The Traditional View Of Early Chinese Marxists

The traditional concept can not seperate from the cultural consciousness and cultural self-confidence.The so-called traditional concept is the traditional theoretical understanding.The traditional concept has its own world view and methodological basis,its various components have inherent logical connection,is self-contained,always consistent.It emphasizes the traditional systematic,holistic understanding,rather than the traditional sporadic ideas or views.The modern Chinese traditional concept stemed from the change of the academic thought at that time.In late Qing dynasty,the spring up of the classical learning based on new texts of Confucian classics,the question of the classical learning based on earlier texts initiated by Wei Yuan,Gong Zizhen,Kang Youweie as well as the advocacy of Putting What is Learned into Practice,shaked the position of Confucian classics and opened the gate for people to reflect on the Chinese tradition.From the late Qing dynasty to the early Republic of China,the introduction of large amount of western ideological trends provided new theoretical resources for intellectuals to reflect on the Chinese tradition from the perspective of Chinese-western comparison.To the May Fourth Period,afong with the formation of the academic schools,the different schools of thoughts in the traditional concept eventually generated.From different sides,the early Chinese Marxist,by concretely presenting the traditional concept and leading them from the academic range to the practical one,found the realistic power to promote the change of Chinese tradition,and laid the scientific foundation for the modern Chinese traditional concept.Li Dazhao is the first modern Chinese Marxist.He mainly laid the development direction of the traditional concept of the early Marxists from the theoretical view.He applied the Marxist historical materialism to the understanding of the Confucianist tradition and the historical tradition,which opened the research of Chinese traditbn from the Marxist theory.Based on the connectioon between the old and new tradition,Li Dazhao advocated that it should critically blend the fectors in nev era to realize the modernization of the tradition with the vital content in the tradition as the basis.As a result,he mainly researched the starting points of the transformation from the tradition to the modernization from three aspects of Confucius,people-oriented doctrine,as well as the historical tradition.Through the differentiation and analysis of the true and false ofConfucius,and the criticism ofthe Confucian people-oriented tradition,he affirmed the creativity and the spirit of advancing with the times of Confucius,as well as the modern significance ofthe mores of the people,the power of the people,and the will of the people under Confucianism,and promoted the modernization of the Confucian tradition.Through critically inheriting the feudal old perspective of history,and placing the tradition in the objective historical process,he made the ancient-modern contact transformed from the abstract contact ofthe Confucian orthodoxy type into the concrete historical one.Chen Duxiu made the new direction opened by Li Dazhao go further from the ideological field to the political field.Chen thought that the development of the society is implemented through the qualitative change,and the relationship between the old and the new is the competitive relation of vital importance.He highlighted the qualitative difference between the old and the new to the utmost,and advocated a fierce revolutionary way to promote the transformation from the tradition to the modernization.He fiercely criticized the traditional ideology,national personality,and feudal state outlook,and tried to achieve the purpose of establishing the new through the way of destroying the old.As a result,he carried on the intense critique to the disadvantages of tradition,namely the content in the tradition that is opposite to the modern value.He criticized the hierarchy of Confiucian ethical code and incorrigibility of the people,as well as the backwardness of the feudal national outlook concerning the isomorphism of the family and the state.Through the critique of the disadvantages of the traditibn as well as the introduction ofthe new value,he realized the modernization of the tradition,and established a foundation of the national democratic countries in the true sense.Along the direction made by Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu,Qu Qiubai advanced his reflections on tradition into the field of social revolution.He applied the Marxist dialectical materialism to the understanding of tradition,and then,clearly put forward the method of critical inheritance.Qu Qiubai,from the perspective of the dialectical relations between the old and the new,criticized the tradition of Buddhism,Confucianism and peasant revolution with the historicist view and class position.Through his critique on the Buddhist tradition,the Buddhist idealistic world view was dispelled,as well as the dialectical thinking and the spirit of sacrifice of the Buddhism was affirmed,which was integrated into the proletarian world outlook and outtook on life.Through his critique on the hierarchical system,ideology and ethic in Confucian tradition,the revolution in the field of ideology and culture was promoted,and the shackles of feudal ideas was swept away for the proletariat revolution.Finally,through the critique on the tradition of Chinese peasant revolution,Qu Qiubai,on the one hand,demonstrated the legitimacy of the peasant revolution;on the other hand,demonstrated that the Chinese Communist Party and the worker-peasant alliance are the true inheritor and developer ofthe tradition.It is Qu Qiubai’s idea that only the worker-peasant revolution under the leadership of the proletariat can make tradition realize the real rebirth.In the process of controversy with liberalism,conservatism and the Three People’s principles,the early Chinese Marxists formed the traditional concept,which is based on the positbn of the proletariat,is guided by the Marxist historical materialism and materialistic dialectics,as well as is in the method of critical inheritance.The traditional concept of early Chinese Marxists prepared for the development of the new academic form in China,and created a new revolutionary road.More importantly,it awakened the actual forces,and found the true inheritor and developer of the tradition-the Chinese Communist Party and the worker-peasant alliance.The traditibnal concept of the early Marxists laid the foundation ofthe traditional concept of science and practice in modern China,opened up a new path of traditional transformation to the modern society,and promoted the course of combining Marxism with Chinese traditional culture.Today,in the epoch topic of cultural consciousness and cultural confidence,it is very meaningful that we draw lessons from the traditional concept of the early Marxists,absorb the essence,and further promote the inheritance and development of traditfonal culture combined with the demands of the times.