BEIJING, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping on Monday called for the Party to both respect and reflect on Chinese civilization at a collective study of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The study, the 18th of its kind since Xi was elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC in November 2012, focused on state governance in Chinese history.

Xi said the CPC should follow successful examples in Chinese history to learn from their merits and avoid shortcomings.

Xi stressed that the Party must draw lessons from history in its effort to upgrade state governance, as history is the best source of knowledge, and many situations from the past can shed light on what is happening currently.

"Today's China is a development of yesterday's and the day before yesterday's China," Xi said. "In order to run today's China, we should not only grasp history and traditional culture, but also actively collect the discoveries and wisdom of state governance in ancient times."

Xi said the research of traditional Chinese culture should be valued and its best parts should be passed along and promoted.

Specifically, Xi said the CPC must thoroughly carry on and extol the positive and virtuous parts of traditional thought and culture, which are important to the "China spirit."