Impact Of Public&Private Notion Evolution On Present Chinese Political Culture

Public&private notion acts as the core of political thoughts and political value system in Chinese political culture from beginning to end. It evolves along with the changes of different social history periods, and affects the general development orientation of Chinese political culture. In this dissertation, by combining data and historical documents and beginning from the changes of public&private notions in different periods, the impact of public-private notion evolution on present Chinese political culture is detailed in three aspects through analysis on the relationship between the public-private notion and Chinese political culture. It is put forwarded how to reasonably absorb active factors of traditional public-private notions, and determine the correct direction for modern Chinese social political culture. The exploration in this dissertation is very simple and still in primary stage. I hope that this dissertation may cause resonance from men of insight. I. Foreword "Public"and "private"notions were regarded as a pair of concepts in opposition to each other in China. "Selflessness"and "advocating public and restricting private"is one of the important features of Chinese traditional political culture and moral culture. At present, the domestic research on public-private notions mainly centers on its historical evolution and features. The relevant researches in academic community have involved the public-private notion development and evolution, value judgments, some propositions, comparison between Chinese and Western cultures and other topics. However generally speaking, these researches are relatively poor and fail to be systematic. Until now, I have not found any academic article on the relationship between public-private notions and Chinese political culture. So, it is full of realistic meaning to conduct research on the impact of public-private notion evolution on modern Chinese political culture. II. Evolution process of public-private notions (I) Public-private notions of traditional society "Selflessness"and "advocating public and restricting private"in traditional public-private notions is the moral notions of restricting self for the public interest advocated by the Confucians, which is interpreted incorrectly as the moral excuse by parties to neglect human nature, and force the people to follow rulers absolutely. The people accepted the political notion of neglecting personal rights and delivering their rights to the government. (II) Evolution of public-private notions in modern times There were new changes in Chinese public-private notions in modern times. The statements concerning public-private notions of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Chen Duxiu and others have not limited to the moral concepts. They discussed the relationship between individuals and the country from the view of political science, i.e. the relationship between "public"and "private". For the first time, the Chinese traditional "public-private"notion took the form of modern theory from the view of political science. (III) Public-private notions in the period from Socialist primary stage to the "Great Cultural Revolution" From revolution in 1949 to the "Great Cultural Revolution" in 1966, the public-private notion was repositioned from "killing private for the public interest"to "selflessness". It is formed in the thoughts of the people that "public"is socialist, and "private"is capitalist. "Private"notion became a rat running across the street with everybody shouting "Kill it!"(IV) Public-private notion during the period of the "Great Cultural Revolution" In the period of the "Great Cultural Revolution", the public-private notion became the notion of "killing private interests for public interests"and "fighting with private thoughts ruthlessly". This kind of pure "public"notion caused the result that the national economy reached breakdown brim, and the people life was very hard. (V) Changes of public-private notions as of reforming and opening up Since the reforming and opening up, the people introduced new western notions, such as "public domain", "private domain", zero-sum game and so on. The traditional "public"and "private"notions were innovated and benign interaction between the public and the private was advocated.III. Present situation of Chinese political culture (I) Concept and meaning of political culture The concept of political culture adopted in this dissertation originates from the Principles of Politics, which is edited mainly by Wang Huiyan professor. "Political culture means the special political value, political psychology and political behavior mode of classes, groups and individuals in a country formed with the impact of long-term social and historical culture traditions. It mainly includes political subjects, political systems, political activity process, political products, various political phenomena, as well as the attitude and value orientation to its status and effects in political systems and activities. (II) Current situation and features of present Chinese political culture After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, political culture transition began from revolution to governance. The development situation of present Chinese political culture has the following features: 1. Transition of political culture from closed type to open type Firstly, the political culture at high level became open relatively, which dominated the opening process of political culture. Secondly, the closed mass political culture began to transmit information to and bilaterally communicate with the political culture at high level. The western political culture came into China by various ways, which promoted the opening of the original closed political culture. 2. Transition of political cognition and value judgments from emotional type to rational type. At present, the main stream of domestic political culture is rational. The comprising and tolerant political spirit and game rule mature gradually. 3. Transition of political personality from blind dependence to independence. Along with the transition of society, reform of political systems, and marketing of economic system, political personality began to change from blind dependence to independence, and the subject awareness of political person increased notably. However, the integral independent political personality and democratic spirit have not been formed in Chinese political culture. 4. Transition of political thoughts from dual opposition to pragmaticneutralization. After reforming and opening up, the guiding thought of "taking class struggle as guiding principle"was discarded, and the political thought changed from dual opposition to pragmatic neutralization. However, the political thought of dual opposition has not disappeared completely, and appears in political life ever and again. Therefore, it is not easy to create a fair debating environment in favor of social progress. 5. Crisis and reconstruction of political belief and ideas The "Great Cultural Revolution" caused political belief crisis. After reforming and opening up, the Communist Party of China and government corrected the distortion on Marxism-Leninism and Communism for the purpose of removing political belief crisis and reconstruct political belief. 6. Accommodation of political value orientation between individuals and the collectivity. In Chinese traditional political culture, the priority of the country, nation and collectivity is mainstream, and individuals have no lawful status. The collective rights and interests dominate individual rights and interests completely, which cuts off the relationship between the collectivity and individuals, and inhibits the individual initiative in participating in politics. After reforming and opening up, we began to adjust this kind of political value orientation, and try to comprise the interests of individuals, collectivity and the country. IV. Impact of public-private notion on present Chinese political culture (I) Impact of traditional public-private notion on Chinese political culture development. At first, moral issue always relates with political issues in Chinese traditional political culture. In Chinese political culture, the public-private relationship is interpreted absolutely. As a result, governors always satisfied their own private demands by the name of public interests. The relationship between "public"and "private"is dislocated severely. Secondly, the people-oriented public-private notion nurtured the political culture tradition of attaching importance to the people. (II) Impact of changes in public-private notion in market economy environment as of reforming and opening up on present Chinese political...