Chinese Marxist sociology in the past hundred years since the founding of the Party

　 General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The 100 years of our party are 100 years of dedication to practicing the mission of the original heart, the 100 years of laying the foundation of the Yanlu Blue Ribbon, and the 100 years of creating brilliant and opening up the future. "The practice of revolution, construction and reform in the past hundred years since the founding of the party has produced many philosophical and social science achievements, including Chinese Marxist sociology. Chinese Marxist sociology is the product of the sinicization of Marxism and the popularization of the times, and is an important achievement in integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific reality and with China's excellent traditional culture. Summarizing the historical development, main achievements and outstanding contributions of Chinese Marxist sociology in the past hundred years since the founding of the party is of great historical significance and epochal value for the development of socialist sociology with Chinese characteristics.

The Rise of Marxist Sociology in China

　　After the Opium War, China's extensive and profound social changes from tradition to modernity have stimulated responses and discussions in intellectual and ideological circles. In the development of early Chinese sociology, Marxist sociology is an important branch. During the period of the New Culture Movement, Li Dazhao and others translated and introduced Marx's classic works, which played an important role in promoting the emergence and development of Chinese Marxist sociology.

　　In the article "My View of Marxism", Li Dazhao believes that Marx's materialist view of history "has made great and important contributions to the progress of sociology" and "really deserves the name of sociology.". This article is an important document in the process of sinicization of Marxism and can be regarded as the main symbol of the birth of Marxist sociology in China.

　　In fact, the introduction and dissemination of Marxist sociology is also an important part of the search for change in China's intellectual and ideological circles in modern times. The introduction of Marxist sociology has greatly changed the traditional Chinese method of governance, that is, from the interpretation of the traditional subset of classics and history to the exploration of the changes in social phenomena and the general laws behind them.

　　At the beginning of the 20th century, in the context of the internal and external troubles of Chinese society, any research limited to local observation could not grasp the core of social problems, and the annotation of traditional classics did not help to solve practical problems. Marxist sociology is committed to the overall grasp of complex phenomena and their evolutionary laws, which is in line with the needs of Chinese society to save the national crisis and achieve national prosperity and strength.

　　The founding of the Communist Party of China in 1921 provided a strong organizational foundation for the development and growth of Marxist sociology in China. Since then, the new democratic revolution led by the Communist Party of China, as well as the reform, opening up, and socialist modernization construction, have laid a rich practical foundation for the sinification of Marxism and the rapid development of Chinese Marxist sociology.

The fine tradition of early Chinese Marxist sociology

　　The fine traditions formed in the early development of Chinese Marxist sociology are mainly embodied in the following three aspects.

　　First, adhere to the Marxist materialist view of history as the theoretical guidance. The materialist view of history is one of the outstanding theoretical contributions of Marxism, and it has important guiding significance for the growth and development of marxist sociology in early China.

　　As a pioneer of Chinese Marxist sociology, Chen Duxiu expounded Marxist sociological thought in the process of propagating Marxism, especially the analysis of social structure and social changes, laying an important theoretical foundation for the beginning of Chinese Marxist sociology.

　　The materialist sociology of history expounded by Li Dazhao has a broad vision of combining sociology and history: on the one hand, it places social problems in the context of historical changes; on the other hand, it pays attention to the relationship between China's problems and the world situation. This doctrine advocates revolutionizing the old and actively transforming social reality in the democratic trend of the world, so as to fundamentally solve social problems.

　　Qu Qiubai systematically expounded the disciplinary nature of Marxist sociology, discussed the research object, basis of existence and the status of sociology in modern social science, and used the materialist view of history to analyze the nature of Chinese society in the early 20th century, which played an important theoretical guiding role in the revolutionary practice of the Communist Party of China.

　　Drawing on the views of Marx, Engels, Lenin and other thinkers, Li Da criticized the bourgeois social outlook and bourgeois sociology, and devoted himself to understanding Chinese reality from the perspective and method of "new sociology". In his works such as Outline of Sociology and Modern Sociology, Li Da made a powerful exposition of the nature of Chinese society and the Chinese revolution at that time.

　　Second, pay attention to the reality of social investigation. From the perspective of social and ideological changes in modern China, the exploration of social change in China has undergone a transformation from ideological debate to social research, the former mainly thinking about Chinese issues in the cultural debate between ancient and modern China and the West, and the latter focusing on collecting and analyzing data oriented to empirical reality, and sorting out the causal logic of changes in social facts.

　　Mao Zedong carried out a series of rural investigations and wrote such investigation reports as "Report on the Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan," "Investigation on The Search for Wu," "Investigation on Rejuvenating the Country," "Investigation in Dongtang and Other Places," "Investigation in Mukou Village," "Investigation in Changgang Township," and "Investigation in Caixi Township." These investigations and studies are both an application of Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and a localization exploration based on China's revolutionary practice.

　　From the late 1920s to the 1930s, the Survey of China's Rural Economy, led by Chen Hansheng, laid a solid methodological foundation for early Marxist rural research in China. Chen Hansheng, Xue Huiqiao, Feng Hefa and other members of the Rural Economic Survey gave scientific judgments and powerful arguments on the nature of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society at that time based on rich survey data.

　　Third, the socio-historical perspective of close integration of history and reality. The study of Chinese Marxist social history abandons the research paradigm of traditional Chinese historiography based on classical documents such as subsets of classical history, and pays attention to discovering the general laws of social development in the unity of history and logic. This not only broadens the scope of application of the materialist view of history sociology, but also provides a sufficient historical basis for better understanding of China's empirical reality and promoting social transformation.

　　Wang Yanan's Studies on Chinese Bureaucratic Politics is the first work in China to systematically analyze traditional bureaucratic politics using Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods. The book points out that the landlord economy since the Qin and Han Dynasties is the root cause of the long-term continuation of China's bureaucratic politics, arguing that China's bureaucratic politics will be reformed or eradicated "in the era of the people".

　　Guo Moruo's "Research on Ancient Chinese Society" uses scientific methods to study and explain history through documents and archaeological materials such as "Yi", "Poems", "Books", Oracle Bone Bu ci, Zhou Dynasty YiMing, etc., and is the first monograph in China to use the materialist view of history to study ancient history, so that Marx's general thesis on the law of historical change has a richer historical support.

　　In "On the History of Chinese Society", Zhou Gucheng made a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the structure and changes of Chinese society from the aspects of history and reality, China and the world; in "Research on Chinese Society in Prehistoric Times", Lü Zhenyu used Marxism as the guide to open up the space for the study of primitive Chinese society. These social history research results provided important theoretical guidance for people to understand the nature of Chinese society at that time and the tasks of the Chinese revolution.

The Innovative Development of Marxist Sociology in Contemporary China

　　In 1952, the departments of higher learning across the country were reorganized, the discipline of sociology was abolished, some scholars who were originally engaged in sociological research were transferred to other disciplines, and some scholars carried out sociological-related research in the name of other disciplines. Since then, the study of Marxist sociology in China can be roughly divided into two categories: one is "sociology under the guidance of Marxism", that is, sociological research with Marxism as the basic position; the other is "Marxist sociology as a research paradigm", that is, sociological research using the theoretical vision and methodological principles of classical Marxism (such as practical viewpoints, contradiction analysis, class analysis, etc.).

　　At the beginning of reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping promoted the restoration and reconstruction of the discipline of sociology in China. Since then, the study of Chinese Marxist sociology has achieved fruitful results. In 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his important speech at the Philosophy and Social Science Work Forum that it is necessary to take Marxism as the guide and strive to build a discipline system, academic system and discourse system of philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics, which points out the way forward for the development of Chinese Marxist sociology in the new era. In 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed in his important speech at the symposium of experts in the economic and social fields that it is necessary to continuously develop socialist political economy and sociology with Chinese characteristics, which has brought new opportunities for the development of Chinese Marxist sociology in the new era. Specifically, contemporary Chinese Marxist sociology has mainly achieved innovative development in the following three aspects.

　　In terms of discipline construction, Chinese Marxist sociology, while paying attention to empirical research and achieving a large number of achievements, emphasizes the cultural consciousness, theoretical consciousness and practical consciousness of sociology, and is committed to promoting the construction of a sociological discipline system with Chinese characteristics. In the field of academic history and discipline history of Chinese sociology, as well as emerging branches of sociology such as spatial sociology, network sociology, and environmental sociology, the theoretical vision and methodological principles of Marxist sociology are clearly reflected.

　　In terms of theoretical research, important progress has been made in the study of the history of Marxist sociology, including the study of the history of classical Marxist sociology, the study of the history of Marxist social thought, and the study of Marxist social theory. Some works on the history of Chinese sociology also introduce or discuss the characters and works of Marxist sociology in special chapters, and some scholars re-study and rediscover the classic works of Marxism in combination with the new conditions of the times. These studies provide academic support for people to systematically understand the theoretical vision, methodological principles and academic status of Marxist sociology.

　　In empirical research, the theories and methods of Marxist sociology have been widely applied, and many research results have been achieved. Among them, the research on urban-rural relations, environmental governance, community governance, regional balanced development, social stratification, workers' labor process research, collective action research, gender development research, etc., mostly reflect one or more characteristics of Marxist sociology, such as practice as the basic principle, dialectical way of thinking of contradiction analysis, value idealism, and the totality of theoretical vision.

　　All in all, Chinese Marxist sociology in the hundred years since the founding of the PARTY has always been closely related to the practice of China's revolution, construction and reform, constantly studying new phenomena, summing up new experiences, developing new theories, and devoting itself to serving the country, society and the people with scholarship. In the process of growth and development, Chinese Marxist sociology has formed a distinct overall vision that attaches equal importance to science and humanities, takes into account both history and reality, and combines local feelings with world vision, and constantly injects new vitality and vitality into Chinese sociology. Looking forward to the future, Chinese Marxist sociology will write a more gorgeous chapter in the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country.

　　(The author is the director and professor of the Department of Sociology, Central University of Finance and Economics)

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Wang Jianmin