Tian Xinming： Beware of the New Variant of Historical Nihilism

Historical nihilism is one of the erroneous ideological trends with great influence in China. Its main manifestation is to deny history, especially to distort and deny the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the history of New China, and then to deny the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s leading position and China’s socialist system. Opposing historical nihilism is an important manifestation of the current ideological struggle. It is worth noting that with the deepening of the struggle, a new trend has emerged recently. Some people took over the slogan of opposing historical nihilism and accused Marxism of "historical nihilism", showing an intention to muddy the water and turn the debate around historical nihilism into a melee. To "nihilist" Marxism in the name of opposing historical nihilism, and then to deny the history of the Party and New China in a more thorough form, is a new variant of historical nihilism, which we have to be vigilant about.

First, how was Marxism labeled as "historical nihilism"?

In his southern talk in the spring of 1992, Deng Xiaoping briefly summarized the law of social development revealed by historical materialism. He said: "Feudal society replaces slave society, capitalism replaces feudalism, and socialism will inevitably replace capitalism after a long process of development. This is the irreversible general trend of social and historical development, but the road is tortuous. " (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Volume 3, People’s Publishing House, 1993, pp. 382-383) He also said: "We people have communist ideals and beliefs in our minds. To educate our next generation and two generations in particular, we must establish the lofty ideal of communism. " (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Volume 3, People’s Publishing House, 1993).

It is such a scientific social and historical viewpoint, but now it has been labeled as "historical nihilism"

Some commentators described what he called "Marx’s historical schema" as follows: As people know, Marx has a theory of five historical stages, namely, primitive communist society-slave society-feudal society-capitalist society-communist society; He also has a three-stage theory, that is, primitive communist society-class society-communist society. The three-stage theory is consistent with the five-stage theory. It should be said that such a statement, although not accurate, is generally in line with the Marxist theory of social formation, and is not contradictory to the above-mentioned generalization by Deng Xiaoping. However, how to evaluate these ideas, there have been fundamental differences and oppositions. In making the above summary, Deng Xiaoping firmly stated: "I firmly believe that there will be more people in favor of Marxism in the world, because Marxism is a science." ("Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping", Volume 3, People’s Publishing House, 1993, p. 382) However, the above viewpoint holds that Marx ended history in the future communist stage, and such a historical diagram … negates the middle with two ends and ends history in an imaginary future stage. The so-called "denying the middle with two ends" and "ending history in an imaginary future stage" here are what this view calls "historical nihilism" This view holds that Marx’s historical diagram is indeed very similar to that of Christianity. Although he affirmed the achievements of capitalism and thought that capitalism was the peak of world civilization at present, he finally denied the history of capitalism with an envisaged future life stage. In his view of history,From slave society, feudal society to capitalist society, it is a "class society" and a degeneration of human nature; Capitalism is alienated no matter what achievements it has made, and its political system, economic system, social system and moral concept will be completely abandoned. This is obviously out of the ideological line of enlightenment and into historical nihilism.

From this point of view, this view can be summarized as three main points: first, history is going to end, and all historical views are the final conclusion of history. The only difference is that the end of history is in the future or now; Second, the bourgeois enlightenment scholars "end history in the present", "The illustration of enlightenment history without the future stage is tantamount to setting a realistic standard principle, which points out that beautiful things exist in the real world in front of people", and the significance of this "final conclusion of enlightenment history lies in establishing a modern way of thinking and a new view of history"; Third, Marx’s view of history regards the envisaged future communism as the end point of history, denies the history of capitalism, feudal society and slave society, and falls into historical nihilism.

It is not difficult to see that the theoretical premise of this set of statements is the conclusion of the end of history, and based on this, we comment on Marx’s view of history and deduce two conclusions. One is that it "ends history in an imaginary future stage", the other is that it denies the history of capitalism and all classes of society, and then based on this, it is labeled as "historical nihilism". From this point of view, Marxism believes that human society will go beyond capitalism to a higher historical stage, and realizing communism will deny all the past history and "end" history in the envisaged "future stage", thus it is "historical nihilism".

Second, Marxism is the ideological weapon to analyze historical nihilism.

Marxism is certainly not historical nihilism. On the contrary, it is our ideological weapon to analyze historical nihilism, including its new varieties.

1. About the final conclusion of history

Among the new varieties of historical nihilism mentioned above, "the final conclusion of history" appears as a theoretical premise, and it is a hypothesis that has been applied without argument. This view holds that all kinds of traditional historical views in the world are basically the final conclusion of history. However, we know that any kind of historical view is just a reflection of the objective historical process in one way or another. It is not history itself, nor is it the decider of history, and it cannot specify the direction and path of history. History goes its own way, regardless of how this or that historical view declares its "end". What the whole history shows us is that since human beings appeared on the earth, the society has never stopped moving forward faster or slower on the tortuous and uneven road.

From the perspective of world outlook or cosmology, the final conclusion of history is a metaphysical static view, which denies that everything will inevitably perish and will inevitably be transformed into other things. In the view of materialist dialectics, "everything that comes out is doomed to perish." "There is nothing eternal except the ever-changing and ever-moving matter and the laws of its movement and change." (Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 9, People’s Publishing House, 2009, pp. 422 and 426) Mao Zedong said: "Metabolism is a universal and irresistible law in the universe." "In the world, it is always like this to replace the old with the new, and it is always like this to metabolize, remove the old cloth or introduce the new." (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1, People’s Publishing House, 1991, pp. 323 and 324) On the basic theoretical premise, Marxism is completely opposite to the new variety of historical nihilism that advocates the final conclusion of history.

2. About "Ending History in an Imagined Future Stage"

Marxism applies materialism and dialectics to all fields, including human society, and reflects it according to the original features of social history. Therefore, in the view of Marxism, history is an endless development process and will never "end" in a "future stage". Engels expressed the view that history has no end point with thorough and clear words. He said: "History, like cognition, will never end in a perfect ideal state of mankind; A perfect society and a perfect’ country’ are things that can only exist in fantasy; On the contrary, all the historical States that have been replaced in turn are only temporary stages in the infinite development process of human society from low to high. " He elaborated on the temporality of all stages in the historical process: "Every stage is inevitable, so there is a reason for its existence in the era when it happened and those conditions;" But for the new and higher conditions gradually developed within itself, it becomes outdated and has no reason to exist; It has to give way to a higher stage, and this higher stage is also going to decline and perish. " (Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 4, People’s Publishing House, 2009, p. 270) It is clear enough here that history will never reach a perfect ideal state and will eventually end, and all societies are in the process of emergence, development, decline and extinction. China Marxism also adheres to this materialistic and dialectical view of history. Mao Zedong’s view that the development of history "will never end"His exposition is very famous. He said: "The history of mankind is a history of continuous development from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. This history will never end. " He also specifically talked about the future development: "In a society where there is no class, the struggle between new and old, right and wrong will never end." Therefore, he stressed: "Human beings must constantly sum up experience, make discoveries, invent, create and make progress. The arguments of stopping, pessimism, inaction and complacency are all wrong. " (Selected Readings of Mao Zedong’s Works (Volume II), People’s Publishing House, 1986, p. 845) However, didn’t communist party regard communism as the "ultimate goal"? Yes, our party constitution clearly stipulates: "The highest ideal and ultimate goal of the party is to realize communism." But don’t forget that we have never regarded the realization of the Party’s ultimate goal as the end of the history of human society, but as the beginning of a more advanced human society. As early as the eve of People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s birth in 1949, on the occasion of commemorating the 28th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s founding, Mao Zedong showed people this "prospect of human progress" with great interest, and announced that the Party would also decline one day. He said that we are working hard to "create conditions for the class, state power and political parties to be naturally eliminated and for mankind to enter the realm of great harmony." ("Selected Works of Mao Zedong", Volume 4, People’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 1469) Mao Zedong also said: "Even at the stage of communism,It still needs to be developed. It may go through tens of thousands of stages. When it comes to communism, nothing will change and everything will be "completely consolidated"? "("Collected Works of Mao Zedong ",Volume 8, People’s Publishing House, 1999, p. 108), it can be seen that the final conclusion of idealism and metaphysics is completely incompatible with the materialistic and dialectical Marxist view of history. The so-called "Marx ended history in the future communist stage" and "ended in an imaginary future stage" are completely fabricated and imposed by new varieties of historical nihilism.

Making up the "final conclusion of history" is not only to discredit Marxism, but also to beautify the bourgeois view of history and the capitalist system. In this view, as long as it is mandatory to stipulate that "all historical views are the final conclusion of history", then all historical views have no choice but to end history in the present or in the future; Since Marx’s view of history thinks that the capitalist society in reality will be surpassed, it means "ending history in the future", which denies the past and the present, so it is historical nihilism; The bourgeois historical view ("Enlightenment Historical Diagram") regards capitalism as eternal, which means "removing the future stage", "ending history" in "modern (present)" and "pointing out that beautiful things exist in the real world before people", so only it can be regarded as a "modern way of thinking and a new historical view". In a word, according to the theoretical premise and logical rules stipulated in this view, the only way out is to declare that history has ended in the capitalist mode of production and social system.

The bourgeois view of history is an ideology that comes from and serves the capitalist mode of production and social system. Describing the capitalist system as eternal is the concentrated expression of this ideology serving its own economic base and political system. The new variety of historical nihilism is not shy about this. This view takes Fukuyama’s "end of history" as the basis, and describes the disintegration of the Soviet Union as a sign of "end of history" and a proof of the permanence of the capitalist system: in short, in the long-term competition and comparison, the liberal democratic system has shown its advantages and won and become the last system of mankind, and this trend has continued, which means that human history has ended and entered an era called "post-history". It can be seen that the so-called "ending history in the present" is to declare the capitalist system as "the last system of mankind" and solidify and sanctify it, thus fundamentally denying the historical inevitability of the establishment and development of the socialist system. The final conclusion of history is just the expression form of capitalist eternity theory at the level of historical view; The theory of capitalist eternity is a realistic political conclusion wrapped in the final conclusion of history. It is here that we see the essence of the new variety of historical nihilism.

3. "Denying the history of capitalism" and "Class society is the depravity of human nature"

It is groundless to attack Marx’s criticism of capitalism as "historical nihilism". Marx’s study of capitalism is based on the materialistic view of history rather than "human nature". When Marx first published his achievements in political economy in the first volume of Critique of Political Economy in 1859, he made a classic statement on the main points of historical materialism in the preface. When the first volume of Das Kapital was published in 1867, Marx stated in the preface: "My view is to understand the development of economic social form as a process of natural history." (Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 5, People’s Publishing House, 2009, page 10) Marx fundamentally abandoned the idealistic historical view of criticizing capitalist society with "human nature" from fantasy. He "used the method of dividing the economic field from various fields of social life, and dividing the relations of production from all social relations, that is, the basic primitive relations that determine all other relations." (Selected Works of Lenin on Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, People’s Publishing House, 2009, pp. 158-159) He "attributed social relations to production relations, and attributed production relations to the level of productivity", (ibid., p. 161) analyzed social phenomena with a strict scientific attitude, and pointed out with the accuracy of natural science "what happened in the economic conditions of production.Reveal the movement law of capitalist society. As Lenin pointed out, when Marx revealed the development law of capitalism, his analysis was "limited to the relations of production among members of society. Marx never used any factors other than these relations of production to explain the problem. " (Selected Works of Lenin on Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, People’s Publishing House, 2009, p. 162) Because of this, Marx comprehensively and scientifically evaluated the historical position of capitalism. He regards the bourgeoisie itself as the product of a long-term development process and a series of changes in the mode of production and exchange. Marx and Engels clearly pointed out that "the bourgeoisie once played a very revolutionary role in history", which constantly revolutionized the old social relations and blew up the old shackles that bound the productive forces. "The productive forces created by the bourgeoisie in its less than one hundred years of class rule are more than all the productive forces created by all previous generations." (Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 2, People’s Publishing House, 2009, pp. 33 and 36) On the other hand, they also pointed out that with the further development of productive forces, the bourgeoisie forged weapons that killed itself and people who would use such weapons, that is, proletarians. As Lenin pointed out, Marx "proved the inevitability of the capitalist system becoming a socialist system by this objective analysis of the capitalist system." (Selected Works of Lenin on Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism),People’s Publishing House, 2009, p. 178) What is the relevance of this scientific attitude of comprehensively evaluating the historical position of capitalism with a developmental perspective?

For other exploitation systems in history, Marxism also gives scientific historical evaluation. Marx regarded human beings from primitive barbarism to civilization and from ancient slavery to modern bourgeois society as historical progress. He regards the history of civilization as the history of progress in confrontation, and reveals the law of civilization development: "Without confrontation, there will be no progress. This is the law that civilization has followed until today. " (The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 4, People’s Publishing House, 1958, p. 104) While exposing and condemning the contradictions, confrontations and evils in the process of civilization progress, he affirmed and praised the progress and achievements made by civilization in confrontation. In Anti-Turin, Engels said: "Without slavery, there would be no Greek state, and there would be no Greek art and science; Without slavery, there would be no Roman empire Without the foundation laid by Greek culture and the Roman Empire, there would be no modern Europe. " "All our economic, political and intellectual development is based on the premise that slavery is both necessary and recognized." "Without slavery in ancient Greece and Rome, there would be no modern socialism." He clearly pointed out: "Under the circumstances at that time, the adoption of slavery was a great progress." (Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 9, People’s Publishing House, 2009, p. 188) Engels also criticized the non-historical view that he could not see the progress of the Middle Ages, and he said:"The struggle against the remnants of the Middle Ages limited people’s horizons. The Middle Ages were regarded as a simple interruption of history caused by the general barbarism of the Millennium. The great progress in the Middle Ages-the expansion of the European cultural field, the vital big nations formed one after another there, and the great technological progress in the 14th and 15th centuries, all of which have not been seen. " (Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 4, People’s Publishing House, 2009, p. 283) If someone ignores these explicit expositions of the founders of Marxism, it is hard for people to understand this attitude according to the thinking logic followed by normal academic research.

Some statements of those who hold the above-mentioned new varieties of historical nihilism provide us with enlightenment to understand this attitude. For example, "historical nihilism is a kind of political behavior in many cases" and "almost all behaviors that nihilise history have special political purposes". "It is impossible for people to provide an academic and scientific discussion of history to obtain a consistent and accurate understanding, because the nature of the debate is political rather than academic." It should be admitted that these statements do reflect the close relationship between historical nihilism and real politics, and state the nature and political purpose of promoting historical nihilism as a "political act". Marxism regards history as an endless and rising process, and gives a comprehensive evaluation of the historical status of all previous stages of development. This has already become common knowledge that people generally know and does not need special "careful discussion". Therefore, only by paying attention to the political nature and "special political purpose" of his behavior can we understand why some theorists completely ignore the facts and make such arbitrary conclusions as Marx’s view of history "ending history in the future" and "denying the long human history of slave society, feudal society and capitalist society".

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the product of the combination of Marxism and the workers’ movement in China. Since its birth, the Party has established Marxism as its guiding ideology. The Communist Party of China (CPC)’s history of more than 90 years and People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s history of more than 60 years under the leadership of the Party are the history of increasingly integrating Marxism with China’s reality. Therefore, to declare Marxism as "historical nihilism" and completely "nihilism" it is undoubtedly a radical method and the most convenient way to deny the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and People’s Republic of China (PRC). It can be seen that it is indeed a new variant of historical nihilism to take over the slogan of opposing historical nihilism and put the hat of historical nihilism on Marxism to "nihilism".

(Author: former director of the Social Science Development Research Center of the Ministry of Education)