A Possible Perspective of Interpreting Confucian T...
The concept of human rights jointly defined by such two dimensions as social nature and social relations is then made universal as people share a common sense on rationality，which also presents a possible perspective for us to interpret Confucian thought of human rights.
Theoretically，social relations are the concrete embodiment of human ’s social nature.By establishing social relations，people may present their own social nature，namely，demonstrating their indispensible substantiality as a member of the social community.Such substantiality is in turn reflected in the role of social relations.The so-called role is the positioning of a person in the real social relations，which，as specific definition of the person a member of the social community，implies the corresponding social nature.In accordance with the concomitant relation between social nature and rights，this role naturally contains the rights corresponding to its social nature.When the social nature in a role is fully occupied，the idealistic rights included in the role are then fully released，or when the person occupying the role fully realizes the social nature carried by the role，he may enjoy the corresponding complete idealistic rights.
We can interpret the above statement in the context of Confucianism.Confucianism values social relations and emphasizes role duties over rights.Does it mean that Confucianism does not know about rights？ We don ’t think so.First of all，Confucianism attaches importance to selfcompletion，which means following all that a human being shall follow and constitutes the basis and prerequisite for everything.That ’s also why Confucianism considers the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides，which stresses the social nature of human beings as the foundation for all issues related to human beings.Second，Confucianism emphasizes role obligations.The social role serves as the realistic representation of the social nature of human beings，and the two present a relationship of “yong” （utility） and “ti” （essence）.Social roles are not artificially imagined or arbitrarily set by human beings，but established based on the practical needs of social life with the social nature as the foundation and the social relations as the links，so social roles are not universal and may have different settings under different social conditions.Different social relations result in different social roles while different social roles have different social nature representations，thus including different idealistic rights.In essence，role obligations are the occupation of the role ’s inherent social nature as rights won ’t come naturally until the realization of the role ’s social nature.For example，in advocating “there is government，when the prince is prince，and the minister is minister；when the father is father，and the son is son” （Chapter of Yan Yuan，The Analects of Confucius），“he who is not in any particular office has nothing to do with plans for the administration of its duties” （Chapter of Tai Bo，The Analects of Confucius） and“if names be not correct，language is not in accordance with the truth of things” （Chapter of Zi Lu，The Analects of Confucius），Confucius emphasizes that each person plays a different social role in the different social relations to which he belongs and carries different social natures and corresponding rights.Only when the social nature is fully realized，can the corresponding rights be realized and vice versa.Behind the above arguments of Confucius which embody the concomitant relationship between rights and roles（society） are rights.Rights won ’t come as a matter of course only when built on the social nature of the role，so only by striving to realize the full possession of the essence of the role can the idealistic rights be transformed into the actual.In practice，such a full possession is comprehended as role obligations and presented as the condition for the realization of rights.In this light，Confucianism explicitly stresses obligations but conceals rights，which is also why traditional Chinese culture emphasizes obligations rather than rights.
In reality，people find it hard to fully and accurately comprehend the positioning of a role in relations and fully master the social nature carried by the role due to the limitation of cognition，thus posing an artificial obstacle to the transformation from the idealistic rights to the actual.At the same time，as mentioned above，the development of social relations is influenced by many social factors and is closely related to the social activities and development of each member of the society，so Confucianism advocates，on the one hand，self-cultivation by developing mind and knowing nature to realize self-accomplishment，namely，the full possession of the social nature of the self and on the other hand calls on the putting of oneself in another ’s place and the completing of other men and things，which exactly shows nobility of the spirit of Confucianism.It emphasizes that a person shall not only focus on the full possession of the social nature of himself，but also have a deep understanding the co-existence of this nature and respect the social natures of others and the realization of the corresponding rights from a broader horizon of maintaining the existence of the community and the social relationship body and optimizing their organic structures.
How shall the claims to rights and the restrictions of the boundaries be demonstrated since human rights are implicit in the vision of Confucianism？ Since Confucianism regards rights as the prescriptive nature inherent in social roles，once a person “lives” his role，he also“receives” the corresponding rights.For example，the Confucian rituals set specific role requirements for social members at each level[15] and also grant corresponding rights.However，the transformation from the idealistic human rights to the actual is conditional.For Confucianism，rights do not need to be claimed under normal circumstances.As long as a subject meets the requirements of the essence of his role，the acquisition of rights is what is merited and inevitable.This，according to Confucius，is “when one gives few occasions for blame in his words，and few occasions for repentance in his conduct，he is in the way to get emolument” （Chapter of Governing，The Analects of Confucius）.To prevent the loss of legitimacy in the enjoyment of rights due to the deviation between human ’s social behaviors and the natures of their roles，Confucianism designed a link to rectify the deviation，requiring any member of a community or a relationship body to rectify and to be rectified of his own personal conduct and incorrect mind.If，after being rectified，a person still fails to fulfill the requirements of the nature of his role，he will be considered not to have the necessary conditions to enjoy the corresponding rights and the idealistic human rights included in the role cannot be transformed into the actual，when the person ’s role status only exists in name or he will be forced to “resign from” his social role in a way.For example，in a dialogue between King Xuan of Qi and Mencius recorded in The Mencius: King Xuan of Qi Part Ⅱ，when Jie and Zhou serious failed their positions，the cutting off of them shall be regarded as “the punishment of a mere fellow” instead of “a minister slaying his ruler”，as“one who offends against humaneness is called a brigand；one who offends against rightness is called an outlaw.Someone who is a brigand and an outlaw is called a mere fellow”.
In short，the theory of rights is constantly improving along with the development of society and the deepening of people ’s recognition of themselves.The above only presents a preliminary description of the implicit Confucian concept of human rights from the perspective of claims to and boundaries of rights.For Confucianism，which deeply implanted the ideal development of human and society into the real situation，the right is never something unattainable and desirable or some “ability to make requests”[16]，nor is it a fetish that “has gone beyond the Three Worlds and is no longer subject to the Five Elements”.It is a natural effect of proper social behaviors of people that only exists and is implemented in the moral construction and maintenance of social relation system while Confucius ’realm of “following what his heart desires，without transgressing what is right” may the most imminent real state between the claims to an individual ’s idealistic rights and the boundaries of the actual rights.
【注释】
[1]P.Lauren，The Evolution of International Human Rights，Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press，1998，p.11.In his book The Evolution of International Human Rights，Paul Gordon Lauren spoke highly of the human rights ideas of the Confucian school represented by Confucius and Mencius.
[2]Zhang Zhihong，Virtues and Rights: Studies on Pre-qin Confucian Thought on Human Rights ［In Chinese］，People ’s Publishing House，2012.
[3]Liang Tao eds.，Virtues and Rights: On Confucianism and Human Rights from Cross-cultural Perspectives［In Chinese］，China Social Sciences Press，2016.
[4]Zhao Tingyang，Politics of Everybody ［In Chinese］，Social Sciences Academic Press （China），2010，p.90.
[5]The foundation of the Thought of Natural Human Rights originated from the “Theory of Natural/ Inherent Rights” in ancient Western philosophy，which was created by the Dutch jurist and humanist Hugo Grotius，and later developed and improved by scholars including Thomas Hobbes，John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
[6]A.J.M.Milne，Human Rights and Human Diversity: An Essay in the Philosophy of Human Rights，trans.Xia Yong and Zhang Zhiming，Encyclopedia of China Publishing House，1995，p.5.
[7]Yang Guorong，“Your Rights，My Obligations: The Transformation and Integration of Horizons on the Issue of Rights and Obligations” ［In Chinese］，Philosophical Research，Vol.4，2015，p.48.
[8]Zhao Tingyang，Politics of Everybody ［In Chinese］，Social Sciences Academic Press （China），2010，pp.89-114.
[9]What calls for special attention is that the idealistic human rights determined by the social nature are different those determined by the law of nature.The human rights in the sense of the law of nature shall take “existence” as the basis for human rights while those in the sense of the social nature “co-existence”.Both seem to stress the concomitance of human rights，the former，however，indicates man is completely self-sufficient that takes individual existence as the sole condition and requirement while the latter man is partially self-sufficient that takes the existence of social groups as the foundation and condition for individual existence.From the perspective of the social nature of human beings，no one is completely self-sufficient and partial self-sufficiency is the real state of existence.Therefore，only the idealistic human rights stipulated by the social nature are actual human rights.
[10]The term“Jing Jie （经界）”（boundaries） is derived from The Mencius： Teng Wen Gong Part I，“Now，humane government must begin with the setting of boundaries.If the boundaries are not set correctly，the division of the land into well-fields will not be equal，and the grain allowances for official emoluments will not be equitable.This is why harsh rulers and corrupt officials are prone to neglect the setting of boundaries.Once the boundaries have been set correctly，the division of the fields and the determination of emoluments can be settled without difficulty.”
[11]The reason why we borrow Maxi ’s expression of the people ’s free and comprehensive development lies in that it helps to understand the idealistic rights of man and their actual state.
[12]In this sense，Prof.Zhao Tingyang ’s proposition of morality as the value basis for human rights is reasonable to a certain degree.
[13]It should be noted that adjustments are not necessarily in positive correlation to variables.For example，the improvement of social and economic development does not necessarily mean the boundaries of human rights can be expanded to enable more actual human rights for people.However，the human factor is in positive correlation to human rights boundaries，namely，the higher the quality of the people is，the more confident they are of perceiving their own social nature and the more capable they are of advancing the transformation from idealistic human rights to the actual.
[14]The improper claims to human rights or the imbalance of rights expansion may even lead to wars of rights against rights.This shows that the claims to rights need to be made out of idealistic human rights，rather than unreasonable demands out of the arbitrary creation of human thinking or selfish desires，that is，there shall be in place a standard for what realistic human rights are.The standard shall be granting the existence of the community of the social nature of human beings，namely，the sustainable development of the community shall be set as the standard for judging the idealistic human rights.Those claims to rights beneficial for maintaining the existence of the community shall be idealistic human rights，or they shall be regarded as breaking the boundaries.
[15]Referring to The Rites of Zhou for details.
[16]Chen Zuwei，et al，“Confucianism and Human Rights” ［In Chinese］，Academic Monthly，Vol.11，2013.