Li Dazhao Constitutional Thought

Li Dazao, as a great revolutionist and thinker in China's modern history, had acquired extensive knowledge in various respects during his lifetime. His thought on philosophy, history and military circle have provided valuable studying materials for the academe of modern history, however Li Dazao as a jurist, his legal thought has never received a systematic and in-depth study. This article addresses Li Dazao's constitutional thought and elaborates on the origin of his thought, systematically studies his constitutional contention and its influence.This article is composed of 4 sections. The first section studies the historical background of Li Dazao's constitutional thought from the angle of society, economy and politics respectively.The second section deals with the origin of Li Dazao's constitutional thought from his cultural background. "Li Dazao received traditional Confucian education in his childhood, by virtue of education system reform he got chance to learn western science which he showed great interest in. Western science especially western constitutional politics had made such a deep influence on him that Li Dazao adopted it as his political contention. However, in contrast with some scholars' complete westernized contention, Li Dazao excelled at deriving the essence of China's traditional culture and formed his unique and updated idea. This feature is substantiated in the detailed content of his constitutional thoughtThe third section analyzes Li Dazao's constitutional thought and his system design. Constitution is inseparable from democracy, freedom and human rights. Li Dazao has his own understanding about freedom, democracy and human right, "Rule of people's will" is the basis of Li Dazao's constitutional thought and is the integration of the essence of China's traditional thought of "priority of people's interest" and western thought of democracy. He argued that "people's will is the basis of constitution", which was original and creative in the contemporary scholar circle; Li Dazao had a persistent pursuit of freedom. He contended for the liberalization of mind and communication, which constitutes the soul of all his thoughts and contentions; Li Dazao's most important accomplishment on human right lies in the...