Outline of the Spirit of the Chinese Nation

Author: Hu Xiaohong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Jiang Zemin pointed out in the report of the 16th National Congress, "National spirit is the spiritual pillar for a nation's survival and development. A nation without an uplifting spirit and noble character cannot stand among the world's nations. Over 5,000 years of development, the Chinese nation has formed a great national spirit centered on patriotism, characterized by unity, peace, diligence, courage, and self-improvement. Our Party has continuously enriched this spirit in practice, adapting to the demands of the times and society. In the face of the interaction of various ideologies and cultures worldwide, it is essential to promote and cultivate national spirit as a crucial task in cultural construction, integrating it into the entire process of national education and spiritual civilization building, ensuring the entire people maintain an upbeat and aspirational spirit." This book is guided by Jiang Zemin's thoughts on national spirit, employing dialectical materialism, systematic science, and the method of combining theory with practice to conduct a comprehensive and systematic analysis and research on the connotation, characteristics, functions, main content, basic manifestations, and pathways for promoting and cultivating the national spirit of the Chinese nation. This aims to achieve a deeper understanding and grasp of Jiang Zemin's idea of "upholding the promotion and cultivation of national spirit." The book is divided into six parts.
Part I (Introduction) elaborates on the connotation, basic characteristics, and main functions of the national spirit of the Chinese nation, as well as the significance of promoting and cultivating it. The national spirit should be an inherent and enduring excellence in Chinese culture, a living spiritual force thats,s, s, and s during the survival and development of the Chinese nation. Its main content includes the shared value ideals, goals, and methods of realization of the Chinese nation, i.e., its value system. From the perspective of the main differences between Chinese and Western cultures, the national spirit of the Chinese nation has three basic characteristics: rational spirit, dialectical spirit, and humanistic spirit. The national spirit has functions such as support, sion, guidance, education, and motivation. Promoting and cultivating the national spirit holds significant practical importance in addressing international competition in comprehensive national strength, realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and cultural development.
Part II (Chapter 1) discusses the national spirit advocated in Confucian, Mohist, Daoist, and Legalist thought. The Confucian spirit includes aspects such as the spirit of harmony, benevolence, the Great Unity, self-improvement, and propriety. The Mohist spirit includes the spirit of universal love, diligence, and mutual benefit. The Daoist spirit includes the spirit of simplicity, "reducing selfishness and desires," and "knowing honor and enduring humiliation." The Legalist spirit includes the spirit of "self-restraint for public service," "loving the people and valuing trustworthiness," and "propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame." Exploring the national spirit advocated by Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, and Legalism is of significant practical importance for understanding the historical development of the national spirit and promoting its cultivation today.
Part III (Chapter 2) discusses the basic manifestations of the national spirit of the Chinese nation. Combining Jiang Zemin's arguments in the 16th National Congress report, the book holds that the national spirit of unity, peace, diligence, courage, and self-improvement constitutes the basic manifestations of the national spirit of the Chinese nation. From a historical perspective, the book examines why these manifestations are fundamental, and from a realistic perspective, it analyzes the significance of promoting and cultivating them.
Part IV (Chapter 3) provides a theoretical argument for the core of the national spirit—patriotism—as proposed by Jiang Zemin in the 16th National Congress report. Compared to the patriotic traditions of other nations worldwide, Chinese patriotism is characterized by a long history, profound depth, and lofty ideals. For thousands of years, sentiments of patriotism for one's homeland, awareness of national distress, a sense of unity, dedication to serving the nation, and a spirit of reform and opening-up for self-improvement have been the main manifestations of patriotism in Chinese history. Patriotism runs through the entire historical process with a profound sense of national distress and historical responsibility. Patriotism is the common psychological heritage and mindset of the people of all ethnic groups in China. Patriotism is the foundation for the formation of the national spirit and a powerful force for its growth, development, and strengthening. Patriotism has endowed the Chinese nation with a strong sense of identity and belonging, given it a unique character, and strengthened its cohesion, unity, and combat effectiveness. The book elaborates on the practical significance of promoting and cultivating the spirit of patriotism by inspiring national awareness of distress and fostering national self-esteem and confidence.
Part V (Chapter 4) points out in the 16th National Congress report that our Party has enriched and developed the national spirit in line with the demands of the times and societal progress. The enrichment and development of the national spirit by our Party are divided into three stages: Stage 1 was from the May Fourth Movement to the founding of the People's Republic of China, when our Party formed national spirits such as the spirit of the May Fourth Movement, the Long March, and Yan'an during the leadership of the Chinese revolution. Stage 2 was from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the pre-Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, when our Party formed national spirits such as the spirit of Daqing, Lei Feng, and Jiaolulu during the leadership of socialist construction. Stage 3 was the reform and opening-up period, which gave rise to the spirit of "seeking truth from facts and starting from reality," innovation, flood control, and fighting SARS. The book elaborates on these spirits from two aspects: connotation and practical value, proposing that these existing national spirits should continue to be promoted and cultivated under new historical conditions.
Part VI (Chapter 5), combining the 16th National Congress report's assertion that "promoting and cultivating national spirit is a crucial task in cultural construction" and "the two incorporations," discusses four issues. First, promoting and cultivating the national spirit must be guided by Marxism. Upholding and consolidating the guiding role of Marxism in the ideology is essential; to do so, it is necessary to deeply understand the discussions of on national spirit. Second, combining the promotion of national spirit with building a harmonious society. A harmonious society is an ideal pursued by the Chinese nation; the national spirit is a sign of building a harmonious society; promoting national spirit provides a spiritual pillar for constructing a socialist harmonious society. Third, combining cultural construction with promoting and cultivating national spirit. Cultural construction and national spirit mutually influence and interact. On one hand, the influence of national spirit on cultural construction is mainly reflected in its destructive and reconstructive role in cultural construction, as well as the importance of promoting and cultivating national spirit as a key part of cultural construction. On the other hand, the influence of cultural construction on national spirit is reflected in the need for cultural construction to complete the promotion and cultivation of national spirit, and in the fact that the promotion and cultivation of the national spirit of the Chinese nation in the contemporary era can only bes by socialist culture. In cultural construction, promoting and cultivating national spirit should focus on two key aspects: first, studying traditional culture and inheriting its essence; second, learning from the outstanding achievements of civilizations of all ethnic groups in the world, especially Western civilizations. Properly handling the relationship between cultural construction and national spirit should prevent and overcome two erroneous tendencies: dogmatism and nihilism. Fourth, incorporating national spirit education into the entire process of national education. Incorporating national spirit education into the entire process of national education includes three basic forms: schools as the main platform, families as the starting point, and social education as the broad classroom. Incorporating national spirit education into the entire process of national education should use major events and incidents as opportunities and advanced models as prominent carriers. The focus of incorporating national spirit education into the entire process of national education is: strengthening historical education to enhance national confidence; strengthening national conditions education to enhance national sense of responsibility; and strengthening international conditions education to enhance national awareness of distress. Fifth, incorporating national spirit education into the entire process of spiritual civilization building. Incorporating national spirit education into the entire process of spiritual civilization building first means integrating it into the entire system of spiritual civilization building, permeating national spirit education into all basic aspects and main fields of socialist spiritual civilization construction. Second, socialist spiritual civilization construction must create cultural conditions for promoting and cultivating national spirit and integrate effective resources.