Rights and Boundaries:On the Human Rights Thought ...
Zhang Zhihong
Zhang Zhihong，Research Professor，Institute of Philosophy，SASS
E-mail:zzh888@sass.org.cn
This paper in Chinese was originally published in Philosophical Research，2017 （12）.
Abstract: The issue of rights or human rights is a hotspot of interest in both the Eastern and the Western academic circles since modern times，whose fields of research，moving beyond humanistic and social sciences including politics，law and philosophy，have even extended to the natural sciences.However，neither the view of natural human rights that has long been dominating the West nor the human rights dimension of contemporary social relations is sufficient to establish a universal theoretical foundation for the demonstration of rights，nor to explain the complex historical evolution of human rights theory and its future development and changes.The paper holds that the complete concept of human rights shall be defined in such two dimensions as social nature and social relations，the former establishing the idealistic human rights and the latter the actual.The transformation of the idealistic human rights to the actual is manifested in the claims to rights，while the restriction of the actual human rights over the idealistic human rights is expressed as the boundaries of rights.The claims to and boundaries of rights not only constitute the clues to understanding human rights，but provide a new pathway for interpreting the Confucian view on human rights.
Keywords: Confucianism；Rights；Social Nature；Social Relations
Chinese society has witnessed major changes since modern times.In summarizing and reflecting on such changes，modern scholars，in particular modern Neo-Confucians，focus on cultural theories and institutional construction，including the concepts of freedom，democracy and equality.Therefore，human rights have also entered the theoretical horizon of the Chinese.
Needless to say，the idea of human rights is an import that first appeared in the West.In this light，we inevitably resort to the theoretical background of the West when discussing human rights theories.Despite the fact that the concept of human rights originated from the West，it does not necessarily mean that the human rights phenomenon and its accompanying concept or consciousness are exclusive to the West，nor does it imply that human rights theories can only be produced and developed in the cultural soil and institutional system of the West.As is stated by Paul G.Lauren，a famous American scholar of human rights，“the early ideas of human rights did not arise only in the West，or in relation to particular forms of liberal democracy，but in cultures in many places where thinkers from different cultures have expressed these ideas in different ways over the centuries”[1] In this sense，the research on human rights shall certainly not be swayed by Western values and methodology.
Explorations lead us to believing that though the concept of human rights is an import，there is no lack of discussions on the theory of human rights in our traditional ideology and culture .[2] For example，modern scholars including Kang Youwei，Liang Qichao，Yan Fu，Xiong Shili，Mou Zongsan，Zhang Junmai，Xu Fuguan and Tang Junyi as well as many contemporary scholars conducted certain studies and written relevant articles.In the meantime，overseas sinology circles also pay certain attention to the topic of “Confucianism and human rights”.A.I.Melden，Wm.Theodore de Bary，Tu Weiming，Roger T.Ames，Yu Ying-shih，Cheng Chung-ying，Heiner Roetz and Herny Rosemont，for example，have all made special studies on it.[3]
As is described by Prof.Zhao Tingyang，“the theme of human rights has become a new type of de facto religion in the West，though it bears no such name and is endowed with the universal legitimacy with theoretical self-evidence and practical righteousness” in the contemporary age.[4] However，as a social and cultural phenomenon，human rights cannot be self-evident.From the perspective of theoretical studies，neither the view of natural human rights that has long been dominating the West nor the human rights dimension of contemporary social relations is sufficient to establish a universal theoretical foundation for the demonstration of rights，nor to explain the complex historical evolution of human rights theory and its future development and changes，not to say the academic community has not reached the consensus on how to define the concept of human rights.Of course，it ’s not easy to set a precise definition of human rights.Practically，difficulties and their adverse consequences in dealing with realistic human rights related affairs also prove that many problems exist with the current view on human rights.For example，the issue of justice involving equal rights not only exists among individuals，but also among nations and peoples，even generations where there is still a lack of consensus on what are the criteria for justice，how to resolve them reasonably，what are the legality bases for such criteria and what are the rationality bases for such resolutions.
Personally，the root cause for the occurrence of the aforesaid problems lies in the unclear definition of human rights.It is because of the vagueness in definition，or the failure to establish a reasonable ideological framework for defining rights，that hinders far-reaching theoretical research，or even leads to ambiguity.In view of this，I ’d still like to start with defining the concept of human rights and aim at establishing，on the basis of reflections and analyses on the traditional views of human rights and the shift to social relations in the contemporary theoretical research on human rights，a more reasonable perspective to understand theoretical and practical development of human rights，from where a new pathway for better understanding the Confucian view on human rights is offered.