Abstract

The formulation of “putting people first” as core values in contemporary China had its profound realistic context, witnessed a zigzag historical course, and cherished a Marxist theoretical origin. Against the background of developing market economy, the looming large of “putting money first”, “putting property first”, or “putting officials first” etc., it came into being by meeting China’s actual social demand, deriving yet elevated from the viewpoints of administrative science. It gained powerful impetus in the reflection of “cultural revolution”, and through the practice of reform and opening up. Meanwhile, it is also a spiraling process ofideological emancipation. Its formulation rested upon a unification of theory and practice, benefited not just from a continuously deepened understanding of Marxist theory about humanity, but from an innovative application of that theory in face of a new situation and practice.