From 'Democracy'to'Minquan'

During the period between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, many western thoughts came into China. Many Chinese thinkers began to accept these thoughts. Among those thoughts, Chinese thinkers always chose the thought that adapted to the real situation of that time. The thought of democracy was the most important one at that time . Chinese thinkers hoped to study from western democracy thoughts in order to change the poor situation of China. The reformists were the avant-couriers. They introduced the concepts such as 'natural right' , 'social contract' , 'equality ' , 'liberty' to establish their own theory of Minquan. Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and Yan Fu are the important representative of the reformists. From these new concepts, the reformists established their theories with their own Chinese characteristic. They put the theory into the practice and raised the concept of the constitutional monarchy. So as the Chinese translation of Democracy, Minquan came from Democracy. The reformist saw the great influence of the concept such as 'natural right' , 'social contract' , 'equality ' , 'liberty' on the negation of autocracy and the enlightenment of individual. But on the other hand, Minquan is not the...