Tian Songyan: Theoretical Contributions of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Expositions on the Development Path of Chinese Culture
Regarding the path of Chinese cultural development, the intellectual community once underwent long-term confusion and debate. Through protracted exploration during the periods of revolution, construction, and reform, Chinese Communists gradually formed a theoretical understanding of the path of development for socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has provided profound expositions on a series of major issues, including the civilizational roots, developmental models, and goals and visions of this cultural development path. With original and profound thought, he has enriched and developed the Party’s cultural theory and strategy, making significant theoretical contributions to the deepening and expansion of the path of Chinese cultural development.
Continuing the Civilizational Roots: From "Ancient vs. Modern, New vs. Old" to "Cultural Confidence"
After 1840, a conceptual understanding gradually formed in Chinese society that viewed Europe and the United States as representing the "new" and the "modern" of civilizational progress, while viewing China as the "old" and the "ancient" of ignorance and backwardness. Under this mental model of absolute opposition between the "ancient/modern" and "new/old," discussions in the intellectual community regarding the path of modern China's development and transformation also gradually formed a narrative framework of binary opposition between "tradition" and "modernity." Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, gradually realized through revolutionary practice that they must draw historical wisdom and intellectual resources from traditional culture, integrating them with Marxism to truly realize the Sinicization of Marxism; only then could they lead the Chinese revolution to success. Guided by this profound realization, Chinese Communists initially broke through the shackles of the rigid "ancient/modern, new/old" mental model and opened a correct path for how to treat traditional culture and handle the relationship between tradition and modernity.
On this basis, General Secretary Xi Jinping has taken "not forgetting the original" [1] as the general requirement for treating traditional culture and the establishment of cultural confidence as the overarching goal. He has proposed a series of pioneering and original expositions centered on the inheritance and development of fine traditional culture, thoroughly transcending the binary narrative framework of "tradition vs. modernity." He has opened the historical and logical channels between socialism with Chinese characteristics and five thousand years of Chinese civilization, laying a solid theoretical foundation for establishing contemporary China's cultural identity and cultural confidence.
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major judgment that Chinese Communists have always been "faithful inheritors and promoters of fine traditional Chinese culture" [2] explicitly declares the cultural identity and mission of Chinese Communists. It definitively resolves the long-standing debates in intellectual circles and broader society over cultural identity, clearing away misunderstandings and prejudices regarding traditional culture while boosting the national and cultural confidence of contemporary Chinese people.
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s profound exposition that the civilizational core of socialism with Chinese characteristics lies in the "essence of five thousand years of Chinese civilization" clearly reveals that this "essence" is the root and core of the Chinese path. The Chinese path is thus a new chapter in five thousand years of Chinese civilization, written under the stimulation of the universal truths of Marxism. This judgment thoroughly shatters the rigid mental model of explaining the Chinese cultural path through the "ancient/modern, new/old" and "tradition/modernity" frameworks. It inherits the consistent basic policy of Chinese Communists to "extract the essence" [3] of traditional culture and initiates the developmental path of "returning to the roots to create the new" [4] for the development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, injecting a civilizational core into the cultural confidence of contemporary Chinese people.
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s profound thought on promoting the "creative transformation and innovative development" of fine traditional Chinese culture has effectively bridged the alienation between Marxism and traditional Chinese culture. It clarifies that fine traditional Chinese culture is an important intellectual resource for advancing the Sinicization of Marxism and the Party’s theoretical innovation. This has opened broad theoretical prospects for the integration of "China, the West, and Marxism" (zhong-xi-ma) [5], the in-depth advancement of the Sinicization of Marxism, and the systematic exposition of a new form of human civilization. At the same time, this thought’s profound revelation of the internal logical relationship between Chinese civilization and Marxism powerfully explains why the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics must both "take Marxism as guidance" and "uphold the standpoint of Chinese culture." The organic unity of these two principles reflects the essential determinacy of the path of development for socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and interprets the rich connotations of the vision to "achieve new glory for Chinese culture."
Deepening Civilizational Dialogue: From "Chinese Substance and Western Application" to "Mutual Learning Between Civilizations"
In the modern era, the ancient Chinese civilization, under the impact of Western civilization, saw its "flowers and fruits wither and fall" [6] as it lost its footing. How should we understand and handle the relationship between Chinese and Western civilizations? How can we learn from the West without losing the subjective status of Chinese civilization? The reflections and debates of generations of intellectuals on these questions constituted the "Chinese Substance and Western Application" (Zhongti Xiyong) [7] debate that persisted for a century in modern Chinese intellectual history. Addressing these protracted debates, Chinese Communists explicitly proposed that we must strive to learn from all beneficial achievements of human civilization but oppose "total Westernization." We must explore a cultural development path of "making foreign things serve China and absorbing them critically" [8] on the basis of upholding the subjective status of national culture.
Based on adherence to this path, General Secretary Xi Jinping has elevated reflections on the relationship between Chinese and Western cultures to the level of relations between different civilizations. He has proposed important concepts such as "strengthening cultural confidence," "respecting the diversity of world civilizations," and "civilizational exchange, mutual learning, and coexistence." This provides scientific guidance for contemporary China to construct national cultural subjectivity, strengthen cultural confidence, and deepen dialogue and exchange with world civilizations. It also lays the foundation of values and civilizational outlook for building a community with a shared future for humanity.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to enhance cultural consciousness and strengthen cultural confidence, while warning against blind xenophobia. He requires that for the treasures of world civilization created by all countries and nations, we must "make foreign things serve China and adopt them through dialectical selection." General Secretary Xi Jinping’s broad civilizational vision, which incorporates both China and the West and embraces the world, has sublimated the long-held policy of "making foreign things serve China and absorbing them critically." This has laid a solid theoretical foundation for establishing contemporary China's cultural identity and cultural confidence. Meanwhile, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes drawing intellectual resources and spiritual strength from the profound Chinese culture to support the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The focus lies precisely on promoting contemporary China's return to and identification with Chinese culture and the Chinese spirit, thoroughly transcending the "Chinese Substance and Western Application" explanatory framework in theory, and walking a path of theoretical and practical exploration that activates the powerful vitality of Chinese civilization.
The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. The old international political and economic order is undergoing deep adjustment, and the outdated views of history and civilization long held by the Western world urgently need updating. In this context, General Secretary Xi Jinping advocates for respecting the diversity of world civilizations and promotes a more equal, inclusive, and just pluralistic outlook on civilization. This aims to correct and dismantle various forms of "Western-centrism" that have formed and circulated since the Industrial Revolution, including "Western-civilization-centrism" and "Western-cultural-superiority." The pluralistic civilizational outlook promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping represents the pursuit of non-Western countries for the revival of their indigenous cultures, as well as the expectation of all humanity in the new century for a more equal, inclusive, and just new order and new civilization.
Since the rise of the "Clash of Civilizations" theory, the Western world has produced a constant stream of viewpoints and rhetoric that use differences in race, nation, ideology, political systems, and cultural values to draw artificial boundaries and create division and confrontation. When overlaid with long-standing "Western-centrism," these arguments release destructive forces that impact the trend of peaceful development and the process of globalization. General Secretary Xi Jinping has frequently advised the international community: respect the diversity of world civilizations and promote exchange and mutual learning; strengthen civilizational exchange and mutual learning to bridge the "Clash of Civilizations" trap; where human society and civilization go depends on whether we choose confrontation and conflict or cooperation and win-win results today. The "civilizational exchange, mutual learning, and coexistence" advocated by General Secretary Xi Jinping is a direct response to, and a correction of, current trends against peaceful development and globalization. It provides crucial support in terms of values and civilizational outlook for the implementation of the "community with a shared future for humanity" and the establishment of a new international order.
Moving Toward Civilizational Renaissance: From "Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science" to a "New Form of Human Civilization"
In the modern era, advanced Chinese elements, in their struggle to find a way to save the nation from subjugation and ensure its survival, gradually realized that they must launch a profound revolution in culture and ideology. They sought to lay the civilizational foundation for China’s national construction through a renewal of values, and thus launched the New Culture Movement with "Mr. Democracy" (De Xiansheng) and "Mr. Science" (Sai Xiansheng) [9] as core value pursuits. The Communist Party of China is a child of the New Culture Movement; it inherited and promoted the values of "democracy" and "science," established "a national, scientific, and mass culture" [10] as the developmental goal of New Democratic culture, and subsequently proposed the new requirement in the New Period [11] to be "oriented toward modernization, the world, and the future."
General Secretary Xi Jinping adheres to the basic principles of being "national, scientific, and mass-based" and "oriented toward modernization, the world, and the future." Grounded in the reality of contemporary China and combined with the conditions of the current era, he has systematically expounded on the fundamental question of how to adhere to the path of development for socialist culture with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. He has provided scientific answers to the questions of the age: "Where is Chinese culture going?" and "Where is human civilization going?"
General Secretary Xi Jinping has proposed that to adhere to the path of development for socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, we must follow the basic principles of "upholding Marxism as guidance," "staying people-centered," and "upholding the standpoint of Chinese culture." These three "upholds" (or "standpoints") are both a continuation of and an innovation upon the "national, scientific, and mass-based" principles. Marxism is the scientific truth in which Chinese Communists believe; "upholding Marxism as guidance" means persisting in the faith and pursuit of scientific truth. "Staying people-centered" highlights the consistent populist [12] sentiment of the CPC as a Marxist party. "Upholding the standpoint of Chinese culture" expresses the firm stance of the CPC as a faithful inheritor and promoter of fine traditional Chinese culture in maintaining the subjective status of national culture. These three "upholds" form an interconnected organic whole, systematically clarifying the fundamental standpoint and developmental direction of the path of development for socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, providing guidance for our Party to persist in this path and build a strong socialist cultural power in the New Era.
Regarding the major proposition of "where is Chinese culture going," our Party once issued the call to be "oriented toward modernization, the world, and the future" during the new period of Reform and Opening-up. In the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has further provided the latest answer: "to achieve new glory for Chinese culture." This answer clearly reveals the developmental logic of the Chinese cultural path after breaking through the binary mental framework of "ancient/modern" and "China/West." That logic is: internally, to connect with five thousand years of civilizational tradition; externally, to learn from and borrow all fine achievements of human civilization; and to use the power of Marxist truth to activate the vitality of Chinese civilization—returning to the source to open a new chapter, creating a new center of civilization and values, and ultimately realizing the great rejuvenation of Chinese civilization.
While reflecting on and answering the major proposition of "where is Chinese culture going," General Secretary Xi Jinping is also contemplating the epochal proposition of "where is human civilization going." His reflections on the prospects of human civilization are contained within the concepts of the "Chinese-path to modernization" and the "new form of human civilization." The "Chinese-path to modernization" and the "new form of human civilization" share a profound internal logical relationship; the two are two sides of the same coin, mutually supporting and verifying each other. The Chinese-path to modernization not only expands the ways for developing countries to achieve modernization at the level of practice, but also, at the level of values and the height of human society and civilization, provides value guidance for the sustainability of the human world and the renewal of human civilization by advocating values such as "common prosperity," "harmonious coexistence" (he-he gong-sheng), and "peaceful development." The new form of human civilization is the developmental direction that the Chinese-path to modernization points out for the human world.
In summary, General Secretary Xi Jinping has expounded the historical thread and realistic direction of the path of development for socialist culture with Chinese characteristics through three major themes: "continuing the civilizational roots," "deepening civilizational dialogue," and "moving toward civilizational renaissance." He has constructed a basic theoretical framework for understanding this path, fully demonstrating the theoretical and practical self-awareness of Chinese Communists regarding cultural development. When the Great Way prevails, one may travel far by following its rules [13]. By advancing continuously along the cultural path guided by General Secretary Xi Jinping, we will surely usher in the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization.