Integrating Youth into the Historical Process of the Great Revival: Reading Marx's Considerations for Youth in Choosing a Career

Ye Zipeng took an oath to provide pictures from Tsinghua University at the 2021 graduate party member meeting and departure ceremony of Tsinghua University

"History is nothing more than the successive alternation of generations." The development and progress of the social history of a country and a nation is achieved precisely in the successive alternation of generations, in the inheritance and relay of generation after generation. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.

"The most valuable and influential spiritual wealth that Marx has left us is the scientific theory named after him, Marxism. This theory is like a magnificent sunrise, illuminating the path for human beings to explore the laws of history and seek their own liberation! "2018 is the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, that year I stepped into Tsinghua University, I had the honor to become the first batch of Tsinghua party building doctoral students, in this quiet garden, I concentrated on studying Marxist party building related classics, carry out research on the theory and practice of party building I loved.

"Over the past one hundred years, the Communist Party of China has united and led the people of the Chinese, and with the fearless spirit of 'sacrificing more ambitions and daring to teach the sun and the moon for a new heaven', it has written the most magnificent epic in the history of the Chinese nation for thousands of years. The great road, the great cause created, and the great achievements made in the past hundred years will surely be recorded in the annals of the development of the Chinese nation and the history of the development of human civilization! "2021 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, this year I am about to leave the Tsinghua Garden that gives me the style of "deeds are better than words" and the spur of "red and professional", continue to engage in scientific research and teaching related to the theory and practice of party building, and contribute my youth to the theoretical innovation and cadre training of the century-old party.

With a thousand great deeds in mind, a hundred years is just like a style. On the morning of July 1, more than 70,000 representatives from all walks of life gathered in Tiananmen Square to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The square is full of flowers and flags. Such celebrations also add a strong red mark to this summer's graduation season. In the graduation season of the centenary of the founding of the party, he calmed down the emotions of parting and reluctance, longing and excitement in his heart, and re-read Marx's "Considerations of Young People when Choosing a Career", and his heart became more peaceful and magnificent.

In the summer and autumn of 1835, the 17-year-old Marx, also in the graduation season, wrote "Considerations of Youth in Choosing a Career" with a stroke of his pen. In it, he said: "Our mission is by no means to seek a profession which is most ostentatious, for it is not the kind of profession which may be carried out by us for a long time, but which will never cool our enthusiasm, on the contrary, we will soon feel that our aspirations are not met, our ideals are not fulfilled, and we will complain." Wittenbach, the principal of the Trier Secondary School where Marx studied, once commented on Marx's secondary school graduation thesis, "this article is striking with its richness of ideas and rigorous structure."

It is true that the article may be relatively naïve compared to Marx's more systematic and precise treatises years and decades later, and even the words and lines have not completely removed the influence of the idealistic wave of his time, but this does not obscure the fact that this article clearly shows us Marx's mental state before moving towards German classical philosophy, and the ideological preparation he laid down in his youth when he was about to face complex real economic and political social contradictions. I suppose that if Marx's Theses on Feuerbach were "the first document containing the germ of genius in a new worldview," it might as well be called a work that contains the first seed of genius thought in a new worldview. The famous activist of the German workers' movement, Franz Merlin, in his masterpiece "Biography of Marx", once mentioned that "in the mind of the young Marx, there is already a spark of thought, and the full play of this idea is his immortal contribution in adulthood." ”

In this article, Marx of the graduation season expressed his profound insight into career choices, expressed his determination to fight for the cause of mankind, closely link his career choices with society, the people and the country, and make unremitting efforts for the happiness of mankind. The whole text is a total of 29 paragraphs, with "asking questions", "analyzing questions" and "solving problems" as logical clues, answering the questions of "why choose a career", "how to choose a career", and "what kind of occupation to choose". At the beginning of the article, Marx talks about choosing a career, "We should seriously consider whether the chosen profession really inspires us. Do we agree in our hearts? Is it a mistake that we are inspired? "How can we recognize all this without exploring the source of enthusiasm itself?" He believes that when choosing a career, we must accurately "identify our hearts" and not "misjudge". "Not only can vanity arouse a sudden enthusiasm for a certain profession, but we may glorify it with our own fantasies, glorify it as the supreme thing that life can offer. We have not analysed it carefully, we have not measured its full weight, that is, the great responsibility it places on our shoulders; we have only observed it from a distance, and it is unreliable to observe it from a distance. Marx then began to deal with a number of factors that influenced the choice of profession: "Great things are shining, and flashes of light inspire vanity, and vanity tends to arouse enthusiasm or something which we find to be enthusiastic; but the man who is fascinated by fame and fortune cannot be restrained by reason, and he plunges headlong into the place where the irresistible desire beckons him; his occupation is no longer chosen by himself, but by chance and illusion." "From vanity to unreal passion, from fame to lust and so on. We must calmly and rationally take into account all the factors that may affect our judgment of career choices, and make the most sober analysis to find the most suitable career for us. Passion for the profession Is worth cherishing if one can maintain the "original intention" after fully recognizing the difficulties faced. "Our mission is by no means to seek a profession that is most ostentatious, for it is not the kind of profession that may be carried out by us for a long time, but which never tires us, never weakens us, never cools our enthusiasm, on the contrary, we will soon feel that our aspirations are not met, our ideals are not fulfilled, and we will complain." In the final section, Marx talks about the principles of his career choices and his vision for the future. He pointed out that the principle of career choice must require the happiness of mankind and our own perfection and balance the two. "The main guidelines we should follow when choosing a profession are human happiness and our own perfection. It should not be assumed that these two interests will be hostile and conflicting with each other, that one interest must destroy the other; that it is human nature that man can attain perfection himself only by working for the perfection of his contemporaries, for their happiness. "If a man works only for himself, he may be able to become a famous scholar, a great philosopher, a great poet, but he can never become a perfect, truly great man." At the end of the article, the young Marx made a passionate declaration for his own career choices—to dedicate himself to the happiness of mankind. History proves that he did not only say this in his youth, but also really did so for the rest of his life, and dedicated his life to this great cause. Marx said at the end of his article "Considerations of Youth in Choosing a Profession": "If we choose the profession that best works for mankind, then the burden cannot overwhelm us, for it is a sacrifice made for everyone; then what we enjoy will not be pitiful, limited, selfish pleasures, our happiness will belong to millions of people, our cause will exist quietly and silently, but it will always work, and in the face of our ashes, the noble people will shed tears." ”

In his youth, Marx established the fundamental guideline of following the "happiness of mankind" and established the lofty revolutionary ideal for which he struggled all his life. On the basis of the value of the ideal of life built in his youth, Marx established immortal merits for the revolution and development of human society through his lifelong unremitting pursuit. For the sake of the final victory of the proletarian revolution and for the sake of the greatest cause of happiness for all mankind, he endured poverty, illness, separation, and expulsion, but he did not change his original intention and unswervingly, persisted in devoting himself wholeheartedly to the great revolution, persisted in conducting an in-depth investigation of the times and the world in which he lived, persisted in profoundly grasping the laws governing the development of human society, and made unremitting efforts to strive for the lofty ideal of human liberation, and finally achieved a great life. He always stood at the forefront of the revolutionary struggle, strove to try to change the exploited and oppressed fate of the people, led the creation of the world's first proletarian party, led the world's first international workers' organization, and enthusiastically supported the world's first revolution of the working class to seize power. He worked continuously throughout his life, often working 16 hours a day. In a letter to a friend, he once said that in order to successfully complete the writing of Capital, "I have been hovering on the edge of the grave. Therefore, I have to use every moment I can still work to complete my work." I think that one of the key factors in Marx's great deeds and his great contribution to human history is that he had a "serious consideration" of the choice of occupation in his youth, and that he established a lofty ideal of seeking happiness for all mankind in his youth and enshrined it as a "lifelong mission".

In socialist China, in China in the new era, what kind of life choices should our young generation make? I still remember when I first entered Tsinghua University, sitting in the new Tsinghua Academy, and the original drama "Ma Lan Blossom" left me with a shock. At the same time, Deng Jiaxian's pride in "breaking red dust, Yanran Legong, and still being red in blood" is still in front of me, and their "life with direction" made me realize that only people who are in the same direction as the times, who resonate with the same frequency with the motherland, and who breathe and forge ahead with the people can write a chapter of life worthy of the times, the motherland, and the people.

On April 19, on the eve of the 110th anniversary of Tsinghua University, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Tsinghua University to inspect and deliver an important speech. He stressed: "The vast number of young people must shoulder the historical mission, strengthen their confidence in moving forward, set great aspirations, be wise and virtuous, become great talents, and shoulder great responsibilities, and strive to become new people of the times who are worthy of the heavy responsibility of national rejuvenation, so that the youth can bloom in the unremitting struggle for the motherland, the nation, the people, and mankind." "Born in a prosperous world, shouldering a heavy responsibility. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation cannot be separated from the relay struggle of generations of young people. "The future belongs to the youth, and hope is placed on the youth", and the youth should strive to "become the vanguard force for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". Looking back at the history of the party over the past hundred years, generations of young people have made great efforts to forge ahead and walked with the party, from the exhilarating cry of the Chinese youth to "read for the rise of China" at the time of the national peril a hundred years ago, to the fiery declaration of "devoting limited lives to unlimited service to the people" during the period of socialist revolution and construction; from the strong voice of the times of "uniting and revitalizing the Chinese nation" at the beginning of reform and opening up, to the Zhengzheng oath of the new era of "please rest assured that the party is assured, the strong country has me", and composed a magnificent youth epic.

"Take the wind to go, the sky is long, straight down to see the mountains and rivers." The song of youth from generation to generation on the journey of national rejuvenation has pushed the wheel of history forward. In the new journey of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, there will inevitably be arduous and heavy tasks, difficulties, dangers, and even terrifying waves, and it is even more particularly necessary for the vast number of young people to set great aspirations, be wise and virtuous, become great talents, shoulder great responsibilities, adhere to faith with dedication, nurture new opportunities with pioneering, and undertake missions with dedication, strive to become new people of the times who are worthy of the heavy responsibility of national rejuvenation, and integrate youth into the historical process of the irreversible great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. I have always believed that the youth that is integrated into the vast history will never wither, and the youth who devote themselves to the great cause will never be lonely. (Ye Zipeng)

Source: China Youth Network