-preface to the translation of Civil Rights by Sanlian Bookstore.

This set of books is translated from western languages into Chinese, which may not be the context of China. Reading them, we should have a general understanding of the origin of China's civil rights thought and system. In this way, it is easy to understand, compare and draw lessons from, and it is also easy to understand the origin and material selection intention of this set of books.

The Chinese character "min" was originally the general term of "min", and later it refers to the ordinary people and the masses as the governed. Many meaningful words are connected in series, such as "people's feelings", "people's feelings", "people's feelings", "folk customs", "people's seclusion" and "people's grievances". Only from these words can we feel the profound connotation of people-oriented culture. "Poetry for the People": "Born for the people, there are things; Virtue is good for the people. " Book Thai Oath: "Heaven regards oneself and others, and heaven listens to oneself and others. "Mencius": "The people are the most important, the country is the second, and the monarch is the light". Even later, in the scholar-bureaucrat culture, wind and rain will make you sensitive to "doubt is the voice of people's resentment." "It can be said that since ancient times, in terms of language symbols, the status of the people has risen to the sky, and people's symbols are used everywhere. However, the fate of the people is still tragic. Why is this?

There is a simple reason. Because people have no rights. Rights are moral qualifications and institutional means to resist others' infringement of their dignity, freedom and interests. If people don't enjoy political rights, they don't have the legal qualification and strength to express their wishes and safeguard their own interests, especially to prevent others, especially public rights holders, from doing things that infringe on themselves. Without political rights, you can't be the master of your own home, that is, you can't be the master of your own home and country. Being unable to be your home means that your person and property are not respected by those in power, your personality and freedom are not guaranteed politically, and your opportunities and choices are unpredictable in the sense of social and political system. You can't be the master of the country, that is, you can't participate in the management of state affairs, or even express your opinions on state affairs. You can only be a subject of the country and undertake obligations to the country. A country is just a place where you have lived for generations but are controlled by others. In this way, if the powerful people bully them by virtue of the people, and the powerful people brazenly treat me as their god's ears and eyes, the people will have to be the masters of others and ask others to make their own decisions. Isn't this a sad fate?

However, how can a great nation that respects the people and heaven let its rulers do whatever they want? How can we tolerate people who hold public power always serving their own interests, treating people like dirt and thieves? From Confucius and Mencius and Duke Zhou in the pre-Qin Dynasty to Huang Zongxi and Gu in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, many sages and people with lofty ideals spared no effort to advocate people-oriented and speak for the people, leaving many valuable thoughts and experiences.

After careful study, the ancient people-oriented thought actually has two aspects, one is about people-oriented rule, and the other is about how people-oriented orientation. The former is essentially about the monarch, while the latter is about the people. In pre-Qin Confucianism, it is not only about how rulers should be people-oriented, how to love and protect the people, but more importantly, it is also about people-oriented. This book does not mean that the people are the foundation of the rulers, but that the people can win the world, that ships can be carried and capsized, but that the people themselves are alive and alive. This is very sacred, it comes from heaven, not you. "Spring and Autumn Zuo Wen Zhuan Gong Thirteen Years": "Born in the people, the king of trees is also." People's livelihood, military construction, natural "military light." When there is a conflict of interest between the monarch and the people, it is natural to benefit the people. The people should not only rely on the monarch's virtue of respecting heaven and protecting the people, but more importantly, the people also have the subjective qualification to make their own judgments and choices. This qualification is given by heaven. Mencius paid special attention to the sentence "Heaven regards himself and others, and Heaven listens to himself and others" in Shangshu. He believes that people can communicate directly with God, and God's will should be reflected through public opinion. Therefore, when recruiting talents, "China people are all virtuous"; Sentenced to prison, to "everyone can kill." According to this meaning, the people are the people of heaven, the people are connected with heaven, and public opinion is connected with God's will. If there is a son of heaven, only the people are the real sons of heaven. The dignity of the people, the dignity of the people and the inviolability of the people are heaven and humanity. What if the ruler harms others behind his back? Mencius believed that tyrants could be punished.

From the perspective of right theory, China's traditional thought followed the thought of the Duke of Zhou's destiny and the unity of man and nature, and developed the elements of natural rights. At least politically, it advocates that the people have the right to express themselves in heaven, to uphold justice for heaven, to borrow heaven to change kings, and to rebel and riot. There is no doubt that we call such rights civil rights. Conceptually, such civil rights can be described as theocracy. Is considered both natural and natural. However, in the end, one after another "crooked monks" intentionally or unintentionally distorted the Confucian classics. What's wrong? I think you are the son of heaven and the parents of the people. The deviation is that only the monarch is people-oriented, not people-oriented. Even if we talk about the people, we only talk about food and clothing. These are all for the rulers to win the hearts of the people. People are only regarded as the objects of grazing and rule. Common official words related to the people have gradually become vulgar and even filthy, such as "subject", "villain", "common people", "vagrant", "unruly" and "untouchable". If we continue to think like this, the elements of civil rights can only be read less and less. Therefore, Mencius, who shouted that the people are precious and the monarch is light, was expelled from the temple of the country several times and could not enjoy the worship of future generations. Of course, extremes meet. Once the people are getting weaker and the politics are getting worse, there will naturally be some heroic literati calling for the land, leading the hungry, the victims, the refugees, the aggrieved and the resentful to exercise their natural rights to change the dynasty, repeating the periodic law of "its prosperity is endless (without the word" strong ") and its death is sudden".

Generally speaking, in China's traditional people-oriented theory, there are many people-oriented people and few people-oriented people. When we talk about people-oriented, we not only talk about power being used by the people, but also talk about power being used by the people. Unfortunately, we just lack proper abstract concepts and concrete system design. Therefore, although people are endowed with some due rights in theory, the requirements of civil rights cannot be implemented because there is no clear concept of civil rights as the principle and technology of system operation. This kind of non-institutional and non-procedural civil rights can only be used as the motive force and reference for uprisings and riots. /kloc-in the 9th century, with the "western learning spreading to the east", the concept of rights invented by the ancient Romans was introduced to China together with enlightenment ideas and industrial technology, which was related to the people-oriented concept. Although there are some shortcomings in translating the English word "rights" into "rights", it provides some convenience for the right factor in the traditional people-oriented thought and the democratic appeal in the European enlightenment thought to find a suitable Chinese expression. In the face of national peril and political darkness, the word "civil rights" was born naturally, awakening the concept of civil rights. At that time, most debates about civil rights ended in explaining civil rights as a way to strengthen the people. In other words, by empowering people, people become self-reliant, self-reliant and self-reliant, which is called "empowering people". As Yan Fu said, "(power) must be in me, there is nothing there. This is called civil rights. " (Law and Meaning, Volume XI, Chapter XIX, Reply to the Case) The usual logic is that a country's prosperity requires the people's self-improvement. People's self-improvement needs people's freedom. People's freedom needs people's rights. The people have no right, and the country has no right. If civil rights are weak, the reform will not work.

These arguments have injected new elements into the traditional people-oriented theory, pushed civil rights demands into the positive law system through the surging social improvement and political revolution, and influenced the judiciary with the help of the concept of legal rights. According to modernism, this process is not only the enlightenment of thought, but also the revolution of system. In fact, if we calmly return to the pre-Qin Confucianism, gain insight into the principle of rights and start from the people-oriented, then this process can be regarded as a return to the pre-Qin Confucianism with the help of modern political discourse. People are people, and human dignity and freedom are people. Food, clothing, housing and transportation, happiness and peace are all related to dignity and freedom, but in the political field, people rely on civil rights. Only when people enjoy political rights can they truly become the masters of the country. Therefore, we must transform or even subvert the traditional people-oriented theory, pay more attention to the people's roots, complete the transformation of the people from other roots to their roots, and implement the people's roots in civil rights. At the same time, in theory, civil rights should be incorporated into nature, and in practice, civil rights should be implemented into institutional procedures. It can be said that the explanation that civil rights are the foundation of the people not only embodies the true spirit of pre-Qin Confucianism, but also embodies the essence of modern legal philosophy. What we have to do is such a calm and open-minded cultural integration and system construction.

The question is, how can China keep calm after more than 100 years of social unrest? As far as civil rights are concerned, there are two trends that complement each other. One is political romanticism of civil rights, and the other is cultural skepticism of civil rights. While holding high the banner of people's sovereignty and vigorously promoting civil rights, the former gradually turned civil rights and democracy into simple political symbols, forgetting that civil rights are real rights enjoyed by every living citizen; Forgetting that rights are not only the right to benefit from or benefit from gathering, but also the dignity, freedom or moral qualification of human beings; Forgetting that civil rights are the foundation of the people, not the foundation of officials, has led to the virtual placement of the subject of civil rights, and even put the cart before the horse. While adhering to the liberal position of civil rights, the latter regards natural and individual rights as the patent of western culture, forgetting that there have been Chinese-style ideological origins and social movements about natural law and natural rights since ancient times; Forgetting that rights are the foundation of the people, especially the desire to safeguard human dignity, freedom and interests, should not have been transplanted; I forgot that China people who have spoken Chinese for thousands of years, including so many nationalities, ethnic groups, religions and customs of the Chinese nation, can't have real dignity, equality and freedom if they only have material things without cultural confidence and strength. If political romanticism dispels the individual as the subject of civil rights, then cultural civil rights skepticism dispels the foundation of civil rights. Indeed, in the process of comparing and reflecting on China's inherent cultural traditions, many people have gradually lost their cultural self-confidence, and even consciously or unconsciously take pride in remembering their ancestors, take responsibility as fast as possible, give priority to the western way, and take the local as the supplement, and finally can't answer what people and civil rights are based on their own culture. This kind of cultural reflection caused by the theoretical setback of transcending rights is profound and respectable, but it often gives cheap culture on the pretext of the political failure of civil rights legislation, and because of the prevalence of cultural comparison and reflection based on fewer and fewer Chinese studies, it regards differences as unilateral deficiencies, further weakening the consciousness and ability of cultural subjects.

The theory of civil rights is not only a rebellious theory, a reflective theory, but also a constructive theory. To advocate and protect citizens' rights, we must first return to the people's foundation and then talk about the foundation of rights. This requires us to be more silent and less impetuous in culture and politics, and strive to construct a new cultural ontology and a qualified subject of rights. However, we should not forget that, just as people's right consciousness and claim can't be judged by China's philosopher's right theory since ancient times, building a new cultural ontology and cultivating qualified right subjects is not only or mainly a matter for philosophers, but more dependent on the system and its operation. With the popularization of civil rights legislation and human rights conventions containing universal laws on human dignity and freedom, the value of this system has gone far beyond the system itself. We should overcome the weakness of traditional Confucianism, place more demands on the system for civil rights, and develop civil rights concepts, procedures and mechanisms that can operate in the system. Only in this way can we ensure that governing for the people, governing for the people, feeling for the people and benefiting the people. This kind of thinking can be called the institutional normativism of civil rights.

The theme of this series focuses on the institutional norms of civil rights. Apart from The Theory of Rights, which is a representative collection of some contemporary western philosophy of rights, other topics are centered on the institutional principle and operation of basic rights, focusing on international civil rights conventions, civil rights litigation, human rights education, property rights and constitutionalism, freedom of expression, freedom of association, personal freedom and women's rights. As an editor, I sincerely hope that readers can learn more about the historical knowledge and operational knowledge of basic civil rights through this set of books, and at the same time, this knowledge can provide some necessary resources or foundations for the cultivation of civil rights culture and the strengthening of civil rights protection in China.

This is a sequence.

(Beijing, July 2003)