Signposts In The History Of Jungle

The dissertation, in a Prob1em--focused approach atteIIlPts togive a historica1 account of the deve1opment of the Marxisttheory of productive forces in China in the past century, hopingto get some inspiration from our historica1 experience so asto give impetus to productive forces.In modern times, Chinese peop1e strugg1ed very hard topursue prosperity and strength. From the 0pium War to 1911Revo1ution, the enlightened Chinese people were aware of theiInPortance of productive forces in socia1 deve1opment and thatit is essential to restructure socia1 institution so as toacce1erate the deve1opment of Productive forces. Thesepreliminary understandings paved the way for the introductionof Marxist theory of productive forces.The c1assic Marxist theory of productive forces can beunderstood on two 1eve1s, i. e., #Ti# (Substance) and #Yong#(Manifestations), to use traditiona1 Chinese phi1osophicaltermino1ogy. It is a socia1 onto1ogy on the orie hand, and a1soa theory of socia1 reYO1ution and a theory of deve1opment ofproductive forces on the other. The former necessari1ymanifests itse1f in the latter. Therefore, the theory ofproductive forces embodies clearly the princip1e of the unityof Ti and Yong. A1so, it shows the unity of science and valuein that it discovers the objective 1aws of socia1--historica1deve1opment on the one hand and sets the lofty ideals formankind on the other.Deep1y impressed by the success of Russian Revo1ution, ear1yChinese Marxists started to know and were gradually convincedby the Marxist theory of productive forces. 0n the who1e, theearly Chinese Marxists' understanding of the Marxist theory ofproductive forces was a11--round and accurate. Li DaZhao, anoutstanding ear1y Chinese Marxist, showed exceptiona1inte11ectua1 maturity in his #revision' of Marxism.Unfortunate1y, one of his warnings that the importance of c1assstrugg1e should not be overestimated was not fu11y recognizedby his contemporaries and fo11owers, for which we paid a 1ot,as history shows 1ater on.1n the period of New Democratic Revo1ution, the Chinesecommunists with Mao Zedong as their representative, based uponthe Marxist theory of productive forces, found the way to asuccessfu1 democrat ic revo1ution wi th Chinese characteristics.In the Chinese context, Mao Zedong put forward an overa11strategy of the new democratic economic reconstruction. It wasiInP1emented in the red base areas. The experience was preciousbut a1so 1imited due to the particu1ar conditions andenvironment of the age.After the founding of P. R China, the Chinese cormunists 1edby Mao Zedong, were preoccupied with tack1ing new prob1ems indeve1oping socia1 productive forces on the basis of the Marxisttheory of productive forces. In the ear1y years of P. R China,with the transition of focus of the party, the Chinesecommunists made some tentative attemPts in finding a road tosocialist reconstruction with Chinese characteristics.However, Mao's mind was most1y confined to the paradigIll--to useKuhn's termino1ogy of Phi1osophy of science---- of socialrevo1ution. He tended to so1ve the prob1ems in economicreconstruction and production by means of socia1 revo1ution,1ike mass movement, upgrading of productive re1ations, classstrugg1e etc. The aftermath was catastrophic. China's economywas on the brink of bankruptcy at the end of the 70' s. Mao'sthought was more or 1ess counterba1anced by Zhou En1ai, LiuShaoQi in practice, and cha11eriged by theoreticians 1ikeProfessor Li Pingxin. 1t was iIIlPossib1e for them to rectifycomp1ete1y Mao's errors in his 1ate years though, they laid thefoundation for a theoretical re--orientation in the coming era.The Third P1enary Session of the 1lth Convention of theChinese Connnunist Party ushered a stage in the history of China.Deng Xiaoping Theory, a theory of socialist modernization witheconomic reconstruction as its focus, took shaPe in this...