Make the Past Serve the Present and the Foreign Things Serve China

One of the basic guidelines for the correct treatment of relations between Chinese and foreign cultures. In May 1942, in his work “Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art” , Mao Zedong put forward the idea: "While, we must take over all outstanding literary and art legacy " but "therefore we must never reject the legacy of the ancients and foreigners". On September 27, 1964, in his letter to Lu Dingyi concerning music education, Mao Zedong clearly put forward the literary and art policy of "making the past serve the present and making foreign things serve China".

Since the Reform and Opening-up, the CPC has stressed that it should continue to adhere to this policy and establish it as an important guiding principle for the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. “Making the past serve the present” means retaining the essence of the culture of the ancient times for today's use and at the same time discarding the dross.

Mao Zedong argued that from Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should sum up China's history and culture, and inherit this precious legacy. However, we should inherit critically instead of blindly accepting everything without criticism. For example, "discarding the dross of feudalism and absorbing the essence of democracy" is a necessary condition for developing new national culture and enhancing national self-confidence. Mao Zedong emphasized: "China's fine cultural heritage should be fully and critically assimilated from it what is useful. At the same time, he also pointed out that some people in China "worship the old and outdated cultural ideas, which are not only inapplicable but also harmful in current China. Such things must be abandoned." He added: “We must respect our own history and must not lop it off. However, respect for history means giving it its proper place as a science, respecting its dialectical development, and not eulogizing the past at the expense of the present or praising every drop of feudal poison.” Foreign things to serve China means to critically absorb all useful things from foreign cultures for our own use.

Mao Zedong pointed out that China should absorb a large amount of foreign progressive culture as the raw material for its own cultural nutrition and its own cultural development. He said. "Our policy is to learn from the strong points of all nations and all countries, and to learn all that is genuinely good in the politics, economy, science, technological fields and in literature and art. But we must learn with an analytical and critical eye, not blindly, and we mustn't copy everything indiscriminately and transplant mechanically.”

Mao Zedong pointed out: “As for foreign culture, it would be a wrong policy to shut it out, rather we should as far as possible draw on what is progressive in it for use in the development of China's new culture; it would also be wrong to copy it blindly, rather we should draw on it critically to meet the actual needs of the Chinese people.”

In dealing with the relationship between Chinese and foreign cultures correctly, the CPC advocates that “We oppose the blind acceptance of any idea, but also against blindly rejecting any idea, we Chinese must think with our own minds, and decide what will be able to grow on our own soil. ” The policy of "making the past serve the present and making foreign things serve China" scientifically answers the attitude and method of the CPC towards traditional culture and western culture, and answers the question of how to develop the new culture of the Chinese nation. It is an important guideline for adhering to the path of cultural development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and build China into a country with strong socialist culture.