Social Sciences in China

Vol. 34, No. 1, 2013

Spiritual Construction in Contemporary China and Its Ideological Resources

（Abstract）

Wu Xiaoming

Spiritual construction in contemporary China is an important ideological task raised by China’s historical practice. Modern development often entails entering into “modern civilization”; yet the abstract understanding of this civilization hides its essential rules and historical nature. China has pursued development on different historical premises from the West, and therefore it belongs only partially to modern capitalist civilization. Its rapid development highlights the historical limits of the latter. Realistic prospects for Chinese development imply a transformation and remodeling of China’s overall way of life, attitudes to life and values, and this inevitably calls for a new form of philosophy. The intellectual sources for this new philosophy are Chinese philosophy, Western philosophy and Marxist philosophy. Their creative integration points in a positive way to the possibility of a new type of civilization.