The concept of human rights originated in the West. However, in the process of humanity's development towards modernization, the awakening of human rights awareness has been universal and profound. The signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 marked the recognition of the principle of the universality of human rights by all countries of the world. "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights" has become the great dream of human society.

Comparing the concepts of human rights in China and the West reveals that they are distinctly different but not radically so.

Both Chinese and European traditional cultures are rich in potential human rights resources. In the process of modernization in Europe, the East-meets-West approach of Chinese traditional culture contributed to establishing the European human rights doctrine. At the same time, the European human rights doctrine also inspired Chinese culture to make its breakthroughs and develop Chinese human rights concepts.

The exchanges of cultures are not just about finding the same concepts and values in other cultures, but more importantly, to discover and learn from the concepts and values in other cultures that are different from one's own. This drive to learn from different cultures makes the development of the concept of human rights inevitably marked by the interaction of multiple cultures. In this sense, the modern concept of human rights results from the mutual enrichment between East and West.

Potential human rights resources in Chinese culture

Human rights are a product of the modernization process. However, before the start of modernization, Chinese culture had accumulated a reservoir of ideological concepts of respecting, caring for and protecting human beings over its more than 5,000 years of history. These ideological concepts are a potential human rights resource that can develop into clear human rights concepts under the specific conditions of the times.

These potential human rights resources include the following:

The concept of "unity of Heaven and man." Chinese culture regards public opinion as an expression of the will of Heaven. "Heaven has compassion for the people, and what the people desire, heaven will follow." This gives public opinion the supreme position of the will of Heaven.

The political concept of "the people are more important than the ruler." Chinese culture regards the people as the foundation of the state, advocating that "the people are the most important element in a state, followed by the gods of land and grain, and the least being the ruler himself," which requires that the interests of the people be placed in a position of greater importance.

"The high priority of people's livelihood" as the state governance strategy. The Chinese culture takes people's livelihood as the first and foremost issue in the governance of the country, advocating that "food is the most important thing for the people," "food and clothing are the essential needs of the people," and "people's livelihood is based on agriculture and sericulture," which requires that those in power take the sustenance of the people as their most important responsibility.

"The benevolent love of others" as the way of interpersonal relationships. Chinese culture takes benevolence and love as the way to promote social harmony, proposing "Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you" and "help others succeed as you strive to succeed." This kind of love and mutual assistance promotes harmonious social relations.

The social ideal of "great unity under heaven." Chinese culture regards a harmonious and orderly society of great unity as a noble social ideal, describing it as "the Way of the Great Dao is to be practiced, the world is to be fair, the virtuous and the capable are to be chosen, and faith is to be cultivated and harmony is to be practiced." The idea of a society of great unity expresses the Chinese pursuit of a peaceful, beautiful and harmonious life.

"Great Harmony" is the concept of international relations. Traditional Chinese culture emphasizes goodwill and harmony in foreign relations and advocates upholding justice and brotherly relations. China's concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind is based on this historical tradition.

Limited equality and mutual obligations. For more than 2,000 years, traditional Chinese feudal society was hierarchical and practiced a feudal authoritarian system that lacked the modern human rights concept of freedom and equality.

However, it should also be noted that even under this cultural atmosphere, there was still a sense of equality within some limits. Legalism advocated equality in law; Confucianism advocated teaching without discrimination in education and equalization without poverty in economy; Buddhism advocated equality of all beings in personality; Taoism advocated unity of all things in nature. This concept of equality in law, education, economy, personality and nature gave the norms of feudal China's obligations a certain degree of mutuality. The fulfillment of such mutual obligations was aimed at reaching overall social harmony.

All the above excellent ideological resources in traditional Chinese culture afford fertile ground for the concept of human rights to be nurtured and developed in modern China.

Chinese culture in the concept of human rights in Europe

In overthrowing feudal rule in modern Europe, thinkers, on the one hand, explored the classical literature of Europe in the hope of discovering ideas related to human freedom, equality and rights and providing cultural support for establishing a market economy and its social norms. On the other hand, the East-meets-West approach of Chinese culture had an enlightening effect on the formation of human rights thinking in Europe.

The 17th-century French scholar François de la Mothe le Vayer (1588-1672) read the introduction to Confucian thought in the book by Jesuit Italian missionary Matteo Ricci's Records of the Christian Expedition to China. In his book The Virtues of the Pagans, published in 1641, Ricci compared Confucius to Socrates, arguing that Confucius' motto, "Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you," was the essence of Chinese morality.

By the 18th century, some French Enlightenment thinkers, such as Diderot, Montesquieu, and Voltaire, had quoted and praised the moral philosophy of Confucius. The most profound revelation they gained from Chinese Confucianism was the idea of a "benevolent ruler," "benevolent government," and "moral rule."

According to the German philosopher Hegel, there were no privileges for other classes and strata in China except for the emperor – in China, practically all men were equal; except for the dignity of the emperor, there was no special class among the Chinese subjects, no aristocracy; and state offices were filled by the most intelligent and learned men – therefore, every time other countries take China as an ideal standard, they can also take it as a model. This assessment may not be accurate, but it is sufficient to illustrate the influence of Chinese culture on Hegel and his contemporaries.

In addition, traces of Chinese culture can be found in the human rights documents adopted during the French Revolution. Article 6 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the French National Assembly on June 23, 1793, stipulates: "Liberty is the power that belongs to man to do whatever is not injurious to the rights of others; it has nature for its principle, justice for its rule, law for its defense; its moral limit is in this maxim: Do not do to another that which you do not wish should be done to you." According to Xu Minglong, a scholar of Chinese history, its "textual formulation is identical to the Confucian aphorism 'Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you' as quoted by Voltaire and others, while it is quite different from a similar formulation in the Bible."

In the Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and of the Citizen, which is the preamble to the new Constitution adopted by the French National Assembly on August 22, 1795, article 2 of the Duties section also holds the above maxim – "Not to do to others that which you would not that they should do to you; Do continually for others the good that you would wish to receive from them". According to Xu Minglong, the phrase " Do not do to another that which you do not wish should be done to you." in this article is the same as in the Declaration of 1793.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as The Declaration, issued in 1948, is an international human rights instrument formulated by the United Nations after the Second World War, which crystallized the consensus reached by the international community on human rights issues at that time.

During the drafting of The Declaration, the representative of China, Mr. Zhang Pengchun, actively recommended Chinese culture's human rights resources to the Drafting Committee members. He quoted the famous saying of Mencius, "the people are the most important element in a state, followed by the gods of land and grain, and the least being the ruler himself," pointing out that while Europe first talked about human rights in the eighteenth century, Chinese philosophers had held such noble ideals as far back as 2,000 years ago.

Mr. Zhang Pengchun suggested that rationality should be enriched by the concept of benevolence in Chinese culture. In explaining the meaning of benevolence, he said, "benevolence is the ability of a person to feel that others have the same needs as he or she does (when he or she has needs) and to consider that others have the same rights when he or she enjoys them." The closest equivalent, conscience, was negotiated to be placed in Article 1 of The Declaration.

Differences of human rights concepts between China and Europe

Different histories and values caused differences of human rights concepts between China and Europe.

The human beings, as respected in Chinese culture, are the human beings between heaven and earth, the human beings who are different from other animals, the human beings in the relationship between human beings, and the people who can "carry the boat and overturn it as well." (The boat is parable of a ruler and his governance.)

Chinese culture exhibits a cultural tone of holism and livelihood considerations, which takes the right to survival and development of the people as the core rights and attaches particular importance to safeguarding economic, social, and cultural rights and the rights of the disadvantaged groups, whereby the rights of the individual are subjected to limitations imposed by the obligations of the society, and where the nationals believe that the main body capable of positively safeguarding human rights is the state.

The human beings honored in European culture are isolated individuals created and endowed with reason by God. Modern European culture has taken on an individualistic and liberal cultural tone, with the individual's right to freedom and political rights as the core human rights and human rights as a constraint on the power of the state.

Human rights development of modern China

China's modern anti-imperialist and anti-feudal movement and the formation and development of human rights thought were influenced by the European doctrines of freedom, equality, and human rights, but Chinese thinkers still argued for rights in terms of the relationship between human beings, emphasizing the interdependence of rights and duties; placing the survival and development of the nation ahead of the freedoms and rights of the individual; and placing greater emphasis on safeguarding the basic survival and well-being of the entire population. In a word, they regarded the free, comprehensive, and common development of all people as the ultimate value of the development of the cause of human rights.

Over the past 40 years of China's reform and opening up, while learning from other countries worldwide, China has dramatically improved its economic and technological capabilities and expanded its cultural horizons. By inheriting the human rights resources of traditional culture and absorbing foreign human rights doctrines, China is developing its human rights thinking and exchanging human rights ideas with other countries based on equality.

In 1991, China issued its first white paper on human rights. By the end of August 2023, the Chinese government had issued 14 comprehensive white papers on human rights and 71 thematic white papers on human rights. In 2004, the statement "the state shall respect and protect human rights" was added to the Constitution. By this constitutional principle, China has enacted and amended a series of laws related to human rights protection, forming a legal system of human rights protection with Chinese characteristics. In 2009, China formulated and implemented the first phase of the National Human Rights Action Plan. By 2021, it had formulated and implemented four phases of the National Human Rights Action Plan. In 2011, Chinese academics published the ANNUAL REPORT ON CHINA'S HUMAN RIGHTS No.1 (2011), and up till 2023, 13 consecutive reports had been published.

China's unique understanding of human rights stems not only from the human rights resources embedded in Chinese culture but also has been inspired and stimulated by cultural exchanges and collisions with the West in contemporary times, resulting in a path of human rights development with Chinese characteristics, which deserves to be respected by the world!

The author is Chang Jian, Director of the Human Rights Research Center at Nankai University.

Liu Xian /Editor    Wu Yongqiang /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Ren Qiang /Coordinator

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

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