Ray Huang's Macro-history From The Perspective Of Historical Materialism

"1587,A Year of No Significance" is a historical analysis book written by Chinese-American scholar Ray Huang.The book describes the failure of six characters,depicting the various forms of society in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty from the side.The analysis points out that the traditional Chinese society of the Ming Dynasty "replaced laws and technology with morality" and lacked the "digital management system" of modern society from the perspective of technological history,which was the fundamental reason for the decline of the traditional Chinese society.In fact,Mr.Huang takes modern society as the standpoint,analyzes the historical situation of the Ming Dynasty from the perspective of modern people,examines the traditional Chinese moral culture system,and intends to explore the way of China's modernization transformation.This article is based on the perspective of Marxist Historical Materialism,and dialectically examines the ideology of "macro-history" from technical perspective.From the standpoint of modernity,Mr.Huang revealed the arbitrariness of Chinese traditional social moral values.He pointed out that replacing administration,law,and technology with morality can only restrain people's thinking,move toward moral alienation,and become an obstacle to social development.It's reasonable.However,with the development of modern technology and the extensive increase of material wealth,human activities are no longer"free and conscious practical activities",and gradually become a vassal of machines.People become the existence of "machines",and material selfish desires and social problems emerge,and social contradictions are deepening.To realize the liberation and free development of human beings and solve the problems of social reality,it is necessary to use the normative power of moral culture to enrich and satisfy people's spiritual life and promote their overall progress.From this perspective,"macro-history" regards technology and rationality as the core elements of modernization,equates western capitalism with modernization,and regards it as a model of China's modernization path.The essence of this historical concept is to examine the pre-modern culture from the perspective of modern westernization,only emphasizing the importance of history and rational evaluation,but ignoring the normative and value-oriented role of the moral culture scale on social and historical development.It is not comprehensive and complete enough.Marxist historical materialism bases on the standpoint of the modern people,modern production and life,pursuing the liberation,freedom and comprehensive development of mankind on the basis of the full development of the socio-economic foundation and the wealth of material wealth,combining rationality with morality,tradition and modernity,which is a broader perspective and a more comprehensive and scientific "macro-history."The publication of "1587,A Year of No Significance" coincides with China's new period of reform and opening-up,large-scale economic construction,and modernization.Huang's thoughts on history as a starting point to discuss China's modernization transformation has caused widespread controversy:how does China achieve modernization?Should China emulate the West?For more than 40 years,the development practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics has given a clear answer:China's modernization is guided by Marxist theory and combined with the reality of China's social development,summing up the positive and negative experiences during the period of socialist construction,and it constantly explores a unique modernization path suitable for China's own development in practice.The development of socialism with Chinese characteristics adheres to the dominant position of the people,adheres to economic construction as the center,and coordinately promotes the construction of political civilization,socialist culture,and ecological civilization,in order to build a prosperous,powerful,democratic,civilized,harmonious,and beautiful socialist modem power,and to struggle for the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation tirelessly.Nowadays,China is moving towards the center of the world stage in a more high-profile manner,standing in the forest of the nations of the world.The development practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics has surpassed the narrow vision of Huang's so-called "macro-history" of Western modernization and technological modernization.The successful example of the combination of historical materialism theory and Chinese socialist practice provides a "Chinese wisdom" for solving the problems of globalization,the crisis of capitalist social modernization,western economic problems,and the modernization development of developing countries.