(East-West Question) Liu Jintian: Why do you say that traditional Chinese culture contains human rights ideological genes?
China News Agency, Xi'an, March 31, Question: Liu Jintian: Why do you say that traditional Chinese culture contains human rights ideological genes?
Author Liu Jintian Researcher, Human Rights Research Center, Northwest University of Political Science and Law
Although the concept of human rights first appeared in Western culture, Chinese culture also has its roots and genes.
"People are the most precious in the world", "The benevolent person loves people"... These traditional humanistic thoughts in Chinese culture with a long history are the precious genes of Chinese human rights thought.
The essence of human rights is universal care and equal protection for all, and it is universal to all human beings.
Universal human rights have different manifestations in different cultures and civilizations. The universality and particularity of human rights are dialectically unified. The universal human rights thought cannot be used to deny the particularity of national culture, nor can it be used to deny the particularity of national culture. The human universality of human rights should promote the concrete understanding and practice of human rights values in the mutual adaptation and interpretation of universality and particularity.
The Historical and Cultural Background and Subject Basis of Human Rights Thought
The thought of human rights is based on the historical and cultural pattern of humanism.
It is difficult for transhumanistic theistic culture and non-humanistic materialistic culture to form human rights thought.
As early as the Yin and Zhou dynasties, Chinese culture bid farewell to theistic culture and formed a humanistic culture, which transformed the subject of value from God to man and affirmed the value of man himself. Not determined by God.
Because "the mandate of heaven is inexorable" and "only virtue is the auxiliary", it is necessary to "match heaven with virtue" and "respect virtue and protect the people".
"Shangshu·Tai Oath" says: "The sky sees the people, and the sky listens to the people." The people and the people replace the sky, and the gods have become the main body of value, and attaching importance to people and caring for people has become a new value orientation.
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Chinese traditional humanism emphasizes that human beings are the subject, human beings, and human beings.
This provides the proper subject for human rights thought, that is, people.
In the spirit of Chinese cultural humanism, the value is the person itself, not the god or the thing.
This is the main premise of caring for people, and the premise and basis of human rights thought.
Chinese traditional humanism contains the concept, content and proposition of human rights thought
Chinese traditional humanism regards people as the main body of value, so it believes that in all things, the value of people is the highest and the most expensive.
This is completely consistent with the idea of human rights.
The backbone of Chinese humanist culture is Confucian culture. The founder of Confucian culture, Confucius, attaches great importance to the value of people and people.
"The Analects of Confucius" records: "When the stable is on fire, the son retreats from the dynasty, asks people, not horses." Xunzi affirmed that "people have anger, life, knowledge and righteousness, so they are the most valuable in the world." Zhang Dainian said, "Price is what we are talking about now." value.
To say that people are the most valuable in the world means that people are the most valuable beings in the world.
Although there are precious and valuable things outside of human beings, they are all because they are beneficial to human beings. Otherwise, they are things in themselves that are neither valuable nor worthless.
In the view of humanistic values, the value depends on the person, the value depends on the person, the value varies from person to person, and the value changes according to the person.
Property, wealth, etc. are valuable because they are good for man himself.
The important value of "people are the most precious in the world" is the fundamental concept of human rights thinking.
Human rights thought advocates affirming people, caring for people, caring for people and respecting people.
The core value of Chinese cultural humanism tradition, especially Confucianism, is "loving people".
The core value of Confucianism is "benevolence".
Confucius said: "The benevolent person loves others".
"Benevolence" is the general virtue of various virtues in Confucianism, and the meaning of this general virtue is "loving people".
Ren, as the core value of Confucianism, is in line with the concept of human rights of caring for people.
"Benevolence" as "lovers" is embodied in two aspects, namely "forgiveness" and "loyalty".
Forgiveness is "do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself", which means not harming others; loyalty means "establishing others as you desire", that is, helping others.
Not harming people is the requirement of human rights ideology, and helping people is also the requirement of human rights ideology.
It can be seen that the Confucian humanistic thought of benevolence and human rights are in harmony.
Chinese traditional humanism advocates that people are the most precious, and the primary meaning is that the value of human life is the most precious.
The folk sayings that "people's lives depend on the sky" and "killing people pay for their lives" is a manifestation of attaching importance to people's lives.
Now we talk about the "life first" of people, which is also the embodiment of attaching importance to the value of human life.
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China News Agency reporter Chen Wenshe
It is the belief of Chinese culture that the heaven and earth are the masters and teachers.
Because heaven and earth provide plants and crops with sunlight, rain and dew, the crops grow and mature to provide people with food, and human life can exist and continue.
The monarch, parent and teacher, give people social life and spiritual life.
The reason why Tiandijun, parents and teachers have become the belief of the Chinese people is because it is the resources and conditions for the fulfillment of human life.
The most basic content of human rights is the right to life and the right to subsistence, which is the embodiment of the value of the supremacy of life.
It can be seen that Chinese cultural humanism beliefs are connected with human rights thinking.
Chinese traditional humanism contains the basis and resources of human rights thought
Confucius put forward the free thought of "being benevolent by oneself", which is the fundamental stipulation of human nature.
"Being benevolent is up to oneself", that is to say, whether a person is benevolent or not is determined by himself, not by outsiders and external forces.
That is to say, people have the freedom of choice, which is the essential characteristic of human beings.
Confucius advocated "being benevolent by oneself", that is, emphasizing that the essence of human beings is freedom.
The idea of human rights advocates attaching importance to and cherishing people, and its fundamental idea is to attach importance to people's freedom and cherish people's freedom.
Because of freedom, man acquires his own essence and man has dignity.
The humanist tradition of Chinese culture defines the essence of human beings with freedom, which is a very important and fundamental idea of human rights.
Of course, the freedom advocated by Chinese culture is mainly positive freedom rather than the negative freedom advocated by liberalism.
It should be recognized that positive freedom is the philosophical metaphysical basis of negative freedom.
One of the main issues that human rights thought has to deal with is the relationship between civil rights and state power.
Mencius put forward: "The people are the most valuable, the society and the grain are second, and the ruler is the lesser." The ruler is the representative of the state's power. To say that the people are the most important and the ruler is the lightest, it can be said that the state's power should be restricted to avoid damage to individual rights. It is the political requirement of human rights thought.
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In the humanist tradition of Chinese culture, this kind of voice, although not the mainstream, is inexhaustible.
Although this precious thought is only a value concept, it is still an important traditional value resource of modern human rights thought, which is conducive to coordinating the relationship between state power and individual rights, and is conducive to the protection of individual rights and the exercise of state power.
The Dialectical Characteristics of Chinese Traditional Human Rights Thought
Human rights have social characteristics, and are the values and system design of protecting and respecting people in social relations.
The value of man in social relations is justice.
Justice is a relationship between people without harming each other, which includes two aspects: on the one hand, I do not harm others, and on the other hand, others do not harm me or I am not harmed by others.
It is my duty not to harm others, and it is my right not to be harmed by others.
Western culture emphasizes that I am not harmed by others, that is, a right; Chinese culture emphasizes that I am not harming others, that is, an obligation.
The combination of the two is complete justice and the real protection of people.
The dialectical requirement of Chinese humanism culture dialectically unites my obligation not to harm others and my right not to be harmed by others, emphasizing the dialectical unity of human rights and responsibilities.
Therefore, the human rights required by the Chinese cultural humanism tradition should be the rights and responsibilities of human beings in their entirety.
The concept and system of rights protect people, and the concept and system of obligations also protect people. Combining the two aspects can protect people better and more completely.
We should integrate the humanistic tradition of Chinese culture and Western enlightenment culture to create a more reasonable view of human rights in the practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
This view of human rights can be called the view of human rights and responsibilities.
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About the Author:
Liu Jintian, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Culture and Value Philosophy, Northwest University of Political Science and Law, vice chairman of the Academic Committee of Northwest University of Political Science and Law, chief expert of Marxist theory, researcher of Human Rights Research Center, and vice president of China Value Philosophy Research Association.