§抗战以来，全国人民有一种欣欣向荣的气象，大家以为有了出路，愁眉锁眼的姿态为之一扫。
#§A lively atmosphere has prevailed throughout the country ever since the War of Resistance began, there is a general feeling that a way out of the impasse has been found, and people no longer knit their brows in despair.
但是近来的妥协空气，反共声浪，忽又甚嚣尘上，又把全国人民打入闷葫芦里了。
# Of late, however, the dust and din of compromise and anti-communism have once again filled the air, and once again the people are thrown into bewilderment.
特别是文化人和青年学生，感觉锐敏，首当其冲。
# Most susceptible, and the first to be affected, are the intellectuals and the young students.
于是怎么办，中国向何处去，又成为问题了。
# The question once again arises: What is to be done?
Whither China?
因此，趁着《中国文化》的出版，说明一下中国政治和中国文化的动向问题，或者也是有益的。
# On the occasion of the publication of Chinese Culture, it may therefore be profitable to clarify the political and cultural trends in the country.
对于文化问题，我是门外汉，想研究一下，也方在开始。
# I am a layman in matters of culture; I would like to study them, but have only just begun to do so.
好在延安许多同志已有详尽的文章，我的粗枝大叶的东西，就当作一番开台锣鼓好了。
# Fortunately, there are many comrades in Yenan who have written at length in this field, so that my rough and ready words may serve the same purpose as the beating of the gongs before a theatrical performance.
对于全国先进的文化工作者，我们的东西，只当作引玉之砖，千虑之一得，希望共同讨论，得出正确结论，来适应我们民族的需要。
# Our observations may contain a grain of truth for the nation＇s advanced cultural workers and may serve as a modest spur to induce them to come forward with valuable contributions of their own, and we hope that they will join in the discussion to reach correct conclusions which will meet our national needs.
科学的态度是“实事求是”，“自以为是”和“好为人师”那样狂妄的态度是决不能解决问题的。
# To "seek truth from facts" is the scientific approach, and presumptuously to claim infallibility and lecture people will never settle anything.
我们民族的灾难深重极了，惟有科学的态度和负责的精神，能够引导我们民族到解放之路。
# The troubles that have befallen our nation are extremely serious, and only a scientific approach and a spirit of responsibility can lead it on to the road of liberation.
真理只有一个，而究竟谁发现了真理，不依靠主观的夸张，而依靠客观的实践。
# There is but one truth, and the question of whether or not one has arrived at it depends not on subjective boasting but on objective practice.
只有千百万人民的革命实践，才是检验真理的尺度。
# The only yardstick of truth is the revolutionary practice of millions of people.
我想，这可以算作《中国文化》出版的态度。
# This, I think, can be regarded as the attitude of Chinese Culture.
§我们共产党人，多年以来，不但为中国的政治革命和经济革命而奋斗，而且为中国的文化革命而奋斗；一切这些的目的，在于建设一个中华民族的新社会和新国家。
#§For many years we Communists have struggled for a cultural revolution as well as for a political and economic revolution, and our aim is to build a new society and a new state for the Chinese nation.
这就是说，我们不但要把一个政治上受压迫、经济上受剥削的中国，变为一个政治上自由和经济上繁荣的中国，而且要把一个被旧文化统治因而愚昧落后的中国，变为一个被新文化统治因而文明先进的中国。
# In other words, not only do we want to change a China that is politically oppressed and economically exploited into a China that is politically free and economically prosperous, we also want to change the China which is being kept ignorant and backward under the sway of the old culture into an enlightened and progressive China under the sway of a new culture.
建立中华民族的新文化，这就是我们在文化领域中的目的。
# Our aim in the cultural sphere is to build a new Chinese national culture.
§一定的文化（当作观念形态的文化）是一定社会的政治和经济的反映，又给予伟大影响和作用于一定社会的政治和经济；而经济是基础，政治则是经济的集中的表现。
#§Any given culture (as an ideological form) is a reflection of the politics and economics of a given society, and the former in turn has a tremendous influence and effect upon the latter; economics is the base and politics the concentrated expression of economics.
这是我们对于文化和政治、经济的关系及政治和经济的关系的基本观点。
#[2] This is our fundamental view of the relation of culture to politics and economics and of the relation of politics to economics.
那末，一定形态的政治和经济是首先决定那一定形态的文化的；然后，那一定形态的文化又才给予影响和作用于一定形态的政治和经济。
# It follows that the form of culture is first determined by the political and economic form, and only then does it operate on and influence the given political and economic form.
马克思说：“不是人们的意识决定人们的存在，而是人们的社会存在决定人们的意识。”
# Marx says, "It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness."
他又说：“从来的哲学家只是各式各样地说明世界，但是重要的乃在于改造世界。”
# He also says, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."
这是自有人类历史以来第一次正确地解决意识和存在关系问题的科学的规定，而为后来列宁所深刻地发挥了的能动的革命的反映论之基本的观点。
# For the first time in human history, these scientific formulations correctly solved the problem of the relationship between consciousness and existence, and they are the basic concepts underlying the dynamic revolutionary theory of knowledge as the reflection of reality which was later elaborated so profoundly by Lenin.
我们讨论中国文化问题，不能忘记这个基本观点。
# These basic concepts must be kept in mind in our discussion of China＇s cultural problems.
§这样说来，问题是很清楚的，我们要革除的那种中华民族旧文化中的反动成分，它是不能离开中华民族的旧政治和旧经济的；而我们要建立的这种中华民族的新文化，它也不能离开中华民族的新政治和新经济。
#§Thus it is quite clear that the reactionary elements of the old national culture we want to eliminate are inseparable from the old national politics and economics, while the new national culture which we want to build up is inseparable from the new national politics and economics.