| Abstrakt: |
During the last years of the Qing dynasty, intellectuals began to refer to the notion of "human rights" with increasing frequency, and it soon became, in effect, indigenized. In this process, Chinese intellectuals forged a modem conception of rights that was not identical to today's notions but treated rights as morally necessary, along with duties, for any decent society. Rights talk spread rapidly because it was a powerful tool for the critique of Qing despotism and also for the building of a modern state. In a fashion in some ways parallel to the northern Atlantic world two and three centuries previously, late Qing intellectuals combined fears of despotism with dreams of a new constitutional order based on rights-bearing citizens. Anti-despotism thus fueled rights thinking, as was seen not only among radicals but also by the last years of the Qing, among reformers and even officials as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
