The Rise Of "Human":A Study Of Humanism Trends In The Early 1980s(1978-1984)

In the early 1980 s,China's reform and opening up led to great social changes.The changes then became the start of many social and cultural trends during this period,such as the ideological liberation movement,the New Enlightenment,scar literature,introspection literature and existentialism.The humanism trend also appeared in this background.But what turns a thought into a trend? Liang Qichao once pointed out,a thought appeared as a trend because it had great value and also met the needs of the time.From this point of view,we can find out that these various social trends in the1980 s shared,expressed and solved the same important issue —the “human” problem,from the scope of their respective disciplines.In the 1980 s,the “human” problem began in a humanistic way.Humanism is a ideological system about human,it is also a theme,which is beyond the time limit,appears repeatedly in specific historical occasions and whose value of concerns are changed significantly.Therefore,humanism is not a simple and self-evident ideological system,its appearance contains the concerns of the core value in a particular time.The discussion about humanism also implies an answer to these concerns.Through the investigation of “the humanism trends in the early 1980s” and the study of its discourse on “human”,the core problemantique of this study has been formed— What discourse resources it borrowed in a specific historical context to form the special discourse and structure of “humanism”? At the same time how did this particular discourse form constitute an integrated social ideological and cultural trend to demonstrate its ideological appeal in the historical context of the early 1980s?From the perspective of research,this study started from the interaction between knowledges and thoughts,and analyzed with the help of two different clues.One of them was “the trend”,which related to the central concern,theoretical presuppositions and focus of debates in the 1980 s.The other clue was the “thought” of the trend.Humanism was the core of the thought,it involved the origin and evolution of the concept “humanism”.Started from these two clues,which were different in nature but jointly constituted the theme of this research.This study mainly responded to: Why did the humanism trends arise in the early 1980s? Which discourse forms were involved?What kind of ideological resources were borrowed? How did ideological differences show on debate level? What did the trends achieve in response to the central concerns of the 1980s?In a word,the humanism trends in the early 1980 s actually concentrated on the issue of “human” and made a theoretical rediscovery,rediscussion and limited reconfirmation of “human”.In the early 1980 s,human became the core concerns of the society because with the expanding influence of the socialist class struggle from 1950 s to 1970 s,original discourse of classified people was gradually understood as the class natural of human.In the early 1980 s,promoted by the perceptual reflection of literature and the emphasis on beauty as a human experience in aesthetic current,the ideological and theoretical circles began to return to the theoretical perspective of human— the rediscovery of “human”.With the rediscovery of “human”,the ideological theoretical circles began to explore the theoretical issues related to “human”,namely rediscussed on “human” with the help of the Max's Manuscripts of 1844,the translation results of foreign Marxism,the internal marginal ideological resources of socialism from1950 to 1960.The symptomatic problem structure of the trends was formed in the discussion.These perceptual writing and intellectual debates on human were not worthless,on the contrary,they were of great importance.In fact,the perceptual writing of literature emphasized the dignity,value and rights of individuals born as human beings.Theoretical intellectual debates were not only ideological differences,but also about with which theoretical resources and cognitive framework to understand and solve problems.Finally,along with the investigation,the humanism trends in the early 1980 s faded away with the intervention of two important theorists: Zhou Yang and Hu Qiaomu.However,compared with the discourse which only emphasized the “class nature”,with the fading of humanism trends,it also completed the processes of reconfirming the concept of “human” in theory.From the perspective of the continuity of ideological history,the humanism trends in the early 1980 s can be regarded as the starting point of later discussions on “subjectivity”,loss of humanistic spirt and the beginning of peopleoriented thoughts.Therefore,it was also the prelude to the rise of “human” in the contemporary Chinese ideological history.