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Integration of Values in Contemporary China
Author: Zhao Fujie
Date: 2003-5-27
Now China is in a process of social transformation preoccupied with the theme of modernization. During the process, profound changes are bound to happen to people""s values, i.e. the disintegration of the former value system and the formation of a new one. The reconstruction of the new value system demands the integration of the various dispersing and conflicting values that come into being due to the changing society. Here, integration means to unite the various existing values into a dynamically and functionally structural whole. "Historical advancement is always accompanied by a dynamic interaction between integration and disintegration. But at certain particular stage of the process, one of them always has the advantage over its counterpart."[1] At the initial stage of the opening up and reform in the 1980s, the disintegration of the former value system was the major trend while in the 1990s, with the establishment of the market economy and the pursuit of a rule-by-law society, value integration has taken the place of its counterpart. Consequently, it is also an unavoidable factor in our purposeful construction of the value system of the socialism with Chinese characteristics.
â… . Necessity of value integration
The integration of the existing values requires a full acknowledgement of the contemporary value trends in China. As a whole, Chinese society is involved in a course of transformation from a traditional agricultural civilization to a modern industrial civilization. Analysis of the value factors and the relations among them shows that China is confronting with a complex and dispersing value system. The system itself features the interweaving of the old and the new, the coexistence of the domestic and the alien, the overlapping of the common and the peculiar in addition to the conflict between the majority and the minority.
1. Coexistence of Synchonical values
Having long experienced the agrarian civilization, China is one of the lagging-behind countries where the movement towards the industrial civilization was stimulated and oppressed by the Western civilization. This historical factor has caused the coexistence of agricultural, industrial and informational economies that would take place in a synchronical form. In response to this is the coexistence of three main trends in the mind of Chinese people: the traditional values saturated with ethic-based connotations, the modern values marked by science, and the postmodern cultural values characterized with the reduced subject and transcendental reason. Besides conflicting with each other, they are drawn into opposite directions in the process of performing their social functions.
2. The interweaving of heterogeneous values
There are 3 main types of origins for the values existing in modern China: first, the long native history and the deep sedimentation of our traditional culture; second, the Western culture flowing into China since mid-19th century; third, the Marxist culture introduced to China since May 4th Movement in 1919. The values originated from Chinese traditional culture, though having been criticized repeatedly since the May 4th Movement, are still casting important influence on the Chinese people and playing a distinct role. Originated from the Western culture, the second set of values are interpreted by the Chinese people in their own way of thinking and their own value consciousness in modem times, still maintaining quite many of its own characters while being assimilated into the spiritual world of the Chinese people. Cultivated in the Marxist culture and integrated with the Chinese reality mainly through the efforts of Mao Zedong and other politicians and theorists, the third set of values have been developed and transformed creatively, and acquired outstanding Chinese characteristics. They still have their own distinct qualities in contrast with its other two counterparts. The coexistence and interweaving, fusion and segregation of the three main types of values in modern China make the value system extraordinarily colorful and complicated.
3. Conflicts among Different Value Orientations
Marxism, Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory are deployed as the guidance for the socialism with Chinese characteristics. They occupy the core position in China""s ideology structure today. Apart from the socialist ideology guided by Marxism, there exist some non-socialist ones including those of the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie and the dregs of the traditional feudal ideology. The values and their orientations wrapped up in these ideologies are different from one another. While the socialist ideology taking a leading position in the general structure, the non-socialist ones are still playing a very important part. Hence there arise the contradictions and conflicts among the heterogeneous values. In addition, with the various components and aspects of value system, not all of the existing values belong to the ideology even though they are controlled and restricted by the latter. Therefore, there are conflicts between them and their ideological counterparts.
4. The Contradiction between Common and Particular Values
Concerning the value identification, some common values are accepted by the majority, and many other particular values are held by only a group or even some individuals. The former includes the universal values based on the common interests of mankind, the national values originated from the Chinese cultural heritage, and the socialist values reflecting the primary interests of the Chinese citizens in general. The latter contains those having their origins in cultures of different regions and nations apart from those based on the interests of certain groups of people or of some individuals. The distinction between commonality and particularity is not absolute because the two sets of values can in certain case be transformed into each other, therefore, some common values can change into particular ones when viewed from another perspective. For instance, the values originated from Chinese cultural tradition are common to the Chinese people. But they tend to be particular with regard to the human beings as a whole. The difference between commonality and particularity, though being relative, leads to the contradiction between them.
The difference and contradiction abovementioned lead to the dispersing, disorderly and unstable phenomenon in the values, and the chaos in people""s value orientations to certain extent. Without value synthesis, it is neither possible to construct an orderly and harmonious value system of a socialist kind with Chinese characteristics, nor is it possible to make the values play an active and effective role in maintaining social stability and promoting the sound development in China.
â…¡. The Goal of Value Synthesis
The general goal of the value synthesis in China today is to construct a socialist value system with Chinese characteristics. The system has such basic connotations and a logic structure as follows:
1. The Conception of Masses as the Value Subjects
Value subject is the origin of value. The affirmation of the subject is the prerequisite for the establishment of values. Therefore, in any value system, value subject is always logically the starting point. The essential distinction between Marxist values and the non-Marxist ones is that the former regards the masses as the social and historical value subject, and treats their interests and needs as the fundamental standard for all the values. The socialist liberation and development of productive forces aim to meet the people""s ever-increasing needs in material and cultural domains. "Being favorable to raising the people""s living standards" is the core of "three favorables". This is the evaluation criterion proposed by Deng Xiaoping. Among the "three representings" proposed by Jiang Zemin, what represents the people""s fundamental interests is the ultimate goal. As pointed out by Jiang, what Deng always took as the basic standard for all the work is "whether the people support," "whether the people agree," whether the people are satisfied," and "whether the people permit." All this fully demonstrates the important thought of regarding the people as value subject, and evidently clarifies the basic features of the subject concept among the socialist values. It is not only different from its counterpart in class societies where the exploiters and rulers are considered the subject, but also from its counterpart in the individualism prevailing in the Western society.
2. The Conception of Labor as Value Basis
Labor is the basic activity of the socialist value subject. With relevant objects and means, labor is the source of all values and the creator of all the social material and spiritual wealth. Therefore, all the values in socialist society can be generalized as labor value. Labor incorporates manual and mental work. With the development of labor forces and the diversity of labor means, intelligence plays a more and more important part, and meanwhile its fusion with physical power has developed to a higher degree. Since the essence of socialism is "liberation and development of productive forces, elimination of exploitation and polarization, and the ultimate achievement of prosperity for all," labor has become the common value criterion shared by every citizen in the socialist society, and at the same time the fundamental value of the society. Taking labor as value criterion is not only a negation of the "bureaucracy-based" feudal values, and a transcendence over the "money-based " capitalist values, but also the adherence to the Marxist values. In modem times, only by encouraging labor-based values and advocating again the slogan that "Work is glory", can we realize the goal of modernization while resisting the pernicious influence of the " bureaucracy-based" and "money-based" values. Meanwhile, we can keep aloof the harmful effect from other values, namely, "Power is almighty", "Money is everything", and "Pleasure-seeking hedonism is all."
3. The Unity of Scientific Rationality and Humanism as Instrumental Value
Both the optimization of labor value and the intensification of labor""s function of creating values call for the improvement of laborers"" quality, which consists of two elements, namely, intellectual and moral. The former includes experience, knowledge, skill, and capability, etc. The latter consists of will, morality, thoughts, initiative, and the like. The former should be improved through scientific rationality while the latter requires education through humanism. Therefore, the unity of scientific rationality and humanism constitutes the most basic of all the Chinese instrumental values. As far as their correlate is concerned, science and technology can be identified with instrumental rationality while humanism with value rationality. Both of them belong to the scope of instrumental values, and serve as two columns to sustain the human values when compared with the individual values and with the objective of social civilization.
4. Harmony as the Relational Value
The value subject exists in relations. Similarly, the subjective labor takes place in relations. The subjective value and its labor could be exerted to different extents in different relational patterns. Therefore, to the subject, "relation" refers to a kind of value. In socialist society, the value subject (people) and the value criterion (labor) are in a double-fold relationship: one is between human being and nature, and the other between individuals and collectives. The basic characteristics of the double-fold relationship should be characterized with harmony because socialism has transcended the capitalist relational patterns in which people view nature as the target to be conquered, and the minority tend to exploit the majority. At present time when the strategy of sustainable development is being carried out, it is necessary to set up a harmonious relationship between mankind and nature; and in light of the socialism""s essential task to "eliminate exploitation", it is necessary to set up an equal and harmonious relationship between individuals and collectives, individuals and individuals. Of course, harmony doesn""t mean denying all competitions and contradictions. Instead it means to let differences, competitions, and contradictions exist and take place in a harmonious manner. In the realm of social life, a harmonious social relationship is the foundation of obtaining a good social order; the value function of such socialist norms as morality, law, discipline and convention lies in the forming of a harmonious social relationship and social order, which inevitably calls for the combination of "ruling the state by law" and "ruling the state by virtue" into a general strategy of governing the country.
5. Modern Civilization as the Value Objective.
The practical value objective of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to realize modernization, construct modem material civilization, institutional civilization, and moral civilization. The value connotation of material civilization is to develop economy, eliminate exploitation, and achieve common wealth and national prosperity in order to meet people""s increasing demands in material and spiritual life. The core value of institutional civilization is to conduct political system reform, construct the democratic politics and build a country ruled by law, thus satisfying people""s political demands to administer the country as real masters and to enjoy various civil rights. The value connotation of moral civilization is to develop science and education, prosper literature and art, rectify ideology and morality, and form a good social mood in order to meet people""s increasing needs in cuttural and moral life. Since the value objective of modern civilization is a dynamic process of development, its three value connotations should be based on the concept of preliminary stage of socialism construction, and be gradually enhanced in accord with the social development.
6. An Individual""s Free and Full Development as the Lofty Ideal.
Grand as it may be, the value objective of socialism with Chinese characteristics is designed to serve merely as a "bridge" and "medium" which is expected to lead to the realization of a communist society as the greatest and ultimate ideal. Jiang Zemin, president of China, says in his report at the 15th plenary session of CPC Congress, "We are endeavoring to realize the ultimate goal of communism. Those who forget the great goal and those who don""t strive for the periodical work objectives of our Party at the socialist preliminary stage are not qualified Party members at all". Thus the practical value objective of socialism with Chinese characteristics has been put into the inner structure of integrated communist value ideals. Therefore, communist ideal should be considered a key link in the socialist value system with Chinese characteristics, and treated as the lofty ideal and ultimate concern. Instead of being a subjective supposition, it is a "practical movement aiming to eliminate the present conditions of injustice"; and instead of being a Utopian fantasy, it represents the necessary trend of historical development of mankind. The core of its value connotation is the whole and free development of human beings. According to Karl Marx, what will replace the old capitalist society will be such an entity where each person""s free development is prerequisite to all the people""s free development.[2] From the perspective of "the liberation of human being" at the stage of communist society, human beings will finally pass the prehistoric "realm of necessity" and enter the "realm of freedom".
To be brief, the value system of socialism with Chinese characteristics can be generalized into one with the working people as its value subject; with labor as its value criterion. Its value operation model features the unity of science and humanism, the harmony of mankind and nature, and the harmony of individuals and collectives. Accordingly its value objective is pointed to modem civilization and its ultimate value ideal is intended for human beings"" whole and full development. The integration of value system is to absorb, synthesize, and arrange the sound and reasonable factors of all the existing values into this orderly structure.
â…¢. Some Ways of Integrating Values
The integration of the values in modem Chinese society is not merely an objective historical process, but also a self-consciously designing process with the subject""s active participation. Considered from the perspective of the latter, the integration of values ought to be conducted through the general ways as follows:
1. Judge and distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad values according to the criterion that unifies people""s interests, historical rules and practical effects. Among the variety of prevailing values in China, some are reasonable, right, and positive, and others are unreasonable, wrong, and negative. Thus the first problem to be solved is to judge and distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad with the principal criterion abovementioned. In other words, only those which reflect people""s interests, correspond to the historical rules, and have good practical effects are right, reasonable, and positive values, and ought to be promoted and carried forward. On the contrary, those that violate the above-mentioned criterion are wrong, inferior, and negative values, and ought to be dropped or thrown away. People""s interests stand for the criterion of "goodness"; historical rules indicate the criterion of "truth"; and good practical effects suggest is the criterion of the combination of "goodness" with "truth". Only this criterion of trinity is the all-sided one to determine whether a value is right or not.
2. Coordinate between values of universality or commonality, and their counterparts of particularity and individuality in the tension of seeking common ground while reserving differences. Even the right and reasonable values are distinguished between commonality and particularity. Although the approach to "seeking common ground" presents the highly integrated state of values, it strangles their affluence and vigor. On the other hand, the approach to "seeking differences" presents the colorful state of value system, but weakens and disintegrates its commonality and coherence. The existing values in modern China and their commonality and particularity lie in three dimensions, and correspondingly retain their coordination in three kinds of tension as well. The first tension is between global values (such as peace, equality, development, environmental protection, etc.) and the local values. The second tension is between Chinese national values (such as the doctrine of the mean, loving people and treasuring things, respecting the right Tao and honoring virtues, etc.) and the regional, individual values. The third tension is between the values of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the individual non-ideological ones (such as one""s personality, interest, liking, artistic style, etc.). Only by maintaining the tension and coordination of identifying the similarities and reserving differences among the above-mentioned values of commonality and their counterparts of particularity, the collective spirit and the individual spirit can be complemented to each other such that the society will be full of vitality and dynamics, and will not fall into a chaos because of internal conflicts as a result of the loss of order, norms and balance.
3. Use synthetic, transformational and dialectically sublating approaches to deal properly with the relationship between the traditional values and modern ones, between the modern values and post-modern ones, and between exotic values and national ones. The socialist values with Chinese characteristics are neither completely equal with nor totally opposite to traditinal, exotic, and post-modern values. Instead they ought to and can absorb the reasonable and positive factors from various values at home and abroad, ancient and modem. However, this absorption is not to take in and put things together blindly. It ought to integrate them through synthetic, transformational and dialectically sublating means. By synthetic is meant the way of widely absorbing the reasonable and positive factors from various traditional, exotic, and post-modern values and arranging them into the socialist value system. By transformational is meant the way of endowing the values with timely characteristics and national features through reexplanation and re-elaboration. Under such circumstances, the Chinese traditional values are to be transformed into modern ones; the exotic values are to be transformed into national ones. What could be melted into the socialist values with Chinese characteristics through synthesis and transformation may involve, for instance, such Chinese values as the collective spirit, moral ideal, humanism, the oneness of heaven and man, making unremitting efforts to improve oneself, great virtue of being kind to all things, harmonious relationship, the doctrine of the mean, etc., and such Western values as individual freedom, utilitarian consciousness, democratic spirit, scientific rationality, rule of law, idea of competition, etc.
4. Guide and elevate the low values in the light of high values in order to sublimate human values and develop social civilization. There are different categories of human needs. The first category is composed of two hierarchies: material and spiritual. The second category is made up of three hierarchies, namely, the cognitive need (truth), the moral need (goodness), and the aesthetic need (beauty). All this gives rise to value contradictions and even conflicts at different levels, which in ancient China took the form of contradictions between righteousness and interests, rationality and desire (contradictions within the first level), and the contradictions between morality and intelligence, goodness and beauty (contradictions within the second level). Then, in the present-day China, they take the form of contradictions and conflicts between morality and interests, spiritual and material, morality and knowledge, and morality and aesthetics, etc. In order to coordinate the relationships among values of different levels, and to promote human and social progress through this coordination, the high values must be used to guide and elevate their low counterparts, that is, to guide interests in terms of righteousness, to guide desire in terms of rationality, to guide intelligence in terms of morality, to guide truth in terms of goodness, and to guide goodness in terms of beauty. All this is intended to make people, in their daily lives, "think of righteousness at the sight of profits" and "take things according to the principle of righteousness". Only through this integration can we continuously enhance to a higher level the human value pursuit, the people""s living standard, the human constitutive quality, and the social civilization in addition to accelerating the full development of both human being and society. The process of human development, if considered from the perspective of human needs, is a process in which the superior needs constantly surmount the inferior needs. Likewise, if considered from the perspective of concepts, it is a process in which human values keep being promoted from low levels to high levels. It is in this sense a process in which human beings keep transcending their animal nature. According to Karl Marx, eating, drinking, and reproduction, etc. are surely the real organisms of human beings. Nonetheless, if they are abstracted and separated from other fields of human activities and become the one and only ultimate goal, they are nothing but sheer animal organisms.[3]
(Tr. Ma Zhentao/Yang Shuxue)
http://bic.cass.cn/english/infoShow...ation=Home->Forum&BigClassID=4&SmallClassID=9
Author: Zhao Fujie
Date: 2003-5-27
Now China is in a process of social transformation preoccupied with the theme of modernization. During the process, profound changes are bound to happen to people""s values, i.e. the disintegration of the former value system and the formation of a new one. The reconstruction of the new value system demands the integration of the various dispersing and conflicting values that come into being due to the changing society. Here, integration means to unite the various existing values into a dynamically and functionally structural whole. "Historical advancement is always accompanied by a dynamic interaction between integration and disintegration. But at certain particular stage of the process, one of them always has the advantage over its counterpart."[1] At the initial stage of the opening up and reform in the 1980s, the disintegration of the former value system was the major trend while in the 1990s, with the establishment of the market economy and the pursuit of a rule-by-law society, value integration has taken the place of its counterpart. Consequently, it is also an unavoidable factor in our purposeful construction of the value system of the socialism with Chinese characteristics.
â… . Necessity of value integration
The integration of the existing values requires a full acknowledgement of the contemporary value trends in China. As a whole, Chinese society is involved in a course of transformation from a traditional agricultural civilization to a modern industrial civilization. Analysis of the value factors and the relations among them shows that China is confronting with a complex and dispersing value system. The system itself features the interweaving of the old and the new, the coexistence of the domestic and the alien, the overlapping of the common and the peculiar in addition to the conflict between the majority and the minority.
1. Coexistence of Synchonical values
Having long experienced the agrarian civilization, China is one of the lagging-behind countries where the movement towards the industrial civilization was stimulated and oppressed by the Western civilization. This historical factor has caused the coexistence of agricultural, industrial and informational economies that would take place in a synchronical form. In response to this is the coexistence of three main trends in the mind of Chinese people: the traditional values saturated with ethic-based connotations, the modern values marked by science, and the postmodern cultural values characterized with the reduced subject and transcendental reason. Besides conflicting with each other, they are drawn into opposite directions in the process of performing their social functions.
2. The interweaving of heterogeneous values
There are 3 main types of origins for the values existing in modern China: first, the long native history and the deep sedimentation of our traditional culture; second, the Western culture flowing into China since mid-19th century; third, the Marxist culture introduced to China since May 4th Movement in 1919. The values originated from Chinese traditional culture, though having been criticized repeatedly since the May 4th Movement, are still casting important influence on the Chinese people and playing a distinct role. Originated from the Western culture, the second set of values are interpreted by the Chinese people in their own way of thinking and their own value consciousness in modem times, still maintaining quite many of its own characters while being assimilated into the spiritual world of the Chinese people. Cultivated in the Marxist culture and integrated with the Chinese reality mainly through the efforts of Mao Zedong and other politicians and theorists, the third set of values have been developed and transformed creatively, and acquired outstanding Chinese characteristics. They still have their own distinct qualities in contrast with its other two counterparts. The coexistence and interweaving, fusion and segregation of the three main types of values in modern China make the value system extraordinarily colorful and complicated.
3. Conflicts among Different Value Orientations
Marxism, Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory are deployed as the guidance for the socialism with Chinese characteristics. They occupy the core position in China""s ideology structure today. Apart from the socialist ideology guided by Marxism, there exist some non-socialist ones including those of the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie and the dregs of the traditional feudal ideology. The values and their orientations wrapped up in these ideologies are different from one another. While the socialist ideology taking a leading position in the general structure, the non-socialist ones are still playing a very important part. Hence there arise the contradictions and conflicts among the heterogeneous values. In addition, with the various components and aspects of value system, not all of the existing values belong to the ideology even though they are controlled and restricted by the latter. Therefore, there are conflicts between them and their ideological counterparts.
4. The Contradiction between Common and Particular Values
Concerning the value identification, some common values are accepted by the majority, and many other particular values are held by only a group or even some individuals. The former includes the universal values based on the common interests of mankind, the national values originated from the Chinese cultural heritage, and the socialist values reflecting the primary interests of the Chinese citizens in general. The latter contains those having their origins in cultures of different regions and nations apart from those based on the interests of certain groups of people or of some individuals. The distinction between commonality and particularity is not absolute because the two sets of values can in certain case be transformed into each other, therefore, some common values can change into particular ones when viewed from another perspective. For instance, the values originated from Chinese cultural tradition are common to the Chinese people. But they tend to be particular with regard to the human beings as a whole. The difference between commonality and particularity, though being relative, leads to the contradiction between them.
The difference and contradiction abovementioned lead to the dispersing, disorderly and unstable phenomenon in the values, and the chaos in people""s value orientations to certain extent. Without value synthesis, it is neither possible to construct an orderly and harmonious value system of a socialist kind with Chinese characteristics, nor is it possible to make the values play an active and effective role in maintaining social stability and promoting the sound development in China.
â…¡. The Goal of Value Synthesis
The general goal of the value synthesis in China today is to construct a socialist value system with Chinese characteristics. The system has such basic connotations and a logic structure as follows:
1. The Conception of Masses as the Value Subjects
Value subject is the origin of value. The affirmation of the subject is the prerequisite for the establishment of values. Therefore, in any value system, value subject is always logically the starting point. The essential distinction between Marxist values and the non-Marxist ones is that the former regards the masses as the social and historical value subject, and treats their interests and needs as the fundamental standard for all the values. The socialist liberation and development of productive forces aim to meet the people""s ever-increasing needs in material and cultural domains. "Being favorable to raising the people""s living standards" is the core of "three favorables". This is the evaluation criterion proposed by Deng Xiaoping. Among the "three representings" proposed by Jiang Zemin, what represents the people""s fundamental interests is the ultimate goal. As pointed out by Jiang, what Deng always took as the basic standard for all the work is "whether the people support," "whether the people agree," whether the people are satisfied," and "whether the people permit." All this fully demonstrates the important thought of regarding the people as value subject, and evidently clarifies the basic features of the subject concept among the socialist values. It is not only different from its counterpart in class societies where the exploiters and rulers are considered the subject, but also from its counterpart in the individualism prevailing in the Western society.
2. The Conception of Labor as Value Basis
Labor is the basic activity of the socialist value subject. With relevant objects and means, labor is the source of all values and the creator of all the social material and spiritual wealth. Therefore, all the values in socialist society can be generalized as labor value. Labor incorporates manual and mental work. With the development of labor forces and the diversity of labor means, intelligence plays a more and more important part, and meanwhile its fusion with physical power has developed to a higher degree. Since the essence of socialism is "liberation and development of productive forces, elimination of exploitation and polarization, and the ultimate achievement of prosperity for all," labor has become the common value criterion shared by every citizen in the socialist society, and at the same time the fundamental value of the society. Taking labor as value criterion is not only a negation of the "bureaucracy-based" feudal values, and a transcendence over the "money-based " capitalist values, but also the adherence to the Marxist values. In modem times, only by encouraging labor-based values and advocating again the slogan that "Work is glory", can we realize the goal of modernization while resisting the pernicious influence of the " bureaucracy-based" and "money-based" values. Meanwhile, we can keep aloof the harmful effect from other values, namely, "Power is almighty", "Money is everything", and "Pleasure-seeking hedonism is all."
3. The Unity of Scientific Rationality and Humanism as Instrumental Value
Both the optimization of labor value and the intensification of labor""s function of creating values call for the improvement of laborers"" quality, which consists of two elements, namely, intellectual and moral. The former includes experience, knowledge, skill, and capability, etc. The latter consists of will, morality, thoughts, initiative, and the like. The former should be improved through scientific rationality while the latter requires education through humanism. Therefore, the unity of scientific rationality and humanism constitutes the most basic of all the Chinese instrumental values. As far as their correlate is concerned, science and technology can be identified with instrumental rationality while humanism with value rationality. Both of them belong to the scope of instrumental values, and serve as two columns to sustain the human values when compared with the individual values and with the objective of social civilization.
4. Harmony as the Relational Value
The value subject exists in relations. Similarly, the subjective labor takes place in relations. The subjective value and its labor could be exerted to different extents in different relational patterns. Therefore, to the subject, "relation" refers to a kind of value. In socialist society, the value subject (people) and the value criterion (labor) are in a double-fold relationship: one is between human being and nature, and the other between individuals and collectives. The basic characteristics of the double-fold relationship should be characterized with harmony because socialism has transcended the capitalist relational patterns in which people view nature as the target to be conquered, and the minority tend to exploit the majority. At present time when the strategy of sustainable development is being carried out, it is necessary to set up a harmonious relationship between mankind and nature; and in light of the socialism""s essential task to "eliminate exploitation", it is necessary to set up an equal and harmonious relationship between individuals and collectives, individuals and individuals. Of course, harmony doesn""t mean denying all competitions and contradictions. Instead it means to let differences, competitions, and contradictions exist and take place in a harmonious manner. In the realm of social life, a harmonious social relationship is the foundation of obtaining a good social order; the value function of such socialist norms as morality, law, discipline and convention lies in the forming of a harmonious social relationship and social order, which inevitably calls for the combination of "ruling the state by law" and "ruling the state by virtue" into a general strategy of governing the country.
5. Modern Civilization as the Value Objective.
The practical value objective of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to realize modernization, construct modem material civilization, institutional civilization, and moral civilization. The value connotation of material civilization is to develop economy, eliminate exploitation, and achieve common wealth and national prosperity in order to meet people""s increasing demands in material and spiritual life. The core value of institutional civilization is to conduct political system reform, construct the democratic politics and build a country ruled by law, thus satisfying people""s political demands to administer the country as real masters and to enjoy various civil rights. The value connotation of moral civilization is to develop science and education, prosper literature and art, rectify ideology and morality, and form a good social mood in order to meet people""s increasing needs in cuttural and moral life. Since the value objective of modern civilization is a dynamic process of development, its three value connotations should be based on the concept of preliminary stage of socialism construction, and be gradually enhanced in accord with the social development.
6. An Individual""s Free and Full Development as the Lofty Ideal.
Grand as it may be, the value objective of socialism with Chinese characteristics is designed to serve merely as a "bridge" and "medium" which is expected to lead to the realization of a communist society as the greatest and ultimate ideal. Jiang Zemin, president of China, says in his report at the 15th plenary session of CPC Congress, "We are endeavoring to realize the ultimate goal of communism. Those who forget the great goal and those who don""t strive for the periodical work objectives of our Party at the socialist preliminary stage are not qualified Party members at all". Thus the practical value objective of socialism with Chinese characteristics has been put into the inner structure of integrated communist value ideals. Therefore, communist ideal should be considered a key link in the socialist value system with Chinese characteristics, and treated as the lofty ideal and ultimate concern. Instead of being a subjective supposition, it is a "practical movement aiming to eliminate the present conditions of injustice"; and instead of being a Utopian fantasy, it represents the necessary trend of historical development of mankind. The core of its value connotation is the whole and free development of human beings. According to Karl Marx, what will replace the old capitalist society will be such an entity where each person""s free development is prerequisite to all the people""s free development.[2] From the perspective of "the liberation of human being" at the stage of communist society, human beings will finally pass the prehistoric "realm of necessity" and enter the "realm of freedom".
To be brief, the value system of socialism with Chinese characteristics can be generalized into one with the working people as its value subject; with labor as its value criterion. Its value operation model features the unity of science and humanism, the harmony of mankind and nature, and the harmony of individuals and collectives. Accordingly its value objective is pointed to modem civilization and its ultimate value ideal is intended for human beings"" whole and full development. The integration of value system is to absorb, synthesize, and arrange the sound and reasonable factors of all the existing values into this orderly structure.
â…¢. Some Ways of Integrating Values
The integration of the values in modem Chinese society is not merely an objective historical process, but also a self-consciously designing process with the subject""s active participation. Considered from the perspective of the latter, the integration of values ought to be conducted through the general ways as follows:
1. Judge and distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad values according to the criterion that unifies people""s interests, historical rules and practical effects. Among the variety of prevailing values in China, some are reasonable, right, and positive, and others are unreasonable, wrong, and negative. Thus the first problem to be solved is to judge and distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad with the principal criterion abovementioned. In other words, only those which reflect people""s interests, correspond to the historical rules, and have good practical effects are right, reasonable, and positive values, and ought to be promoted and carried forward. On the contrary, those that violate the above-mentioned criterion are wrong, inferior, and negative values, and ought to be dropped or thrown away. People""s interests stand for the criterion of "goodness"; historical rules indicate the criterion of "truth"; and good practical effects suggest is the criterion of the combination of "goodness" with "truth". Only this criterion of trinity is the all-sided one to determine whether a value is right or not.
2. Coordinate between values of universality or commonality, and their counterparts of particularity and individuality in the tension of seeking common ground while reserving differences. Even the right and reasonable values are distinguished between commonality and particularity. Although the approach to "seeking common ground" presents the highly integrated state of values, it strangles their affluence and vigor. On the other hand, the approach to "seeking differences" presents the colorful state of value system, but weakens and disintegrates its commonality and coherence. The existing values in modern China and their commonality and particularity lie in three dimensions, and correspondingly retain their coordination in three kinds of tension as well. The first tension is between global values (such as peace, equality, development, environmental protection, etc.) and the local values. The second tension is between Chinese national values (such as the doctrine of the mean, loving people and treasuring things, respecting the right Tao and honoring virtues, etc.) and the regional, individual values. The third tension is between the values of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the individual non-ideological ones (such as one""s personality, interest, liking, artistic style, etc.). Only by maintaining the tension and coordination of identifying the similarities and reserving differences among the above-mentioned values of commonality and their counterparts of particularity, the collective spirit and the individual spirit can be complemented to each other such that the society will be full of vitality and dynamics, and will not fall into a chaos because of internal conflicts as a result of the loss of order, norms and balance.
3. Use synthetic, transformational and dialectically sublating approaches to deal properly with the relationship between the traditional values and modern ones, between the modern values and post-modern ones, and between exotic values and national ones. The socialist values with Chinese characteristics are neither completely equal with nor totally opposite to traditinal, exotic, and post-modern values. Instead they ought to and can absorb the reasonable and positive factors from various values at home and abroad, ancient and modem. However, this absorption is not to take in and put things together blindly. It ought to integrate them through synthetic, transformational and dialectically sublating means. By synthetic is meant the way of widely absorbing the reasonable and positive factors from various traditional, exotic, and post-modern values and arranging them into the socialist value system. By transformational is meant the way of endowing the values with timely characteristics and national features through reexplanation and re-elaboration. Under such circumstances, the Chinese traditional values are to be transformed into modern ones; the exotic values are to be transformed into national ones. What could be melted into the socialist values with Chinese characteristics through synthesis and transformation may involve, for instance, such Chinese values as the collective spirit, moral ideal, humanism, the oneness of heaven and man, making unremitting efforts to improve oneself, great virtue of being kind to all things, harmonious relationship, the doctrine of the mean, etc., and such Western values as individual freedom, utilitarian consciousness, democratic spirit, scientific rationality, rule of law, idea of competition, etc.
4. Guide and elevate the low values in the light of high values in order to sublimate human values and develop social civilization. There are different categories of human needs. The first category is composed of two hierarchies: material and spiritual. The second category is made up of three hierarchies, namely, the cognitive need (truth), the moral need (goodness), and the aesthetic need (beauty). All this gives rise to value contradictions and even conflicts at different levels, which in ancient China took the form of contradictions between righteousness and interests, rationality and desire (contradictions within the first level), and the contradictions between morality and intelligence, goodness and beauty (contradictions within the second level). Then, in the present-day China, they take the form of contradictions and conflicts between morality and interests, spiritual and material, morality and knowledge, and morality and aesthetics, etc. In order to coordinate the relationships among values of different levels, and to promote human and social progress through this coordination, the high values must be used to guide and elevate their low counterparts, that is, to guide interests in terms of righteousness, to guide desire in terms of rationality, to guide intelligence in terms of morality, to guide truth in terms of goodness, and to guide goodness in terms of beauty. All this is intended to make people, in their daily lives, "think of righteousness at the sight of profits" and "take things according to the principle of righteousness". Only through this integration can we continuously enhance to a higher level the human value pursuit, the people""s living standard, the human constitutive quality, and the social civilization in addition to accelerating the full development of both human being and society. The process of human development, if considered from the perspective of human needs, is a process in which the superior needs constantly surmount the inferior needs. Likewise, if considered from the perspective of concepts, it is a process in which human values keep being promoted from low levels to high levels. It is in this sense a process in which human beings keep transcending their animal nature. According to Karl Marx, eating, drinking, and reproduction, etc. are surely the real organisms of human beings. Nonetheless, if they are abstracted and separated from other fields of human activities and become the one and only ultimate goal, they are nothing but sheer animal organisms.[3]
(Tr. Ma Zhentao/Yang Shuxue)
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