Human Rights in the Chinese Tradition
Human Rights in the Chinese Tradition

Author(s): Chung-Shu Lo
Subject(s): International Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Summary/Abstract: Before considering the general principles, I would like to point out that the problem of human rights was seldom discussed by Chinese thinkers of the past, at least in the same way as it was in the West. There was no open declaration of human rights in China, either by individual thinkers or by political constitutions, until this conception was introduced from the West. In fact, the early translators of Western political philosophy found it difficult to arrive at a Chinese equivalent for the term ‘rights? The term we use to translate ‘rights’ now is two words ‘Chuan Li,’ which literally means ‘power and interest’ and which, I believe, was first coined by a Japanese writer on Western Public Law in 1868, and later adopted by Chinese writers. This of course does not mean that the Chinese never claimed human rights or enjoyed the basic rights of man. In fact, the idea of human rights developed very early in China, and the right of the people to revolt against oppressive rulers was very early established.

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