重思马克思恩格斯对近代中国开端的唯物史观洞察

Rethinking Marx and Engels’ Historical Materialistic Insights on the Beginning of Modern China

马克思、恩格斯眼中的近代中国问题是资本全球空间扩张的结果,是对其唯物史观、世界历史理论的验证。资本逻辑全球扩张开启世界历史的过程,也是它冲击落后国家和民族的特权和等级逻辑、推动人类社会现代化的过程。贸易和战争是资本全球空间扩张的两大手段,战争可以为贸易开道,也会导致贸易停滞,二者之间存在矛盾,无论选取哪种手段,利润都是唯一目的。马克思、恩格斯起初用中国革命形容太平天国运动,后来将之仅看作起义,原因是只有顺应人类社会历史进程、推动社会全方位根本变革的运动才能称作革命,否则只是改朝换代的农民起义。在全面把握人类社会历史整体发展趋势、充分考虑中国独特境遇及中国人民战争的基础上,马克思、恩格斯对中国前景作出了科学预测。在他们看来,未来的中国必将走向一个更为进步的社会形态,且会深刻影响世界文明的进程。

In Marx and Engels’ view, modern China’s problems are the results of capital’s global space expansion, which verify their historical materialism and world history theory. The process of capital logic global expansion starting out the world history is also the process of its impacting the privilege and hierarchy logic of backward countries and ethnic groups and promoting human society modernization. Trade and war are two major means of capital’s global space expansion. The relationship between these two means can be contradictory: war can pave the way for trade, but it can also lead to the stagnation of trade. No matter which method is chosen, reaping profits is the only purpose. Initially, Marx and Engels described Taiping Rebellion as a revolution in China, but later just regarded it as an uprising since only a movement that conforms to the historical process of human society and promotes all-round fundamental changes in society can be defined as a revolution. Otherwise, it is just a peasant uprising that changes dynasties. Marx and Engels made a scientific prediction of China’s prospects based on comprehensively understanding the overall development trend of human social history and fully considering China’s unique situation and the Chinese people’s war. They believed that China will surely move towards a more progressive social form in the future, which will profoundly affect the progress of the world civilization.