Originally published in the first issue of "China Youth" magazine in 2024 to promote cultural inheritance and development article - Luo Wendong
On June 2, 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the Chinese Academy of History, inspected the Chinese Archaeological Museum, and attended a symposium on cultural inheritance and development in the Zhizhong Building, and delivered a landmark important speech, providing a scientific guide and fundamental guidance for continuing to promote cultural prosperity, building a cultural power, and building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation in the new era.
Any culture, no matter which country or nation it grows in, should inherit it through criticism, enrich it through exchanges, and make progress through mutual learning. This is the basic law and the correct path for cultural development. We are not finalists, but developmentists, and human culture is constantly advancing, endlessly; we are not closed-minded, but open-minded, who will eventually become rigid and backward; we are not conflictualists, but inclusiveists, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and being inclusive in order to live in harmony and symbiosis.
The inheritance and development of culture must first have the mind of embracing all rivers, the courage to innovate and the thinking of innovation and development. From the introduction of Buddhism in ancient times, the spread of middle schools to the West, and the "Yiru Huitong", to the modern spread of Western learning to the East, the New Culture Movement, and then to the modern socialist construction, reform and opening up, Chinese culture has always been inherited and developed in response to changes and exchanges and mutual learning. As the "founder of modern Chinese science" and "the first person to open his eyes to the world", Xu Guangqiguan to Chongzhen Dynasty Rite Department Shangshu and Wenyuan Pavilion scholar, dared to learn Western astronomy, calendar, mathematics and water conservancy and other science and technology from the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci, translated the "Geometric Original", wrote "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", "Taixi Water Law", "Fire Attack Strategy" and other works, made great contributions to the cultural exchanges between China and the West, and was a model for promoting cultural inheritance and development. The Kuang-Kai Theater where we are now is named after him.
The inheritance and development of culture should also adhere to the people's standpoint, correct viewpoint and scientific method. The people are the creators of history and the driving force of cultural progress. To prosper socialist culture, we must persist in serving the people and socialism, persist in letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, persist in creative transformation and innovative development, and meet the people's growing spiritual and cultural needs. For the construction of Chinese culture in the new era, Marxism and its theoretical innovations in the Chinese era are the soul of the banner, the excellent traditional Chinese culture is the main root, and the outstanding foreign cultural achievements are the necessary resources. Only under the guidance of Marxism can we make the past for the present, the West for China, make dialectical trade-offs, and bring forth the new, so that we can complete the smooth transformation and organic connection of Chinese culture from tradition to modernity.
There are talents in the country, and heroes have come out of teenagers since ancient times. Young people are the new force of cultural inheritance and development, and they must assume the historical responsibility of carrying forward the past and forging ahead into the future. It is often said that the "Communist Manifesto" is a historical document that shocks the world and marks the birth of Marxism, but Marx and Engels were not yet 30 years old when they wrote and published this great work. Only when young people in all periods bravely undertake the important task of cultural inheritance and development, can the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation be passed on from generation to generation and forge ahead. In the new era and new journey, we must thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping Cultural Thought, better undertake the new cultural mission, strengthen cultural self-confidence, uphold openness and inclusiveness, adhere to integrity and innovation, work together to create a new culture belonging to our era, and constantly write a new chapter in the modern civilization of the Chinese nation.
Luo Wendong
[The author is secretary of the Party Committee, deputy director and researcher of the Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Chinese Academy of History)]
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