History concerns human civilization whose progress lies in the transformation of humankind from a slash-burn culture to the utilization of modern science and technology. Modernization is important in the this history for it indicates rapid progress in the ability to control nature and improve one’s material and spiritual conditions. It is a linear concept resulting from a harmonic relation-ship between subjective human activity and external nature. More importantly, it is also an open-ended concept for it requires every country not only to develop its traditional rational factors, but to tolerate and even adopt progressive foreign ideas.

In a narrow sense, modernization refers to attaining "modern and advanced levels of science and technology" in, for example, agriculture, industry, national defence, science and technology. But as a product of human progress it should include also moderni-zation of thoughts and ideas. These two aspects cannot be se-parated, let alone be arbitrarily isolated. How to grasp properly the relation between these two aspects and their respective degrees is the key to the realization of modernization. This chapter will con-sider this problem by combining a review of history with reflection upon the present situation.

In ancient times, especially in the Song dynasty, China once had an outstanding history of leading the world in science and te-chnology typified by the "Four Inventions": printing, gun powder, paper-making and the compass. However, good times do not last long. At the end of the 18th century, the ruling class of the last feudal dynasty (Qing) in Chinese history, on the one hand, closed the country to international interchange, blindly opposed every-thing foreign, was arrogant in its parochialism and discriminated against any who held different views. On the other hand, it was on the decline and had serious social crises, of which the more obvious were: corruption and incompetence on the part of officialdom, decline in armaments, annexation of its territory, increasing finan-cial deficits, and a serious distance between the poor and the rich so that a large number of its working people lived in an abyss of misery. Moreover, a massive importation of foreign opium at the cost of great wealth not only poisoned the working people, but aggravated the Qing dynasty’s financial difficulties. At the same time, the Western great powers had long coveted this old and my-sterious territory.

With difficulties both at home and abroad, a few landlords and intellectuals voiced dissatisfaction and even indignant resent-ment. Currents of social thoughts then underwent a radical change, and there emerged "Jing Shi Zhi Yong", whose main repre-sentatives were Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan, Lin Zexu and Bao Shichen. Their thought included the following important points: (a) to reveal the dark and decayed phenomena in feudal society; (b) to criticize the Han learnings’ stress upon the past rather than the present and its attempt to escape rather than confront reality, as well as the hollow vagueness of Song learning; (c) to propose poli-tical and economic reform; (d) to advocate guarding against and resisting the economic and military invasion by Western great powers.

When defeat in the Opium War shocked the Chinese in inte-llectuals, the clearest response was insistence upon studying the Western capitalist world. The first person to raise the question of how to study this was not Lin Zexu, but Wei Yuan who discovered that the reason the great Western powers won the Opium War was their possession of powerful armaments and advanced technology. Hence, he advocated learning from advanced foreign technology in order to resist or even control the West. This recognized the dis-parities between China and the West and that China’s progress in modernization must be through the study advanced Western science and technology.

Moreover, after the second Opium War, Feng Guifen realized not only that Chinese technology was inferior to the West’s, but more importantly that China could not be compared to the West in the following things: the employment of human resources and terri-tory, the close relationship between the ruler and the people, and the correspondence between speech and reality. Feng Guifen advo-cated that Chinese modernization should retain the Chinese feudal ranking or seniority in human relationships as a matter of sub-stance, with the great Western powers’s methods of wealth and power playing a subsidiary or functional role.

As the invasion by the Western powers intensified and people’s rebelliousness rose like a raging fire, the ruling class of the Qing Dynasty was greatly shocked and split internally into die-hards and a Westernization movement which introduced techni-ques of capitalist production initiated by such bureaucrats as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong in the latter half of the 19th century. The diehards obstinately clung to the creed of "Tian (Heaven) does not change, nor does Tao" in order to preserve the feudal rule of the Qing government, while the Westernization Movement attempted to learn from Western technology and "Zhi Qi Zhi Qi" under the motto that "what changes is Qi, but not Tao." Thinking Chinese cultural heritage and institutions to be vastly superior to the West, so that there was no need to resort to the West, they refused to accept Western democracy and civilization. The major guide of the Westernization movement was Feng Guifen’s emphasis upon modernization in science and technology, but not in thoughts and ideas. This was the first stage of China’s moderni-zation, insisting that "the Chinese factors remain fundamental, while Western factors play a subsidiary role."

However, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, repre-sentatives of the Constitutional Reform and Modernization move-ment, such as Tan Sedong, Liang Qicao, and Kang Youwei repre-senting the interests of the liberal bourgeois and the enlightened landlords, sharply criticized the weakness due to the failure of the Westernization Movement. the Modernization’s Reform Movement of 1898 marked modern China’s second step toward moder-nization. This insisted that the West was fundamental or the matter of substance while China was subsidiary or functional. Because of lack of agreement on the part of the ruling class and obstruction by the diehards the Movement met with failure. However, the political reform decreed by the Qing government on January 9, 1901 reflected that some agreement had been reached among the ruling class. Although the reform repeated the old themes of the un-changeableness of "the three cardinal guides: ruler guides subjects, father guides son, and husband guides wife, and of the five constant virtues: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and fidelity," it also manifested a pressing historical sense of "over-hauling and consolidating government practice" and "moderation in wealth and power". The reform indicated that the only solution to the problem of destitution and weakness was to learn from the strong points of foreign countries in order to offset China’s weak-ness. What had been learned in the past of Western learning was merely superficial, not its essentials without which China could not become prosperous and strong.

In fact, neither the idea that "China was the fundamental and the West subsidiary", nor the alternative that "the West was the fundamental and China subsidiary" were decisive because, as Yan Fu pointed out, "Chines Learning had its own fundamental and sub-sidiaries, as did Western Learning." In the Westernization Move-ment, Guo Songtao and Zheng Guanying began to revise the doc-trine that "China was the fundamental"; especially Zheng Guan-ying thought that the prosperity and strength of the West lay in its political and economic institutions, and advocated the establishment of a House of Representatives and an introduction of cons-titutionalism. In the course of learning from Western modernization, the Qing government gradually underwent a painful change from refusal to acceptance.

The May 4th Movement of 1919 was an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, political and cultural movement; it was influenced by the October Revolution and led by intellectuals having the rudiments of Communist ideology. From then till the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, there were three views on the problems of modernization: (a) modern neo-Confucianism eva-luated Western civilization and preached Chinese traditional civili-zation; (b) some advocated an overall Westernization, of whom Chen Xujing and Hu Shi were representative; and (c) the Com-munist Party suggested making "the past serve the present and foreign things serve China." The third view would appear correct and logic suggests that Chinese modernization should have ad-vanced this way; however, the facts are quite the opposite.

There are striking similarities in history and the thirty years after liberation. China followed the way of the Qing government in once again closing the country to international intercourse and an overall rejection of Western civilization. From the Anti-rightist Struggle (the counterattack in 1957 against the bourgeois rightists) and Anti-Rightist Trend at the Lu Shan meeting to the Communist Party’s Third Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee’s stress upon the absolutes of class struggle, all leftist thought led to such feudal survivals as absolutism and royalism in their modern forms. What had already been extinguished in the West began to spread in China and thoroughly engulfed the kindhearted, but in-sensitive and meek, working people. Especially, "the Cultural Revolution" so wantonly trampled on Chinese democracy and legal institutions that the basic human rights of citizens could not be guaranteed. In order to preserve its own absolutism and obscu-rantism, modern absolutism could not tolerate the splendid Wes-tern civilization permeating China, which was old and obstinate.

Things take an opposite direction when they become ex-treme. In 1978 the Communist Party’s Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee advocated and carried out a policy of reform and openness, signaling thereby that Chinese modernization had taken a turn for the better. Practice shows that the reform provided thriving vitality, for example, in importing advanced te-chnology and equipment, establishing special economic zones, im-porting foreign capital, and advocating in the countryside a con-tract system by which the family has access to its products. All these reforms led to rapid progress in the national economy and greatly raised people’s living standard. Although at the same time Western spiritual civilization was imported, modernization was confined mainly to the material field and concerned science and technology. Western thoughts and ideas were guarded against overcautiously and twice campaigns against bourgeois liberalization were initiated. This was no coincidence, but a positive re-flection of the long-accumulated conservative psychology of the whole Chinese ruling class. It came from the particular political role played by China on the international political scene. This con-tributed to the traditional and deep-rooted bad habits of being satisfied with destitution, being overcautious and meekly sub-mitting to the oppression and maltreatment of fellow countrymen. However, just as there is interaction between material and spiritual civilizations, there is interaction as well between Western moder-nization in science and technology and in thought and ideas. Mo-dernization of science and technology provided the material basis for modernization of thoughts and ideas, while the latter in turn prompted and guided the former. Hence, if there is emphasis merely on Western modernization of science and technology with-out at the same time emphasizing and adopting that of thoughts and ideas, then even if the economy advances and people’s living standard are raised, this will be temporary and limited, or may stop or even go backwards, because this kind of modernization of science and technology does not receive the help and support of thoughts and ideas.

Although the Chinese government emphasizes importing Western science and technology and its approach to management, it does not at the same time import Western thoughts and ideas; this results in a separation of content from forms of modernization. Just as Westerners cannot import Chinese Confucianism to guide their modernized science and technology (the Asian "Four Small Dra-gons" originally were nurtured in the spirit of Confucianism), China cannot merely import Western science and technology in order to engage in modernization in a context in which Chinese tra-ditional culture is dominant. For example, almost every state enter-prise spends much foreign currency in importing advanced West-ern technology and equipment each year, but it does not import their mechanism of management or if it exists it is greatly limited. To say the least, the Western countries’ economic development is due mainly to their sound method of management and perfect system of legal institutions.

Herbert Spencer applied Darwin’s doctrine of "struggle for existence" to human society and thought that, like the process of the evolution of living things, society evolved through a natural rule that "the superior exists, the inferior is eliminated" or survival of the fittest. Moveover, the competitive ability of enterprises is based on that of the individual. Only if the individual, who is a combination of intelligence, physical power and morality, brings his potential to full force can his enterprise win in competition with others. As Yan Fu pointed out, people’s moral intelligence and physical powers reach maturity in environments made up of the struggle for existence within liberal institutions and a free eco-nomic field. Meanwhile, all these liberated abilities are organized, combined and enable the state to prosper and be strong.

In order not to harm others and to benefit oneself, there must be concepts and institutions which guarantee putting the indivi-dual’s constructive abilities into operation. Thus all agreed that advanced weapons and technology and effective political-econo-mic institutions were the main cause of the prosperity of the great Western powers’ and their winning of the Opium War. Yet Yang Fu thought the reason lay rather in its different understanding and grasp of reality, that is, in its advanced thought and values, whereas the cause of China’s destitution and weakness lay in its lagging with regard to ideas and values.

Over the years, China has advocated reform of the economic system in cities. Although this has had some success, if one con-siders Chinese enterprises carefully, one notes that they are not strictly like Western enterprises. This amounts to saying that the essential characters of the modern Western factory or enterprise are not the equipment employed, but the sites, the labor and the power resources. This means that production is completely independent and the economic accounting is very thorough. As this is lacking in the existing Chinese state enterprises, strange as it may sound, Western scholars think China in fact has no enterprise.

Some researchers think that the use of the term "unit" is not only characteristic, but directly reveals the internal link between cultural traits of the enterprise and the national cultural environ-ment as a whole. Upon closer consideration one can find the fo-llowing points involved in this link: (a) if the realization of profits and the growth of capital is the aim of an enterprise, then the various behaviors and norms in and out of the process of production of Chinese state enterprises bear little relevance to attaining this aim. Indeed, quite a few forms of behavior directly disturb the realization of this aim. (b) A large number of the behaviors and activities of state enterprises, which take place outside the process of production, are very similar to those of non-enterprises, for example, office, school, hospital, the press and mass organization. (c) Even the organization, choice of aims, transmission of infor-mation, human relationships, criteria of value and therefore the environment as a whole of state enterprises have very few dis-tinctive features of an enterprise, but are similar to non-enterprises.

Under these conditions, the people in state enterprises are endowed mainly not with an enterprising personality, but with a unit-personality. This has the following manifestations: (a) great attention is paid to the treatment of human relationships, (b) its set of values gives priority to politics; (c) there is little expression of independent thinking and action, but one relies on others; (d) there is sudden enthusiasm, but no constant sense of efficiency or self-conscious spirit of creativity; and (e) there is scrupulous adhesion to ethical principles in small closed circles where one is on intimate terms with the other persons, but no social morality. How can a sense of competition be generated and productive efficiency raised among "unit-individuals" working in this kind of "unit," which is not an enterprise, for who is the bearer of unit-personality?

Another important characteristic of the Chinese reform is to develop a contract system of responsibility of the family for pro-ducts in countryside. Although this arouses a productive attitude among peasants, the inherent character of Chinese traditional agri-cultural society itself constitutes the deeper and wider cultural environments of the organizational system of the unit. First, due to the non-independence of the individual person, it is only through the community that one can exist. Second, social functions are concentrated on a closed village, which was organized in terms of blood relationships, was self-sufficient and had no mutual inter-change. Even the present community and village is essentially of this nature, rather than the earlier "People’s Commune". Third, the natural village is strictly controlled by a highly-concentrated cen-tral political power to which it pays various tributes. Lastly, al-though distribution of farmland among families can make for in-tensive and meticulous farming and combine the peasants’s in-terests with their responsibilities, it seriously impedes the mechani-zation of agriculture, reduces labor efficiency and unnecessarily binds a large number of peasants to sparse and small farmland.

Economic reforms both in cities and in the countryside show that it is not sufficient merely to make use of advanced Western science and technology; there is need also to draw lessons from Western ideas and institutions. Modernization requires reform, but the problem is: reform to what degree and how to reform? It can be seen from the above analysis that in the course of construction of modernization during the past century China has not been able to escape the vicious circle of merely emphasizing Western science and technology, but not its thoughts and ideas. The reason lies in the Chinese traditional culture of absolutism and obscurantism leaving an accumulation of power in the ruling government and fellow countrymen. The only way to escape this circle is to esta-blish a sound democracy and legal institutions for the construction of Chinese modernization. A consensus must be reached among the ruling class: whatever the Western things may be (whether science and technology or ideas and thoughts), provided that they are advantageous to the China’s realization of modernization, they should be fully employed strategic decisions regarding modernization must be based on this agreement.

Other elements which need to be considered include the following.

- First, there must be long-term planning. This means avoiding by all means the issuance of an order in the morning and rescinding it in the evening. It is no accident that at present some people think Chinese policy always will change in three to five years. But it also means that those who make strategic decisions cannot be eager for success and instant benefit and have a narrow vision.

- Second, the reform must be proactive; several reforms in Chinese history were carried out under the circumstances of domestic trouble and foreign invasion, and therefore were largely passive. It is impossible for this kind of passive reform to remove or even touch the previously organized systems which hindered the development of productive forces or radically to reform old thoughts and ideas. However, if the ruling government can repair the house before it rains and put reform into force before expe-riencing difficulties, then surely the medicine can be suited to the illness, cure the sickness and save the patient. But the activities of reform must first be based on the modernization of thoughts and ideas.

- Third, it must be feasible, that is, it is necessary to assess and weigh the advantages and disadvantages without taking any hasty action or making an administrative intervention before the strategic decisions are made.

- Fourth, it must be pluralistic. Truth comes from the co-llision between several penetrating insights. Different thoughts and ideas can learn from each other’s strong points and offset their own weakness. If one thought is artificially given priority over others, then it will certainly hinder the quality of the overall thought and the renewal of internal thought mechanism. Likewise, in making strategic decisions, pluralistic thinking should be permitted and encouraged. The authorities might well establish two or more groups to study and analyze important problems relating to the na-tional economy and people’s livelihood and to design counter-measures. Their decisions would be handed over to the National People’s Congress, and finally put into force as scientific policy and law. However, at the present time, the representatives of the National People’s Congress consider only one draft resolution, without an alternative with which to compared it. So the Con-gress’s name does not fit its own reality, for there is no draft resolution which is not voted through by the Congress. A depen-dant and meek psychology exists not only in ordinary people, but also in the representatives and leaders at all levels. This is de-monstrated by the historical fact of the initiation of the disastrous "Cultural Revolution".

From the state enterprises’ nature as a "unit", to the agri-cultural economy’s mode of production, to the one-dimensional mode of making strategic decisions regarding modernization, all these show how lagging thoughts and ideas seriously fetter the country’s productive forces and the realization of modernization. The slogan that "science and technology are the first productive forces" should be revised and its ambiguous influence removed. In fact, science and technology do not play the same role under different circumstances. Research and the application of science and technology are restrained not only by economic conditions and the conditions of science and technology, but more by policy and law, thoughts and ideas and the researchers’ abilities and quali-fications. In the past years, the development of China’s basic theoretical research has not been slower than the West, nor have their achievements been, but the application of their achievements, that is, their transformation into productive forces falls far behind the West.

If modernization cannot be improved and realized, and people’s living standard cannot be raised, then the ruling party is not qualified. All depends on it having or not having the ability to deal with the relationship between he two aspects of moderni-zation.

In sum, from historical retrospection and reflection on rea-lity, it appears that the realization of modernization in China, both in the past and at present, is confined mainly to the material field and neglects the side of though and ideas; for this reason it has been onesided.