Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2020

 

A Marvelous Society: The Historical Development and Evolutionary Scenarios of Modern Chinese Society

(Abstract)

 

Xiang Jiuyu

 

Internal clues that realize different social scenarios are embedded in the historical development of modern Chinese society. The complete establishment of a moderately prosperous society in all respects marks the thoroughgoing elimination of absolute poverty, a great historic leap in the spiritual realm, the new creation of institutional civilization, and the orderly operation of social organisms. Following a well-off society, the marvelous society, which lays the foundation for a happy life, has become a social landscape choice for the continuation of modern Chinese history. The substantial improvement of the social productivity level, the historical transformation of the main social contradictions, the establishment of socialist core values, and the improvement and development of the socialist system have laid a foundation for the formation of a better society in terms of materials, contradictions, values, and systems. On this basis, the ideal vision of a marvelous society is a social picture of the reflection, sublation and transcendence of “modernity,” one that is deeply related to “the real happiness of the people,” and that pursues a “free personality” under existing conditions, These three pictures will realize the inner harmony between instrumental rationality (object) and value rationality (subject) in the process of social development. Based on the dual variations of self-confidence in the road and national rejuvenation, the better society is endowed with the profound connotation of the times and profound historical meaning. It is committed to creating a new type of civilization and laying a new social foundation for the free and all-round development of human beings in the sense of the “individual” and for common prosperity in the sense of “community.”