“The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century” directs us to “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” in order to understand it from two dimensions: Chinese culture and the Chinese spirit. While Marxism has rejuvenated the strong vitality of Chinese culture, Chinese culture also has provided a solid practical foundation for Marxism. Adapting Marxism to the Chinese context has also come to represent the developmental process of the Chinese spirit. As a vital self-conscious subjectivity, the Chinese spirit guides us to grasp this historic initiative according to both domestic and international imperatives. This paper first addresses the vital connection between Chinese culture and Marxism by showing that the adaption of Marxism to China’s specific realities together with the modernization of Chinese traditional culture are two aspects of the same process. On the one hand, adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of our times has enabled Marxism to expand its identity in becoming “Chinese Marxism”. On the other hand, Marxism provides Chinese culture a new life by forming a new civilization with unique Chinese characteristics. Xi Jinping Thought, embodying the best of Chinese culture and its ethos in our times, represents a new breakthrough in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context by allowing it to take its place as the Marxism of contemporary China in the 21st century. “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” is built on the solid foundation of China’s fine cultural traditions. Our fine traditional culture provides an invaluable cultural heritage for governance and the development of core socialist values. It also provides internal support for our cultural soft power and cultural confidence. Furthermore, the fine tradition contains a rich content of philosophy and social science. Xi Jinping Thought, deeply rooted in China’s fine traditional culture, embodies the dream and pursuit of the Chinese nation and drives forward the historic process of national rejuvenation. Furthermore, the expression of “the Chinese ethos in our times” emphasizes the spirit of our times and its Chinese roots. Facing both domestic and international imperatives, the “Resolution” aims to serve national rejuvenation, promote human progress, and facilitate efforts to foster a new type of international relations to build a human community with a shared future. We must bolster the Chinese spirit in order to consolidate the common ideological foundation for the whole nation. To conclude, the new Chinese path to modernization is built upon the solid historical foundation of Chinese traditional culture. It is a new model for human advancement created and led by Chinese culture and the Chinese spirit. This new model of civilization has fundamentally overcome the Western “either/or” logic and “the Clash of Civilizations” that is based on the theory of “Thucydides Trap”. It represents not only the rejuvenation of Chinese civilization but also the result of the integration of Chinese civilization and Marxism. Only the new civilization formed by the integration of Chinese civilization and Marxism can surpass the crisis cycle of capitalism.

Editor: Zhong Yao、Zheng Yifan

From:Philosophical Trends.2022.No.5.