Promoting the Creative Transformation and Innovative Development of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture

Xi Jinping's cultural thought is broad and profound, with rich connotation. In his speech at the forum on cultural inheritance and development on June 2 this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward a new cultural mission for the new era. Recently, he has given important instructions on the propaganda, ideological and cultural work, further emphasizing: "strive to continue the Chinese context and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture". So, how to learn to understand the rich connotation of Xi Jinping's cultural thought? I will promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent culture, and talk about a little bit of learning experience.

　The requirements of the times: aiming at the forefront of world cultural development

The prosperity of a country and a nation is always supported by the prosperity of culture. China is one of the four ancient civilizations in the world. The excellent traditional Chinese culture has created a long 5000-year Chinese civilization. It took decades for China to complete the modernization of western developed countries for hundreds of years. The ten thousand years of cultural history has cultivated and developed a unique, broad and profound Chinese culture, which has provided strong spiritual support for the Chinese nation to overcome difficulties and continue to grow. China has the conditions, ability and confidence to let Chinese culture go to the world.

Culture is accompanied by the development of economic and social progress. Ancient Egyptian civilization was more than a thousand years earlier than Chinese civilization. Ancient Babylon is one of the ancient oriental countries with the longest history known to people. Ancient India made original contributions to human civilization in literature, philosophy and natural science. But these three ancient civilizations are now dead. Why did Chinese civilization become the only unbroken civilization among the four ancient civilizations? Why did China lose the Opium War in 1840 and rebirth a hundred years later? There are also cultural reasons. Self-defense is a kind of cultural phenomenon of arrogance and isolation. The decline of culture has been highlighted from economic and social development hundreds of years later.

It is precisely drawing lessons from history that after the first World War, China's advanced elements stood at the forefront of world cultural development, held high the banner of democracy and science, started the new cultural movement, advocated new morality, opposed old morality, advocated new literature, opposed old literature, and, by criticizing Confucianism, shook the dominant position of feudal orthodox thought and opened the floodgates to curb the flow of new ideas, set off a wave of ideological emancipation in Chinese society. The revolutionary culture started with the May Fourth Movement and gradually formed in the historical process of the Chinese revolution, thus finding a correct way to encircle the city with the countryside and seize power by armed forces, and achieved the complete victory of the new democratic revolution.

　The basic policy: "remove the rough and extract the essence, remove the false and retain the true, from the surface to the inside, from the one to the other"

In the chronical history, the Communist Party of China customarily refers to the culture before the May 4th Movement in 1919 as Chinese traditional culture, and the culture after the May 4th Movement in 1919 as revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture. This is because the Chinese culture, which has been precipitated for thousands of years, has created a brilliant Chinese civilization, but from the late primitive society to the slave society and feudal society, Chinese traditional culture has also been influenced by the ruling class of the past dynasties. Mao Zedong believed that it is necessary to make a rational analysis of Chinese traditional culture. In a nutshell, it is necessary to insist on "removing the rough and extracting the essence, removing the false and keeping the true, from the surface to the inside, from the one to the other". These 16 words not only put forward the correct policy of dealing with history, but also clarify the correct way of thinking from the height of epistemology. That is to say, for the long-standing history and culture of ten thousand years, we must be good at grasping the mainstream and essence as a whole, distinguish the mainstream and tributaries, and study in depth on those major issues that have essential significance and can reflect the mainstream of culture, and those that belong to the nature of tributaries. And cultural phenomena that do not have essential meaning adopt an attitude of sublation.

In the grasp of specific issues, history has left countless and various cultural phenomena, some of which are even contradictory. We must be good at distinguishing, find its inherent regularity in the complicated historical phenomena, and squeeze out the "water". Restore the truth of history. This is the "true". In recent years, through archaeological discoveries, the domestication of crops is of great significance in the process of evolution to civilization. For example, rice remains were found in Xianrendong and bucket ring sites in Jiangxi Province, and Yuchanyan site in Hunan Province, about 12000 years ago; carbonized rice was found in Shangshan site in Zhejiang Province, about 10000 years ago.

The world is connected and developing, not isolated and static. We study and sort out the ins and outs of Chinese excellent traditional culture, the purpose is not only to prove its authenticity, but also to explore its value of the times. For example, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the social pursuit of the world for the public, faith and harmony is interlinked with the ideals and beliefs of communism and socialism, and the governance ideology of the people as the foundation of the country and the rule of virtue is integrated with the political concept of the supremacy of the people. The responsibility of continuous self-improvement is consistent with the revolutionary spirit of the Communists." It is in the study from the surface to the inside, thus to the other to find its inherent consistency. From people-based to democracy, from Kyushu to the community of the Chinese nation, from the coexistence of all things to the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, from enriching the people to common prosperity, the leap from tradition to modernity has been realized, and the modern form of Chinese civilization has been developed. It is the process of going from the surface to the inside, from this to the other.

　Basic method: adhere to the "two combination”

"Two combinations", that is, "combining the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific reality and with China's excellent traditional culture". It answers two big questions:

First, where does socialism with Chinese characteristics come from? General Secretary Xi Jinping said, "It is the only way to open up and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics on the profound basis of more than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, and to combine the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific reality and with China's excellent traditional culture." This answer is a conclusion drawn from Chinese history. It originated from the long-standing Chinese excellent traditional culture. Chinese excellent traditional culture has the ideological concepts of innovation, keeping pace with the times, down-to-earth, seeking truth from facts, benefiting the people, benefiting the people, enriching the people, following the nature, and the unity of man and nature; it has the sense of responsibility for the rise and fall of the world, the patriotic feelings of serving the country and revitalizing China, the social fashion of advocating morality and kindness, filial piety, loyalty, propriety, integrity and shame and other traditional Chinese virtues, the Chinese humanistic spirit, such as the teaching thought of cultural people, the aesthetic pursuit of both form and spirit, and the life philosophy of frugality, neutrality and Taihe, etc. These excellent ideas, traditional virtues and humanistic spirit fundamentally determine the enterprising spirit of the Chinese nation, the fearless character of the Chinese nation not afraid of challenges and forge ahead bravely, and the common belief that the land is inseparable, the country can not be disordered, the nation can not be dispersed, and the civilization can not be broken, It has become the spiritual support of the Chinese nation's continuous rejuvenation through thousands of difficulties and dangers. Therefore, after the Opium War, in the face of the joint attack of the imperialist powers, the Chinese people persevered, followed one after another, experienced setbacks without being discouraged, and finally found Marxism-Leninism, the truth that saved China from peril and realized national rejuvenation. So the Chinese Communist Party came into being. After 28 years of bloody struggle, we achieved the complete victory of the new democratic revolution and established a new China; after 29 years of great practice of socialist revolution and construction, we completed the most extensive and profound social change in the history of the Chinese nation, laying the fundamental political premise and institutional foundation for all the development and progress of contemporary China. With the convening of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as a symbol, China has entered a new period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization. On the basis of summing up the experience and lessons since the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China, with great theoretical courage, removed all ideological and institutional obstacles that hindered the development of the country and the nation, and successfully opened up socialism with Chinese characteristics. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said: "If there is no five thousand years of Chinese civilization, where is there any Chinese characteristics? If not Chinese characteristics, how can we have such a successful path of socialism with Chinese characteristics today?"

Second, where is socialism with Chinese characteristics going? The ultimate realization of the lofty ideal of communism is the fundamental end-result of all proletarian parties. The great cause of communism is that it has drawn the best social blueprint for human development, which can be finally realized after long-term unremitting efforts. Therefore, according to the design of Marx and Engels, we will move towards communism in two steps. The first step is to build socialism, and the second step is to realize communism. The only way to lead socialism with Chinese characteristics to communism is "two combinations": combining the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific reality solves the problem of combining theory with practice; combining Chinese excellent traditional culture with Marxism solves the problem of serving the past for the present, so that Marxism has "Chinese connotation" and "national form". The Chinese-style modernization road and the Chinese-style great rejuvenation road are the "Chinese connotation" and "national form" of Marxism. Chinese-style modernization endows Chinese civilization with modern power and is the new life of the old state that promotes the rejuvenation and glory of Chinese civilization. Its current goal is to basically realize modernization by 2035, build China into a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful socialist modern power by the middle of this century, and promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese style modernization; on this basis, continue to promote the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, For the ultimate realization of communism to lay a developed material foundation, civilized political foundation and cultural foundation, harmonious and stable social foundation, ecological good environmental foundation.

　Goal Orientation: Realizing the New Cultural Mission in the New Era

The new cultural mission of the new era is to continue to promote cultural prosperity, build a cultural power, and build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation. The new cultural mission of the new era put forward by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core is "new" because it defines the new goal of struggle. "Cultural prosperity" was put forward by the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation must be accompanied by the prosperity of Chinese culture." This raises the question that in the process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, culture must be the first to "prosper. "Building a cultural power" was put forward by the 18th National Congress, and the 20th National Congress report proposed to build a cultural power by 2035. This makes it clear that cultural soft power should establish comparative advantage and important influence in the world. "Building a modern civilization of the Chinese nation" was proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the cultural heritage and development symposium on June 2 this year. He said: "I have been thinking about the major issue of promoting the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation." This clarifies the fundamental goal and development direction of cultural construction. The core of these three tasks is "building a modern civilization of the Chinese nation", the foundation is "continuing to promote cultural prosperity", and the established goal is "building a cultural power". The "ancient civilization" once created by the Chinese nation has achieved the reputation of being one of the four "ancient civilizations" that are famous all over the world, and has achieved a series of scientific and technological civilizations such as the four ancient inventions that lead the world, and achieved China's leading position as one of the world's powerful countries before modern times. The modern civilization of the Chinese nation has created civilization achievements that can rewrite world history, and will continue to stand at the forefront of the progress of world civilization and lead the trend of the times. The theoretical achievements of Sinicized Marxism are the manifestations of modern civilization of the Chinese nation. Socialism with Chinese characteristics, the road of Chinese modernization, and the road of Chinese great rejuvenation are the modern forms of Chinese civilization.

Historical experience tells us that to build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation, we must promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture. Creative transformation is to transform the connotations and outdated forms of expression that still have reference value in accordance with the characteristics and requirements of the times, give them new connotations of the times and modern forms of expression, and activate their vitality. Innovative development is to supplement, expand, and improve the connotation of Chinese excellent traditional culture in accordance with the new progress and progress of the times, and enhance its influence and appeal.

(The author is the former deputy director and first-level inspector of the Scientific Research and Planning Department of the Central Party History and Documentation Research Institute)