Wang Rui: Coordination of Material and Spiritual-intellectual Civilization is an Inevitable Requirement for Upholding the Socialist Nature of China’s Modernization
The author is an associate professor at the School of Marxism at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
October 2023
The coordination of material and spiritual-intellectual civilization is one of the distinctive features of Chinese modernization. The formation of this feature is not the result of arbitrary choice, but an inevitable requirement to transcend the expansionary modernization of Western materialism, adhere to the socialist nature of Chinese modernization, meet the people’s needs for a better life, and respond to the great struggle of the new era in China. The coordination of material and spiritual civilization is not a completion tense, but is always on the way. To further promote the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization, the focus is on promoting common development, full development, balanced development, and mutual promotion of the two civilizations.
1. Deeply grasp the strategic considerations of coordinating material and spiritual civilizations with the “four inevitabilities”
To build a modern socialist country in an all-round way, we must answer the questions of modernization in China, the world, the people, and the times. That is:
Is there only one path for countries to achieve modernization, which is the West?
How can socialist China achieve modernization?
What kind of modernization do the people yearn for?
How to promote modernization in the new era of China?
The coordination of material and spiritual civilization is a scientific answer to the “four questions” of modernization from a certain level.
The coordination of material civilization and spiritual civilization is an inevitable requirement for transcending the Western materialistic modernization. Western countries follow a modernization path centered on capital. The profit-seeking nature of capital and the supremacy of interests determine that Western modernization is inevitably one-dimensional modernization, that is, modernization of materialistic expansion.
One-dimensional modernization will inevitably create one-dimensional humans, that is, lead to humans who lack spiritual dimensions. While capitalization, industrialization, and technology have created abundant material products, convenient living tools, and diverse entertainment methods for people, they have also made people’s spiritual world tend to be empty, fragile, alienated, and lonely.
First, “the essential human nature is degraded to ordinary human nature, to the vitality of functional physical existence, and to the mundane and trivial enjoyment” [1]. Degradation to materialized human nature leads to spiritual emptiness.
Second, the general loss of faith has left people without the pillars to support their spiritual edifice, leading to the fragility of their spirit. “The fear of life is the terrible shadow that follows modern people.” [2]
Third, the rule of machines has turned individuals into mere functions, causing people to “weaken and lose their love for things and people.” [3]
This has led to the alienation of people’s spirits, and people have become alienated from themselves, others, groups, and nature. Fourth, the individualization of society and the alienation of people’s spirits will inevitably lead to the loneliness of people’s spirits.
As Elias said, “a high degree of individualization, a high degree of personal independence, and often a high degree of loneliness.” [4] It can be seen that the paradise of material desires and the cage of the spirit are the paradox of Western modernization. To overcome the serious drawbacks of the unbalanced and uncoordinated development of material civilization and spiritual civilization, we must insist on the coordination of material civilization and spiritual civilization.
The coordination of material and spiritual civilization is an inevitable requirement for upholding the socialist nature of China’s modernization. There is more than one path to modernization, and more than one way to achieve modernization. Socialism is the fundamental nature of China’s modernization and the key to determining the direction, path, and destiny of China’s modernization. Therefore, Deng Xiaoping emphasized that “now we are pursuing the four modernizations, which are the four modernizations of socialism, not other modernizations.” [5]
Socialism is a society of comprehensive development and progress. “Material abundance and spiritual wealth are the fundamental requirements of socialist modernization. Material poverty is not socialism, and spiritual poverty is not socialism.” (Deng)
This determines that China’s modernization must be a modernization that coordinates material and spiritual civilizations.
The coordination of material and spiritual civilization is an inevitable requirement for meeting the people’s needs for a better life. The question of why people is the fundamental question. Chinese-style modernization is a people-centered modernization. People-centeredness is its fundamental attribute, people-centeredness is its fundamental standpoint, and meeting the people’s needs for a better life is its fundamental goal.
The people’s needs for a better life are multifaceted, including both material needs and spiritual needs. Among them, “material needs are the first priority, and having food is the most important, so it is said that ‘food is the heaven for the people’. However, this does not mean that the people’s needs for spiritual and cultural life are dispensable. The biggest difference between human society and the animal world is that people have spiritual needs, and the people’s needs for spiritual and cultural life exist all the time.” [7]
In order to better meet the people’s material and spiritual needs, it is necessary to promote the coordination of material and spiritual civilization.
The coordination of material and spiritual civilization is an inevitable requirement for coping with the great struggle of the new era in China. At the historical intersection of the “two major situations”, building a socialist modern country in an all-round way has both opportunities and challenges.
Looking from a domestic perspective, the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development in China is still prominent, the gap between urban and rural regional development and income distribution is still large, the task of ecological and environmental protection is still arduous, and the party style and clean government construction and the fight against corruption still face many stubborn and multiple problems, etc. Looking from an external perspective, the century-old epidemic has far-reaching impacts, the world economy is weak in recovery, local conflicts and turmoil are frequent, and external suppression and containment may escalate at any time. To overcome the risks and challenges on the new journey and build a socialist modern country in an all-round way, we must have the strategic support of advanced science and technology, the strong guarantee of strong financial resources, the active guidance of advanced culture, and the great enrichment of the people’s spiritual world. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the coordination of material and spiritual civilization and enhance the material and spiritual strength of the country.
2. Promote the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization through the “four developments”
The coordination between material and spiritual civilization is not a completed process, but a progress process. To further promote the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization, we must “correctly handle the relationship between material and spiritual civilization from a dialectical, comprehensive and balanced perspective”[8] and promote the common development, full development, balanced development and mutual promotion of material and spiritual civilization.
We should promote the co-development of material and spiritual civilization. Unlike the one-dimensional modernization of the West that pursues profit first and material abundance, socialist modernization pursues the comprehensive construction of material and spiritual civilizations and their co-promotion. Since the reform and opening up, China has made impressive achievements in the field of material civilization, but many problems have emerged in the field of spiritual civilization.
In this regard, Deng Xiaoping warned, “We have made considerable achievements in economic construction and the situation is encouraging. This is the success of our country. But if the atmosphere continues to deteriorate, what is the point of economic success? It will deteriorate in another way, which in turn affects the deterioration of the entire economy. If it continues to develop, it will become a world where corruption, theft and bribery are rampant.”
It can be seen that if spiritual civilization is not well developed, it will not only deviate from the inherent requirements of socialist modernization construction for the co-development of material and spiritual civilizations, but will also hinder the development of material civilization and ultimately hinder the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country and the smooth realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Therefore, we must insist on balancing material and spiritual civilizations, advancing together and flying side by side.
Promote the full development of material and spiritual civilization. Both material poverty and spiritual poverty are not socialism. The slow development and low level of material and spiritual civilization are not socialism either. Socialist modernization pursues the full development and high level of material and spiritual civilization. As Deng Xiaoping said, “The socialist country we want to build must have not only a high level of material civilization, but also a high level of spiritual civilization. Otherwise, how can the superiority of socialism be reflected?”
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (2012), socialist modernization has made historic achievements, but the problem of insufficient development remains prominent. To promote the full development of material and spiritual civilization, on the one hand, we must focus on promoting high-quality development and lay a solid material and technological foundation for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country; on the other hand, we must focus on creating a new glory for socialist culture and provide inexhaustible spiritual strength for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country.
We should promote the balanced development of material and spiritual civilization. The balanced development of material and spiritual civilization is the essence of the coordinated development of the two. It contains two implications:
First, the balanced development of material and spiritual civilization, that is, “grasping both with both hands and making both hands strong”, rather than “grasping with one hand and letting go of the other” or “one hand soft and the other hard”.
Second, the balanced development of material and spiritual civilization in urban and rural areas and in different regions.
At present, the problem of unbalanced development in China is still prominent, which is specifically manifested in the imbalance between urban and rural areas and between regions in the development of material and spiritual civilization. Therefore, on the one hand, we must comprehensively promote rural revitalization and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas. We must strengthen the construction of rural material civilization, including developing rural characteristic industries, strengthening agricultural science and technology support, and consolidating the results of poverty alleviation; we must also strengthen the construction of rural spiritual civilization, including promoting the core socialist values, revitalizing rural culture, promoting rural customs and habits, and carrying out rich and diverse mass cultural activities. On the other hand, we must promote regional coordinated development, “deepen the implementation of regional coordinated development strategies, major regional strategies, main functional area strategies, and new urbanization strategies” [11], and continuously narrow the gap between material and spiritual civilizations in different regions.
We should promote the mutual promotion of material and spiritual civilization. “
Although the material mode of existence is the original cause, this does not exclude the fact that the ideological sphere also plays a role in the material mode of existence” [12]. Therefore, material and spiritual civilization are closely linked, interact with each other, and are dialectically unified. To promote the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization, we must not only promote their common development, full development, and balanced development from a static level, but also promote their mutual promotion from a dynamic level. On the one hand, we must better play the role of material civilization in providing material guarantee and technical support for spiritual civilization. The education and dissemination of advanced ideology and culture, the prosperity and development of cultural undertakings and industries, and the extensive development of cultural activities all require strong financial and material support and the support of scientific and technological innovation. On the other hand, we must better play the role of spiritual civilization in ensuring the correct direction of material civilization, guiding advanced values, providing strong intellectual support, enriching moral nourishment, and providing inexhaustible spiritual motivation. “The more the economy develops and the higher the material living standards, the more we must strengthen ideological and political work and the construction of spiritual civilization” [15]. Otherwise, economic development may lack momentum or even lose its direction. In short, only by promoting the mutual promotion and common prosperity of material and spiritual civilization and working together can we smoothly promote socialist modernization.