Section 4 Harmony： the Essential Attribute of Socialism with Chinese characteristics
Since the emergence of human society, the pursuit of a harmonious society has become an important value orientation. In China, harmony has been the core value concept followed by Chinese civilization since ancient times. In the west, utopian socialists in France put forward the idea of building a "harmonious society" in the 18th century. Marxism critically absorbed the rational elements in utopian socialism theory and scientifically described the blueprint of the future ideal society. The construction of a harmonious society in Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a great practice to realize this value goal.
(A) the pursuit of harmony is the excellent tradition of the Chinese nation and the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s consistent appeal.
Why should harmony be regarded as the core value of socialist countries? Because harmony is an essential embodiment of the way everything exists, the pursuit of harmony is an excellent tradition of the Chinese nation, and it is also the consistent demand of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in governing and rejuvenating the country.
1. Harmony is the basis for the existence of all things in the world and the motivation for their development.
Harmony is a way of existence of all things in the world. Materialist dialectics holds that everything is the unity of contradictions, harmony is a manifestation of contradictions, and it is a state in which both sides of contradictions are interdependent, mutually conditional and coordinated under the premise of acknowledging the existence of diversity and differences of things.
As an essence of the world, harmony constitutes the basis for the existence of things and the motivation for their development. This has been profoundly discussed in the history of eastern and western philosophical thoughts. In ancient Greece, Pythagoras, a famous philosopher and mathematician, thought that "the whole day is a harmony". At the same time, he also put forward that "everything is number", "number is the essence of everything" and "the principle that existence is composed of it". In his view, everything in the world embodies the harmony of numbers and their relationships.
In ancient China, harmony was also regarded as the basis for the existence of everything and the motivation for its development. According to "Guoyu Zheng Yu", at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the famous thinker Shi Bo said: "If a husband and a real creature are the same, they will not continue. With him, he is equal to what he calls the sum, so he can be rich and return to things. " "Harmony" means difference and difference, which is the basis for the survival and development of all things, while "similarity" means simple unity, which cannot produce anything new. Therefore, "Xunzi" said: "Everything has its own harmony to live, and each has its own support to succeed." It can be seen that "harmony" is not only the basis for all things to live, but also the way for all things to achieve.
Pursuing harmony is an excellent tradition of the Chinese nation.
"Harmony" is the core concept of China traditional culture, which runs through all levels such as personal cultivation, national governance and social construction. At the individual level, harmony is an important cultivation goal. Confucius said, "Gentlemen are harmonious but different, while villains are at odds.". Confucianism believes that if you want to cultivate a gentleman, you must be good at listening to different voices and coordinating different relationships. Zhuangzi, a Taoist, said, "Heaven and earth coexist with me, and everything is one with me", and he thought that there was a symbiotic relationship between heaven and earth and me, that is, things and me were interlinked and harmonious.
In governing the country, harmony is also a value pursuit. The Analects of Confucius once said that the way to govern lies in "those who are near are happy, and those who are far away come." There are six codes of "building a country and governing the country" in Zhou Li, among which "three codes of rites" means "to harmonize the country, unify all officials and harmonize all the people". "Zuo Zhuan" said: "In the past eight years, nine princes have been in harmony, such as the harmony of music."
In the traditional culture of China, harmony is also the value basis of building an ideal society. "Ritual Movement and Great Harmony" depicts the dream of "a world of great harmony" in the hearts of the ancients: "The trip to the avenue is also the world’s public, the selection of talents and abilities, and honesty and reconciliation, so the old people are not only close to their relatives, but also their only sons and daughters, so that they can get old, be strong and useful, be young and have their own strengths, and be supported by those who are widowed, lonely and disabled; Men have points, women have returns, … is called Datong. " Obviously, Datong society is a harmonious world that perfectly regulates the natural differences between the old and the young, men and women, and the social differences between the virtuous and the foolish, public and private.
3. Building a harmonious society is the consistent pursuit of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in governing and rejuvenating the country.
Today, the Communist Party of China (CPC) people are leading the people of China on the historical journey of building a well-off society in an all-round way and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. On the one hand, after more than 30 years of reform and opening up, our economic construction has made great progress and social changes are changing with each passing day. On the other hand, we are also facing many social contradictions, such as the widening gap between urban and rural areas, the rich and the poor, the prominent contradictions in education, medical care and social security, the tense relationship between man and nature, and so on. These problems urgently require our party to put the construction of a socialist harmonious society in a more prominent position, to stimulate social vitality to the maximum, to maximize the factors of harmony and to minimize the factors of disharmony.
In 2004, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee clearly put forward the concept of "harmonious society" for the first time. In 2006, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee adopted the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Decision on Several Major Issues Concerning the Construction of a Harmonious Socialist Society, which pointed out that the construction of a harmonious socialist society should be regarded as a long-term historical task that runs through the whole process of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s construction and a major practical task of building a well-off society in an all-round way. In the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the goal of "two hundred years" was put forward, and "we must persist in promoting social harmony" was regarded as one of the eight basic requirements that must be firmly grasped to win new victories in Socialism with Chinese characteristics under the new historical conditions.
(2) Harmony is the essential attribute of Socialism with Chinese characteristics and the development direction of the human world.
As an important part of socialist core values, what is the specific connotation of harmony? We can grasp it from the following three levels: first, as far as general things are concerned, harmony is a positive display of a dialectical relationship between things; Secondly, as far as the characteristics of social form are concerned, harmony is the essential attribute of Socialism with Chinese characteristics; Thirdly, as far as the future development of human history is concerned, a harmonious world is the common value pursuit of human beings.
1. Harmony is a positive manifestation of the dialectical relationship between things.
As far as the existence and development of general things are concerned, "harmony" is the dialectical embodiment of the contradictory and unified relationship of various elements within things, and also the dialectical relationship between different things that complement each other and develop together. In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, the word "harmony" is interpreted as "corresponding also" and extended to the meaning of mutual harmony. The original word "harmony", "harmony", refers to the harmony of music and extends to the meaning of harmony and harmony. According to the Modern Chinese Dictionary, harmony means proper coordination without being awkward, harmony without being awkward.
In China’s traditional cultural ideas, harmony has important axiological implications. Confucianism says, "Harmony is the most important thing for courtesy." "The Book of Changes Gangua": "When the main roads change, each of them is right, and it is beneficial to protect the Taihe." "Protecting harmony and harmony" has become a brilliant realm of value pursuit. Moreover, harmony has been elevated to the heights of world outlook and ontology in China’s traditional culture. "The Book of Rites, the Doctrine of the Mean": "Those who are moderate are the foundation of the world; He who is in harmony is also in the world. Neutralization, the status of heaven, and the education of everything. "
2. Harmony is the essential attribute of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
In the history of human development, harmony is a common value pursuit. However, before the emergence of socialism, other social forms could not establish a truly harmonious society because of their own institutional limitations. Marxism holds that only by establishing a socialist system can social harmony and people’s free and all-round development be truly realized.
What are the characteristics of a truly harmonious society in the future? Marx described this in his communist ideal: "This kind of communism, … is the real solution to the contradiction between man and nature, between man and man, and the real solution to the struggle between existence and essence, objectification and self-confirmation, freedom and necessity, and between individuals and classes." [Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, People’s Publishing House, 2000), p. 81. One of the essential characteristics of an ideal society in the future is that it completely realizes the harmony of various contradictory relations (man and nature, man and man). Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the initial stage towards the future communist society, which will prepare the conditions and provide the foundation for the ultimate realization of the future ideal harmonious society described by Marx. In this sense, social harmony is not only the requirement of an ideal society in the future, but also the essential attribute of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. Broadly speaking, the socialist concept of harmony roughly includes the following aspects:
First, the harmony between people is the harmony of social relations. Man is the product of social relations. "The essence of man is not an abstract thing inherent in a single person. In reality, it is the sum of all social relations. " [Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 1, People’s Publishing House, 1995, p. 56. As a product of social relations, the all-round development of human beings inevitably implies correctly handling the relations between individuals and between individuals and between individuals and society. Marxism holds that human development depends on the development of social relations. "Social relations actually determine how far a person can develop." Under the capitalist conditions, due to the existence of private ownership and the old division of labor, people’s various social relations are alienated and reversed. In order to realize the free and all-round development of human beings, we must reverse all kinds of alienated social relations, "overthrow all relations that make people insulted, enslaved, abandoned and despised" and "return the relationship between people and the world to people themselves." [The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 3, People’s Publishing House, 2002, p. 189. Therefore, in order to realize the harmony between people, it is necessary to overthrow capitalist private ownership and the old social division of labor and establish a socialist production relationship and political system.
Second, the harmony between man and nature, that is, the harmony between man and nature. Man is a part of nature, and nature "is the foundation on which we human beings (itself a product of nature) grow". [Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 4, People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 222. According to Marxism, the two basic problems facing people’s liberation are how to deal with the contradictions between man and nature and between people: "The two major changes facing our world are the reconciliation between man and nature and the reconciliation between man and himself." [The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 1, People’s Publishing House, 1956), p. 603. Under the capitalist system, private ownership stimulates people to constantly pursue the maximization of individual interests, and people also appear as conquerors of nature. Engels gave a serious warning to the ecological imbalance caused by capitalism: "We should not be too intoxicated with our victory over nature. For every such victory, nature retaliates against us. " In order to achieve "reconciliation" with nature, human beings "need to completely change the mode of production that we have existed so far and the whole social system that we have today with this mode of production". [Engels: Dialectics of Nature, People’s Publishing House, 1984, p. 306. The destructive power to the natural environment developed in the capitalist system needs the "control of United producers" to be overcome. Therefore, the harmony between man and nature can only be truly realized in the socialist system: "Socialized people,United producers will reasonably adjust the material transformation between them and nature and put it under their common control. "["Das Kapital "Volume 3, People’s Publishing House, 1975), pp. 926-927. ]
Third, the harmony of international relations. Harmony, as the essential attribute of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, is not only the value criterion that our domestic construction follows, but also the value criterion that we actively advocate in handling international relations. China proposed to build a harmonious society internally, and advocated to build a harmonious world externally. The idea of a harmonious world is an international extension of the idea of a harmonious society, and they are consistent in value pursuit and behavior logic. The concept of socialist harmonious world advocates that in the face of ethnic conflicts, national conflicts, differences in civilizations and other issues, we should tolerate differences with an open attitude, resolve conflicts through dialogue, and seek a win-win situation through cooperation. The harmonious world outlook contained in the socialist harmonious values represents the universal requirements and future direction of the human world, is the realistic embodiment of the world historical significance of the socialist harmonious view, and reflects the common value demands of the human world.
(C) to cultivate and carry forward the socialist harmonious values
Today, the social construction of China’s socialist modernized countries has made positive progress, but there are also problems that affect social harmony, such as diversified value demands, prominent interest disputes and frequent contradictions and conflicts. It is a long way to go to cultivate and practice the socialist harmonious values. On the one hand, we should be good at inheriting and carrying forward the harmonious value concept contained in the excellent cultural tradition of the Chinese nation; On the other hand, we should follow the general law of cultivating core values and internalize them in our hearts and externalize them in our actions. In addition, we should combine the practice of cultivating and carrying forward socialist harmonious values with the practice of building a harmonious society.
1. Based on the excellent traditional Chinese culture, inherit and carry forward the harmonious wisdom of the Chinese nation.
The Supreme Leader pointed out in the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee’s 13th collective study speech that the firm core values have their inherent roots. Abandoning tradition and losing the roots is tantamount to cutting off one’s spiritual lifeline. Don’t forget that you can open up the future, and you can innovate better if you are good at inheritance. Specific to the cultivation of socialist harmonious values, we should dig deep into and expound the excellent values of Chinese excellent traditional culture, such as kindness, harmony and harmony, and seeking great harmony, and actively absorb the harmonious wisdom of the Chinese nation in dealing with the relationship between body and mind, the relationship between people and ethnic groups. For example, physical and mental harmony, China’s traditional philosophy holds that physical and mental harmony can help people to be in a healthy state in life and mind. Another example is the harmony between ethnic groups and nations. During the 5,000-year or even longer period, the Chinese nation has been continuously integrating with many regions and ethnic groups, forming the cultural ideal of "one country under the sun" and "harmony among all nations" in concept, and harmony has become an important principle and goal in dealing with ethnic relations. Of course, we should also handle the relationship between inheritance and creative development, persist in making the past serve the present, bring forth the new, treat it discriminately, inherit it without discarding the useless, and focus on creative transformation and innovative development.
2. Follow the general law of value construction, and earnestly internalize it in the heart and externalize it in the line.
We should strengthen the advocacy of harmonious values and strive to make socialist harmonious values the mainstream value orientation of the whole society. Through the guidance of public opinion, cultural edification and practice cultivation, we should internalize the socialist harmonious values into the value concept and spiritual pursuit of every social individual, guide people to understand things with harmonious thinking, treat problems with harmonious attitude and handle contradictions in a harmonious way. To cultivate and carry forward the values of socialist harmony, we should be good at externalizing it and integrating it into people’s daily social life, so that people can perceive it, understand it and practice it in practice, and make great efforts in detail, smallness and implementation. Only when every citizen becomes a "harmonious element" can the whole society become a harmonious society. As a citizen, we should start from ourselves and from now on, actively integrate into the practice of building a harmonious society, and gradually realize the harmony between body and mind, interpersonal relationship, human and society, and human and nature.
3. Combine the socialist harmonious values with the practice of building a socialist harmonious society.
Cultivating and practicing socialist harmonious values must be combined with the current practice of building a socialist harmonious society in China. The harmonious society to be built in China is "a society of democracy and rule of law, fairness and justice, honesty and friendship, vitality, stability and order, and harmony between man and nature". A harmonious society should be a democratic society ruled by law. People’s rights and obligations, as well as various social relations, should be regulated and determined by law, and the whole society should form a sense and atmosphere of obeying the law. Harmonious society should be a fair and just society, and it is necessary to properly coordinate the interests of all parties and correctly handle various social contradictions; Harmonious society should be an honest and friendly society. The whole society is honest and trustworthy, equal and friendly, and helps each other to form a harmonious interpersonal environment. A harmonious society should be a vibrant society, and all positive factors should be mobilized to make all creative wishes conducive to social progress respected, creative activities supported, creative talents brought into play and creative achievements affirmed; A harmonious society should be a stable and orderly society. It is necessary to establish various mechanisms to coordinate social contradictions, integrate social management resources, establish new social governance mechanisms, and maintain social stability. A harmonious society should be one in which man and nature live in harmony. We should strictly follow the requirements of Scientific Outlook on Development, build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, coordinate the relationship between man and nature, and promote sustainable development.