BEIJING, May 15, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- A news report
from China.org.cn on why did the Chinese accept scientific
socialism?
The Chinese always have dreamed to make their country a Utopia.
In the Confucian classic The Book of Rites, we read, "When
the Great Way prevails, the world belongs to all the people. People
of virtue and competence are chosen to govern the country; honesty
is valued, and people live in harmony". Such a society, modeled on
a primitive communal system, is called "Universal Harmony
(Datong)", an ideal status that world, state, society, and
individual shall become.
This idea emphasizes the importance of higher moral standard for
a better country in which "the aged have a place to live, the
able-bodied have employment, the young have the means to grow up,
the widowed, the lonely, the disabled and the sick have ways to
support themselves, the men have their proper work, and the women
have their homes". So that, people can live a happy life, and the
country is able to stay in peace and order.
At the same time, the notion of "Datong" advocates an idea that
"a benevolent person loves others", the faith that "the core of a
state is the people, the state itself, and last the ruler", and the
political philosophy that "all people are my brothers and sisters,
and all things are my companions". It advised all benevolent rulers
shall be people-centered and hold up a high moral standard.
The idea of "Datong" has had a profound influence on Chinese
political figures down the ages. For example, the modern thinker
Kang Youwei (1858-1927), in The Book of Datong, maintains
that human society will constantly evolve until "Datong" is
achieved in China and the rest of
the world. Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925),
proposed his democratic revolutionary platform of "Three Principles
of the People" (nationalism, civil rights, and people's livelihood)
to save the Chinese nation from peril. This proposal, based on
traditional Chinese culture and drawing on modern Western
democracy, aimed to realize the ideal of "Datong", where the world
belongs to all, the state is wealthy, and the people are robust.
"Datong" can be said to represent the highest social ideal of the
Chinese nation.
Founded in Europe in 1840s,
Marxism decisively takes the side of the people, seeking human
freedom and emancipation. Marx and Engels firmly believed that in a
future society "we shall have an association in which the free
development of each is the condition for the free development of
all". It is precisely because the pursuit of "Datong" is so
entrenched in their cultural genes that Chinese people were willing
and able to accept the scientific socialism proposed by Marx and
Engels when it was introduced to China.
For example, if we study the history of the introduction and
spread of Marxism in China, we
find that the earliest people to introduce Marxism included Liang
Qichao (1873-1929), then a student studying abroad, and Zhu Zhixin
(1885-1920) and Song Jiaoren (1882-1913), the core members of the
Chinese Allied League (a political party led and organized by
Sun Yat-sen). Although these people
had different beliefs and political stances, they could all accept
Marxism because they were all intellectuals nurtured by traditional
Chinese culture and were pursuing the "Datong" ideal that "the
world belongs to all the people".
The choice of the members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), as inheritors of Chinese cultural
traditions, to follow the path of socialism is linked to the
pursuit of this "Datong" ideal that "the world belongs to all the
people". In this sense, it is fair to say that the idea of
socialism is deeply rooted in the soil of Chinese culture, created
by its cultural genes and crystallizing its historical
pursuits.
What and why is socialism with Chinese
characteristics?
To better understand China's
realities, the CPC carefully researches China's economic and social facts as well as
its traditional culture. This becomes the foundation of "socialism
with Chinese characteristics".
For example, China's political
and cultural traditions are very different from those of the West.
In the late primitive society of China, political affairs, including the
handing over of power, were dealt with in a consultative democratic
system, unlike the electoral democracy of ancient Greece. It is recorded in the Book of
Documents, an ancient Chinese classic, that decisions on major
issues were made by councils of chiefs, where tribal leaders such
as Yao and Shun consulted the councils to make decisions. This can
be called consultative democracy rather than electoral (voting)
democracy. It was closely related to the pre-Qin Confucian model of
virtue-based governance by sage kings, a model emphasizing that the
sages were best suited to govern society, as they were able to
manage family affairs, govern the state, and bring peace to all
under Heaven due to their self-perfection. The best governors of
society, then, are those who through ceaseless self-cultivation
have succeeded in governing themselves.
The verb "xuan" (somewhat semantically similar to "elect" in
English) is also found in ancient Chinese classics and idioms.
However, rather than meaning "electing", "xuan" is equivalent to
"selecting and recommending". For example, Shun was selected and
recommended as the tribal leader by Yao after consultation with the
chiefs. This mechanism was called "Shan
Rang" (system for handing over power). Therefore, "xuan" in
China has different meanings in
different situations, with its semantic features corresponding to
"election" and "selection" respectively. Election is implemented by
voting, while selection is by consultation. Both are forms of
democracy, but they are not the same.
Because of the system mentioned above, Chinese people are more
accustomed to harmonious consultative democracy than to competitive
democracy. There is also a long-held philosophy of "Harmony without
uniformity". Therefore, consultative democracy in China not only aligns well with the realities
of society but also has deep cultural roots.
Since it was proposed about 40 years ago, socialism with Chinese
characteristics has made a series of significant achievements. At
the same time, many urgent problems have arisen in the process of
its development, such as the problem of maintaining fairness in a
socialist market economy, the issue of environmental pollution in
the process of industrialization and modernization, and the
problems of increasingly complex international relations associated
with China's growth. Outstanding
tenets of traditional Chinese culture, in particular, the ideas
that "the world belongs to all the people", "man is an integral
part of nature" and "all coexist in harmony" are all valuable
wisdoms.
The author is Li Junru, former Vice-President of the Party
School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China
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SOURCE China.org.cn