Ancient Culture Should Be Utilized Fully and Critically

The correct attitude and policy of the CPC on how to treat ancient Chinese culture and Mao Zedong's consistent viewpoint was to make full use of ancient culture in a critical manner. In October 1938, Mao Zedong pointed out that our task is to study our historical heritage and use the Marxist method to sum it up critically. In 1944, he once again pointed out: "It is absolutely true that there are many good things left to us by Chinese history, we must turn this historical legacy into our own.” In December 1960, Mao Zedong, in his talk with foreign cultural delegation, he once again put forward that "China's cultural legacy should be fully and critically utilized", and pointed out that “this is the present policy of China, the basic premise to make full use of Chinese cultural lagacy heritage is to analyze it scientifically and inherit it critically ".

Mao Zedong evaluated that the ancient Chinese culture was mainly the culture of the feudal ages, which specifically should be analyzed concretely and specifically. Firstly, the culture produced in the feudal ages includes not only feudalism but also "cultural things of the people and peasants and also anti-feudal cultural things”. It is necessary to distinguish feudal from non-feudal ideology. Secondly, even feudalism was not completely negative, when feudalism was still in the stage of emergence and development, there were many good things in it. Thirdly, the anti-feudal “culture created in the feudal ages cannot be used uncritically”, since many folk works have the considerable influence of the feudal ruling class. To sum up, in order to promote the progressive development of ancient culture, we should "discard the dross of feudalism and absorb retain its democratic essence ". Based on this analysis, Mao Zedong put forward the basic idea so as to make full use of the cultural legacy: critical inheritance and making the past serve the present.

On this issue, we should oppose both historical nihilism and feudal revivalism. This policy put forward by Mao Zedong is the product of the combination of the general principles of Marxism on culture and the practice of Chinese cultural construction and it has played an important guiding role in correctly treating ancient culture and developing new socialist culture.