500 years ago, More's "Utopia" described for us a beautiful society in which everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment, fully demonstrated people's urgent desire for freedom, and also drew the outline of socialism for us. Following the historical context, the needs of the people have changed from meeting the material needs of basic survival to requiring workload, working hours and even a comfortable working environment, and the meaning of the word socialism has also changed from the utopia of scientific theories in our minds to the process of continuous improvement in practice in various countries.
I. The introduction of the term "socialism"
(1) The introduction of the term socialism
At present, there are three understandings of the earliest use of the word "socialism" in academia. The first was in 1753, when the German theologian, historian, and Catholic cleric Anselm Dessin, in his polemics with man, referred to the laws of nature as socialists, especially to emphasize the sociality of man. [] The second view first appeared in the 1803 book Rebuttal of Anti-Socialism by the Italian missionary Ja giuliani, in which he attacked the individualism that prevailed at the time as "anti-socialist". The third refers to the socialist ideas of Saint-Simon, Owen, and Fourier, the three major European utopian socialist scientists, which were first proposed in the magazine "Cooperation" in 1827 and the "Globe" magazine in 1832, and this view was widely recognized by the academic community. The concept of socialism in the modern sense was first used by Owen, who pointed out that anyone who advocated the return of capital to the public ownership was a socialist. [] In his article "Why Socialism", Einstein pointed out that socialism is to emphasize the interests of the whole and oppose extreme individualistic ideas.
In general, the term "socialism" was not clearly defined in the early days, and more expressed the expectations of public ownership society and emphasized the social attributes of people. It is worth noting that the exploitative behavior of the capitalist system is revealed in "Utopia" a lot, and the word "socialism" does not appear, but people only have the germ of "socialism" in their thinking.
(ii) Mann enriched the meaning of the word "socialism" in theory and practice
Man's understanding of socialism is not based on the miserable life of the poor people, still less from the desire for a better life, but through the understanding of the situation of the workers, it is necessary to see that the development of capitalism has brought about tremendous productive forces, and it is not possible to ignore its various drawbacks of squeezing the surplus value of the workers and creating private wealth. The Paris Commune was the first great attempt of the proletariat, and although this struggle lasted 72 days, it played an important role in promoting the development of "socialism", Marx pointed out that "the great social measure is its very existence". In general, although Marx elaborated on the concept of "socialism" in detail, it did not clearly express its future development.
Engels elaborated on the content and form of socialism, and from the content point of view, Marx and Engels were more of a critique of the ruthless exploitation of wage workers by capitalists in social production at that time for more profit. Theoretically, they point out: "It initially manifested itself in the further, supposedly more thorough development of the principles put forward by the great French Enlightenment scholars of the 18th century." This shows that the emergence of socialism did not happen overnight, but represented the most fundamental aspirations of the proletariat and the formation of a protracted struggle against capitalism.
From its evolutionary process, "socialism" evolved from the Latin words SOCIALIS (peer, associate) and social (social), which meant collective, social. Engels, in 1872, in On the Housing Question, made "scientific socialism" synonymous with scientific communism, saying that "the german view of scientific socialism, that is, the view that the proletariat must take political action, that dictatorship must be exercised in order to make the transition to the abolition of classes and, together with the classes, the abolition of the state". Since then, in the eyes of Marxists, scientific socialism has been embodied in three aspects, one is embodied in the "scientific" system that overthrows capitalism and realizes the aspirations of the people. Second, it is embodied in the guiding ideology for realizing this system. The third is embodied in the practice of socialism.
The Blackville Encyclopedia of Political Science explains socialism into institutional volumes and ideological volumes. [] The Intellectual Papers argue that socialism is an idea that developed in Europe at the end of the 18th century as a result of industrialization. In terms of its origins, it still belongs to the European system of thought, especially the European idea that was first expressed in france, Germany and Britain, the three earliest major industrial countries. The Institutional Volume argues that socialism is a political doctrine emerging from the industrialization of Europe.
Second, the spread and development of "socialism" in our country since modern times
The element of "socialism" has been fully embodied in the Chinese civilization of five thousand years. Confucius's idea of "benevolence" in our country is expressed as "loving people", which embodies the idea of harmonious coexistence between people and equality of property. The Book of Rites explains the Datong society in which "the whole world is just", pointing out that "the journey of the great road is also the way, the world is public, the selection of the wise and the able, the preaching of faith and the cultivation of harmony ..., so the outer household is not closed, it is called datong." ”
In the past, when we mentioned the word "socialism", we could always think of "capitalism" and regard them as opposing social forms; in modern times, feudal society and capitalist society were not suitable for the actual needs of our country. The conventional wisdom holds that it was introduced to China by Japan in the early 20th century. Dating back to 1870, the Japanese scholar Hiroyuki Kato transliterated "socialism" and "communism" in Japanese katakana in his translation of The Principles of True Government. After the reform of the law, progressives in our country, including revolutionaries and reformists, began to come into contact with socialist ideas. In 1876, China's "Western Magazine" was translated into English as "Socialisi". In 1899, the Bulletin of nations was translated as "Anmin New Learning and Raising People" according to the idea of the people's peace and happiness it represented, and in the early 20th century, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao paid more attention to the social attributes of the people he emphasized and translated it as "the theory of the crowd" and "the theory of the group". Beginning with the 18th issue of Xinmin Cong Bao, Liang Qichao transplanted the word "socialism" commonly used by the Japanese, and since then the word "socialism" has gradually been used in Chinese books and periodicals.
In "The Spread and Practice of Socialism in China" written by Lin Daizhao and Pan Guohua, the situation of the introduction of "socialism" into our country was sorted out in detail, especially the socialist ideas of the advanced elements in our country at that time were summarized in detail. Mainly including: First, Hong Xiuquan's agricultural socialism. Hong Xiuquan's agrarian socialism, with land reform as the core, reflects the aspirations and ideals of the Chinese peasant class in a concentrated way. First of all, he opposed the feudal monarchy and put forward the idea of overthrowing the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Second, he criticized the feudal hierarchy and put forward the idea that everyone was equal. Finally, he opposed the feudal private system and proposed an ideal society without classes, without exploitation and oppression. In the "Selected Writings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", he wrote that "there is always one room under the heavens, and all the worlds are brothers", and his socialist thought has a strong religious atmosphere, although it ultimately failed, but he did represent a faction of people who sought truth from the West before the founding of the Communist Party of China.
Second, Kang Youwei's socialist thought: Kang Youwei believes that human society develops in the order of "chaos", "life", and "peace"; he calls China's two-thousand-year feudal monarchy a "chaotic world", and he calls the Cosmopolitan society in which everyone is equal to "the world of life"; his Cosmopolitan thought refers to: a country without war, without oppression and exploitation, without suffering, and without suffering. Kang Youwei's adherence to doctrine more embodies the early socialist ideas of the "European thinkers" in the 19th century, and what is different from the past is that before Kang Youwei, although China had the idea of "people-oriented", but there was no idea of civil rights, he absorbed the Western liberal concept of civil rights and emphasized citizen autonomy.
Third, the socialism that Sun Yat-sen adhered to. Sun Yat-sen's socialist thought was formed in the Xinhai Revolution, and his socialist thought was concentrated on the "people's livelihood" of the Three People's Principles, advocating "taking the political revolution and the social revolution to one battle." At the same time, he pointed out that the scope of socialism is to study the problems of social economy and human life, and in the final analysis, it is to study the problems of people's livelihood. Sun Yat-sen made great contributions to the Chinese revolution, especially due to the many influences of the Soviet Union, especially the success of the Russian Revolution. In the early days, Sun Yat-sen advocated the overthrow of the imperial system and the establishment of the Republic of China, and in his later years he put forward the three major policies of uniting Russia, uniting with the Communist Party, and supporting migrant workers, which can be seen that his thinking was constantly improved with the changes in the national conditions. Liang Qichao pointed out that the return of land to the public; the return of capital to the public, and the exclusive use of labor as the source of value of all things is the main content of socialism. Liang Qichao spent his life running for the transformation of Chinese society, based on the Ram III theory and Western evolution, advocating change and reform, and he was also the first person in China to use the term "Chinese nation" in his articles.