近代中国民权思想及其与传统民本思想的勾连

The Thoughts on Civil Right in Modern China and Its Connection with the Thoughts of Regarding the People as Foundation

"民权"概念作为西方"民主"概念在近代中国的变种,在近代中国的流变经历了三个阶段,即君民共主是早期改良派民权思想的核心主张;君主立宪是资产阶级改良派的核心主张;而主权在民则是资产阶级革命派的核心主张。但无论是早期改良派、资产阶级改良派,还是革命派,都以民本比附民权,这体现了近代中国民权思想与传统民本思想的勾连。其结果,一方面使民权思想容易为中国人理解和接受;另一方面,又使中国人没能掌握民主思想的真正含义。

The concept of Civil Right in modern China is the variety of the concept of Democracy in the West.Its change has three stages.That sovereignty belongs to both monarchy and the people is the key stand of early reformers;constitutional monarchy is the core proposition of the bourgeois reformers;and the bourgeois revolutionists insist that sovereignty should belong to the people.However,the early reformers,bourgeois reformers and revolutionists all make a farfetched comparison between civil right in modern China and the thought of regarding the people as foundation in traditional China.There are historical reasons why the civil right thinkers do this.And there are two consequences of the farfetched comparison.On the one hand,it makes the thought of civil right easily understood and accepted;on the other hand,Chinese didnt grasp the essentials of the democracy.