The concept of civil society came into being and evolved in western society. It appeared in social theory with different rational structures in different times, engraved with the traces of the progress of the times and printed with the tendency of personal rational construction.

The Latin meaning of civilis societas is put forward by Cicero in 1 century, which means an urban civilization different from tribes and villages. (3) The ancient Greek city-states can probably be regarded as civilis societas, which seems to express the feeling of a "civilized country". /kloc-After the 4th century, Europeans began to use civilis societas more and more to express the commercial city civilization that grew out of the feudal system, which inherited the meaning of Cicero. Then, Locke used civil society as an analytical concept for the first time in logical deduction. His civil society is equivalent to the political society formed by concluding a contract from the natural state in his political philosophy, and it is a stage in the logic of human development, that is, the political stage. (4) Although Locke has recognized the political and non-political fields in society, in his view, both belong to civil society. Montesquieu and Tocqueville, who inherited Montesquieu, established their own independent autonomy and mutual checks and balances, and established a mechanism conducive to civil society. It means that society is defined by political society, but the powerful monarchy as a political society is subject to the rule of law, which needs to be defended by an independent "intermediate institution" according to the principle of separation of powers. (5)

Hegel is a theoretical pioneer who clearly distinguishes political state from civil society in the history of western society. He integrated Locke's and Montesquieu's views into his own thoughts, and thought that the civil society which embodies individuality is independent from the state, but it is not self-sufficient in ethics, so it needs the relief of the state which represents the general interests. In his view, the moral status of civil society is relatively low, which represents the special interests of private individuals and "is a consortium of all members as independent individuals". (6) On the other hand, the country represents the general interests, which is the perfect embodiment of absolute spirit in the field. Civil society is subordinate to the state, and only by being subordinate to the state can it ensure its healthy development and avoid falling into moral decay and social chaos. Therefore, Hegel used the concept of civil society to promote the status of the country.

Marx's concept of civil society is more absorbed from Hegel's usage, which refers to the field of private interests, "including all material contacts of individuals whose productive forces have developed to a certain stage" and (7) "always marks a social organization that has developed directly from production and communication". (8) Marx gave up the ethical evaluation of civil society and only made an objective analysis of the relationship between civil society and the state. He reversed Hegel's analytical model of "absolute spirit-state-civil society" and formed an analytical model of "material production-civil society-state", which explained the state not through the state but through the civil society, thus establishing a historical materialism system. In addition to taking civil society as an analytical concept corresponding to a political country, Marx also took it as a historical concept to refer to "a specific development period of human society, whose essential feature is the existence of class interests". (9)

In order to correct Marxism's overemphasis on economic factors, Italian Marxist theorist Gramsci advocated a new understanding of civil society. He redefined civil society as various private and non-governmental institutions, including churches, schools, news and public opinion institutions, cultural and academic groups, trade unions, political parties and so on. To formulate and spread ideology, especially the ideology of the ruling class. This paper tries to explain why objectively disadvantaged members still advocate maintaining the capitalist system, not only to overthrow the political rule of the bourgeoisie, but also to overthrow the cultural rule of the bourgeoisie.

Habermas further developed the theory of civil society, holding that civil society is a private sphere and a public sphere independent of the state. The private sector refers to the economic sector with the market as its core, and the public sector refers to social and cultural life. Habermas particularly emphasized the value of the public sphere, believing that it is being violated by the principles of commercialization and technical politics, which makes people's independent public life shrink more and more, and people become lonely and indifferent. He advocates rebuilding the non-commercial and non-politicized public sphere, so that people can rediscover the meaning and value of human beings in independent communication. This usage of Habermas has had a great influence in the west. Two American scholars, Guo Ke and Arato, simply defined civil society as a social field between economy and country, thus excluding the economic field from the scope of civil society.

Looking at the evolution of the concept of "civil society" in western academic circles, we can find three major separations: 1. The separation between civil society and barbaric society is marked by the emergence of commercialized and politicized cities, which was completed in Greek and Roman times. 2。 The separation between civil society and political state was marked by the formation of representative politics, which was completed in17th century and18th century. 3。 The separation between civil society and economic society is a process that contemporary western society tries to complete. It is not difficult to realize from this process that human beings are constantly denying themselves, being alienated and constantly surpassing alienation.

So, what causes the concept of civil society to revive at present? From a long-term point of view, mainly from 19, all kinds of "nationalism" first appeared at the turn of the 20th century and flourished in the middle of the 20th century, which was manifested in the infiltration or embezzlement of different forms and dimensions of civil society by China in the real world. (10) In view of this rampant "nationalism", people began to turn to the concept of civil society, trying to review, criticize and adjust the extremely tense relationship between the state and society by remolding and defending civil society, in order to reconstruct the proper benign relationship between state guests and society. However, the more direct reason for the revival of civil society thought is the social transformation process of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union from centralized rule. In fact, all western thoughts regard the "social transformation" of eastern European countries and the former Soviet Union as the victory of western values, ideas and systems. The concept of civil society has been revived by various movements to get rid of centralized rule and various "new social movements" and formed "civil society discourse" on this basis, and continues to develop in this dimension.

The concept of civil society will attract the attention of academic circles in China, which is beneficial to the reform and opening up in the past 20 years and makes a relatively independent non-political field grow next to a highly politicized society. It is very logical to explain this change with the ready-made concept of civil society. Compared with the three great separations, China is roughly in the second separation stage, so it is not appropriate to apply the concept of contemporary western civil society, but it is more appropriate to inherit Marx's usage. In the words of Charles Taylor, "it is not an ancient concept that has been used for centuries and has the same political and social significance, but a comparative concept embodied in Hegel's philosophy. In this sense, civil society is relative to the state and partly independent of the state. It includes those areas of social life that cannot be confused with or submerged by the state. " (1 1) defines civil society as a non-political field of private relations. In contemporary China, it is mainly the field of non-political social relations based on market economy. This definition is helpful to accurately grasp the process and significance of social changes in contemporary China.