3.“Civilization” as a core socialist value
The Communist Party of China made the three “advocates” at its 18th national congress to present the basic requirement of the core socialist values with 24 Chinese characters at three levels.“Civilization”, which is of significant value to the country and the society, did have far earlier deeply influenced our life.
(1) Attach “equal importance to”“both material and spiritual civilization”
Since the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping mentioned the important strategic idea of “attaching equal importance” on many occasions, clearly pointing out the development direction of socialist China. According to Deng Xiaoping, China must “attach equal importance” to promoting reform and opening-up and at the same time fighting against crimes; developing the economy and at the same time strengthening democracy and the legal system; promoting reform and opening-up and at the same time punishing corruption; and always working for material progress and at the same time for cultural and ethical progress. Of the above guidelines, the key is to always work for material progress and at the same time for cultural and ethical progress, and the essence is to coordinate the relationship between both material and spiritual civilization. It is a fundamental principle to be followed in the building of socialist modernization in China to address ourselves to the problem of both material and spiritual civilization without any letup. After that, China kept expanding its construction deployment till the Party clearly put forward the “five (namely politics, economy, culture, society and ecology) -in-one” deployment at its 18th national congress. All contents corresponding to “spiritual civilization” exist in the form of “culture”.
It was a significant breakthrough made by China to put forward and comb the core socialist values. Seen from the contents of the core socialist values, “material civilization” corresponds to “prosperity”, while “spiritual civilization” corresponds to “civilization”. Spiritual civilization is all the spiritual achievements made by people in reforming the objective and the subjective worlds. In social sciences and culture, spiritual civilization is expressed as the cultural and intellectual statuses of the society, the levels of development of education, science, culture, art, medical services, sports, etc. In ideological ethics, it is expressed as sociopolitical ideology, moral outlook, social trends, people's values of the world, ideals, sentiments, awareness, beliefs, their sense of organization and discipline, etc. In this sense, “civilization” better echoes with “culture” in the aforesaid “five-in-one”.
Socialist spiritual civilization is an important development stage of human spiritual civilization and the driving force for the spiritual outlook of the current society. Being a new-type spiritual civilization in human history which took shape within the socialist system, it is an important feature of the socialist society and an important objective and feature of modernization as well. It involves developing people's ideology and ethics, education, science and culture; penetrates in the entire socialist material civilization progress; and is reflected in all aspects of politics, economy and cultural life.
(2) Main considerations taken by the Party and the country to make “civilization” a core socialist value
Why would “civilization” remain a target core socialist value to pursue in China today, a country with civilization of 5,000 years?For one thing, “civilization” here refers to civilization at the state level, which involves ideological and moral progress and science and cultural progress as well. Civilization is something to be promoted by the state, the society and individuals. At different levels, it has different meanings. However, as a “state-level value target”, it plays the role of leading “the value orientation in the society” and is “a value standard for individuals”. For another thing, “civilization” here refers to civilization in the modern sense, that is, “cultural modernization”. It has to take essence of the ancient Chinese civilization, and absorb the achievements of the current world civilization. For a country, civilization means a highly prosperous culture and a highly conscious spirit; for a society, it means a good order, beautiful environments, a simple atmosphere, integrity and friendship among people; for each and every citizen, it means relatively high spiritual and cultural deposits and beautiful speeches, deeds and hearts. Such a realm deserves each of us to always pursue.
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Achievements of China in the building of spiritual civilization since the reform and opening-up
—Resolution Concerning the Guidelines for Building Socialist Civilization adopted at the 6th plenary session of the 12th CPC Central Committee in 1986 proposed “Five Loves”, that is, “love the motherland, love the people, love labor, love science and love socialism.”
—Implementation Outline of Patriotic Education adopted in 1994 put forward the theme of patriotism in the new era and the contents of patriotic education.
—Resolution on Several Important Issues Concerning the Strengthening of the Building of Socialist Spiritual Civilization adopted at the 6th plenary session of the 14th CPC Central Committee in 1996 put forward the education in social and professional ethics and family virtues.
—Implementation Outline of Building Civil Morality adopted on September 20, 2001 put forward the “basic civic virtues” with 20 Chinese characters.
—On March 4, 2006, Hu Jintao put forward the socialist concept of honor and disgrace where the “eight honors and eight disgraces” are the main contents.
—Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Major Issues Pertaining to Deepening Reform of the Cultural System and Promoting the Great Development and Flourishing of Socialist Culture adopted at the 6th plenary session of the 17th CPC Central Committee in 2011 brought forth “socialist cultural power”, “Core socialist values are the soul of the Chinese nation.”
—It was proposed in the report to the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 to “improve civic morality in an all-round way” and “enrich people's intellectual and cultural lives”. In clear-cut terms, it proposed to combine the rule of law with the rule of virtue, intensify education in public morality, professional ethics, family virtues, and individual integrity, and advocate traditional Chinese virtues and new trends of the times.
—In February 2014, the CPC Central Committee promulgated and implemented Opinions of the CPC Central Committee on Cultivating and Practicing Core Socialist Values, in which it proposed to guide people to desire and pursue a life of reasoning, ethics and morality through moral education, and promote the formation of a great enthusiastic force that advocates goodness.
Authoritative voice
Civilization, particularly the ideological culture, is the soul of a country or a nation. No country or nation can stand up if it does not value its own ideological culture and loses the soul of ideological culture. (Xi Jinping)
(3) Civilization can't be understood “in an abstract way”
It is safe to say that the core socialist values (namely prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship) are solidly supported by science. To understand them and to put them to practice, people have to associate the socialist core values with a rich social life. Specifically, we can't discuss about “socialist spiritual civilization” in an abstract way, but practice it with concrete behaviors.
According to its modern definition, civilization is the material, political and spiritual achievements made by people in the process of reforming the world and a status and sign of social progress and hu man evolution. In the core socialist values, “civilization” is a value target at the state level, so the objects indicated by it should be in the broad sense—including not only the material, political and spiritual civilization, but also specific educational attainments of the people. What is civilization? Many people find themselves tongue-tied when thus asked. However, they can list a lot of “uncivilized” examples like talking loudly in public, butting in line in front of other people, scribbling in tourist areas, going through the red light, crossing fences, spitting, littering, destroying public facilities, misappropriating public properties…With the rapid economic development and constantly improved living standards of the Chinese people, it has become the objects indicated by “civilization” to guide the public to be more civilized, to keep improve their moral deposits and to better shape and display a good national image. For that matter, “civilization” in the core socialist values is associated with the life background of each and everyone that practices it. Doctors have to save people's lives, and teachers have to teach and educate people, which are the necessary requirements for realizing the core socialist values.
Authoritative voice
Teachers'ethics are a demonstration of their profound knowledge deposits and cultural tastes. Teachers'ethics need to be educated and fostered, and to be obtained through self-cultivation. It should be a relentless pursuit and behavioral norm of each and every teacher to become a noble-minded man, a pure man and a man getting rid of vulgar tastes. Good teachers have to have the spirit of devotion, defense their spiritual homeland, stick to their bottom line, take the lead in carrying forward the socialist ethics and the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, and influence and encourage the students with their model behaviors. (Xi Jinping)