Lectures on China's Traditional Political Thoughts

FOREWORD

Throughout the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), it has always attached great importance to theoretical innovation based on practice. It has always equipped itself with the achievements of theoretical innovation, educated its people, led its way forward and pooled its strength of struggles. More than seventy years ago, Popular Philosophy—a popular book written by the famous Marxist philosopher Ai Siqi, led generations of intellectuals with aspirations to take the right path of life and influenced several generations of Chinese readers.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward a series of new thoughts, new perspectives, new assertions and new requirements in response to the new requirements of the development of the times and new expectations of the people. These latest achievements in promoting theoretical innovation have reflected the needs of the people and helped them to reach a consensus by telling stories, citing examples and presenting facts in simple and vivid words, enhancing the people’s recognition and knowledge of the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, highlighting the basic characteristics of the popularization of contemporary Chinese Marxism, which becomes a new paradigm of the popularization of theoretical innovation in the new era.

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INTRODUCTION

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, in order to implement the policy of combining the advanced construction experience of the Soviet Union with the concrete realities of China and to build a new socialist China, a Russian language training program was set up in North China University, through which young cadres were organized to study Russian, and the author was placed in Class 7. At the beginning of 1950 a number of research offices were set up, such as the Research Office of Marxism-Leninism, and the Research Office of Economy. The author was assigned to the Law Group of the Research Office of Law and Diplomacy, along with Zhang Kejing, Huang Wenzhong, Chai Zhonglin, Wu Shan and Wang Xiangming. And Han Mingli, Yin Ping and Lin Jingren joined in them later. At the beginning, led by Comrade He Wushuang, their main task was to go to the Ministry of Justice and listen to courses on Marxist jurisprudence by Soviet experts Sudarikov (Н.Г.Судариков), Bykov (Б.С.Быков) and Tikhvinsky (С.Л.Тихвинский). In May of the same year, a school supervisor invited Professor He Sijing to teach them the classical works on Marxist politics and law, such as The German Ideology (Die Deutsche Ideologie), The Communist Manifesto, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Die Entwicklung des Sozialismus von der Utopie zur Wissenschaft), Jurist Socialism (Juristen-Sozialismus) (the book ←1 | 2→was later proved not to have been written by Friedrich Engels himself), and The State and Revolution (Государство и революция). He was very strict with them, asking them to take notes of and discuss about each book. After the establishment of Renmin University of China, a Marxist evening college was established in 1951 to improve the theoretical level of young teachers and cadres in Marxism-Leninism, with two years of schooling and primarily basic theoretical courses such as Marxist political economy, philosophy and the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) and that of the CPC. The author was among the first graduates of the school. This period of study has laid a solid theoretical foundation for them.

Since the fall of 1950, the author has been working as a teacher in the Teaching and Research Section of State and Legal Theory in the Law Department of Renmin University of China (the title system was not yet in place in China’s universities), teaching theory courses on state and law. Different sections of the course were at first taught by several teachers jointly, and later the entire course was taught by individuals on their own. In 1952, in order to implement the teaching plan, the Teaching and Research Section decided that Hu Jin, Feng Jingyuan and the author formed a teaching team for the course on the history of Western political thoughts. 1 They studied the history of Western political thoughts systematically under the guidance of Soviet experts Professor Semerihin (Е.М.Семерихиин) and Professor Valiakhmetov (Г.М.Валиахметов) successively. Professor Valiakhmetov once gave them a systematic lecture on the history of Western political thoughts based on the textbook edited by Kechekian (С.Ф.Кечекъян). The course was taken by young teachers from the Law Department of Renmin University of China, as well as teachers from other schools. Mr. Wu Enyu, who taught at Beijing Academy of Political Science and Law (the predecessor of the China University of Political Science and Law), also joined the class, and from then on the author got to know him and his wife, Ms. Luo Jinglan (who worked at the Commercial Press), both of whom the author regarded as his mentors and together they discussed professional issues.²

In the fall of 1955, the author taught his first course on the history of Western political thoughts to the first undergraduate class of the Law Department of Renmin University of China. From then on, the history of Western political thoughts became his basic professional preference and research interest, which has remained unchanged till now.

Over the past years, the author has adhered to the following three basic principles whether in teaching or in research: 1. to be guided by Marxism; 2. to strive to reveal the laws of the development of Western political thoughts ←2 | 3→(the attributes of class, era and inheritance); 3. to study the West for the sake of China and to serve China’s socialist construction.

Speaking of his connection with the history of Chinese political thoughts, actually the author has long been associated with it. As early as in his childhood, he began to receive education on traditional Chinese culture. In primary school, the Chinese course of the third grade included texts in ancient Chinese, in which there was a lesson on “Confucius, Laozi and Mozi”, and he remembered asking, “Who are Confucius, Laozi and Mozi?” At home, his grandfather would constantly talk about the Three-character Classic3 and Zhu Zi (Bolu)’s Family Precepts⁴.

During high school, the author met Mr. Wu Daxun, his Chinese teacher, in the second year of junior high school, who lectured on Chuci⁵ (Li Sao⁶ in the first semester and Jiu Zhang, or Nine Declarations and Jiu Ge, or Nine Songs in the second semester) in both semesters of the year. Mr. Wu gave powerful and emotional lectures. At that time, during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the students not only received education on the traditional culture, but also were deeply affected by Qu Yuan’s⁷ patriotism, grief and anger, which they still remember now. When the author was in the second year of senior high school, he went to Mr. Wu Yuru’s home once a week to study Zuo’s Commentary on The Spring and Autumn Annals and Records of the Historian for half a year.

During his university years, through an old friend of his father, the author was introduced to Mr. Feng Xiaozhuo. For more than two years, Mr. Feng taught him The Analects and Mencius systematically, imparting knowledge of ancient Chinese culture and methods of study, and guiding him in the practice of calligraphy. This period of study built him up a good foundation of traditional Chinese culture.

The author also pointed out that his love of Peking Opera, which was influenced by his family since he was a child, was of great benefit to his reading of Chinese history, cultivation of Chinese culture, and the establishment of good moral convictions and character.

The author’s formal introduction to the history of Chinese political thoughts was during his time at Renmin University of China, when in 1952 they began to study the history of political thoughts using a textbook edited by the Soviet Union’s Kechekian, which was structured in three parts: Western European and North American political thoughts, Russian political thoughts and Marxist political thoughts. At that time, Soviet experts particularly reminded them that Chinese students should earnestly study and research ←3 | 4→their own political and cultural traditions, that is, the history of Chinese political thoughts, and cultivate patriotic feelings. Inspired by this, the three of them went to the Department of Philosophy at Peking University to audit Mr. Zhu Bokun’s course on the history of Chinese philosophy and Mr. Zhu Qianzhi’s course on historical materials of Chinese philosophy, in preparation for starting the course on the history of Chinese political thoughts later.