Research On The Thought Of Right And Obligation In Modern China

Western countries went into modern times by advancement of the thought of democracy, equality, and freedom, while the whole process of China's modernization was accompanied by Western aggression. From 1840 to 1919, the course of modern Chinese thinkers'exploration for a prosperous and powerful China can be divided into five periods, that is, the first Opium War period, the Economic Westernization Movement period, Wuxu Reformation period(1895-1903), Xinhai Revolution period, and the Neo-Culture Movement period. The central clue running through these five periods is that they treated the reasonable organization of right and obligation (including individual reasonable organization of right and obligation and reasonable organization of right and obligation between individual and collective) as important promotion. In these five periods, Chinese thinkers'understanding of right and obligation has experienced following several stages: During the first Opium War period, thinkers had given weak voice to the liberation of personality. During the Economic Westernization Movement period, the early thinkers of reformation attempted to combine the culture of"People as Foundation"and the culture of"Democracy", and hoped to entitle people right to tell their own voice to some extent as a whole. During the period of Wuxu Reformation, thinkers began to emphasize individual existence of people, and analysed the value of perfection of individual personality――the integrity and coordination of right and obligation. However, this was only considered as a way to achieve a prosperous and powerful China, which meant individual right and obligation only had utilitarian meaning, and the achievement of the integrity and coordination of right and obligation was limited under the framework of monarchy. During the Xinhai Revolution period, the consideration of individual right and obligation was more deeply and more widely, simultaneously, the integrity of individual personality was promoted and reasoned as destination, and the relations between the integrity of individual right and obligation and the nation's prosperity and power, were more correctly recognized. During "May-4th" Neo-Culture Movement period, under the banner of democracy and science, the thinkers ethically gave a interpretation and promotion of individual right and obligation, based on which they took the individual integrity and the existence and development of the society as bi-destination to pursue. Therefore, from the first Opium War period to Neo-Culture Movement period, Chinese thinkers went through the course of thought from"People as Foundation"to civil rights and then to democracy.Because of the special background of China's entry into the modern times, when Chinese thinkers accepted and promoted the western ideology of right and obligation, they had to experienced a process of"first the shadow, then the deep", and inevitably, in such a process, there were some extent of misunderstanding and utilitarianism, so although promoted Chinese social reform powerfully by right and obligation,freedom and responsibility, there was limitation and negative influence to some extent.