What is justice? It is a question of mankind across the millennia.Some people compare justice to“the fire of Prometheus”,which dispels darkness and brings light;some people call justice“the face of Proteus”,which is capricious and unpredictable;others liken justice to“the point of Archimedes”,which aligns and balances things.The meaning of justice varies from ideologist to ideologist,and from time to time.Marx is a millennial ideologist and a great man who steals the fire of justice for the people.He is the advocate and constructor of justice.However,nearly one hundred years after Marx's death,there is a hot wave of questioning Marx's justice in the British and American academia.The viewpoint represented by“TuckerWood Thesis”holds that capitalism exploits justice,communism surpasses justice and Marx rejects justice,so marx is labled as an anti-justice image.

In fact,any kind of justice is the justice in history.It is also the justice in the logic of community history.In the history of western political thought,many ideologists always probe into justice by putting it in the“Natural State”,“City-State Community”,“Contract Community”and“Ethical Community”.It is well accepted that where there is no community,there is no justice.But they regard justice as a sacred,abstract and eternal value.Historical materialism reveals the form and the law of the evolution of human community,which is the master key to understand Marx's thought of justice.On the grand curtain of historical materialism,the com munity runs according to the following logical sequence:from“Nature-Origin Community”to“Illusory-Abstract Community”and“Freedom-Reality Community”.Accordingly,the justice also follows a historical sequence from“simple justice”to“abstract justice”and then to“substantive justice”.They constitute the justice sequence of Marx's community.Without the historical logic of the community,we can not capture the original truth and intention of Marx's justice,nor can we get out of the fog of“TuckerWood Thesis”.

The“Nature-Origin Community”is the stage of the dependence of human beings,and the stage of the unification between“labor and possessions”as well.This stage is the beginning of human's simple justice.Marx reveals that justice originates from the mode of production of the community and the relationship between people's material life through the investigation of the pre-capitalist community and its inherent mode of production and ownership relations.Although the“Nature-Origin Community”mixed with slavery,feudalism and other autocratic systems,it is a stage that regards human beings as the purpose.No matter it is the common“possessive”relation in Asia,the partial“private”relation in Classical times,or the personal“ownership”relation in Germanic times,it contains the important domain of justice:natural justice basing on natural conditions,exchange justice deriving from division of labor,distribution justice basing on commune membership,and relatively democratic political justice.With the growth of population,the expansion of territory,the division of labor and frequent association,the“Nature-Origin Community”has been transformed.The laborers have been separated from their objective conditions gradually.Finally,the“opposition between labor and capital”has replaced the“identity between labor and possessions”.

The“Illusory-Abstract Community”is the stage of dependence of objects.It is the stage of the opposition between“labor and possessions”.This stage is the alienation of ownership justice.Marx revealed the justice paradox of capitalist mode of production by criticizing the philosophy of law towards the illusory community to criticizing the political economy towards the currency-capital community.Under the dominance of capital logic,the injustice of“abstract community”is manifested in it's degrading“human relation”as“object relation”,reversing“human beings as aims”to“human beings as means”,contorting“free labor”into“alienated labor”,and finally,an unbridgeable crack between“capital”and“labor”is produced.Marx's righteous criticism of“Illusory-Abstract Community”is carried out in the dual interaction between historical scale and human scale,which means that marx's justice theory has separated from the previous ideologists,that is,from the“capital justice”to the“labor justice”,from the“distributive justice”to the“productive justice”,from the“abstract justice”to the“concrete justice”,from the“legal justice”to the“institutional justice”.

“Freedom-Reality Community”is the stage of the formation of people's free personality.It is the return stage of“labor and possessions”.This stage is the gradual realization of labor justice and needed justice.“Freedom-Reality Community”eventually leads to a justicial society without class,exploitation and alienation.This kind of society is the practical expression of justice in the advanced stage,which contrasts with the highest sequence of Marx's conception of justice.The justice of“Freedom-Reality Community”is a compound logical hierarchy and historical changing order.That is to say,it moves from“distribution according to work”in the first stage of communism to“distribution according to need”in the advanced stage.Marx criticizes the principle of right by the principle of contribution.He also criticizes the principle of contribution by the principle of need.His justice follows the logical level and historical order of rights,contributions,and needs.Therefore,communism and need-based distribution are compatible intrinsically and connected mutually.

The contemporary world is in the great historical era as historical materialism declares.However,there are two different forms in the manifestation of the community:the digital capital community and the community of shared future for mankind.The former is a community dominated by capital logic,the latter is the community dominated by human logic.These two kinds of community represent two paths of justice.The former is alienated justice,the latter is true justice.Therefore,we should reexamine the essence of digital capital community and reflect on the laboring form of digital capitalism and its alienation,so as to explore alternatives in Marx's ideal of liberation.There is no denying that the right way forward for mankind is to work together to build a community of shared future for mankind,to promote global governance,to surmount development gap,and to realize global justice.

Key Words:Marx; Justice; Community; Historical materialism; Critique of justice