Mao Zedong’s Marxism Thought Orientation During The May Fourth Period

During the May Fourth period,Mao Zedong realized his ideological orientation and became a Marxist revolutionary.Judging from his ideological experience,three main links and two ideological chains are the internal causes of his ideological orientation,and the external causes are the themes and ideological motifs of modern China and the main social contradictions reflected in them.In modern China,the historical mission of saving the nation and revitalizing the nation needs to be undertaken by newcomers of the times.The transition of the Chinese nation from decline to rejuvenation requires arousing the people,organizing society,and building a modern country.All in all,modern China was faced with three major revolutionary demands:social revolution,ideological revolution and ethical revolution.These demands were fully reflected in the New Culture Movement and gradually turned into a practical program after the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement.During his studies in Hunan First Normal University,Mao Zedong put forward two ethical propositions: spiritual individualism and realism,thus forming the theory of perfection that is committed to the free and comprehensive development of individuals.On the one hand,influenced by the New Culture Movement,Mao Zedong believed that individual liberation constituted the logical origin,social motive force and historical purpose of a country’s prosperity.On the other hand,the ideal of freedom and humanity pursued by individuals is full of tension with the harsh historical reality and urgent revolutionary tasks faced by the nation.When dealing with the contradiction between the individual and the collective,the ego and the big ego,Mao Zedong experienced a change from using his two major ethical propositions in his early years to using Marxism.At the same time,these two major ethical propositions also expanded into two major chain of thought has become an important thinking tool for him to deal with the profound contradictions between subjectivity and objectivity,freedom and necessity,truth and value.Through the dialectical unity of practice and knowledge,the discussion and concord between problems and doctrines,and the integration of revolution and enlightenment,Mao Zedong realized his ideological orientation and became a staunch Chinese Marxist revolutionary.The young Mao Zedong paid the same attention to the philosophical revolution as the young Marx did to the ethical revolution.Based on the idea of perfectionism that has removed mysticism,they pursue the free and comprehensive development of individuals and the prosperity of human beings,and in the collective practice on which this noble pursuit depends,they see the eternal spark of humanity of“abiding by the highest good”in the historical cave.