Jin Minqing：History and the People Chose Marxism

History and the People Chose Marxism*

 Jin Minqing

Secretary of the Party Committee and Research Fellow,

Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

In his speech at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that: ‘Marxism is the fundamental guiding ideology upon which our Party and country are founded; it is the very soul of our Party and the banner under which it strives. The Communist Party of China upholds the basic tenets of Marxism and the principle of seeking truth from facts. Based on China’s realities, we have developed keen insights into the trends of the day, seized the initiative in history, and made painstaking explorations. We have thus been able to keep adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of our times, and to guide the Chinese people in advancing our great social revolution. At the fundamental level, the capability of our Party and the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics are attributable to the fact that Marxism works.’ This major assertion profoundly reveals the extreme importance of Marxism for the development of the cause of the Party, the state and the people, and profoundly reveals the arduous course and rich achievements of the CPC in creatively applying and developing Marxism in the historical process of leading the Chinese people in realizing national prosperity, national revitalization and people’s happiness. To deeply understand this important idea, we must first answer and solve a fundamental ‘meta-question’: why did the Chinese people choose Marxism to transform China, and why did the CPC unswervingly adhere to the guiding position of Marxism from the very beginning?

I. The Arrival and Role of Marxism in China Is an Inherent Need

of the Historical Development of Modern China

Mao Zedong once pointed out that, ‘The reason why Marxism-Leninism has played such a great role in China since its introduction is that China’s social conditions call for it, that it has been linked with the actual practice of the Chinese people’s revolution and that the Chinese people have grasped it.’ That is, Marxism came to China, was embraced by the people, and played a major role in the practice of the Chinese revolution, because there was an objective and inherent need in Chinese society.

To answer why Chinese society needed Marxism and why the Chinese people chose it, we have to start from the historical development of China and the arduous struggle of the Chinese people since modern times. In the modern era, China gradually reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and the Chinese nation reached a critical point of life and death with internal and external difficulties. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, ‘After the Opium War of 1840, however, China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society and suffered greater ravages than ever before. The country endured intense humiliation, the people were subjected to great pain, and the Chinese civilization was plunged into darkness.’ In the face of the national crisis, a number of scholars with lofty ideals and the general public diligently pursued the ‘great way’ of salvation and survival, and searched for the ‘fundamental principle’ for achieving national rejuvenation, but time and again the search and efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.

Gong Zither and Wei Yuan were the first to see the outside world and called for ‘mastering the foreigners’ expertise in order to restrain them,’ but they did not recognize the decadence of feudal society and only wanted to change China by technology rather than change its institutions, which of course had little effect. The leading ideology of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, the God-Worshipping Society, blended foreign Christianity with China’s indigenous ideal of a commonwealth society, but the theory did not draw on the essence of good Chinese thought and culture, but stuck to the egalitarian concept of the peasant class, and did not draw on the achievements of advanced Western civilization, but absorbed its non-scientific Christian ideas. Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sought to realize the ideal of a commonwealth society, it lacked a correct path and direction to lead the way, and although it put forward the idea of developing capitalism and the preliminary program of the New Essay on Economics and Politics. in the late stage of the movement, it did not rise to the level of theoretical consciousness and practice, and eventually failed. The Westernization Movement put forward the goal of ‘self-improvement’ and ‘wealth building’ and made a series of attempts to modernize, but its core proposition was the theory of maintaining Chinese systems and adopting Western technology, which was designed to use advanced technology to maintain a backward system. This guiding ideology, of course, made it difficult to achieve the goal of the so-called ‘revitalizing China.’ Stimulated by the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, the reformists cried out for ‘salvation and survival’ and attempted to implement constitutional monarchy and develop capitalism through the reform movement, but they did not dare to fundamentally deny the feudal system politically or shake the feudal land ownership system economically. Intellectually, they blended China’s ‘Three Ages’ theory, the idea of a society of great harmony with the political doctrines, evolutionary ideas and idealistic socialist ideas of modern Europe, forming a reformist ideological system that simply could not mobilize and organize the people’s historical creativity. The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty by violent revolutionary means, ending thousands of years of feudal autocracy in China, and promoting social change in China with great shock and influence. However, the Three People’s Principles, which were the guiding ideology of the Revolution of 1911, were not really scientific theories: nationalism only opposed the Manchu rulers but did not oppose imperialism and had illusions about it; democracy did not represent the broadest public in China but only the interests of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie; and people’s livelihood was actually a kind of social reformism rather than a scientific socialist theory. This guiding ideology determined that the bourgeois revolutionaries did not and could not realize the essence of capitalism and thus could not put forward a real anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary program, and the fruits of the revolution were soon stolen by the feudal warlords.

The direction and trend of modern China’s increasing decline and fall, and the painful ordeal the Chinese people suffered in their circumstances of struggle and defeat, urgently required new scientific ideas to emerge as guidance. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said: ‘To save the nation from peril, the Chinese people put up a courageous fight. As noble-minded patriots sought to pull the nation together, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898, the Yihetuan Movement, and the Revolution of 1911 rose one after the other, and a variety of plans were devised to ensure national survival, but all of these ended in failure. China was in urgent need of new ideas to lead the movement to save the nation and a new organization to rally revolutionary forces.’ Without the guidance of new scientific thought, the Chinese people would not be able to grasp the direction of historical development and find the correct path, and would not be able to get rid of the state of spontaneity and rise to a conscious and self-motivated historical subject, and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation would always be just a dream and hardly become a reality. At this time, Marxism had already been born in Europe and played a great role in understanding and transforming the world. Once this scientific thought collided with China’s objective needs and was integrated with them, it would certainly lead China to fundamental changes.

II. It Is the Conscious Choice of the Chinese People to Embrace

Marxism and Use It to Guide Chinese Practice

When the Chinese people were at a loss as to what road to take, the salvoes of the October Revolution brought China Marxism-Leninism, which was like a ray of light in the darkness, showing the direction to the Chinese people who were struggling to find a way.

The advanced Chinese, represented by Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and Mao Zedong, saw the dawn of humanity and the hope of China in the victory of the October Revolution in Russia. Li Dazhao wrote with great excitement: ‘In this dark China, in this deadly still Beijing, we seem to have a ray of dawn. It is like a small star in a deep night, which illuminates the path to a new life. We should take advantage of this ray of light and strive to go forward and do some good work for mankind.’ The advanced Chinese not only hailed the October Revolution, but also explored the reasons for its victory in order to find a way out of the Chinese revolution. After analyzing and studying it, Li Dazhao came to his own conclusion that the October Revolution was ‘a victory for socialism’ and ‘the contribution of Marx.’ The young Mao Zedong also realized that ‘Lenin, with his millions of party members, has built an unprecedented cause of civilian revolution, swept away the counterrevolutionary party, cleansed the upper and middle classes, and has the doctrine (Bolshevism), the opportunity (Russia’s defeat), the preparation, and the truly reliable party. They rose and issued orders, which were obeyed by the laboring people, who were a source of the revolution and were against the old regime. All of these led to the victory of the Russian Revolution.’ This means that these Chinese advanced elements realized that one of the key reasons for the victory of the October Revolution was the guidance of Marxism. As a result, they were the first to change their thinking in the direction of Marxism.

Of course, this transformation did not happen overnight, but was the result of a complex theoretical identification and practical examination, a profound ideological reckoning and a self-revolution. Li Dazhao was the earliest Marxist in China, but he had been imbued with a variety of ideas before embracing Marxism and remained attached to moralism even after he accepted it. Chen Duxiu also did not fully become a Marxist until 1920, when he published ‘On Politics.’ When Zhou Enlai was a young man, he was determined to achieve the rise of China and devoted himself to ‘studying science in order to save China.’ He even tried to study militarism to strengthen China at the beginning of his journey to Japan, but after realizing the evils of militarism, he gave it up and started to approach Marxism. It wasn’t until after he went to Europe for in-depth study did he become a Marxist completely. Mao Zedong’s journey from exposure to Marxism to belief in Marxism was more difficult and complicated. He was exposed to Marxism when he first arrived in Beijing in 1918, but at that time he was more interested in social reformism, anarchism and experimentalism. During the May Fourth Movement, he preferred mutualism to Marxism, and in the ‘Question and Doctrine’ debate, he preferred Hu Shi’s question theory to Li Dazhao’s doctrine. It was only after experiencing the setbacks of the Campaign to Expel Hunan Warlord Zhang Jingyao, the experimentalist attempts, and the Hunan Autonomous Movement that he became completely a Marxist at the end of 1920, proposing to use Marxism to unite everyone and using the ‘Marxian method,’ the ‘Russian method’ and the ‘radical method of communism,’ that is, Marxism-Leninism, to transform China and the world.

In other words, the Chinese did not embrace Marxism as a result of external coercion, nor as a result of blind adherence, but as a consciousness of independent comparison and study. These self-conscious early Chinese Marxists quickly united their beliefs, which they had established through many hardships, with the Chinese workers’ movement, and founded the CPC. From the very beginning, the Party took Marxism as the guide to the Chinese revolution and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and never wavered, no matter what difficulties and twists it encountered. On the eve of the founding of the Party, Mao Zedong emphasized that ‘the materialistic view of history is the basis of our Party’s philosophy.’ Deng Xiaoping emphasized in the reform and opening up: ‘In carrying out the reform and the open policy and in shifting the focus of our work to economic development, we are not abandoning Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong. We cannot forget our forefathers!’ Xi Jinping stressed in the new era, ‘Marxism is the fundamental guiding thought upon which our Party and country are founded. Were we to depart from or abandon Marxism, our Party would lose its sole and its direction. Therefore, on the fundamental issue of upholding the guiding role of Marxism, we must maintain unswerving resolve, never wavering at any time or under any circumstances.’ It was under the guidance of Marxism that the spirit of the Chinese people turned from passive to active and they made unremitting efforts under the leadership of the Party to achieve a tremendous transformation: it has stood up, grown rich, and is becoming strong to achieve the great leap from standing up, getting rich to getting strong, and the Chinese nation began to move irreversibly toward great rejuvenation.

III. Marxism Has Profoundly Changed China,

and China Has Greatly Enriched Marxism

The emergence of the CPC was an earth-shattering event that profoundly changed the direction and course of development of the Chinese nation after the modern era, profoundly changed the future of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, and profoundly changed the trend and pattern of world development.

Over the past century, Marxism has profoundly changed China. Under the guidance of Marxism, the CPC has scientifically judged the stage of China’s social development. It has profoundly analyzed the main contradictions of Chinese society, and explored the correct path of revolution, construction and reform. It has formulated strategic strategies that meet the national conditions and characteristics of the times, and seized and solved the main tasks of different periods. It has continuously created great undertakings, made great achievements and realized major historical leaps. It has written the most magnificent epic in the thousands of years of history of the Chinese nation. China has undergone a great and earth-shaking change. In the century of unremitting successive struggles, the Party has united and led the people in, with the dauntless spirit that Mao Zedong expressed when he wrote, ‘Our minds grow stronger for the martyrs’ sacrifice, daring to make the sun and the moon shine in the new sky,’ making great achievements in the new-democratic revolution, socialist revolution and construction, reform and opening up and socialist modernization, and socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The Chinese nation achieved a tremendous transformation: it has stood up, grown rich, and is becoming strong to achieve the great leap from standing up, getting rich to getting strong, and the Chinese nation began to move irreversibly toward great rejuvenation.

The Chinese nation, the Chinese people and the Chinese Communist are not only good at practical innovation, but also good at theoretical innovation. Not only have they successfully concretized Marxism in China and profoundly changed China under the guidance of Marxism, but they have also successfully made China’s rich practical experience Marxist, created the scientific theory of Chinese Marxism, and greatly enriched and developed Marxism. Over the past hundred years, the Chinese Communists have constantly and creatively combined the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s concrete reality, China’s excellent traditional culture and the characteristics of the times, and have written a splendid chapter on the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context in keeping with the times. During the tortuous development of the new-democratic revolution, the Chinese Communists, such as Mao Zedong, created the scientific system of Mao Zedong Thought and realized the first historic leap in the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context. During the arduous exploration of the socialist revolution and construction, the Chinese Communists, such as Mao Zedong, started the ‘second combination’ of Marxism with China’s concrete reality and created the ‘second combination’ of Marxism with China’s concrete reality. They made a series of original theoretical achievements such as the theory of the ten major relationships, and the theory of the basic contradictions of socialism and the contradictions of the people, which enriched and developed Mao Zedong Thought and became the ideological precursor of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the great social revolution of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, the Chinese Communists, such as Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, closely followed the principles of socialism. In the great social revolution of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, the Chinese Communists, represented by Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, have closely focused on and scientifically answered the core questions of ‘what socialism is and how to build it,’ ‘what kind of party China should build and how to build it party,’ ‘what kind of development China should achieve and how to develop.’ They founded and continuously developed the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, including Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents and the Theory of Balanced and Sustainable Development, and successfully realized and continuously promoted the second historical leap of the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context. In the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, the Chinese Communist, such as Xi Jinping, have an answer—a systematic combination of theory and practice, that addresses what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics the new era requires us to uphold and develop, and how we should go about doing it. They have created Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which has successfully realized and continuously promoted another leap in the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context. This Marxism in contemporary China and in the 21st century provides the whole Party and the whole nation with a guide for action to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

History is the best textbook. One hundred years ago, when the Chinese people were suffering and did not have a way out, they welcomed and firmly chose Marxism; in the past hundred years, the brilliant development and historical leap of the Chinese nation have eloquently proved how correct the choice of the Chinese people was. Today, the CPC is uniting and leading the people on a new journey to build a great modern socialist country. We should learn from history and create the future. We must continue to unswervingly adhere to Marxism and advance the historical process of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context by keeping pace with the times. We must integrate the basic tenets of Marxism with the specific reality of China and with traditional Chinese culture, and observe the times, grasp the times and lead the times with Marxism. We must continue to develop Marxism in contemporary China and in the 21st century, and provide richer scientific theoretical guidance to achieve the Chinese nation.

* First published in Marxism and Reality, No.4, 2021.