Research On Gu Zhun’s Economic Thought

The year 2018 is the first year for the full implementation of the spirit of the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.It is the 40 th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up.After 40 years of reform and opening up,China has created "the most exciting miracle in the history of human development" : It has become the second largest economy in the world,the largest industrial country,the first largest trader of goods,and the largest foreign exchange reserve country.Earth-shaking changes have taken place in the lives of the Chinese people.In commemorating the 40 th anniversary of the reform and opening up,we cannot but relive Deng Xiaoping’s important exposition on the market economy and cherish the memory of the chief architect of reform and opening up.We cannot but look back at the pioneering exploration trails of the pioneers of the theory of commodity economy and market economy,Gu Zhun and Sun Yefang.The theoretical contribution of Gu Zhun,who was the first person to propose market economy theory in New China,is more pioneering.The hardships experienced by New China and Gu Zhun’s rough life experience prompted him to profoundly consider the problems and setbacks encountered in the practice of real socialism after the founding of New China and the more obvious defects and contradictions in the planned economic system.In the face of the contradiction between traditional socialist economic theory and practical socialist practice,Gu Zhun broke through the doctrine of planned economic dogmatism and put forward the viewpoint that the socialist economy can be regulated by the free fluctuation of market prices,thus becoming the first person to put forward the implementation of a market economy in China under socialist conditions.a famous economist,John Maynard Keynes,everyone’s heard of him.Keynes wrote in The General Theory of Employment,Interest and Money."The ideas of economists and political philosophers,both when they are right and when they are wrong,are powerful than is commonly understood.Indeed,the world is ruled by little else.Practical men,who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences,are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.Madmen in authority,who hear voices in the air,are distilling their frenzy from some academicscribbler of a few years back.I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment od ideas……But,soon or late,it is ideas,not vested interests which are dangerous for good or evil."This paper sorts out four theoretical sources of Gu Zhun’s economic thoughts: Marx and Engels’ commodity economy thoughts,Lenin’s mixed economic thoughts,Stalin’s socialist commodity economy thoughts,and Western economists’ thoughts.On the basis of theoretical traceability,Gu Zhun’s five major components of economic thinking were studied: Gu Zhun’s market economy thoughts,Gu Zhun’s price thoughts,Gu Zhun’s "living for a living" thought,Gu Zhun’s "Strong Country Dream" thought and Gu Zhun’s modernization thought.Gu Zhun’s economic thoughts came from his time of suffering;his suffering led him to think,and his thoughts made him suffer.It can be said that Gu Zhun was "thinking about martyrdom".His rough experience from "idealism to empiricism" also mapped into his entire economic ideology.Gu Zhun’s economic ideology can be summarized as "one body,two wings and two supplements." The so-called "one body" refers to the quasi-market economy ideology;the so-called "two wings" refers to Gu Zhun’s idea of "making a strong country dream" and Gu Zhun’s modernization ideology;the so-called "two supplements" refers to Gu Zhun’s price thought and Gu Zhun’s idea of "living in the economy".Gu Zhun’s thought on market economy was embodied in the article “On the Commodity Production and Value Law under the Socialist System".In 1957,when the planned economy was fully started and the whole country was "leaping forward",Gu Zhun put forward socialist commodity production and value laws.He pointed out that to market reform,economic production and economic circulation should be regulated by the free fluctuation of market prices;that is,to achieve an effective allocation of resources,the socialist production can also be adjusted spontaneously by the market rules.He was "the first person in the Chinese economics community to put forward a market economy under socialist conditions." The main contents of Gu Zhun’s market economy ideology include three aspects: the economic accounting system is the root cause of the existence of commodity currency under the socialist system,the socialist economy is the contradictory unity of planned economy and economic accounting,and the socialist value law regulates all economic life through economic plans.Gu Zhun’s price thought is embodied in the "Internal Seminar on Socialist Price Theory",which was compiled by the Institute of Economic Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.From 1963 to 1964,Xue Muqiao published three price papers in succession.The price theory in these papers follows Marx’s value theory and is actually the cost price theory or the theory of supply decision prices.At the meeting to discuss Xue Muqiao(Yu Lin)’s three articles,Gu Zhun wrote a speech on the price issue,"Some Issues in Comrade He Yulin’s Consultation on Price Policy",restating "the importance of the demand factor in the price decision" and advocating the use of capital profitability as a benchmark for pricing.Gu Zhun "considered demand as the main reason for the price decision",and thus further studied writing "a preliminary study of grain prices." After studying the issue of prices,he believes that prices do not only depend on cost and supply,but also on demand.Since prices are both related to supply and demand factors,prices are also related to market fluctuations and changes.Gu Zhun has unique characteristics in studying the price issue from the perspective of supply and demand.Gu Zhun’s idea of "living in the economy" is mainly recorded in his "Shangcheng Diary".From March,1959 to January,1960,a total of 10 months,Gu Zhun,together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences decentralized cadre team,was forced to "reform through labor" in Xinyang Shangcheng County of Henan Province.The "Shangcheng Diary" records in detail the experience of Gu Zhun’s work in the county during the period from October,1959 to January,1960.This period of time coincides with China’s 1959-1961 "three years of economic hard times." Zhang Shuguang,a researcher at the Institute of Economic Research of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,pointed out that the pre-reform China economic model,Gu Zhun’s "living-in economy",cuts into the essence and vitality of China’s economy,especially China’s agriculture and rural economy.It is not only vivid and concrete,but also contains forceful strokes of ideas.Gu Zhun in the "living economy" ideology clarified the "living economy" of the state of agriculture and industry,production relations,production purposes and ways to change the "living economy" status quo.Gu Zhun’s thought of"Strengthening the Dream of a Strong Country"was mainly embodied in his observations,researches and reflections on China’s economic development during the"Cultural Revolution".Although Li Shenzhi pointed out in the book"Ignite oneself to break the darkness","Gu Zhun’s line was economics,and he was a researcher of the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences till death.He certainly did a lot of economics research,but his thought record in this area was probably washed away from the toilet with his notes during the"Cultural Revolution"."But in the diary of Gu Zhun and other works,we canstill see that even during the"Cultural Revolution",he did not forget the revitalization of the Chinese nation and warmly awaited the arrival of what he called"our own’sheng wu jing qi(神武景气)’",which means the reviving of the county.Gu Zhun’s idea of"Strengthening the Dream of a Strong Country"was mainly embodied in his conception of China’s economic development during the Cultural Revolution,the"China Center of the World"dream backed by economic development,and his firm belief in"the destiny of China’s Xiong Fei World."Gu Zhun’s modernization thought was a continuation and in-depth discussion of what kind of issues should he and his brother Chen Minzhi discuss after the victory of the revolution.Gu Zhun consciously placed modernization on capitalism and socialism and thus went beyond ideology to use the term "modernization" in discussing and studying the development and changes of modern China and the world.In a sense,Gu Zhun’s so-called modernization and capitalism can be said to be two-in-one.Gu Zhun’s historical research on capitalism with awareness of modernization issues pointed out that socialist modernization is also a kind of modernization method.He proposed that it could take the modernization of the capitalist road,the modernization of the socialist road,and the special style of the "emerging countries" after the1950 s.China chose to achieve modernization through socialism.This is a modernization path that is different from Western countries.Gu Zhun’s modernization ideology also includes the idea of "building China with economy as the center" and the idea of "internal reform and opening to the outside world".Finally,this paper discusses the status and practical significance of Gu Zhun and his economic thoughts in the history of modern Chinese economic thought.Gu Zhun was the first person who proposed the concept of market economy in the New China;Gu Zhun was the enlightener of the market economy of New China;Gu Zhun’s economic thought filled the blank of the history of economic thought in the "Cultural Revolution" era.Gu Zhun’s economic thought has far-reaching influence on the formation and establishment of China’s socialist market economy system.From the single rigid planned economy,the socialist economy has experienced a "grass-planned economy,supplemented by a market economy" to a "planned commodity economy based on public ownership" to the establishment of a socialist market economic system.It has undergone a difficult process.The market’s role in the allocation of resources from the "basic role" to the "decisive role" is an objective requirement for the development of China’s socialist market economy,and it is also an inevitable logic for answering "What happens whenNora goes out." The general direction of China’s market-oriented reform is correct.The practice of reform and opening up in the past 40 years has also proved that there is no way out if we do not pursue reform and opening up.This way out is actually a road to a market economy—it is the only way for China to become a strong,prosperous,democratic,civilized and harmonious modern socialist modern country.Gu Zhun’s economic thought also has certain limitations,mainly reflected in three aspects:the limitations of his time,the limitations of the research environment,and the limitations of cognitive judgments.