On the Essence of Culture and Chinese Traditional Culture
By Hao Guisheng, April 2, 2025
[Author's Note] Recently, I have been explaining Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach" to red comrades on the Renjing website. The sixth lecture covered the sixth thesis regarding Marx's view of human essence and human nature theory. After explaining the original text, I supplemented several specific theoretical and practical issues related to human nature theory. On Sunday, April 6th at 7 PM, I plan to lecture on "On the Essence of Culture and Chinese Traditional Culture." This article was originally written in December 2023, primarily addressing the relationship between Marxism and Chinese traditional culture. This issue is essentially also a question about human beings, because the essence of culture is to transform people, to shape people. Different cultures shape different concrete historical people; in class society, they shape people according to different class standards. The core of feudal culture is the supremacy of power, shaping people who are absolutely obedient slaves prostrating before power. The core of capitalist culture is the supremacy of money (money worship), shaping selfish people who are also servile slaves prostrating before money. The economic foundation of both cultures is private ownership, and their advocated models of being human share many commonalities. Marxism is also a culture, but its standard for shaping people is fundamentally different from feudal and capitalist culture; its core is to shape people with a master-of-society mentality. China is a country that experienced thousands of years of feudal society, with deeply rooted feudal culture. So how exactly should we handle the relationship between Marxism and Chinese traditional culture? How should we choose our model of being human? This is the basic thinking of this article. I have made some revisions to the original text and republish it on red websites for reference by party members, red comrades, and people studying Marxist theories of human essence and human nature. Criticism and corrections are welcome!
Recently, the media has repeatedly emphasized the relationship between Marxism and Chinese traditional culture. How should we understand and recognize this issue? This article focuses on discussing the essence of culture and the essence of Chinese traditional culture.
I. The Essence and Nature of Culture
"Culture" is a concept most familiar to the vast majority of people. As far as I know, it roughly has four meanings: First, in the narrowest sense, culture means literacy—being able to read and write. In old society, anyone who had attended school, could recognize characters, write letters, and read books was called "cultured" or a "cultural person," as opposed to "illiterate." Second, it specifically refers to work in literature, arts, music, painting, and other creative fields as "cultural work." The "culture" in our country's "Ministry of Culture and Tourism" has this meaning. Third, it refers to specific social ideologies in social life, distinguished from economy and politics in social life, and together with these two forms the three basic phenomena of human society: economic, political, and cultural phenomena. Most people in real life use "culture" in this sense. Fourth, culture in the broadest sense means humanization—the sum total of all material and spiritual wealth created by humanity through labor. Language and writing are special material symbols formed by humans in the process of material production and interaction; they are also "culture" in the broadest sense. For example, studying ancient culture means researching that era's culture through excavated material artifacts. The "culture" and its essence studied in this article mainly refers to the third meaning—specifically social ideology.
Historical materialism holds that the basic structure of human society consists of material productive forces, production relations (whose totality constitutes society's economic base), and superstructure. Productive forces determine production relations; economic base determines superstructure. Superstructure is further divided into political superstructure and ideological superstructure. Material facilities like state government departments, political parties, laws, armies, police, and prisons constitute society's political superstructure, while philosophy, literature and arts, morality, religion, and political-legal thought constitute ideological superstructure. Culture refers to ideological superstructure. Historical materialism also distinguishes all social phenomena into social being and social consciousness. Social being refers to all material phenomena in social life; social consciousness refers to all spiritual phenomena in social life. Social being determines social consciousness; social consciousness reacts upon social being. Social consciousness has hierarchical levels: lower-level social consciousness is social psychology, connected to daily social life, representing an unsystematic, indefinite, spontaneous form of reflection manifested as emotions, customs, habits, prejudices, spontaneous tendencies, and beliefs. Higher-level social consciousness is social ideology—a systematic, conscious, theoretical form of reflection abstracted and refined from social life. This ideology has clear divisions of labor and internally possesses relatively stable systems of concepts, judgments, and reasoning, forming relatively independent disciplinary systems. Social psychology and social ideology differ in being lower/higher level, direct/indirect, but they are also internally connected. Social ideology depends on social psychology and influences and guides it, but cannot be reduced to social psychology. In terms of the division between social consciousness and social being, "culture" or "cultural construction" in the general sense mainly refers to social ideology—the highest level of social consciousness. Additionally, social consciousness is divided into superstructural social consciousness and non-superstructural social consciousness. Logic and natural sciences belong to this latter type of social consciousness and are also important content of "culture."
Because culture mainly belongs to the ideological part of superstructure and to social ideology within social consciousness, this leads to the following basic characteristics of "culture":
1. Culture's Historicity or Era-Based Nature
Due to social consciousness's absolute dependence on social being and superstructure's absolute dependence on economic base, and because humanity's productive forces and production relations develop and change, and social being develops and changes, culture's specific content also develops and changes. Humanity has experienced primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, and socialist society. Therefore, cultures built on economic foundations are also primitive society culture, slave society culture, feudal society culture, capitalist society culture, and socialist culture or Marxist culture. Although these cultures have continuity and commonalities, they are essentially different and possess historicity or era-based characteristics. The essential differences between different cultures of different eras absolutely cannot be confused. There absolutely cannot exist "universal values" of culture that transcend social economic foundations and historical eras and apply to all historical periods. The cultures with greater influence on today's world are feudal culture, capitalist culture, and socialist culture. The cultures with greater influence on contemporary China are Chinese traditional culture, religious culture, Western culture (capitalist culture), and socialist culture.
2. Culture's National Character
Because social ideology depends on social psychology, and different countries and nations differ in their economic systems, geographical environments, social psychology, habits, and customs, their cultures also carry extremely strong national characteristics. Studying "cultural" phenomena must examine a nation's economy, politics, living environment, customs, history, and other unique characteristics. Our Chinese nation's culture differs tremendously from Indian culture, Arab culture, and ancient Greek-Roman culture.
3. Culture's Class Nature
Humanity's primitive society was based on primitive communism, and the primitive culture formed on this basis was basically applicable to all primitive people of that era. But private ownership appeared at the end of primitive society, and real-life humanity split into two parts: those who possessed means of production and those who did not. They differed in their positions, roles, and appropriation of labor products in the production process, with one part appropriating another part's labor. This marked the emergence of antagonistic classes. Antagonistic classes, based on their different production relations and positions, inevitably produce antagonistic ideologies—actually different cultural content. As Chairman Mao said, everyone lives in a certain class position, and all thoughts bear class imprints. Slave masters and slave classes in slave society, landlords and peasant classes in feudal society, bourgeoisie and proletariat in capitalist society—their ideologies and cultural content inevitably carry strong class consciousness with essential fundamental differences. This is culture's class nature.
4. Culture's Historical Continuity and Mutual Interaction
Culture originates from economic base, but once specific cultural content is produced, it doesn't immediately disappear with changes to the economic base that formed it. Instead, it exists for long periods in new social formations. Its dross content negatively affects new social formations, while its positive, essential content is absorbed and inherited by new social formations' cultural content. Similarly, cultures of different countries and nations also have various degrees of influence and impact on each other through national and various exchange activities.
5. Culture's Reactive Effect on Social Economic Base and Social Being
Culture's existence and development are absolutely constrained by economic base and social being, but it also has relative independence—not only its own developmental laws but also enormous reactive effects on social being. When cultural content adapts to economic base and social development, it has positive promoting and driving effects on society; otherwise, it has obstructive effects. We cannot generally say all culture has progressive effects, nor that all has negative or obstructive effects; specific culture must be analyzed under specific historical eras and conditions.
6. Culture's Shaping Effect on People or People-Transforming Nature
Human social development manifests not only as development of productive forces, economic base, and superstructure—society's basic contradictions—but also as human development. Historical materialism holds that human essence and nature are not natural eating, drinking, and sexual behavior, but humans in social relations—the totality of social relations. Humans in class society are concrete, historical, class-based humans. Culture is also concrete, historical, class-based culture. Any culture's effect on history and society must work through people, transforming into people's concrete qualities and abilities. Essentially, different eras and different classes' cultures shape different human standards. Feudal culture's core is power supremacy, shaping people who are absolutely obedient slaves prostrating before those in power—this serves feudal ruling class needs. Capitalist culture's core is money supremacy, shaping selfish, self-interested people prostrating before money—this serves bourgeois ruling needs. Socialist culture's core is master consciousness and subject consciousness, shaping people with a master-of-society mentality—this serves the needs of socialism's essence based on public ownership.
II. The Essence of Chinese Traditional Culture and Its Social Function
Chinese traditional culture first possesses national character—it is national culture formed on the Chinese land over thousands of years of productive forces and economic foundations. Chinese traditional culture mainly refers to the Chinese nation's culture, but not all of the Chinese nation's culture. Rather, it refers to feudal society's culture built on thousands of years of feudal economic and political foundations—the culture that dominated Chinese society before the May Fourth Movement.
(I) The Dross Content in Chinese Traditional Culture
Marx said that the dominant ideology is the culture of the economically dominant ruling class. Feudal culture's essence is the culture of the feudal ruling class that dominated feudal society—the culture of landlord class rule, exploitation, and oppression of peasants. From its basic content, it has the following characteristics:
1. Power Supremacy and Power Worship
Feudal culture, especially its typical thought of Confucianism, emphasizes ruler-ruler, minister-minister, father-father, son-son; father as son's guiding principle, husband as wife's guiding principle, ruler as minister's guiding principle. When the ruler orders a minister to die, the minister cannot refuse. This forms strict hierarchical systems, creating power supremacy, power worship, awe of power, pursuit of power, and dependence on power. It forms power-based truth, calling a deer a horse [note: idiom meaning to deliberately misrepresent facts], and divine right of kings. It demands most people absolutely submit to powerful forces. These powerful forces include both domestic supreme feudal emperors and foreign powerful forces. The continuous phenomenon of traitors throughout China's thousands of years stems from submission to such foreign powerful forces. China has a common saying: "Those who understand current affairs are outstanding people." This "current affairs" means "domestic and foreign powerful forces." Almost all "traitors" use this phrase as "theoretical basis" for betraying people, nation, and country.
2. "Cannibalistic" Culture
While Confucianism emphasizes the "Three Cardinal Guides," it also emphasizes the "Five Constants"—benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. "Benevolence" seems to emphasize people's mutual love. But Lu Xun said in "Diary of a Madman": "I opened history books to check—this history has no dates, but on every crooked page are written the words 'benevolence, righteousness, and morality.' I couldn't sleep anyway, so I looked carefully for half the night, finally seeing between the lines throughout the book two words: 'Cannibalism'!" The "cannibalism" here doesn't mean physical cannibalism, but spiritual cannibalism—turning people into those who are absolutely obedient before those in power, not permitted to have any questioning or resistance consciousness or behavior, and who are forever "sinners" before those in power. In the TV drama "Liu Luoguo," whenever He Shen sees the emperor, he says: "Your Majesty is wise, your servant is guilty." But to subordinates and common people, he always says: "I am wise, you are guilty." Actor Wang Gang, who played He Shen, once met a grassroots official who tightly grasped Wang Gang's hand saying: "You played He Shen so well, I learned so much from He Shen." He actually learned the "cannibalistic" culture of being a slave to superiors and master to subordinates. In real life, this manifests as bullying the weak while fearing the strong, bullying the good while fearing evil, acting like a dog relying on its master's power, using power to bully others, etc.
3. Inverted View of Righteousness and Profit
In cultural dictionaries, "profit" is generally interpreted as "material interests" and "righteousness" as "spiritual pursuits." In Chinese traditional culture, people's pursuit of material interests is extremely denigrated while spiritual pursuits are extremely elevated. Confucius said: "The gentleman understands righteousness, the petty person understands profit." "The gentleman cherishes virtue, the petty person cherishes land; the gentleman cherishes punishment, the petty person cherishes favor." Song Dynasty Confucian Zhu Xi said "preserve heavenly principles, eliminate human desires"—all typical thoughts of righteousness-profit inversion leading to good-evil, right-wrong, beautiful-ugly inversions. This is extremely similar to "asceticism" in Western religious culture.
4. Selfishness and Self-Interest
Feudal society is also a typical private ownership society that inevitably promotes private ownership concepts based on this economic foundation. Feudal culture vigorously promotes "If one doesn't look out for oneself, heaven and earth will destroy him" and "People die for wealth, birds die for food." But in official circles and among some thinkers, it also promotes "the world belongs to everyone." But this "public" absolutely doesn't refer to the common interests of the vast majority—broadly it refers to the "family world" of feudal emperors, narrowly to individual small families, essentially still "selfish and self-interested" in nature. Like the "inverted righteousness-profit view," this displays this culture's typical hypocritical characteristics.
5. Disdain for Labor and Ignorant People Culture
How to treat people's material production labor is also important cultural content. The dominant parts of Chinese traditional culture all disdain laboring people and material production labor. For example, Mencius's "Those who labor with their minds rule others, those who labor with their bodies are ruled by others," and Confucius's "Only the highest wisdom and lowest ignorance cannot be changed." Confucius also divided people into four ranks: "Those born knowing are highest, those learning to know are next, those knowing through difficulty are next again, those in difficulty but not learning—these people are lowest." "The people can be made to follow, but cannot be made to understand."
6. Study-to-Become-Official Theory
Chinese traditional culture extremely disdains labor and laborers while promoting strict social hierarchy concepts, thus vigorously encouraging a few people to pursue culture. But the goal of pursuing culture isn't to improve and develop oneself or serve society, but to pursue personal fame, profit, and status, striving to climb to society's highest levels, pursuing power and status. Examples include "Excel in study, then become official," "Without scholarly sons in the family, where do officials come from," "Ten years of cold study with no one asking, one success brings fame throughout the world," etc.
From analyzing the core Confucian doctrine among Chinese traditional culture's dross content, Chinese traditional culture shapes distorted, one-sided personality characteristics with extremely serious selfishness, servility, hypocrisy, indifference, and internal consumption traits. It is spiritual opium paralyzing people, a spiritual weapon maintaining feudal ruling class interests, an ideological source obstructing China's productive force and technological development, and an extremely important reason for China's feudal society lasting thousands of years. This is why it became the main target of May Fourth Movement criticism and attack—the slogan "Down with Confucian shops" deeply criticized and negated this culture's dross content. The dross content in Chinese traditional culture still spreads extremely putrid odors like corpses in coffins throughout Chinese land today, especially "power supremacy" and its "cannibalistic" culture, causing extremely serious harm to contemporary Chinese society, particularly among cadres and intellectuals. Especially after reform and opening up, this has colluded with incoming Western capitalist culture, forming the corrupt characteristics of contemporary China's unique cultural mixture. Not recognizing and acknowledging its extremely serious corrosive and destructive effects on contemporary China is absolutely not being a Marxist.
(II) The Essential Content in Chinese Traditional Culture
Materialist dialectics requires adopting materialist dialectical analytical methods toward all things; we should treat Chinese traditional culture likewise. Culture's prominent characteristic in class society is class nature—its dross content represents typical characteristics of feudal landlord class nature. But Chinese traditional culture is also human culture, a product of human civilizational development, spiritual achievements of civilization accumulated by people of that era. Meanwhile, as the oppressed class, the peasant class also formed its own relatively unique peasant class culture based on its economic relations and political position. Even within ruling classes, there inevitably exist oppositions between justice and evil, progress and reaction, also forming different degrees of opposing cultural content. In this sense, Chinese traditional culture inevitably contains extremely abundant essential content.
1. Social Responsibility Consciousness
Feudal society is private ownership society that inevitably forms exploiting classes' selfish worldviews and life philosophies. But humans are social beings; some ruling class members can also start from most people's interests, thus forming strong social responsibility consciousness. Examples include Song Dynasty Fan Zhongyan's "Worry before the world worries, rejoice after the world rejoices," Ming Dynasty Donglin Academy's couplet "Wind sounds, rain sounds, reading sounds—all sounds enter the ear; family affairs, state affairs, world affairs—all affairs concern the heart," Qing Dynasty Gu Yanwu's "Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world," etc.
2. Patriotic Sentiment
Based on social responsibility consciousness, each historical dynasty produced many officials and literati with deep patriotic sentiment. Examples include Warring States period Chu state's Qu Yuan, Song Dynasty's Yue Fei ("Thirty achievements are dust and dirt, eight thousand li of road under clouds and moon. Strong ambition hungers for barbarian flesh, laughing conversation thirsts for Hun blood"), Lu You ("Though lowly positioned, dare not forget worrying for the country"), Wen Tianxiang ("Since ancient times, who hasn't died? Leave a loyal heart to illuminate history"), Qing Dynasty's Lin Zexu ("If beneficial to the country's life and death, how can one avoid due to fortune or misfortune"), etc.
3. Clear Right-Wrong Independent Personality Characteristics
Dominant feudal culture's important personality characteristic is complete submission to power, lacking ability to distinguish right-wrong, beautiful-ugly, good-evil. But some intellectuals don't submit to powerful forces and evil influences; they demand "clear discernment," pursuing independent personality: "Might cannot bend, poverty cannot move, wealth cannot corrupt." Especially Qu Yuan's clear right-wrong distinction, personal integrity, self-purification, and courage to offer advice upward. As he said: "The whole world is muddy while I alone am clean; everyone is drunk while I alone am sober." (Everyone in society is polluted while only I am clean; everyone is intoxicated while only I am awake.) He repeatedly offered the Chu king direct advice on national strengthening and development strategies, but never gained the king's understanding and often suffered slanderous retaliation, yet remained unwavering. As he said: "The ruler doesn't examine my burning heart, instead believing slander and getting angry; I deeply know direct speech brings disaster, but cannot bear to refrain." (The ruler doesn't understand my passionate heart, instead believing slander and getting furious at me. I deeply know direct speech will bring calamity, but I cannot control myself from speaking.) Three Kingdoms literary figure Li Kang's "Theory of Fate" points out social phenomena that destroy those with independent views and outstanding talents: "Trees excelling the forest will be destroyed by wind; banks protruding from shores will be washed by currents; conduct higher than others will be criticized by crowds." But he also points out: "However, people with lofty ideals and benevolence still tread this path without regret"—those with great ideals, aspirations, and determination to achieve something still remain unmoved, firmly walking their original path forward. This expresses intellectuals' independent consciousness and persistent beliefs. Qing Dynasty Zheng Banqiao, discussing intellectuals' standards for being human, said: "Rare to be clever, rare to be confused."
4. Pursuit of Equality and Resistance Struggle Consciousness Against Powerful Forces and Evil Influences
Feudal culture's core is power-supremacist inequality, but oppressed classes and people vigorously oppose this inequality concept. Throughout dynasties, countless peasant uprisings of various scales occurred, resisting feudal rule's economic and political systems. Examples include Spring-Autumn Warring States period "Robber Zhi" uprising, late Qin Chen Sheng-Wu Guang uprising, late Western Han Greenwood uprising, late Eastern Han Yellow Turban uprising, late Tang Huang Chao uprising, Song Dynasty Chao Gai-Fang La uprising, late Yuan Zhu Yuanzhang uprising, late Ming Li Zicheng-Zhang Xianzhong uprising, late Qing Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising, etc. They raised slogans like "The blue sky is dead, the yellow sky should stand," "Equalize rich and poor," "Equalize heaven, exempt taxes," etc., resisting feudal exploitation and oppression systems. Due to peasants not representing advanced productive forces and their own class limitations, all peasant uprisings failed. But as Chairman Mao said, in China's feudal society, only this kind of peasant class struggle, peasant uprisings, and peasant wars were history's true driving force. Because each major peasant uprising and war's result struck contemporary feudal rule, thus more or less promoting social productive force development.
5. People-Valuing Consciousness
While feudal culture promoted disdain for labor and laborers, it also produced opposing people-valuing thought. For example, Spring-Autumn Warring States period saw emergence of "take people as foundation" and "water can carry boats, can also overturn boats" thoughts. Some intellectuals, through long-term contact with laboring people, also deeply felt labor and laborers' greatness. Tao Yuanming's abundant pastoral poetry, especially his famous article "Peach Blossom Spring," praised peasant class industriousness, simplicity, and great noble character. Song Dynasty patriotic poet Lu You had even deeper feelings for peasants. Though he neither established nor could establish mass historical viewpoint thinking, his works praised peasants engaged in material production labor as great heroes. In a seven-character regulated verse reflecting rural pastoral life, he said: "Personal farming is originally heroic work; dying old in Nanyang might not be wrong" (referring to Zhuge Liang originally being a peasant; if Liu Bei hadn't visited the thatched cottage three times and he hadn't emerged, remaining lifelong farming in his hometown wouldn't necessarily mean he wasn't a hero).
Chinese traditional culture's essence also includes excellent ideological achievements in philosophy's simple materialism and simple dialectics, educational learning thought, literature, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and many other aspects.
Although the above thoughts in Chinese traditional culture weren't mainstream, during China's thousands of years of feudal history, they also shaped extremely numerous great heroes and outstanding figures with independent personalities, critical struggle spirit, uprightness, and honesty. They also played certain promoting roles in Chinese social development. But overall, Chinese traditional culture's excellent and essential content didn't dominate during thousands of years of feudal society development; their impact was much, much smaller than dross content. Using the excuse that Chinese traditional culture contains considerable essence and excellent content to view entire feudal culture, especially core Confucian doctrine, as compatible with Marxism is absolutely wrong.
III. Marxism and Chinese Traditional Culture Are Essentially "Discard the Dross, Take the Essence"—Absolutely Not a Combining Relationship
Recognizing culture and Chinese traditional culture's essence requires understanding Chinese traditional culture from the unity of culture's general and particular aspects. Chinese traditional culture must be placed in historical development processes, understood from its era-based nature, class nature, and dialectical nature. Particularly, its essence must be understood from its class nature. We cannot abstractly discuss only its essential content while leaving aside class nature, cannot abstractly discuss only inheritance and development of Chinese traditional culture while leaving aside criticism, and especially cannot abstractly discuss compatibility and mutual combination between Marxism and Chinese traditional culture while leaving aside era-based and class nature. Marxism's essence and soul are eliminating private ownership and class struggle; Chinese traditional culture's essence and mainstream are ideological theoretical weapons maintaining feudal private ownership and feudal ruling class interests. How can these two possibly combine? Mao Zedong Thought is the product of combining Marxism with Chinese revolutionary construction practice. Chinese revolutionary construction practice includes Chinese historical development. Chairman Mao developed Marxism by using Marxist general principles like class struggle to study China's class struggle practice and its history, including cultural development history, studying China's current situation, especially class struggle practice resisting imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism. In China's revolutionary practice, he maximally conducted materialist dialectical and class analysis of Chinese traditional culture, and on this basis discarded the dross, took the essence, made the ancient serve the present, and promoted the new while discarding the old.
Chairman Mao discussed how to treat Western culture in "On New Democracy." He said: "Our culture is revolutionary national culture. China should absorb large amounts of foreign progressive culture as raw materials for its own cultural nourishment—this work has been very insufficient in the past. This includes not only current socialist culture and new democratic culture, but also foreign ancient cultures, such as Enlightenment-era culture of capitalist countries—everything useful to us today should be absorbed. But all foreign things, like our treatment of food, must pass through our own mouth chewing and stomach-intestine movement, mixed with saliva, gastric juice, and intestinal juice, decomposed into essence and dross parts, then excrete the dross and absorb the essence, only then beneficial to our bodies. We absolutely cannot swallow whole and raw without any criticism." Similarly, when discussing Chinese traditional culture, he also advocated decomposing into essence and dross parts. He said: "In China's long feudal society, brilliant ancient culture was created. Sorting out ancient culture's development process, eliminating its feudal dross, absorbing its democratic essence, is a necessary condition for developing new national culture and improving national self-confidence; but we absolutely cannot uncritically accept everything wholesale. We must distinguish between all corrupt things of ancient feudal ruling classes and ancient excellent people's culture that somewhat carries democratic and revolutionary characteristics." Chairman Mao's thinking completely applies to contemporary China's cultural construction and to the relationship between Marxism and Chinese traditional culture—the relationship of "take the essence, discard the dross."
Perhaps some comrades say the Marxism-Chinese traditional culture combination discussed here doesn't mean combining with everything including both essence and dross, but refers to combining with excellent Chinese traditional culture—that is, combining with "essential" content. I believe this is also wrong. "Combination" means two phenomena, two cultures' mutual interaction, mutual supplementation, improvement, influence, and common development. Like theory-practice combination. Theory should influence and act on practice, promoting deeper practical activities. Practice should also influence, act on theory, correcting, supplementing, enriching, and improving theoretical development. When two different national cultures exist simultaneously in one country, they can mutually interact, influence, and combine. But cultures of different eras and different opposing classes cannot mutually combine. German classical philosophy, British classical economics, and French utopian socialism played crucial roles in creating Marxist philosophy, economics, and scientific socialism. They share certain commonalities with Marxism, but absolutely not mutual combination relationships—rather dialectical negation relationships, critical inheritance relationships. Only the former can influence and act on Marxism, but we absolutely cannot say Marxism influences and acts on the former. Similarly, no matter how much "excellent" and "essential" content Chinese traditional culture characterized by feudal despotism contains, Marxism's relationship with it can only be critical inheritance, absolutely not "mutual combination."
Chairman Mao's "discard the dross, take the essence" critical inheritance relationship between Marxism and Chinese traditional culture emphasizes dialectical class analytical methods toward Chinese traditional culture. But some people's loud shouting about "Marxism combining with Chinese excellent culture" essentially abandons Marxist dialectical, class analytical methods. For example, they believe Confucian culture as typical representative thought of Chinese traditional culture has compatibility—mutual compatibility—with Marxism. Isn't this using the banner of combining with excellent culture to demand that proletarian revolutionary theoretical weapons combine with the most dross, corrupt content in Chinese traditional culture, using hierarchical and slave culture maintaining feudal hierarchy systems to supplement, correct, improve, and essentially castrate Marxism's proletarian culture's class nature, revolutionary nature, and critical nature? Their proposal of "Marxism combining with Chinese excellent traditional culture" is absolutely wrong. This isn't developing Marxism but typical revision, distortion, and tampering with Marxism. Essentially, they consciously or unconsciously use feudal culture or mixtures with capitalist culture to shape distorted, one-sided, servile people prostrating before power and money, suitable for their subversion of socialism and restoration of capitalism. Essentially, in today's society, our study, inheritance, and promotion of excellent and essential content in Chinese traditional culture is very insufficient; enriching and developing Marxism is also very insufficient. Meanwhile, exposure and criticism of its dross content is also very insufficient. Dross content in feudal culture, especially its mutual collusion with capitalist money-supremacist concepts, has already caused extremely serious destructive, harmful, and obstructive effects on contemporary China's socialist modernization construction. The extremely numerous distorted, one-sided, one-dimensional, numb, right-wrong good-evil beautiful-ugly undifferentiated, servile people appearing in contemporary China are products of feudal culture's dross content colluding with capitalist culture—nondescript mixtures.
Marxist culture's essence is critical and revolutionary. Today's Chinese Communists, to truly uphold Marxism and the socialist path, while strengthening criticism of capitalist culture, must also emphasize and deeply criticize dross content in Chinese traditional culture, especially criticism of Confucian culture. Use Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought's cultural content to shape truly socialist historical era human standards.