Discussion On The Chinese Maxims In The First Half Of 20th Century

The special valuable research was about the primitive society in the first half of 20th century.On the one hand,Marxist historians,guided by historical materialism,constructed the historical system of Chinese primitive society with the interdisciplinary methods of archaeology,anthropology,political economy,etc.Which there is something unique in the reconstruction of ancient history in the early 20 th century.On the other hand,Marxists are trying hard to outline a primitive communist society without private property,class,or oppression.On the surface,they are intended to reveal the absurdity of "private ownership theory,"and the essence is to answer the times Proposition of"Where Does China Go?"They project the future communist society in a vision of communism with no private property and no class in the primitive society.It further indicates that China will eventually reach a highly developed communist society with productive forces.It is with the persistence of this idea that Chinese Marxists have carried out nearly 30 years of primitive social studies.The article is divided into five chapters.The first chapter analyzes the academic background of the rise of Chinese Marxist primitive society research.In the 1920s,the suspicious ancient movement rise up in the research field of ancient Chinese history,breaking the long-standing superstition of the ancient golden world.However,the turbid thoughts have not only prevented the people from learning about the ancient times,but also strengthened their exploration of scientific methods.At the same time,Marxism was introduced into China as a social trend of thought,not only as a theoretical weapon for intellectuals to transform China,but also as a tool for them to explain history.It is in this context that Chinese Marxists began to introduce related theories of primitive society.The second chapter reviews the research history of Chinese Marxists in the first half of the 20th century.The study of the primitive society of the Chinese Marxists began in the 1920s to the end of the 40s and has experienced development for nearly three decades.In general,the study of the Chinese Marxist primitive society in the 1920s was at the stage of theoretical propaganda.This period was dominated by social evolution-ism that advocated Marxism.The primitive society was known as one of the stages of social evolution.After the 30’s,while continuing to propagate social evolution,Marxists began to try Chinese primitive society.Marxist historians represented by Lu Zhenyu began to explore how to construct China’s primitive social system while adhering to the universal law of the development of human primitive society.In the 1940s,the study of China’s primitive society began to diversify.Not only the monographs of primitive social history have emerged one after another,but as the Marxists interpreted China’s history with five social form theories,the study of primitive society appeared in the general history of China.Marxists,under the premise of adhering to the general law of the development of human society,have begun to pay attention to the uniqueness of Chinese history.So the study of the primitive society has emerged from the emphasis on the "general" to the emphasis on the "common"and "special" transition characteristics.The third chapter summarizes the themes of the study of the Chinese Marxists’ primitive society.The research on the primitive society of Chinese Marxism is rich in content,some of which are themes throughout,such as "origin of primitive mankind","equality of primitive society","female of primitive society".Marxists attach great importance to the issue of "origin of primitive humanity."Their cognition of the origin of primitive humanity has undergone a transition from "man is a god,not a god" to "labor has created a man."With the prevalence of opinions among the Chinese people,Marxists turned the exploration of the origin of primitive humans into the analysis of the origin of the Chinese race.The "primitive society’s equality" is manifested in the political primitive democracy.Marxists mostly use the ancient Chinese "consignment system" to demonstrate the existence of primitive democracy;Economic equality means that the primitive society has no private property.Marxists reveal the phenomenon of non-private property in the primitive society,which purpose is to expose the absurdity of the"private ownership theory".About "primary society women."Marxists generally believe that there is a matriarchal society in the primitive society before the patrilineal society,and that women have a certain dominant position.However,this understanding has been proved by the anthropologists to be wrong.The matriarchal society is not universal,and the matriarchal society is not necessarily a patrilineal society after the decline.At the same time,the status of women in the matriarchal society is better than men,but there is not a matriarchal society.The fourth chapter analyzes the research methods of Chinese Marxist primitive society.Under the guidance of historical materialism,the Chinese Marxists adopted an interdisciplinary approach based on the integration of history with archeology,anthropology,philology,and political economy.In specific studies,they revolved around the three disciplines of history,archeology,and anthropology.Here,the method of history focuses on historical materials.Marxists have made some differences in the selection of historical materials and the use of"pseudo-historical materials." Marxists study archeology with archaeology.They are expressed in the following ways:First,Marxists added a large number of prehistoric archaeological discoveries to the writing of primitive society.Second,due to the limitations of their own archaeological theory,they mostly use archaeological materials to prove certain features of the primitive society and lack of analysis of archaeological materials.They use the anthropological methods,which is more studied by Engels and Morgan.This is specifically in the three aspects of the stage of the primitive society,the cognition of the evolution of the family structure in the primitive society,and the universality of the development process of the ancient society.Because of Engels’s absorption and modification of Morgan’s theory,there are certain deviations from the Chinese Marxists’ understanding of Morgan’s primitive social theory.For example,Morgan’s original social staging law proved to be no longer applicable,and Engels’s discussion of the matriarchal system was also proved by anthropologists to be absurd.However,from the perspective of history of thought,we should not ignore the influence of Morgan and Engels on the study of Chinese Marxist primitive society.The fifth chapter analyzes and summarizes the ultimate purport of the study of the Chinese Marxist primitive society in the first half of the 20th century.The ultimate goal of the study of Chinese Marxist primitive society is to project the communist society with primitive society and to answer the question of "where does China go?”.When the Marxists described the original communist society as having no private property,no class,no oppression,and a beautiful scene of freedom,equality,and friendship between people,they would consciously emphasize the low productivity and brutal life of the primitive society.status.This seemingly contradictory statement is intended to highlight the future communist society and it is the ultimate ownership of human society.At the same time,the communist ideology has some similarities with the Chinese traditional Great Harmony ideology.Therefore,Chinese Marxists often quote the description of the traditional Da Tong society to demonstrate the beauty and freedom of the original communist society.However,they are very clear that the ultimate ownership of the traditional Da Tong society is to return to the past,and the primitive society will certainly decline and move toward a highly developed communist society.In short,the study of China’ s Marxist primitive society is a complex proposition that combines academics and ideology.From the perspective of academic research,the theoretical methods based on Chinese primitive society research in the first half of the 20th century were based on Morgan’s original social staging method,the discussion of matriarchal society,and the interpretation of China’ s primitive social history with five social form theories.Modern scholars have proved that there are certain mistakes and questions to be discussed.However,in the first half of the 20th century,the Marxists constructed a Chinese primitive society,which filled a blank for the "nobody cares" Chinese ancient history.From an ideological history point of view,facing with the era proposition of“Where does China go?”,Marxists,through the study of primitive society,indicate that China will eventually move toward a highly developed communist society with productive forces.This is precisely the value of the intellectual history of China’ s Marxist primitive society research in the first half of the 20th century.