The Holy Family is a book co-written by Marx and Engels in their youth, and Lenin introduced in his Philosophical Notes: "This is a very small book with eight pages on paper", but this small book is of great significance, he represents "Marx's transformation from Hegelian philosophy to socialism". The obviousness of this transformation is that Marx used socialist "masses" against the "heroes" of Hegel's philosophy of history. Marx eloquently proved that it was the masses of the people who made history, not a small number of heroes, which is the most basic principle of historical materialism. In the book, Marx quotes a newspaper edited by Los Dallo in 1789 and writes:
"Great men look great only because we ourselves are on our knees, stand up!"
At the same time, he did not forget to continue to add:
"But in order to stand up, it is not enough to do this in the mind, in the concept."
We must not only refute the heroic view of history in theory, but also discard it in practice. Of course, theory is the first step, and we must first expose the absurdity of the heroic conception of history in order to confirm the greatness of the power of the masses.
The birthplace of the materialist view of history
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > the essential idealistic view of history of heroes</h1>
Sima Qian said in the "Records of History" that he heard about Zhang Liang's heroic deeds and imagined that he must be tall and strange, with unusual appearance; however, after he saw Zhang Liang's portrait, he realized that this person "looked like a woman and a good woman", not a heroic and martial appearance. The Book of Wei records that when Cao Cao was on his western expedition to Guanzhong, he talked with Ma Chao, Han Sui and others, and many Hu people gathered to see what kind of figure the great hero who pacified the north really was. Cao Cao smiled and said to the crowd, "Do you want to see Cao Gong evil? Also Jews, not four eyes and two mouths, but many wise ears! ”
It turns out that the so-called hero is not "four eyes and two mouths", nor does he have one more head than ordinary people. It is only because of their extraordinary intelligence and firm will that they are beyond ordinary people. Physically, Zhang Liang's hands were not bound to the strength of a chicken, Cao Cao was not as elegant as Cui Yan, and their demeanor and appearance were just ordinary people; but from a spiritual point of view, Zhang Liang was resourceful and could "strategize and decide thousands of miles away"; Cao Caoxiong was a man of great skill, knew how to do good deeds, and used soldiers like Sun Wu.
Therefore, the heroic figures represent the outstanding spirit, and it is believed that the heroic figures promoting the development of history are, in the final analysis, attributing the driving force of history to the wisdom of a few strange people and the extraordinary spirit of the heroic figures.
On the eve of the Battle of Guandu, Xun Yu and Guo Jia analyzed the battle situation and believed that Cao Cao had surpassed Yuan Shao in the spiritual aspects of Taoism, justice, governance, measurement, strategy, virtue, benevolence, wisdom, law, and martial arts, so yuan's army would be defeated. In the eyes of idealists, it seems that Cao Cao's heroic spirit defeated Yuan Shao's material strength and determined the direction of history. Yuan Shao had a material advantage, but Cao Cao crushed the other side mentally, so his heroic temperament influenced the victory and defeat, and finally crushed Yuan Shao's material superiority and changed the situation under the world. If it were not Cao Cao, but another person with lower talent who fought Against Yuan Shao, then history would be rewritten and Yuan Shao would have won.
Can the spiritual intellect of the individual determine the course of history?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > heroes cannot reverse the course of history</h1>
Lu Xun said in his speech "Before the Genius": "Once, Napoleon crossed the Alps and said: 'I am taller than the Alps!'" What a hero! But do not forget that he was followed by many soldiers; if there were no soldiers, he would only be caught or driven back by the enemy on the other side of the mountain, and his actions and words would be classified as madmen if they were far from the line of heroes. ”
Although Cao Cao was a very human being and had a "supernatural masterpiece", if there were no soldiers behind him, then as long as Yuan Shao dispatched a warrior, he could capture and behead Cao Cao. No matter what kind of big hero you are, you can't resist dozens of mortals in partnership. The course of history is not determined by the spirit of Cao Cao or Yuan Shao, but by the strength of thousands of people. The reason why Cao Cao was able to defeat Yuan Shao was not that his spiritual sea flooded Yuan Shao's million army, but that the social organization structure and people's will at that time determined victory or defeat. At that time, people all respected the Han Dynasty, hated usurpation, liked nature, hated excessive etiquette, recognized justice, opposed hegemony, liked the environment of meritocracy, and spurned nepotism - the reason why Cao Cao was able to defeat Yuan Shao was only because his actions were more supported by the masses than Yuan Shao, and when Cao Cao was still Han Xiang, the Yuan clan of the fourth and third dukes tried to replace Han, so Cao Cao was in a favorable situation, and Yuan Shao was in adversity. Therefore, Liu Bei, Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Jia Xu, and Han Song all judged that Yuan Shao would be defeated at the Battle of Guandu, because they saw the trend of history and were not confused by the relationship between the strength and weakness of the data in front of them.
Although Yuan Shao was well fed, he stood on the opposite side of history and stood on the back of people's hearts. Although he annexed Gongsun Zhan by force, Yuan's edicts in Hebei were harsh and immoral, and as long as he encountered a defeat, his power and prestige were lost. So in the final analysis, it is not the personal spiritual will of the heroes who determine the direction of history, but the organizational structure of the whole society, the needs and aspirations of the masses. Once Cao Cao violated this demand, he would immediately become the second Yuan Shao and thus lead to defeat.
Such examples abound in history: in the last years of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng responded to a hundred responses and led the people of the world to raise troops against the violent Qin. However, when he turned his back on the masses and the Qin Dynasty was not destroyed, he was anxious to become a princely general, "all the kings of Chen led themselves away", which led to his rebellion and eventual defeat; during the Reign of the Sui Emperor, Li Mi took the lead in opening Luocang to relieve the hungry, and took the lead in raising the banner of righteousness, and he declared that he would attack Jiangdu and capture dufu. However, when he killed Zhai Rang and accepted the canonization of the Emperor Tai Lord, he lost everyone's hearts and was eventually abandoned by history.
Heroes, obedient people also!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" > heroes can only speed up or delay the course of history</h1>
If there were no Cao Cao in the world, there would be someone to take his place, there is no doubt about it. If Cao Cao had been discovered and stabbed to death by Yuan Jun during his sneak attack on Wuchao, or if Chun Yuqiong had not been drunk that day and could have thwarted Cao Cao's sneak attack, how would history have gone? The answer is: Yuan Shao will still be defeated, but the time of defeat will be postponed a little.
The characteristics of the social organization structure and the back of the human heart create a position, so that the people who occupy this position become the opposite of Yuan Shao. If cao cao had not occupied this position, it would have been occupied by his former opponents Yuan Shu, Lü Bu and others; if there was no Cao Cao, there would have been people with tianzi to order the princes; if there was no Cao Cao, there would have been people who would have launched a final decisive battle with Yuan Shao to unify the north - for history, no one has ever been indispensable.
If Cao Cao was killed at Wuchao, although Yuan Shao could win the victory, what he did was contrary to the trend of history and stood on the opposite side of history, could he escape the fate of eventual defeat? During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Huan Xuan was a "victorious" Yuan Shao, who invaded the capital, captured the Jin Emperor, and deposed the Jin Dynasty to establish himself. However, soon Liu Yu and others obeyed the people's hearts and overthrew Huan Chu under the banner of restoring the Jin Dynasty.
If Cao Pi had been assassinated by assassins sent by Emperor Xian of Han before usurping the throne, or if a brick had fallen from the sky and smashed him to death, wouldn't the Han Chamber have been usurped? The answer is no. After experiencing the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the dictatorship of local supporters, the irrevocable han dynasty is a well-known fact, and most people have accepted this fact. If Cao Pi died unexpectedly, there would also be Cao Zhang, Cao Zhi, Cao Rui and others to continue to stand on behalf of han. Historically, Gao Cheng of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was a "failed" Cao Pi. He was promoted to the title of King of Qi, worshipped the nameless, did not tend to enter the dynasty, and went to the temple with his sword, but on the eve of preparing to usurp the throne, he was accidentally killed by the Assassins, delaying the process of Gao's usurpation. However, his younger brother Gao Yang immediately took control of the situation, purged all political opponents, and was crowned emperor – history still followed its original trajectory.
There are no indispensable heroes and great men
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > history was created by the masses</h1>
In Hegel's view of history, there is a fundamental contradiction in the field of history -- "the opposition of a few outstanding figures representing a positive spirit to the rest of mankind, representing the spiritual emptiness of the masses and representing matter." Hegel called Napoleon "the spirit of the world on horseback," and the soldiers who followed Napoleon were merely material materials of spiritual emptiness. History is transformed from the universal absolute spirit into a concrete "spirit on horseback", into one spiritually rich hero after another, and then they lead the masses to realize history.
In this regard, Marx said in the Holy Family: "'History' is not a special personality that uses man as a tool to achieve his own ends. History is nothing but the activity of those who pursue their own ends. The masses are not instruments used by heroes to attain their own ends; on the contrary, only the activity of the masses is history itself, and this activity is "the activity of those who pursue their own ends." "The masses are not the tools that heroes use to make history; on the contrary, the heroes are the tools that the masses use to pursue their own ends.
At the beginning of the French Revolution, Mirabeau, the leader of the Constitutionalists, became the number one hero, enjoying great prestige among the crowd and representing the spiritual quest to overthrow the old system. However, as Speaker of the National Assembly, Mirabeau was a constitutionalist who believed that the king should be retained, and the masses were republican at that time. When the Revolution transformed France from feudal absolutism to constitutional monarchy, Mirabeau represented the direction of the mass movement; but if it went further, when the masses began to call for a republic, and Mirabeau's ideals were contrary to the masses, he would inevitably be abandoned by history, fortunately, at this time Mirabeau died, otherwise he would have to go into exile like Lafayette; after Mirabeau withdrew from the stage of history, Danton represented the republican tendencies of the masses, and the revolutionary court presided over by them tried and executed the king and achieved the republic Tanton was followed by Robespierre, who represented the fanatical patriotic tendencies of the masses--in order to defend the republican regime, Robespierre obeyed the fanatical sentiments of the masses and used a policy of terror against enemies at home and abroad, at which point the milder Danton was abandoned by the masses and put on the guillotine; but when the mood of the masses returned to calm, the fanatical patriotic tendencies were replaced by the desire to restore order, and the people were tired of the policy of terror, no longer willing to give everything for the country, and hated the wartime system. So they put Robespierre on the guillotine. Since the Overseer was unable to achieve the order desired by the bourgeoisie, Napoleon the "sword" stood out in competition with Morrow, Macdonald, Bernadotte and others, and established a military government - supporting Napoleon's claim to emperor, in addition to the bourgeoisie, there were also a large number of French peasants - Napoleon was only the spokesman of the masses.
Heroes are created by the masses and serve the purpose of the masses
From this point of view, heroes are only created by the masses to achieve their own ends. The power of the masses is expressed in the tide of history, the general trend of the world and the organizational structure of society, the masses create this position, and then countless people compete for this position, and the ultimate winner is the number one hero. For example, during the reign of Emperor Wenzong of Yuan, the world was still relatively stable, and Zhu Yuanzhang was only a monk. However, during the reign of emperor Yuan Shun, people gradually became disappointed with the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, and then longed for the birth of King Ming and the arrival of Maitreya Buddha in order to save Cangsheng. Zhu Yuanzhang, together with Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youyi, Fang Guozhen and other "heroes", chased the deer, and finally seized the position of the number one hero - not Zhu Yuanzhang created the history of the late Yuan and early Ming, but the history of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties that made Zhu Yuanzhang.