From "Reconciliation between Man and Nature" to "Modernization of Harmonious Coexistence between Man and Nature"

【Reading Classical Theories】

Author: Han Qiuhong (Professor, Faculty of Marxism, Northeast Normal University)

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The modernization we want to build is a modernization in which man and nature coexist in harmony, not only to create more material wealth and spiritual wealth to meet the people's growing needs for a better life, but also to provide more high-quality ecological products to meet the people's growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment." "The modernization of man and nature coexisting in harmony is an important connotation of Chinese-style modernization. In the writings of marxist classic writers, how to understand and deal with the relationship between man and nature is an important issue that is constantly being considered and paid attention to. Engels mentioned in the Outline of the Critique of National Economics that "the great transformation we are facing in this century" is "the reconciliation of mankind with nature and the reconciliation of mankind itself." Embarking on a new journey, profoundly grasping the proposition of "reconciliation between man and nature" and handling the relationship between man and nature in a historical and practical manner is of great significance to continuously promoting socialist modernization.

Nature is man's inorganic body

Marx pointed out in the 1844 Manuscript of The Philosophy of Economics that "nature, as far as it is not a human body itself, is the inorganic body of man." Man lives by nature.". The reason why nature is man's inorganic body lies in the "continuous interaction" between man and nature. On the one hand, man "is a part of nature", is the natural life itself, which gives man the necessary material conditions for survival and development, "we, together with our flesh, blood and mind, belong to and exist in nature". On the other hand, the essential characteristic of man and animal is that man is "an active natural being", and man actively understands and transforms nature through practice, creating new conditions for his own life. Although man, as a natural being, is subject to the same laws of nature as animals, unlike "inorganic life", he can recognize and grasp objective laws, and use laws to achieve organic transformation of nature and obtain a certain degree of freedom. Man's relation to nature "shows, in its perceptual form, as an obvious fact, the extent to which the essence of man becomes natural to man, or to what extent nature becomes the essence of man possessed by man.". That is to say, man and nature you have me, I have you, only through production practice, through interaction with nature, through the dynamic transformation of the natural world, can people realize the essence of man and highlight the value of man.

In the continuous interaction between man and nature, human society gradually formed and developed. Human society arises from nature, and nature provides external and internal conditions for the existence of human society. The external condition is the natural world, "without nature, without the perceptual external world, the workers can create nothing", and society will stagnate; the internal condition is the living organism, "the first premise of all human history is undoubtedly the existence of the living individual", and the first confirmed fact of social history is "the physical organization of the individual and the resulting relation of the individual to other natures". The development of human society also depends on nature, nature is the main source of production activities carried out by people to obtain material means of life, material mode of production is the basis of social development, and the contradiction between the productive forces and production relations formed on this basis, the contradiction between the economic foundation and the superstructure is the fundamental driving force for social development.

It can be seen from this that the natural world is not isolated from human society, but is inseparable from man, and all the development of human society cannot be separated from nature and abandoned by nature. As Comrade Mao Zedong said, "We must use natural science to understand nature, overcome nature and transform nature, and gain freedom from nature." General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that "nature is the mother of life, man and nature are a community of life, and human beings must respect nature, respect nature, conform to nature, and protect nature." We must adhere to the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, firmly establish and practice the concept that green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains, mobilize the whole society to promote the construction of ecological civilization, and jointly build a beautiful China."

"Reconciliation between man and nature" is an inherent requirement of modernization

As a natural being, in the modernization path of continuously realizing its own liberation, man must handle the relationship between man and nature and achieve "reconciliation between man and nature." Although human beings have created huge material wealth and obtained huge benefits in the capitalist modernization model, this is at the cost of plundering nature and destroying nature, which has led to the disruption of the ecological balance on which human beings depend for their survival, and the relationship between man and nature has become a dualistic antagonism. In this regard, Engels has long warned people: "Do not be too intoxicated by our human victory over the natural world." For every such victory, nature retaliates against us. That is to say, the achievements of capitalist modernization are only temporary, and natural retaliation for this mode of development, although it may be late, will never be absent. Therefore, in order to realize the modernization of "reconciliation between man and nature", it is necessary to thoroughly criticize and change the capitalist mode of production that carries out material accumulation at the expense of nature.

In the capitalist modernization model, nature becomes an appendage of man, man is the master of nature, and dominating and controlling nature becomes the mode of production, the way of thinking and the way of practice, which inevitably leads to a sharp contradiction between man and nature. From the perspective of the relationship between nature and organisms, nature provides a balanced and stable objective environment for the survival and development of all living things, and human beings need a healthy and stable natural world. However, in the capitalist modernization model dominated by the logic of capital, man becomes the means and tool for capital to make profits, and nature becomes the object of conquest. Driven by the purpose of capital seeking profits, the contradiction between man and nature continues to intensify. As Marx put it, capital "destroys all restrictions that hinder the development of the productive forces, the expansion of needs, the diversification of production, the use and exchange of natural and spiritual forces." Everything pales in the face of capital whose sole purpose is the pursuit of profit, which is the root cause of the breakdown of the relationship between man and nature caused by the capitalist modernization model. In short, the demand for unlimited appreciation of capital inevitably leads to the deprivation and destruction of nature and causes a serious ecological crisis. Only by changing this model of modernization can we achieve "reconciliation between man and nature."

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "we build a modern country, it is impossible to follow the old road of the United States and Europe, and there are several more earths that are not enough to Chinese consumption"; "Human beings should respect nature, conform to nature, protect nature, and promote the formation of a new pattern of harmonious coexistence between man and nature." Only by "symbiosis" can "opposites" be dissolved and "reconciliation" be achieved. The modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and the integration of ecological civilization construction into the whole process and all aspects of modernization, is a transcendence of the capitalist modernization model and a Chinese solution to promote global sustainable development.

Modernization in which man and nature coexist in harmony is the proper meaning of Chinese-style modernization

Moving toward modernization is the general trend of development in today's world, and it is also the development goal that all countries are diligently pursuing. In the great journey of uniting and leading the Chinese people to realize modernization, the COMMUNIST Party of China has always adhered to understanding the relationship between man and nature with a scientific Marxist attitude and handling the relationship between man and nature in a harmonious and symbiotic way.

At the beginning of the founding of New China, in order to improve the ecological environment, Comrade Mao Zedong issued a call to "green the motherland", and with the continuous efforts of the people of the whole country, large areas of barren mountains turned into forests and seas, and countless deserts became oases. In 1978, China explicitly enshrined "the state to protect the environment and natural resources, and prevent pollution and other public hazards" into the Constitution. In 1979, the Environmental Protection Law was officially promulgated, and environmental protection work stepped onto the track of rule of law. In 1983, environmental protection became a basic national policy of China. In 2002, the Sixteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China took "improving the ecological environment, significantly improving the efficiency of resource utilization, promoting the harmony between man and nature, and promoting the entire society to embark on the road of civilized development of production and development, affluent life and good ecology" as one of the goals of building a well-off society in an all-round way. The Seventeenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the important proposition of "building an ecological civilization". Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has profoundly answered the major theoretical and practical questions of why to build an ecological civilization, what kind of ecological civilization to build, and how to build an ecological civilization, and put forward a series of new ideas, new ideas and new strategies, forming Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. In practice, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has incorporated the construction of ecological civilization into the overall layout of "five-in-one" and taken "adhering to the harmonious coexistence of man and nature" as one of the basic strategies for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "green development, in its essence, is to solve the problem of harmonious coexistence between people and nature." Human development activities must respect nature, conform to nature, and protect nature, otherwise they will be retaliated against by nature, and no one can resist this law." General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on the harmonious coexistence of man and nature inherits and develops the essence of the Marxist concept of nature, enriches and develops the idea of "reconciliation between mankind and nature", provides ideological guidance for building a beautiful China, and also reflects China's responsibility for promoting the construction of global ecological civilization. At the Leaders' Climate Summit, General Secretary Xi Jinping comprehensively and systematically explained the concept of a community of life between man and nature, and systematically explained the core essence and practice path of jointly building the concept of a community of human and natural life with the "six adherences" of "adhering to harmonious coexistence between man and nature", "adhering to green development", "adhering to system governance", "adhering to people-oriented", "adhering to multilateralism" and "adhering to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility". This not only shows China's determination to actively participate in global environmental governance, but also boosts global confidence in coping with climate change. In short, the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature reflects the deepening of the Chinese Communists' understanding of the law of modernization and the construction of ecological civilization in the new era, and is the proper meaning of Chinese-style modernization.

Guangming Daily (2021-09-24, 15th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily