Advances in Social Science and Culture ISSN 2640-9682 (Print) ISSN 2640-9674 (Online) Vol. 6, No. 5, 2024 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc 1 Original Paper Exploration of Cultivating the Historical Initiative of College Students Tingting Wang1 1 Xi’an FanYi University, School of Marxism, Shaanxi, Xi’an, China Fund Project The 2024 research project of Xi’an FanYi University: The effect of narrative ability on the teaching of “History of China syllabus”, Project number: 2024B30 Received: July 09, 2024 Accepted: August 24, 2024 Online Published: September 05, 2024 doi:10.22158/assc.v6n5p1 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/assc.v6n5p1 Abstract Under the background of the new era, cultivating the historical initiative spirit of college students is one of the important contents of the socialist modernization construction with Chinese characteristics. As the successors of the socialist cause, college students shoulder the great mission of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In order to cultivate the historical initiative spirit of college students, it is necessary to understand what they think and need, and the society, universities, and individual students all need to constantly explore and learn, so as to effectively cultivate the historical initiative spirit of college students. Keywords college students, the historical initiative spirit, the cultivation path 1. Introduction The spirit of historical initiative was put forward as an important proposition in the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Party Central Committee, and in recent years, General Secretary has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the spirit of historical initiative and placed it in a prominent position. At present, China has entered a new stage of development, and only by insisting on carrying forward the spirit of historical initiative can we create new historical greatness. Contemporary Chinese youth is a generation that walks with the new era and advances together, and is born in the prosperous times and shoulders important responsibilities. Post-“00” college students grew up in the critical period of the motherland's prosperity, both ideological concepts and values have a far-reaching impact on society as www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 2 Published by SCHOLINK INC. a whole. However, there are some problems with the spirit of historical initiative among some students. Therefore, how to promote college students to carry forward the spirit of historical initiative, so that they consciously grow up to be ideal, dare to take responsibility, able to suffer, willing to struggle for the construction of the new era has become an important topic of ideological and political education and teaching in colleges and universities. 2. The Connotation of the Historical Initiative Spirit 2.1 Clear Historical Subjects “The whole so-called history of the world is nothing else than the birth of man through the labor of man”. The materialist concept of history considers the masses to be the creators of history, and scientifically answers the question of “who creates history”. The proletariat is the advanced element among the people, with a high degree of historical initiative and thoroughgoing revolution. Marx once said, “What flexibility, what historical initiative, what self-sacrifice these Parisians have”, highly affirming the proletariat's historical initiative and spirit of historical creativity. As Lenin said, “The main point in Marx's doctrine is the clarification of the world-historical role of the proletariat as the creator of socialist society.” Looking back at China's modern history, all the reform movements that tinkered with the imperial system invariably ended in failure; all the revolutionary efforts that hoped to take the capitalist road without facing up to the real needs of society also retreated in dismay. After this series of attempts, history has proved that only under the leadership, with Marxism as its scientific guide, has it grasped the law of development of modern Chinese society in the course of continuous practice and revolution. On this basis, fully mobilizing the spirit of historical initiative, the united and mobilized the people, clarified the historical task of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, and finally led the people to victory. “As historical activity deepens, it will surely be the expansion of the ranks of the masses”, the spirit of historical initiative, with the broad masses of the people as the main body, is constantly creating history, and the masses in turn are using the spirit of historical initiative as a weapon to constantly enhance their own historical subjectivity. 2.2 Sober Historical Consciousness Looking back on the history of the Chinese people, the Chinese nation has always been continuous in the long and turbulent river of history. The splendid Chinese civilization has been shining to this day and is still being talked about today. However, modern China has suffered a lot, and the advanced Chinese people have been seeking for a better way, and finally won the victory under the leadership. This victory was the result of the Party's unity in leading the people to a deep understanding of the laws, on the basis of which it played the role of the subjective initiative, clearly defined the historical task, and then actively engaged in the reality of the practice. That is to say, to transform the world on the basis of knowledge. In modern China, all kinds of ideas have come into the country. The fact that the was able to find a correct course in the midst of the complexity of the situation and continue to walk it unswervingly shows that has a high degree of sobriety and historical self-awareness. With a proactive www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 3 Published by SCHOLINK INC. stance, the has united and led its people to plan the historical figures soberly, and grasped the initiative of the development of the Party and the country's cause in its hands. It is because of the Party's historical self-awareness of the situation, see their own tasks, and firm practice, to realize the leap from small to large, from weak to strong, leading the Chinese nation to victory. The Party's historical self-awareness has always enabled the Party to represent the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, to insist on taking the people's interests as the standard of measurement for its work, to maintain the self-awareness of facing problems squarely and the courage of self-revolution, to deepen its understanding of the laws of human history in the process of insisting on truth and correcting errors, and to make the Party move forward continuously in its explorations. 2.3 A Lofty Historical Mission Comrade pointed out in the report of the 19th Party Congress that “once was founded, it took the realization of communism as the Party's highest ideal and ultimate goal, and unhesitatingly shouldered the historical mission of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” The report comprehensively summarizes the glorious history of the CPC in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and at the same time clearly puts forward new requirements for realizing the Party's historical mission in the new era. The historical mission of each historical period is different, but ultimately they all share a common mission, namely, the pompous mission of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Looking back at the history of China since modern times, the shame made modern China face the crisis of the destruction of the country and its species, and all kinds of ideological and political practices came and went, but they all ended in failure. The most important reason for the failure of these practices was that they did not recognize the historical mission. The emergence of the Party has changed the destiny of the Chinese people and created a new glory for the Chinese nation. This is because as soon as the Party was founded, it unhesitatingly shouldered the historical mission of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In order to realize the historical mission of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, generations of Chinese Communists have struggled successively with the Chinese people, overcoming one after another seemingly insurmountable difficulties and creating one after another miracles on earth that have made history. Practice has amply proved that, inspired and led by the lofty historical mission, the people have been closely united with the Party and opened up the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics, enabling China to catch up with the times in a big way, ushering in the great leap of the Chinese nation from standing up to getting rich and strong, and opening up a bright prospect for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. 2.4 Fearless Historical Responsibility As General Secretary has pointed out, " Communists must be responsible for transforming society and the world, dare to take on responsibilities and face up to difficulties. "Responsibility is one of the important contents of the historical initiative, is the practical character of the historical initiative of the Communist Party of China, mainly refers to the Party in the process of no fear of strong enemies, no www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 4 Published by SCHOLINK INC. fear of risks, brave forward, brave and able to practice responsibility, responsibility and strong courage. The spirit of responsibility emphasizes that in the face of special historical opportunities and challenges in each historical period, they can always undertake the historical mission bravely and devote themselves to the practical revolutionary practice with an active spirit. The courage of Chinese Communists to shoulder their historical responsibilities is not only reflected in its practice of seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation, but also in its actions of seeking progress for mankind, for world peace, and in its commitment to the cause of peace and development of mankind. From the new democratic revolution to reform and opening up and socialist modernization, to the process of struggle and innovation in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, all demonstrate the Party's spirit of facing up to challenges and taking bravely. The efforts of the Party over the past 100 years fully prove that the Party is committed to the world and is an important force for safeguarding world peace and global development in today's world. China has continuously contributed Chinese wisdom, solutions and strength to world issues, which has been widely recognized and appreciated by most countries and the vast majority of their people in the world. 3. The Path for College Students to Cultivate the Historical Initiative Spirit Cultivating the spirit of historical initiative means “transforming the spirit of historical initiative into a powerful driving force for young people's growth and success”. The cultivation of the spirit of historical initiative is essentially the same as the educational goal of moral education in colleges and universities. Both are to make college students take the initiative to undertake the historical mission of realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation through education, and to inspire them to devote themselves to the cause of socialist modernization and construction with high morale and enthusiasm. In the context of the new era, the cultivation of the historical initiative spirit of college students has far-reaching significance for the development and destiny of the country and the nation as well as for the growth and success of individuals. 3.1 The Necessity of Cultivating the Spirit of Historical Initiative The special position of college students determines that they are the group of special attention. They are the main force and reserve force of China's night socialist modernization construction. We should fully mobilize their historical initiative spirit and let them devote themselves to the socialist modernization construction with a positive attitude. In order to cultivate the historical initiative of college students, we should first understand the problems on college students and grasp their realistic needs for the historical initiative. Therefore, to find out the problem, can better cultivate. 3.1.1 Erosion of Historical Nihilism In recent years, various short video platforms and mobile games have risen to prominence and quickly become popular pastimes among students. Short videos can easily distort historical facts and inadvertently spread historical nihilism due to their fast dissemination and fragmentation. Similarly, some cell phone games, named after historical figures, cause students' historical theories to be www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 5 Published by SCHOLINK INC. misplaced, remembering only the settings of the historical figures in the game, and downplaying the real appearance of the historical figures in the original history. These are the manifestations of historical nihilism, and short videos and games use the Internet to influence the behavior and thoughts of college students. Historical nihilism is hurting college students' correct knowledge of history, affecting their correct attitude towards history, and even causing them to doubt Marxism, ignore the achievements of the Chinese communists, and deny Chinese civilization, thus shaking the beliefs of college students and diluting their political identity. 3.1.2 Inadequate Parenting in Schools and Families Marx said, “Man creates his environment, and likewise the environment creates man.” College students spend half of their time in family life and the other half of their lives in school. In the decades-long school life, after elementary school, middle school, high school and then college, each link of school education is very important, and the society tends to give all the education responsibility to the school, but the family's influence on a child is lifelong. First of all, parents are a child's first teachers and the family is a child's first school. Before formally entering school life, family education has a great influence on children. Many parents only want their children to be well-fed and warmly clothed, but do not care about their children's thinking or their interpersonal relationships. If something goes wrong with the child, instead of solving the problem first, they blame the child for the problem. Children in this environment for a long time are very likely to be left with psychological trauma, so that in the future all the education and learning in life appear bad phenomena. One of the main goals of cultivating the historical initiative spirit of college students is to stimulate students' historical initiative and guide them to exert their subjective initiative; if college students are in a passive situation for a long period of time, it will have a negative impact on the cultivation process. Secondly, the school's cultivation experience is insufficient. At present, the experience of university education in the cultivation of historical initiative of college students still needs to be accumulated. In the cultivation of historical initiative, it should require the cooperation of all relevant departments, but in the process of practice there are often various problems, thus weakening the effect of the cultivation of the historical initiative of college students. At the same time, colleges and universities still pay more attention to theory than practice, emphasize on quantity rather than quality, and instill students with theories to the neglect of practical education. 3.1.3 College Students Lack the Enthusiasm to Learn The target of cultivating students' initiative in history is the contemporary college students. If the college students themselves have a high degree of motivation to study, then the cultivation of the spirit of historical initiative will be very effective; on the contrary, if the college students' motivation to study is poor, then the cultivation of the spirit of historical initiative for the college students will be ineffective. As the main force of the development of the country and the nation, college students are the successors of the socialist cause. However, the ideals of some college students are detached from reality, www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 6 Published by SCHOLINK INC. seemingly ambitious, but in fact no content, from egoism, valuing self-feeling. After entering the university, their thoughts as well as behaviors are completely slackened in all aspects, so that they lose their fighting spirit and enthusiasm for active learning. 3.2 The Path to Carry forward the Spirit of Historical Initiative Cultivating college students' historical initiative should start from the problem, and at the same time combine the connotation of historical initiative to cultivate it. Specifically, firstly, it is necessary to cultivate college students to have a correct view of history and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong; secondly, the school and the family should make their respective efforts to explore the interactive educational methods of home and school; thirdly, it is necessary to carry out the educational practice of the historical initiative spirit that connects theory with practice, so as to let the historical initiative spirit be integrated into the students' actual life and arouse their learning initiative. 3.2.1 Establishing a Correct View of History and Purging the Influence of Historical Nihilism “We should adhere to the materialistic view of history and the correct view of Party history, see clearly from the Party's century-long struggle why we were able to succeed in the past, and figure out how we can continue to succeed in the future, so as to be more resolute and conscious of practicing the initial mission, and to better adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.” College students stepping into colleges and universities have been exposed to a lot of online media, and it is easy and convenient to obtain information in terms of speed and content. However, college students are unable to quickly determine whether the information is comprehensive and correct, and are easily affected by some negative influences. To deal with the influence of historical nihilism, first of all, colleges and universities can specially open an open and interactive course for explaining history, which is conducted in the way of students asking questions, teachers answering them, and then students debating with each other, and teachers commenting on them. In this process, students are able to understand the incomplete history they used to know on their own, and they can also cultivate their independent thinking ability. The timely explanation and comment of the teacher can also correct the students' possible wrong ideas in time, so as to cultivate the students to have a correct view of history, i.e. the materialistic view of history. Secondly, the party branch and the group branch of colleges and universities are important departments for ideological and political education of college students, colleges and universities should not only play the role of the party branch and the group branch to cultivate the historical initiative spirit of college students, but also form a linkage, and all the staff of the whole school have the responsibility to cultivate. At the same time, we should strengthen the relevance of the party class and group class, expand the scope to the whole school students, actively understand the ideological dynamics of each profession and even each student, and organize regular exchange class meetings, so that each student can gain. In the exact understanding of the whole picture of history, to ensure that college students firmly historical self-confidence, bravely take up the responsibility of history. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 7 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 3.2.2 Home-school Benign Linkage, to Promote the Cultivation of Diversified Development General Secretary pointed out that the Civics and Political Theory class should “explain the truth deeply, thoroughly and vividly”, so as to enhance the effect of the Civics and Political Theory class. The consciousness of today's college students presents the phenomenon of overstepping, and there is a certain resistance to the traditional indoctrination mode of education, so teachers need to constantly innovate their classroom teaching methods to enhance the students' interest in learning. At the same time, we should play a good role in the family, and improve the ideological quality of college students in a subtle way. At present, the ideology and politics class in colleges and universities is an important way to cultivate the historical initiative spirit of college students in the new era, and it is necessary to always adhere to the dominant position of the ideology and politics class. Teachers of the Civic and Political Science Class, as the main implementer of the Civic and Political Science Class, should ensure that they play a facilitating role in the process of cultivation. Teachers should carry out the cultivation of college students' historical initiative spirit throughout the beginning and end of the course, while teachers of professional courses should also lead students to cultivate their historical initiative spirit in the study of professional courses as appropriate. In the family life, the whole society should call on parents to keep learning to be lifelong learners, to be qualified parents, to pay attention to their own behavior and behavior, and to set a good example. Schools have their own focus, and families have their own special role. The two should be linked. Schools should design a set of cultivation programs for collaborative parenting between schools and families, and form a convention on collaborative education in the family, so that every parent can participate in the process of learning and education. Cultivation is carried out separately during the semester and during holidays. In this way, students will not only be able to learn in school, but also reap the benefits of family life. 3.2.3 Home-school Benign Linkage, to Promote the Cultivation of Diversified Development A favorable environment is of great significance to the ideological and political education of college students. In the process of cultivating college students' historical active spirit, it is necessary to connect the macro and micro environments, from the social environment to the internal environment of a certain network platform, which are complementary to each other, and contribute to the cultivation of college students' historical active spirit. First of all, in this day and age, the development of various media is very rapid, and people are in the cyberspace, and college students are the first to bear the brunt. Relevant departments should introduce relevant laws, strictly audit the content and mode of operation of each media platform, and do a good job of supervision. At the same time, encourage the mainstream media stationed in each platform to interact with college students in close proximity, with college students like and easy to accept the form of publicizing the spirit of historical initiative. Secondly, it is necessary to create a good school environment and family environment. Schools can www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 8 Published by SCHOLINK INC. organize a variety of history-related activities to promote the spirit of historical initiative. They can also utilize the official website of the school, the radio station and other forms of media, set up columns to expand the scope of publicity, regularly push articles about the spirit of historical initiative and typical examples, and integrate the spiritual qualities of historical self-awareness and historical responsibility into the students' learning and life. The whole society should advocate and learn about good family styles, promote good family styles, make families more harmonious, and emphasize the cultivation of positive and healthy lifestyles and optimistic attitudes among family members. Third, the relevant departments jointly carry out various forms of online and offline activities, so that students can visit historical sites and admire the deeds of their ancestors, and constantly raise their interest in history during each practice. The university students will be motivated to learn about the history they are interested in. All relevant archives and history museums should be opened in time, so that students can have access to them without any obstacles. Society and colleges and universities should work together to enrich the forms of social practice activities for college students, deepen their sense of social responsibility and historical mission through lectures, dramas, voluntary labor, etc., and strengthen their spirit of historical initiative. Reference Bureau of Compilation and Translation of the Works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin of the Central Committee of the Party & Translation room for the works of Marx and Engels.Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin on Politics and Political Systems (Part I).Mass Publishing House (1983). 167. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau. (2009). Collected Works of Marx and Engels. People's Publishing House, 1, 196. Central Compilation and Translation Bureau. (2009). Collected Works of Marx and Engels, vol.1. People's Publishing House, 1, 545. Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Great Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party in its Centennial Struggle. (2021). People's Publishing House, 2. Selected Works of Vladimir Lenin Volume 2. (2012). People's Publishing House, 305. Xi, J. P. (2018). Speech at the Symposium Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of the Birth of Comrade. People's Publishing House, 12. Xi, J. P. (2022). During Xi visit to Renmin University of China, emphasized: adhering to the leadership of the Party and inheriting the red gene, rooted in the land of China, to take a new road to build a world-class university with Chinese characteristics. People's Daily, 2022-04-26(01). Xu, B. Z. (2022).The Key Choice of a Century-old Party. Beijing United Publishing Co, 203. Zheng, S. P. (2023). Promoting the Party's Self-Revolution with the Spirit of Historical Initiative. Ideological and Theoretical Education Guide, 2023(01), 32. Zhou, X. L. (2022). An analysis of the path of science popularization in southern Xinjiang universities www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 6 No. 5, 2024 9 Published by SCHOLINK INC. under the perspective of forging the consciousness of the Chinese national destiny community. Data, 2022(07), 183-186.