Yu Yizhu: The 100-year history of the CCP between history and nothingness

In order to welcome the centenary of the founding of the party, the CCP recently launched the 2021 new edition of "A Brief History of the Communist Party of China" (referred to as "Party History") as an official designated learning material. Immediately afterwards, the CCP launched a large-scale study of party history in the whole party. Against this background, the Chinese Ministry of Education recently erected a "firewall" for extracurricular readings in primary and secondary schools, and listed a list of prohibitions to prevent problematic readings from entering primary and secondary school campuses and kindergartens. The core main line implemented in this large-scale party history study movement is the CCP's maintenance of the status and legitimacy of official history, and the battle against "historical nihilism".

The new edition of the CCP's "Party History"

The official history of a country is related to a common national identity, and the compilation and adjustment of the CCP’s history, especially the determination of major historical issues, also reflects the CCP’s construction of its own legitimacy. According to the Hong Kong media "Sing Tao Daily", the biggest part of the adjustment of the new edition of "Party History" is to highlight the party history since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, accounting for about a quarter of the book. This part includes the latest changes since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, such as "realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, advancing the layout of 'five in one' and 'four comprehensive', modernization of national defense and the military, major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, adherence to 'One country, two systems' and promoting the reunification of the motherland", etc., to show the contemporary theme of "socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era" and adapt to the background of China's rise.

Another major change is the controversial "Cultural Revolution". In the 2001 edition of "Party History" published on the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party, the "Civil strife of the 10-year 'Cultural Revolution'" was included as the seventh chapter in the new edition. This chapter in the "Party History" is no longer a separate chapter, but is included in the sixth chapter, "The Exploration and Tortuous Development of Socialist Construction".

Regarding the cause of the Cultural Revolution, the 2001 edition of the CCP's "Party History" pointed out that during the Cultural Revolution, "the phenomenon of personal arbitrariness and personality worship within the party gradually grew" and that "Mao Zedong (for the Cultural Revolution) bears the main responsibility". The new version of the history of the Communist Party of China is changed to, the Cultural Revolution was Mao Zedong's need for "the consolidation of the party and the people's power", to be alert to the danger of capitalist restoration, to eliminate corruption, privileges, bureaucracy and other phenomena in the "party and government" , the exploration carried out. However, due to the unclear understanding of the law of socialist development and the mistakes of the Left, many "correct ideas on socialist construction" were not implemented, and eventually led to civil strife.

The new edition of "Party History" highlights Mao Zedong's good intentions in launching the Cultural Revolution, and attributes the reasons for his mistakes to unclear understanding of objective laws and the influence of left-leaning mistakes. These adjustments show that the CCP has adopted a more tolerant understanding of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution under the background of returning to the original aspiration of socialism in recent years, emphasizing the correctness of its socialist purpose, but only negating the Cultural Revolution as a political movement. The maintenance of the political value of "socialism" inherited by the CCP, rather than justifying the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong himself.

The latest statement on the Cultural Revolution has been described by some media as "deliberately downplaying Mao Zedong's mistakes". However, this statement is biased in the political context of the CCP. This can be seen from the final characterization of the Cultural Revolution in the new edition of "Party History". It did not change the historical resolution made by the CCP in 1981, that is, "the Cultural Revolution is not a revolution or social progress in any sense", but "a A civil strife that was wrongly launched by the leaders and exploited by the reactionary clique, which brought serious disaster to the party, the country and the people of all ethnic groups."

historical nihilism

The revision of the new edition of the "Party History" has a deeper historical context. Behind it is not only the CCP's maintenance of its own historical legitimacy, but also a battle against "historical nihilism".

On February 20, the Communist Party of China held a special "Party History Learning and Education Mobilization Conference". According to an article published in the Communist Party's magazine "Seeking Truth", General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech of more than 10,000 words at this meeting. "Establish a correct view of party history". Xi Jinping asked CCP members to be vigilant of those wrong tendencies when studying the history of the party, and called them "historical nihilism", such as "exaggerating mistakes and twists and turns in the history of the party, wanton smearing and distorting the history of the party, and attacking the party's leadership", "Deliberately linking party history events with real issues and making malicious hype", such as "do not believe in official history and believe in unofficial history, vulgarize and entertain party history, enthusiastically spread gossip anecdotes, and talk about illegal overseas publications", etc. He said that he must take a clear stand against "historical nihilism" and look at some major issues in the party's history in a realistic manner, "neither avoid mistakes and setbacks because of achievements, nor deny achievements because of mistakes and setbacks in exploration." Xi Jinping’s statement revealed that the CCP hopes to get to the bottom of the story and look at the mistakes and achievements of the CCP’s history objectively.

The new edition of the CCP's "Party History" makes a positive and negative understanding of some sensitive issues, rather than the attacks and smears of the CCP's history by the popular unofficial history, gossip, and rumored secret history in recent years. Deconstruct the official history of the CCP, and then cancel the legitimacy of the CCP itself. This is what the CCP calls "historical nihilism". From this point of view, the CCP's campaign to study party history in the whole party is doing a work of clearing the source, breaking the old and establishing the new, and it is one of the ways to enhance the "four self-confidence" of CCP members. This has practical significance for maintaining the legitimacy of the CCP's governance.

"Firewall" in primary and secondary schools

Against this background, the "Great Firewall" of extracurricular readings formulated by the Chinese Ministry of Education explicitly prohibits "readings that joke about the history of the party, the country, and the military" from entering the campus. The new measures of nihilism are necessary to consolidate the national ideology and the legitimacy of governance. However, various forms of formalism appeared in the implementation of this top-down executive order, causing great distress to the people everywhere.

For example, many primary and secondary schools in China let students watch the live video of the history of the founding of the Communist Party of China during the school term, requiring students to inherit the "red genes", and some places even let children in kindergartens learn the history of the party, because these contents are out of the cognitive scope of primary school students and young children. The reality of life is largely reduced to a formalized farce. There are also some places that are even more outrageous. Primary school students are allowed to watch a fixed amount of party history documentaries. There are even places where parents and students are required to watch together and complete a series of homework such as online punching in, signing in, and writing feelings. Many parents have to study for their children on their own. And homework makes parents miserable. In some places, the scene of students lighting candles to learn the history of the party is even high-profile, causing many parents to feel uncomfortable. This is reminiscent of the hype of copying the party constitution by hand on the wedding night a few years ago, which makes people feel disgusted.

As for the "firewall" ban of primary and secondary schools proposed by the Ministry of Education, although it was mentioned in the promulgation that schools were not allowed to force students to purchase designated books, it is difficult to grasp the specific implementation. Some schools confiscate students' extracurricular reading materials and only allow them to read History also happens from time to time, which seriously limits students' interest in reading. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. There is no need to adopt such a one-size-fits-all administrative order method for primary and secondary school students and kindergartens in the study of party history. Regardless of the original intention, this approach violates the laws of education and can only be counterproductive.

On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP, whether it is the revision of the CCP’s party history and the large-scale study of the party’s history, or the Firewall of Banned Books erected by the Chinese Ministry of Education on the campuses of primary and secondary schools, they can all be regarded as the CCP’s breaking the old and establishing the new, consolidating its status in official history. , the efforts to destroy historical nihilism play a role in enhancing self-confidence and consolidating ideological legitimacy. However, the formalism in the implementation process has to be faced and paid attention to.