Abstract: Although Marx's discourse on culture is not very extensive, it has had a pivotal influence on the history of cultural criticism. In the context of historical materialism, Marx not only accurately reveals the realistic foundation, practical core and generative characteristics of culture, but also scientifically demonstrates the dialectical structure, behind the cultural category, of material and idea, dynamic and static states. In criticizing political economy, Marx creatively proposes the proposition that “capital creates culture”. In the era of capitalism, capital, according to its own features and requirements for proliferation, has created a corresponding culture. Such is essentially a proliferation-oriented or profit-making culture, which is manifested in the basic types of materialistic secular culture, homogenized mechanical culture, individual self-interested utilitarian culture, and formalistic hypocritical culture. Such a proposition is a theoretical identification of the dominant role of capital in the process of cultural creation and the social fact that culture is subordinate to capital. Marx's analysis on it is actually a cultural critique of the social and historical development. Marx's interpretation of culture has had a lasting and profound impact on the process of world civilization, and bears great enlightening significance for promoting the construction of socialist culture and the new form of human civilization in the new era.

Key words: Das Kapital and its Manuscript, cultural criticism, capital logic, social history