Wang Xiaofeng: An Interpretation of the Complex Correlation Between Cultural Forms and Epochal Development Based on the Historical Materialist View and Its Contemporary Implications
The "Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy" (hereafter referred to as the Introduction) is the "general introduction" Marx wrote for his work A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. In the Introduction, Marx "explained a series of important ideas regarding the relationship between the ideological superstructure and the economic base, and between literature and art and material production." With Ancient Greek art as his focal point, Marx analyzed the complex correlation between an era and its culture. This academically rich topic concerns the development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and the foundational theory of how to achieve the "Second Combination" [1], deserving deep exploration by contemporary scholars.
I. Classical cultural and artistic production "can no longer be produced in that epoch-making, classical form that belongs to world history"
Marx pointed out in the Introduction that "certain forms of art, e.g., the epic, it is even recognized that they can never be produced in the world-epoch-making, classical form once the production of art as such has begun," and further used the metaphor that "a man cannot become a child again, or he becomes childish." These are expressions of Marx's explanation of the complex correlation between eras and cultures from the perspective of historical materialism.
First, the emergence and disappearance of cultural phenomena in any given era are determined by the social production conditions of that era. In the 1883 preface to the Manifesto of the Communist Party, Engels pointed out that "in every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be explained the political and intellectual history of that epoch." This indicates that the spiritual culture of a specific era must be based on its specific material conditions and social structure. In the Introduction, Marx provided a profound explanation of the relationship between an era and its culture based on the history of the rise and fall of Ancient Greek art and mythology. On one hand, he revealed the epochal roots of Ancient Greek mythology: "All mythology overcomes and dominates and shapes the forces of nature in the imagination and by means of the imagination." In the childhood of human history, whether it was the Ancient Greeks living by the Aegean Sea or the people of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties [2] hunting and farming in the Yellow River basin, all lived in an era of underdeveloped productive forces. Their understanding of the laws of the external world and their own activities was in a state of blindness. During this period, people perceived alien natural laws that dominated them as being in opposition to themselves. Natural phenomena where "violent storms suddenly arise, then in an instant the sky is clear for ten thousand miles" [3] felt inconceivable and terrifying to the Ancient Greeks and the people of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou, as if some mysterious god of fate governed their life and death. Lacking the capacity to control nature, they could only "overcome the forces of nature in the imagination and by means of the imagination," and thus mythology was born through "fantasy." Ancient Greek mythology became the womb of Greek art, which is why Marx said: "Greek art presupposes Greek mythology, i.e., nature and the social forms themselves already worked up in an unconsciously artistic shape by the prevailing popular imagination." On the other hand, he also believed that Ancient Greek mythology disappeared as the epochal conditions of its birth vanished. With social progress and the advancement of science and technology, humanity gradually improved its ability to understand the external world and moved beyond the state of "overcoming nature through imagination." The era of flourishing Ancient Greek mythology became a historical relic because those immature social conditions could never return. Marx asked in the Introduction: "Is the view of nature and of social relations on which the Greek imagination and therefore Greek mythology is based possible with self-acting mules, railways, locomotives and electric telegraphs? What chance has Vulcan against Roberts & Co., Jupiter against the lightning-rod and Hermes against the Crédit Mobilier?" The fundamental reason why Ancient Greek art, birthed from mythology, is difficult to recreate in later ages is that advanced modes of production changed humanity's superficial understanding of nature, society, and themselves, moving them from a stage of obscurantism toward an era of scientific understanding.
Second, this reveals the essence of many cultural phenomena labeled as "Renaissances" or "revivals" throughout Chinese and foreign cultural history. According to Marx’s view that classical culture "can no longer be produced in that epoch-making, classical form that belongs to world history," those phenomena in cultural history titled "Renaissance" or "revival" may absorb the achievements of past cultures, but they are not simple repetitions. Rather, they are new cultures developed under new historical conditions, possessing new epochal content. For example, the Renaissance that emerged in Europe in the 14th century, though marching under the banner of reviving Ancient Greek culture, did not in essence revive it. Instead, it created a burgeoning bourgeois culture suited to the capitalist mode of production, producing a large number of great artists and humanist scholars—as well as significant works in the history of art, literature, and thought—that could not have been produced during any period of Ancient Greek civilization. It was another peak in the history of Western cultural development. Not only was it impossible for the Renaissance to repeat Ancient Greek culture, but the Renaissance itself was difficult to reproduce in subsequent history once its generative conditions vanished. As Engels pointed out, "In Italy there was an unparalleled flowering of art, which seemed like a reflection of classical antiquity and was never attained again." Following the Renaissance, another peak of thought and culture appeared in Europe from the 17th to the 18th century—the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers carried forward the Ancient Greek and Roman tradition of opposing superstition and absorbed the humanist essence of the Renaissance, but no one considers the Enlightenment a replay of Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, or Renaissance culture. Thus, the cultures produced during several flourishing periods in Western intellectual history—Ancient Greek culture, Ancient Roman culture, the Renaissance, and Enlightenment thought—present content with their own epochal characteristics and cannot substitute for one another. Engels believed that modern socialism "in its theoretical form... originally appears as a further and, allegedly, more consistent development of the principles established by the great French philosophers of the Enlightenment," yet Engels certainly would not have considered modern socialism a mere carbon copy of Enlightenment thought.
Similarly, the cultural splendors that appeared in China’s ancient history, such as the "Bronze Culture" during the Shang and Zhou transition or the "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought" [4] during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, once they declined, could "no longer be produced in that epoch-making, classical form," as Marx said. Whether it was the "Wei-Jin Grace" [5] in the intervals of chaotic fragmentation, the "High Tang Resonance," [6] or the exquisite and restrained culture of the two Song dynasties, all were distinctly different from the culture of the "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought." In the late Qing period, when the feudal system encountered a major crisis, the intellectual world was turbulent—from the Kang-Liang Reform Movement [7] to the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement. Although later generations called this a "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought," it was not a reproduction of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States situation in any substantive sense.
Third, new culture often borrows certain elements and the "clothing" of old culture, but in terms of content, it represents a transcendence of the old. The historian Lü Simian [8] believed that "if a new culture replaces an old one, this new culture must have already incorporated the strengths of the old; this is a dialectical truth." The development from an old culture to a new one is a fundamental transformation (tuotai huangu); the new culture completes the transcendence of the old. The new culture that achieves this transcendence needs to absorb the old, but it is not a reappearance of the old. In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx on one hand affirmed: "Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living." On the other hand, he believed that history often sees the present imitating the past, but in many cases, this ends in a "caricatured" farce: "they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle cries, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language." However, Marx more clearly identified the essence of such scenes: "the resurrection of the dead served the purpose of glorifying the new struggles, not of parodying the old; of magnifying the given task in the imagination, not of fleeing from its solution in reality; of finding once more the spirit of revolution, not of making its ghost walk again."
Using Marxism to transform China’s old culture has achieved a historical transcendence of the old in both content and form. As the War of Liberation was nearing victory, Mao Zedong wrote in The Bankruptcy of the Idealist Conception of History: "The great, victorious Chinese People's War of Liberation and the great people's revolution have revived and are reviving the great culture of the Chinese people." He believed the victory of the Chinese revolution would create favorable conditions for reviving the "great culture of the Chinese people." However, the culture "revived and being revived" here is not an intact restoration of all ancient culture, including the ideology and concepts of the reactionary ruling classes. Rather, it is the revitalization of the progressive "great culture of the Chinese people" that represents the direction of historical development—it is the fine traditional Chinese culture transformed by Marxism, which enabled the Chinese people to move from being spiritually passive to taking the initiative. This culture of the Chinese people, in its spiritual aspect, has not only transcended ancient traditional culture but "has already surpassed the entire capitalist world." Only this culture, transformed by Marxism, determined that "the era in modern world history when Chinese people and Chinese culture were looked down upon should come to an end."
Fourth, concerning true rather than false theories of cultural progress. When Marx said that classical culture "can no longer be produced in that epoch-making, classical form," he was not denying cultural progress; on the contrary, he was fully affirming it. Marx pointed out in the Introduction: "The concept of progress is not to be taken in the usual abstract sense." Here, "abstract" progress refers to progress that does not contain epochal content or the inevitable regressions and detours of certain aspects. Actual cultural progress is precisely a progress that contains epochal content, along with specific regressions and twists. Engels believed that "every kind of thing has a peculiar way of being negated in such a manner that it gives rise to a development." Greek mythology declined, but modern society produced science fiction novels and films; the Greek epic declined, but long-form novels and chaptered romances (zhanghui chuanqi), which belong to the same linguistic and literary arts, retained elements of the epic and flourished on a much broader and deeper scale. Marx did not feel surprised or regretful about the decline of Greek culture which "can no longer be produced in that epoch-making, classical form." Instead, he understood the decline of Greek art as its development toward a higher level, because progress is always realized through its own negation. Marx always viewed historical issues from a historical height, just as he wrote in The British Rule in India: "Whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing about that revolution. Then, whatever bitterness the spectacle of the crumbling of an ancient world may have for our personal feelings, we have the right, in point of history, to exclaim with Goethe: 'Should this torture then torment us / Since it brings us greater pleasure? / Were not through the rule of Timur / Souls devoured without measure?'" Therefore, Marx’s view on certain classical cultures being unable to be recreated in their original form means that old cultures that fail to keep pace with the era will inevitably exit the stage of history, while a new culture that marches with the times will surely be born.
II. Classical artistic models "still afford us artistic pleasure" in the contemporary era
Since classical culture and art "can no longer be produced in that epoch-making, classical form," does this mean they are obsolete and have lost their contemporary value? Regarding this question, Marx believed that "obsolete" cannot be used simply to describe classical cultures whose peak splendors are hard to recreate. Marx pointed out in the Introduction that classical art "still afford[s] us artistic pleasure and that in a certain respect they count as a norm and as an unattainable model."
Marx argued that the charm of classical art for modern people "is not in contradiction with the undeveloped stage of society on which it grew. [It] is rather the result of the, and is inextricably connected with the fact that the unripe social conditions under which it arose, and could alone arise, can never return." This sentence reveals the internal mechanism through which classical culture "could still afford us artistic pleasure." In undeveloped stages of society, people were fully capable of developing certain art forms one-sidedly in a manner unique to that era, creating a brilliant culture. For instance, after the formation of mature writing systems, it became impossible to produce oracle bone script or cuneiform. Only during the childhood of humanity, characterized by undeveloped productive forces, could the oracle bone script emerge—a form unique to its era—thereby giving rise to a brilliant "oracle bone culture" [9] that exerts a strong artistic appeal on people today. Ancient China’s magnificent "clan emblem culture" was the product of people at that time abstracting natural objects they worshipped into totems; "the painted pottery basins unearthed at Banpo [10] featuring human-faced fish patterns are likely totems worshipped by certain clans." However, contemporary society can no longer produce the clan emblem culture specific to ancient society.
Whether art and culture possess an affecting charm depends crucially on whether they can reflect the essence of the era and strike a chord in the heart of the viewer, regardless of whether they are ancient or modern. Even a modern work of art, if it fails to truly and vividly embody the essence of the times and instead reduces culture and art to a plaything for the artist's diversion and pleasure, will find it difficult to generate a lasting artistic infection among the masses. Conversely, even an artist living thousands of years ago, so long as they distilled real life into art and fully reflected the essence and spiritual outlook of their era, will see their work bring spiritual resonance and artistic pleasure to viewers both ancient and modern. The viewer may be shocked by the exquisite craftsmanship displayed in classical art, or they may be led by it into a profound meditation on the essence of an era. All works that reflect Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and all works that align with the requirements of historical progress, occupy a lofty position in history and continuously emit a charming appeal. This is why Marx said that classical artistic models "can still afford us artistic pleasure."
There are multiple circumstances under which classical art and culture "can still afford us artistic pleasure."
First, classical art and culture more easily evoke emotions of nostalgia and historical reflection in modern viewers. Classical architecture, painting, and sculpture are living fossils of ancient civilizations, serving as vehicles connecting the production and life scenes of ancestors with modern society. Classical works—some solemn and grave, some passionate and unrestrained, some winding and secluded, some grand and majestic, some subtle and introverted, some humorous and grotesque—all can pull at the heartstrings. Confucius’s remark, "The passage of time is like this river; it flows on day and night" [11], and Chen Zi'ang’s [12] lines, "Where are the sages of the past? And where are the ones to come? Thinking of the vastness of heaven and earth, I am overwhelmed by sorrow and tears," lament the flux of the universe and span the changes from ancient to modern. They allow one to strongly feel the relationship between the cosmic nature and the human person, yielding a philosophical aesthetic experience. This is the charm of classical art. The more distant the era of classical art, the more it can arouse emotions of historical retrieval and the more unique its charm becomes.
Second, if classical art reflects emotions common to humanity across ancient and modern times, it can provide artistic pleasure to contemporary people. Works created by ancient artists, such as Su Dongpo’s [13] line, "The moon waxes and wanes, as humans meet and part," allow people to reach a high degree of integration between man and nature, man and society, within an atmosphere of a bright moon in a vast, lonely sky. Furthermore, the famous sculpture "Laocoön," rendered in the ancient Greek style, expresses human feelings of dread, terror, and sympathy through the life-and-death struggle of Laocoön and his two sons entwined by serpents, striking the depths of the viewer’s soul. Consequently, it holds indispensable significance in the history of Western art and aesthetics. "From Michelangelo to the Baroque master Bernini, countless artists over two hundred years observed, studied, and emulated it." Humanity has evolved through dogged struggle; the great spirit of struggle and sacrifice embodied in classical artworks moves heaven and earth, transcends the limits of time and space, and will inevitably reappear in the works of later generations.
Third, classical art that expresses the beauty of nature—common to both ancient and modern times—can bring lasting artistic pleasure to contemporary people. Outstanding classical music, painting, and literature of this kind always provide aesthetic experiences of joy, passion, tranquility, desolation, and the vicissitudes of life, as well as visual delight. Engels mentioned the joy brought by natural beauty: "The ancient Greek poets of Sicily, Theocritus and Moschus, once sang of the idyllic life of their contemporaries—the pastoral slaves; no doubt, this was a beautiful, poetic fantasy." When people silently recite lines like "The falling sunset glow flies with the lone duck; the autumn water shares a single color with the vast sky," or "Green mountains on either bank appear in succession; a single sail comes from the direction of the sun," or "Apricot blossom rain wets one’s clothes without soaking; willow-scented wind blows on one’s face without chilling," they also transcend time and space to feel the wonder of nature and experience joy.
Fourth, classical art that expresses the spirit of freedom and liberation—longed for by humans through the ages—as well as that which lashes out at the False, the Evil, and the Ugly while promoting the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, "can still afford us artistic pleasure." Marx pointed out that the historical stage of the free and comprehensive development of humanity has not yet been realized, and the pursuit of freedom and liberation is subject to the triple constraints of nature, society, and the soul. Ancient Greek nude sculptures happened to coincide with the requirements of the social trend during the Renaissance to break free from the shackles of medieval thought and pursue ideological liberation, possessing great artistic attraction for humanists. The pastoral poet Tao Yuanming [14], who despised fame and wealth and refused to "bow for five pecks of rice," pursued the perfection of inner character. His Account of the Peach Blossom Spring expresses the author’s ideal of pursuing a free and tranquil life and his dissatisfaction with reality, possessing lasting artistic charm. Whether it is the Seventh Fairy in the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl who escapes the rules of heaven to pursue happiness on earth, or Lady White Snake who fights Fa Hai and floods the Jinshan Temple before being suppressed under the Leifeng Pagoda; whether it is Dou E who moved heaven and earth to cause "snow in midsummer," or Lin Daiyu who lived under another's roof and tragically buried fallen blossoms—all these embody the strong desire of the masses to resist feudal oppression and pursue a free and happy life. These coincide with the contemporary human desire for the free, happy, and comprehensive development of humanity, and thus still possess contemporary value.
Marx believed that the "artistic pleasure" afforded by classical culture is one that has not detached from the standards of its era. The Introduction (to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy) points out: "Does not the naivety of the child give pleasure to the adult? Should he not himself strive to reproduce the child’s veracity on a higher level? Does not the specific character of every epoch come to life again in its natural veracity in the child’s nature? Why should the historical childhood of humanity, where it attained its most beautiful development, not exert an eternal charm as a stage that will never return?" Marx expresses several layers of meaning here: first, just as the naivety of a child pleases an adult, ancient culture from thousands of years ago still holds charm for and brings pleasure to contemporary people. Second, the child's naivety that pleases adults is a pure authenticity that has not yet experienced the warmth or coldness of the world. Only through the test of time can a child move toward maturity and mental wholeness. Classical culture cannot merely remain at the "childhood stage" of bringing pleasure to adults through innocence; just as a child must grow up, it must continue to shine on a higher and newer stage. Third, contemporary humanity can feel the charm of the excellent traditional culture produced during that undeveloped historical stage, but humanity cannot temporally return to the childhood of that undeveloped human society. The charm possessed by traditional culture is an attraction linked to those unripe social conditions that can never return.
While proposing that classical art "can still afford us artistic pleasure," Marx also noted another characteristic: that it "in certain respects still serves as a norm and an unattainable model." This conforms to the artistic characteristics of Chinese classical poetry. To pursue elegance, Chinese classical poetry strives for perfection under strict norms, pushing the beauty of the national language to its peak and forming stable aesthetic styles and metrical paradigms. This includes rhymed prose with neat lines, parallel prose (piánwén) [15] with an emphasis on ornate diction, and Yuefu [16] poems suitable for chanting and singing—developing to a point where most people could only look up in awe. However, such exquisite and "unattainable" rhetoric and meter actually restricted the dissemination and further development of classical culture. Amidst the "great changes unseen in a millennium" [17] since the onset of the modern era, the classical and elegant formal cloak of ancient poetry lost its vitality, making it difficult to vividly communicate the voice of the times to the masses within a broad social scope. Contemporary Chinese people must learn and inherit excellent Chinese traditional culture, such as Tang poetry, Song lyrics (ci), and Yuan opera (qu), yet the vitality of classical art exists in the process of continuous innovation in response to the requirements of the times. This ranged from the late 19th-century modern poetry pioneer Huang Zunxian advocating for the colloquialization of poetry, to Liang Qichao calling for a "Revolution in the Poetic Realm" to push classical culture toward the public, transforming it from elite literati literature to commoner literature. Without breaking free from the obstacles posed by Classical Chinese (wényánwén) to the masses' acceptance of new ideas, "democracy" and "science" could not have taken root in China. The leaders of the New Culture Movement [18] followed the needs of the times and actively promoted the vernacular (báihuàwén), leading to the publication of vernacular novels and new poetry. During the Yan'an period, Mao Zedong called for "writing to be reformed under certain conditions, and language must be close to the people; one must know that the people are the infinitely rich source of revolutionary culture." This promoted linguistic standardization and allowed the "unattainable" classical culture to "fly into the homes of ordinary people" [19], forming a national, scientific, and mass culture with the broad laboring masses as the aesthetic subject, the object of representation, and the reading audience, using forms they love to see and hear.
III. The development of culture and art is "combined with certain social developmental forms"
Regarding the relationship between art and the era, the Introduction (to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy) proposes a viewpoint based on the historical facts of ancient Greek art: "Greek art and epic are combined with certain social developmental forms." This is an embodiment of Marx’s consistent adherence to historical materialism in the field of culture and art.
The core of historical materialism was summarized by Engels: "Under the condition of fully recognizing the socio-economic conditions of that stage (a recognition which our professional historiographers, of course, completely lack), all historical phenomena can be explained in the simplest way; likewise, the conceptions and ideas of every historical period can be explained extremely simply by the economic conditions of life of that period and by the social and political relations determined by those conditions." A feudal society inevitably produces a feudal culture, and a capitalist society inevitably produces a capitalist culture. This was summarized by Mao Zedong as: "A given culture is the ideological reflection of the politics and economics of a given society." This indicates that because the development of culture and art is "combined with certain social developmental forms," it is inevitably deeply stamped with the mark of the era.
First, culture being "combined with certain social developmental forms" means that a specific culture is the product of a specific era. When people speak of culture, they often refer to a culture "combined with certain social developmental forms," rather than a culture detached from such forms. In the Introduction, Marx argued that the birth of Greek culture had its own specific forms of social development: "Greek mythology was the premise of Greek art." The social developmental forms that produced Egyptian mythology were different from those of Greek mythology; therefore, "Egyptian mythology could never be the soil or the womb of Greek art." Marx and Engels also analyzed the close relationship between the works of different artists and the social developmental forms of their eras: "Raphael's artistic works were to a large extent connected with the Roman prosperity then formed under Florentine influence, while Leonardo's works were deeply influenced by the Florentine environment, and Titian's works were deeply influenced by the entirely different development of Venice." Even the most innovative artists find it difficult to escape the constraints imposed on them by the social developmental forms of a specific era.
The political, economic, and cultural conditions of a given era, as well as its social and political relations, determine the nature, style, content, and transitions of that era's cultural thought. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods [20], China experienced the remarkably prosperous and brilliant cultural situation of the "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought" [21], which was the product of a specific epoch. At that time, China was in a period of major transformation in its social system; society was turbulent and unstable, and numerous vassal states stood side by side, with no single authoritative ideological system capable of unifying the intellectual world. Knowledge was no longer monopolized by a small number of aristocrats; the establishment of private schools became prevalent, and many intellectuals emerged from the middle and lower strata of the common people, producing a group of ambitious men who traveled between states to persuade rulers. Ideological representatives of various classes shared their views on the future social system to lead society in a direction favorable to their own class. The princes and high officials of the Spring and Autumn period competed to recruit men of talent, creating a fairly relaxed atmosphere for academic discussion. These conditions gave rise to the cultural wonder of the "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought." However, after the Qin unified the country, feudal relations of production were gradually established and perfected. To consolidate and develop these relations, feudal rulers inevitably had to suppress people's thoughts. By the Han dynasty, Dong Zhongshu submitted a memorial at the Emperor’s request, vigorously arguing for the "Three Strategies on Heaven and Man" and the policy of "dismissing the hundred schools and honoring only Confucianism" [22]. The ruling class, dedicated to consolidating the feudal system, came to view the "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought" as a factor threatening the stability of political power.
Second, that culture is "connected with certain forms of social development" means it must be endowed with new contemporary connotations as society progresses. Marx asked: "Is Achilles possible with powder and lead? Or is the Iliad possible with the printing press and even the printing machine?" Marx was not suggesting here that Greek art and epics would lose their value; in fact, "classical" cultures, including Greek art, possess enduring aesthetic value and charm. However, we can discern from this Marx’s view that culture and art are "connected with certain forms of social development." Engels pointed out: "The theoretical thinking of every epoch, including our own, is a historical product, which at different times assumes very different forms and, therewith, very different contents." For example, the concept of "the people" (min) in ancient intellectual history has been endowed with new contemporary connotations along with social progress. One must never simply equate the connotation of "the people" in the ancient adage "the people are the foundation of the state" [23] with the connotation of "the people" in the fundamental tenet of the Communist Party of China—serving the people. Mao Zedong profoundly noted that "the 'love for the people' shown by the exploiting classes is much like the love for an ox." No matter how brilliant the views of "valuing the people" or "pitying the people" put forward by outstanding thinkers and politicians within the ruling class camp, they always placed the masses in a position of being granted favors and being pitied. The Communist Party of China has achieved a thorough transcendence of the ancient connotation of "the people," regarding the "people"—once viewed as servants—as the masters and creators of history.
Third, that culture is "connected with certain forms of social development" means that cultural phenomena and theoretical propositions produced throughout history and across the world emerge in an orderly fashion according to the requirements of the development of the times, rather than appearing in a disorganized mess. Every idea has its specific era of emergence: "The real content of all epoch-making systems is formed by the needs of the time in which they arose." In his critique of Proudhon’s idealistic conceptualism, Marx pointed out that by looking at "what the men of the 11th century were like, and what those of the 18th century were like, what were their respective needs, their productive forces, their mode of production, the raw materials of their production—and, finally, what were the relations of man to man which resulted from these conditions of existence," one would discover that "every principle has had its own century in which to manifest itself. The principle of authority, for example, had the 11th century, just as the principle of individualism had the 18th century." This was not accidental. As Marx noted in the Introduction [to the Grundrisse]: "Only in the 18th century, in 'civil society,' do the various forms of social connectedness confront the individual as a mere means towards his private purposes, as external necessity." Not only is the proposition of individualism a product of socio-economic and political conditions, but any cultural phenomenon or theoretical proposition produced in human history is determined by the economic conditions of life in a specific era and the social and political relations determined by those conditions.
IV. The uneven relationship between material production and the development of culture and art
Marxism is not mechanical materialism; it does not hold that material production mechanically determines the content and form of culture. In the Introduction, Marx proposed the thesis of "the uneven relationship between the development of material production and, e.g., that of art," explaining specifically: "As regards art, it is well known that some of its peaks by no means correspond to the general development of society; nor do they therefore to the material substructure, the skeleton as it were of its organisation." The thesis regarding the uneven relationship between the development of material production and that of art can be understood from the following aspects.
First, an era with underdeveloped material production can still create culture of great significance. Generally speaking, the prosperity of material production often brings about cultural prosperity, and culture progresses with the improvement of the political and economic conditions of the time. However, Marx further argued that in every historical period, whether at a developed or underdeveloped stage, humanity is capable of creating the top-tier culture achievable for that era. Marx wrote in the Introduction: "In the case of art itself, it is well known that certain of its flowerings are possible only at an underdeveloped stage of artistic development." This statement is confirmed in the history of Greek art. Ancient Greece was at an underdeveloped stage of human society, yet this did not preclude certain artistic forms, such as painting, sculpture, mythology, and epics, from achieving quite full development. Humans in ancient times did not understand the essence of natural phenomena like sound, light, and electricity that only modern physics could reveal, nor did they understand electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, or relativity; yet their sense of awe toward the unfathomable and mysterious forces of the external world exceeded that of modern people. Combining their life practice and cognition of the outside world, ancient artists used the collective consciousness of the ancients' intense reverence and fear for the divine as material to create a romantic, artistically charming, daunting, and fascinating world of myths and captivating epic stories. Compared with capitalist society, slave society possessed the characteristic of concentrating a large number of slaves for large-scale construction of grand palaces, theaters, and statues. As Engels said, "It was only slavery that made the division of labour between agriculture and industry on a larger scale possible, and thereby also Hellenism, the flower of the ancient world. Without slavery, no Greek state, no Greek art and science." During the Yan'an period [24], the material conditions of the Communist Party of China were extremely difficult, but the workers on the vast cultural front were full of enthusiasm and created a large number of excellent works loved by the people, such as the Yellow River Cantata, The White-Haired Girl, and the March of the Volunteers, which remain renowned at home and abroad today.
Second, culture and art are reflections of social existence; excellent culture and art reflect the essence of the era, but the personal talent, interests, and preferences of cultural creators influence the production of cultural products. Culture and art are reflections of real material relations of production, but they are also "free spiritual production of a particular social formation" by artists. Although material production was underdeveloped in ancient Greece and during China's Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, as long as basic living and working conditions were met, highly skilled craftsmen and artists could still radiate extraordinary imagination and expressive skills to create outstanding works of culture and art. This is because artistic creation, besides having the attribute of being "connected with certain forms of social development," also possesses individual characteristics closely related to the creator's personal talent, interests, and preferences. The progress of material production drives the continuous updating and enrichment of the materials and types of musical instruments. However, whether to compose and play an upbeat and optimistic tune or a sorrowful and depressed one, or whether to express vague personal emotions or the hardships of the people—it is the composers and performers themselves who have the greatest say. In an era of prosperous material production, artistic masterpieces might emerge in great numbers like bamboo shoots after rain; but in times of war and chaos, amidst the hardships of life and tragic circumstances, an innovative cultural giant may instead have a better chance to experience the difficulties of survival and be more inspired to create works that "lament the many hardships in the lives of the people" [25], producing celebrated works of culture and art. King Wen was imprisoned and expanded the Iijima (Book of Changes); Confucius was in distress and wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals; Qu Yuan was exiled and composed the Li Sao (Encountering Sorrow) [26]—all were works of strenuous effort born from the difficult circumstances of sages.
Third, social consciousness possesses relative independence; many factors within ideology and culture interact with each other, and economically backward countries can also create advanced culture. Marx believed that the various elements within culture interact and are not solely restricted by material production. He proposed in the Introduction that "Greek mythology was not only the arsenal of Greek art but also its soil." The view that internal elements of ideology and culture can interact was inherited and profoundly explained by the later Engels. The later Engels believed that the development of philosophy depends not only on socio-economic development but is also influenced by the politics, law, and morality of a specific period. As long as the conditions for the accumulation of intellectual material and the political and legal environment are favorable for the development of philosophy, "economically backward countries can still play first fiddle in philosophy." The history of modern Western ideology and culture confirms Marx's principle of the uneven relationship between material production and cultural development. In the mid-to-late 18th century, Britain completed the Industrial Revolution and capitalist productive forces developed rapidly; yet in France, which was far behind Britain economically, cultural giants such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot appeared. In Germany, where the level of productive forces was far behind that of Britain and France, a philosophical revolution occurred, beginning with Kant, passing through Hegel, and ending with Feuerbach. In literature and art, masters like Goethe, Heine, and Schiller emerged, creating the peculiar situation where "this era was shameful in political and social terms, but great in terms of German literature"—not to mention the birth of the "Thinker of the Millennium," Marx, and his comrade Engels. It is worth noting that the view that economically backward countries can create advanced culture should not be absolutized. When explaining the principle of the relative independence of social consciousness, Engels pointed out: "In France as in Germany, philosophy, like the general flowering of literature at that time, was also the result of a rising economic development. That the economic development is the ultimately supreme power in these fields as well is for me a certainty."
V. Inspirations for contemporary cultural research from Marx’s investigation of the complex correlation between cultural forms and the development of the times
In the Introduction, Marx explored the complex correlation between cultural forms and the development of the times. These thoughts provide many important inspirations for contemporary Chinese cultural research, especially concerning the "Second Integration" [27].
First, Marx's view that the prosperous cultures of the past "can no longer be produced in that epoch-making, classical form that marked world history" is highly instructive for promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture.
Since any "revitalization" of culture, whether ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, is in essence a culture that keeps pace with the times and is endowed with new contemporary content, the "cultural revitalization" currently discussed in Chinese theoretical circles is not, in its essence, a reappearance of ancient culture in a totalizing sense. Rather, it must be a new culture formed through creative development, integrated with the needs of the economic base and superstructure of China in the New Era. Therefore, regarding the discussion on combining the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, the key issue is not whether to "combine," nor even why to "combine," but rather how to "combine."
In combining the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, one must be vigilant against two tendencies. One tendency is to possess a domestic treasure but treat it as a "worn-out broom" [28], describing Chinese traditional culture as a "filthy vat of soy sauce" [29]. This view exaggerates the negative elements of Chinese traditional culture while overlooking its positive elements, which is detrimental to combining Marxism's basic tenets with fine traditional Chinese culture. The other tendency is to possess a "worn-out broom" but cherish it as a treasure—one-sidedly exaggerating the positive components of Chinese traditional culture, elevating them to an inappropriate height, and even believing that socialist thought could have emerged within the ancient Chinese small-scale peasant economy.
Regarding the question of how to realize the "Second Integration," General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out a scientific path: namely, promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture. So-called creative transformation means "transforming those connotations and outdated forms of expression that still possess contemporary value for reference, in accordance with the characteristics and requirements of the times, endowing them with new contemporary connotations and modern forms of expression to activate their vitality." Innovative development means "supplementing, expanding, and perfecting the connotations of fine traditional Chinese culture in accordance with new progress and developments of the times, enhancing its influence and appeal."
Marxism remains the unsurpassable peak in the history of human thought to this day: "In the history of human thought, no single theory has exerted such a broad and profound influence on humanity as Marxism." Therefore, realizing the "Second Integration" requires examining fine traditional Chinese culture using the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and method. This entails opposing both the ahistorical, supra-temporal, and supra-class beautification of fine traditional Chinese culture, as well as the attempts by Eurocentrists to smear it.
Second, Marx's view that the culture of humanity’s childhood "exhibits an eternal charm" [30] inspires us to recognize that fine traditional Chinese culture possesses an eternal charm. The spirit of fine traditional Chinese culture, contained within its treasure trove, continues to emit a dazzling contemporary light.
Excellent Chinese mythological stories possess an eternal charm. The Huaxia [31] ancestors lacked scientific knowledge of agriculture and nomadism; the bounty or failure of the harvest depended entirely on "Heaven." Thus, "Heaven" (天 tiān) became, in the eyes of the ancestors, an entity possessed of human character and will. The rational yet romantic Huaxia ancestors constructed a celestial palace and divine court centered on the "Purple Forbidden Enclosure" (紫微垣 zǐwēiyuán), with the "Three Enclosures, Four Symbols, and Twenty-Eight Mansions" [32] as its backbone—sacred, solemn, orderly, and enchanting. The "Heavenly Market" and "Heavenly Street" were bustling; the "Heavenly Fields" were available for plowing and weaving; and lovers on the two banks of the "Heavenly River" (the Milky Way) gazed at each other from afar: "盈盈一水间，脉脉不得语" (Across the swelling water, they gaze tenderly but cannot speak to one another) [33]. The rulers of ancient China followed this "Purple Forbidden" culture, calling the imperial palace the "Forbidden City" (紫禁城 zǐjìnchéng). As a whole, the Forbidden City is a work of art—with carved beams and painted rafters, vast in scale and majestic in momentum, yet highly harmonious and unified—thus "exhibiting an eternal charm." Artistic figures from ancient mythology, such as Wukong or Nezha, when endowed with a new contemporary spirit by people today, can likewise "exhibit an eternal charm."
Furthermore, fine traditional Chinese culture is a vast treasure house containing a cultural spirit that benefits the present day. This cultural spirit belongs to fine traditional Chinese culture, but the culture and the spirit are not directly identical. The spirit of fine traditional Chinese culture is distilled from the culture itself and embodies its essence. Marx's view—that Greek art, produced during the childhood of humanity, "at its most perfect stage, should not be regarded as a stage that will never return, but as exhibiting an eternal charm"—points the correct direction for us as we inherit and carry forward the spirit of fine traditional Chinese culture in the New Era. This spirit still "exhibits an eternal charm" in the New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitutes a precious spiritual wealth that contemporary people must inherit and promote.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that we must "connect the essence of Marxist thought with the cream of fine traditional Chinese culture." The "cream" mentioned here is distinct from the general body of culture; it encompasses the spirit of fine traditional Chinese culture. The examples left to us by our ancestors—the "junzi" (gentleman) character of "as Heaven's movement is ever-vigorous, the gentleman must constantly strive for self-perfection; as the Earth's condition is receptive, the gentleman should bear all things with great virtue" [34]; the awesome righteousness of "since antiquity, who has escaped death? Let my loyal heart shine in the annals of history" [35]; the patriotic sentiment of "to be the first to worry about the world's worries and the last to enjoy its joys" [36]; the warning for integrity that "looking back at the sages throughout history, success comes from diligence and thrift, while failure stems from extravagance" [37]; and the open-minded realm of "becoming more determined when in hardship, never losing one's lofty aspirations" [38]—have, through thousands of years of storms, sublimated into the spirit of fine Chinese culture.
Mencius was not a proletarian thinker, but he left behind the awe-inspiring moral character of "being uncorrupted by wealth and status, unswerving in poverty and low station, and unyielding before power and force." At the level of cultural spirit, this accords with Mao Zedong’s statement: "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 nations of the world." In the various struggles against foreign aggression in modern history, during the Great War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, on the Long March, and when facing natural disasters, the world has felt the Chinese nation's spirit of "bearing all things with virtue" and "striving for self-perfection" through the epic and soul-stirring struggles of the Chinese people.
Third, Marx's view that classical culture "can still afford us artistic enjoyment and, in certain respects, remains a norm and an unattainable model" provides a direction for our inheritance of fine traditional Chinese culture.
Our ancestors left behind a vast number of classic and beautiful works—the Songs of Chu, Han-style fu, Tang poetry, Song ci, and Yuan qu. In particular, classical poetry pushed the beauty of the Chinese language to its peak, forming stable aesthetic styles and rhetorical norms. It emphasizes rhyme, tonal patterns (pingze), and parallelism; it draws on classics and historical allusions; and it creates elegant and beautiful artistic conceptions (yijing), affording artistic enjoyment to the contemporary Chinese people. Within classical culture, there remain many concise and pithy maxims and proverbs that express profound principles of self-cultivation, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world. While they "still afford us artistic enjoyment," they also provide inspiration for us to nurture our moral character and contemplate the Great Dao of the world. Laozi's "Fortune is what misfortune leans on; misfortune is where fortune hides," Confucius's "governing with virtue," Zhuangzi's "following the heavenly principles and acting according to what is inherent," Xunzi's "water can carry a boat, but can also overturn it," and Sunzi's "know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated" have become widely circulated maxims. They are linguistically refined, offer profound insights, and have a far-reaching influence, nourishing the national character of the Chinese people.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Chinese aesthetics emphasizes using objects to express one’s will and embedding truth within emotion; it emphasizes being concise, pithy, and restrained; it emphasizes the unity of form and spirit and a profound artistic conception; and it stresses the integration of knowledge, emotion, will, and action." We must boldly inherit this excellent culture which "can still afford us artistic enjoyment and, in certain respects, remains a norm and an unattainable model." Some parts of fine traditional Chinese culture are substantive facilities that carry tradition, such as the Great Wall, the Dujiangyan irrigation system, the Grand Canal, and the Forbidden City. These magnificent and great projects belong to the "norms and unattainable models." They are directly connected with the social productive forces and do not belong to the category of ideology; thus, they can directly serve reform and socialist modernization. Furthermore, the Four Great Inventions of our ancestors—papermaking, gunpowder, printing, and the compass—profoundly influenced the progress of human civilization. The exquisite crafts created by our predecessors—carving, weaving, paper-cutting, qin and qi (music and chess), calligraphy and painting, lantern-making, embroidery, sculpting, and culinary arts—all demonstrate the industriousness, wisdom, and creativity of the ancient Chinese people. The traditional festivals left to us—the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival—possess rich cultural connotations and carry the unique and beautiful sentiments and firm national cultural identity of the Chinese people. All of these "can still afford us artistic enjoyment and, in certain respects, remain a norm and an unattainable model."
Fourth, Marx's view that culture is "bound up with certain forms of social development" inspires us to pay attention to the differences in the content and form of culture across different eras.
Since "certain forms of social development" possess chronological characteristics, one must be adept at distinguishing the contemporary content and substantive meaning of ancient and modern concepts. One must not make simple or superficial linguistic comparisons. The connotations of many concepts differ greatly between ancient, modern, and contemporary times. In his preface to The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx opposed the popular German practice of making superficial comparisons regardless of a concept's historical connotations. He reminded people to pay attention to the epochal differences in the meaning of class struggle: "Owing to this complete difference between the material economic conditions of the ancient and the modern class struggles, the political monsters to which they give birth can have as little in common with one another as the Archbishop of Canterbury has with the High Priest Samuel."
In the present day, we can still derive artistic enjoyment from the rhythmic patterns, allusions, and artistic conceptions of old poetry, and we can use concise classical verses in speeches and writing to enhance persuasiveness and appeal. Therefore, in treating traditional culture, we must adhere to a treatment based on discrimination and an inheritance based on the process of sublation (yangqi). It "requires the passing on of the torch from generation to generation, but even more so requires advancing with the times and daring to innovate." In accordance with the new requirements of the continuous progress of the times, we must promote the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture in terms of both content and form, thereby activating its vitality.
In summary, Marx’s investigation in the Introduction (to the Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy) concerning the complex relationship between the era and culture put forward extremely precious arguments that shine with the light of truth. These offer an inspiring approach to the discussion of the "Second Integration." This is a path of promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture, and it is also a path of recreating Chinese culture while adhering to Marxism as our guide.
(The author’s affiliation: Tsinghua University) Source: Marxist Studies, Issue 4, 2025 Online Editor: Paul