" (xiūshēn lìběn) from traditional culture to improve the Party spirit of Chinese Communists and strengthen the transformation of their subjective world. He used Sima Qian's [17] famous line, "Though death befalls all men alike, it may be heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather," to introduce the Communist value of "dying for the interests of the people is weightier than Mount Tai." He called on young comrades to have the integrity described by Mencius: "to be uncorrupted by riches and honors, unswerved by poverty and low status, and unsubdued by might." He also cited "Rise at dawn to sprinkle and sweep the courtyard" from Zhu Bolu's [18] Family Maxims as a metaphor for Communists being revolutionary men of action. In discussing criticism and self-criticism, he proposed implementing "beneficial maxims of the Chinese people" such as "Say all you know and say it without reserve," "Blame not the speaker but be warned by his words," and "Correct mistakes if you have committed them and guard against them if you have not," to "resist the erosion of various kinds of political dust and political microbes."
(3) Borrowing national forms that are easily accepted by the people from fine traditional Chinese culture, so that Marxism accords with the Chinese nation's way of thinking, linguistic forms, cultural habits, and mass psychology
When Mao Zedong proposed the proposition of the Sinicization of Marxism, he noted that the first problem to be solved was that of national form—making Marxism accord with the Chinese nation's way of thinking, linguistic forms, cultural habits, and mass psychology. He said: "Marxism must be realized through national forms." "Foreign stereotypes (yáng bāgǔ) [19] must be abolished, there must be less singing of empty, abstract tunes, and dogmatism must be laid to rest; they must be replaced by the fresh and lively Chinese style and Chinese flavor which the common people of China love to see and hear." He emphasized that for "Chinese communists, the application of Marxism in China" must "be combined with national characteristics and passed through a certain national form before it can be useful; it can never be applied subjectively and formulaically." The "internationalist content" or "New Democratic content" must be combined with "national forms."
Mao Zedong attached great importance to using historical allusions, literary stories, poetry, Chinese idioms (chéngyǔ), and folk proverbs—national language that the common people of China enjoyed and found easy to understand—to express and explain grand and profound Marxist principles in a concise and vivid way. Such linguistic expressions, found everywhere in Mao's works, were essential for helping comrades at that time—whose educational levels and theoretical cultivation were generally low—to study, understand, and master Marxism. Besides leading by example, he called on the whole Party "not only to learn language from the masses" but also "to learn the living elements of the language of the ancients." He vigorously promoted the new opera The White-Haired Girl by the Lu Xun Academy of Arts, the Peking Opera Driven to Join the Liangshan Rebels by the Central Party School's Peking Opera troupe, and The Three Attacks on Zhujiazhuang by the Yan'an Pingju Theater. These traditional art forms favored by the people were used to vividly explain profound Marxist truths concerning class struggle, proletarian revolution, armed struggle, and the people as the creators of history.
V. Conclusion
The "Sinicization of Marxism" proposed by Mao Zedong includes both the "combination of the basic principles of Marxism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution" and the "deep combination with Chinese history and Chinese culture." In Mao's view, the latter is subordinate to and serves the former. His series of reflections and explorations on combining Marxist principles with Chinese history and culture were intended to better solve the problem of how Marxism could "take root" and "reach the hearts of the people" in China, to further overcome the influence of dogmatism, and to achieve a true integration of Marxism with China's concrete reality, thereby better serving the great practice of the New Democratic Revolution and the War of Resistance.
Since the 18th Party Congress, the Communist Party of China's understanding of the laws governing its own theoretical innovation and the development of Chinese civilization has continued to deepen. In contemporary China, where Marxism has already taken deep root and flourished, the Communist Party of China—confronted with a new cultural mission—urgently needed to decouple the "second integration" [20] from the "first integration" in order to emphasize it, while clearly defining its basic connotations, significant importance, and practical requirements. Consequently, Xi Jinping creatively proposed the brand-new proposition of the "two integrations" [21], which scientifically, completely, and accurately points out the fundamental path for realizing the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. The "second integration" is a profound summary of our Party’s historical experience in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism and a profound grasp of the laws of the development of Chinese civilization. It demonstrates that our Party’s understanding of the Chinese path, theory, and system has reached a new height; that our Party’s historical and cultural confidence has reached a new height; and that our Party’s consciousness in promoting cultural innovation while inheriting the fine traditional Chinese culture has reached a new height.
The major task of opening up new realms in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism is the solemn historical responsibility of contemporary Chinese Communists. In the New Era and on the new journey, we must continue to bridge the essence of Marxist thought with the cream of fine traditional Chinese culture, and integrate them with the common values that the masses "practice daily without realization" [22]. We must continuously endow scientific theory with distinct Chinese characteristics and continue to write new chapters in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism.