A Critical Study Of Historical Nihilism From The Macro-Historical Perspective

In the face of the rising dregs of historical nihilism in the New Era,the Communist Party of China(CPC)attaches great importance to historiographical research and learning and history-based education,emphasizing that historical nihilism should be unequivocally opposed and criticized.Standing at the turn of its centenary history,the CPC has launched the CPC history learning and education campaign and adopted the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century,wherein historical nihilism is important content to be criticized.To strengthen the systematic,foreseeable and creative properties of various work,the CPC proposes that a macro-historical perspective should be established starting from the “Two Overall Situations”,with a view of analyzing evolutionary mechanisms and exploring historical patterns from the long history,the tides of times and global trends,thereby proposing relevant strategies and opening up a new future by drawing guidance from history.The macro-historical perspective represents an application and development of the materialist conception of history in the New Era,a highly condensed expression of the historical concept of Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era,and the guiding methodology and the value to follow in the practices of governance in the New Era.The essential idea of the macro-historical perspective is to analyze and explore historical events and figures from perspectives of historical thinking,changes of times and global vision,thus drawing multi-dimensional,holistic and dynamic conclusions.The macro-historical perspective requires a profound understanding of the deterministic significance of the “Two Establishes” on both historical and realistic dimensions,and bearing in mind that the “top priorities of the country” carry with them the abandonment of vague and biased understanding of history.Therefore,the macro-historical perspective provides not only a field of vision for overcoming historical nihilism but also methodological support.Often upholding the banners of “farewell to revolution”,“reevaluation” and “restoring the truth”,historical nihilism distorts Chinese history,particularly the Chinese history of revolution,in areas of historiography,literature,art and mass communication.With the advent of the digital era,historical nihilism has adopted more covert means in its penetration,causing greater harms that require necessary attention.In this paper,the realistic dynamics of historical nihilism,especially its new manifestations on network information media,is sumamrized from a macro-historical perspective and their harms are identified.On that basis,the philosophic idealist concept of history underpinning historical nihilism is examined through realistic observation,and the interplay between nihilism and post-modernism is further analyzed in order to pinpoint its theoretical origin.Finally,from a global perspective,domestic hidden perils and international crises caused by historical nihilism amid the “Two Overall Situations” in China are examined,followed by an exploration of the practical route towards eliminating historical nihilism from the macro-historical perspective.As an innovative application and development of the materialist conception of history in the New Era,the macro-historical perspective innately encompasses a wide field of view ranging from history,the present and future.On the one hand,the fragmented and entertainment-oriented instruments exploited by historical nihilism,as well as their harms,call for holistic and systematic macro-historical perspective for criticism.On the other hand,the theoretical foundation,era vision and international concerns of the macro-historical perspective offers historical nihilism practical route options for active responses to the great changes unseen in a century,grasping the major logic of the historical development of the Chinese society,leading major trends in the digital era and devoting to the new patterns of human civilization.