| Different from the legal authority or the principle of rational form in the west, the concept of legitimacy in modern china is an overall concept. It refers to the good value as well as the form of political order, including cosmology, view of history, of morality, of legal and of government, and their inherent relation. In this article, the author study Li Da-zhao’s texts during1912to1923, in the context of the change of modern political legitimacy in China. Under the background of transformation of cosmology and view of history, the author focus on Li’s view of moral values, view of government and legal, trying to outline Li Da-zhao’s continuous and ambiguous discussion on legitimacy based on previous researches.This article shows three turns of Li Da-zhao’s discussion on political legitimacy. Before1915Li pursued virtuous custom as good politics based on virtuous human mind. Between1916and1917, he turned to the appropriate politics with the spirit of Min yi(民彝)and the regime of representative democracy. Min yi is a legitimacy criterion combines Dao (道,value) as well as Qi (器,(?)egime). Principles of Min yi contain five meanings. Li’s youth cosmology and evolutionary view of history gradually got rid of the world outlook of Tian Li (天理,Heavenly Sapience), which was transcendent, eternal, public and objective in ancient times. He recognized generally the world under the world outlook of Gong Li (公理,general principle). Motivated by the transcendent form and cheerful prospect, principles of Min yi quoted western concept of liberty and good government from John Stuart Mill, and rebuilt the relation between individuals and the community; the problem of political legitimacy became an issue of liberty of choice; the truth became variable and the legitimacy based on will of reasoning, which revealed Li’s neglect of objectification of principles of Min yi. However, Li did not completely take no account of the issue of actualization. The system of "law"--the constitution and the system of representative democracy--could objectify "principles" of Min yi.Fail to compromise on old thoughts which were held by the progressive party and the authorities,"principles" had the legitimacy to break through the obstacles of the system of "law" in Li Da-zhao’s discourse on political legitimacy. In1918, aiming at arguing against violent action and tyranny of the new government, Li tried to assemble the nation as a moral community by the concept of "general will", which borrowed from Jean Jacques Rousseau. Free government, the ideal politics with the legitimate criterion of the general will, was against physical violence. Free government as the ideal politics emphasized liberty of will and equal participation of civilians, which highlighted the power of people’s morality. Besides, in abnormal condition the general will would break through restricts of Tian Li and Gong Li, expressing will of the people by means of revolution.After the Russian Revolution in November and the victory of World War I, appealed by the world-wide trend of democracy, Li Da-zhao stated to diffuse Marxism. Marxism provided for the "general will" an overall theory of understanding history and society home and abroad. The social prospect of new morality such as mutual aid and Great Harmony, became the psychological foundation of his believe in Marxism.From then on, instead of custom, principles of Min yi and the general will, love became the foundation of political legitimacy. Lenin’s dictatorship of the proletariat was not appropriate form for the ideal of Great Harmony. Li did not deny the legitimacy of constitutional politics but he was always in the exploration of the proper form.Li Da-zhao’s short life presents us a difficult way of Marxism in china. The moral idealism of making new thoughts compromise on old thoughts led Li Da-zhao, such a gentle intellectual, finally to the world-wide trend and searching persistently for good politics with Marxism. |
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