Interpreting “liberty”: an analysis of the history of ideas

Abstract

The goal of the current paper is to analyze “liberty” in the context of the history of ideas, in order to delineate the historical and cultural transformation it embodies. This paper attempts to demonstrate that modern Chinese perceptions of “ziyou” (freedom or liberty) cannot be separated from the “West” as the “other,” because the modern use of the term originated with the arrival of the West, and it was the evolution of Western history that bestowed values on “ziyou.” The word is also politicized and it tends to provide an interpretive framework for the State, society and the individual. In the meantime, liberalism, which is very relevant to “liberty,” has also become an indispensable component in the analysis of the history of ideas. As a matter of fact, because of the highlighting of its negative connotations by conservative Chinese and Japanese intellectuals, “liberty” could hardly be extolled as an “ism,” while a variety of “isms” prevailed, as, for example “statism” and “nationalism,” which were prioritized during the late Qing. During the May Fourth period, the divisions within the West, particularly the bankruptcy of bourgeois civilization, also resulted in the decline and fall of “liberty” and “liberalism.”

Keywords:

• liberty
• freedom
• autonomy
• liberalism
• modern China

Notes

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³Benjamin I. Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West, trans. Ye Fengmei (Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1989), 1–2.

⁴Thomas Metzger, preface to Ziyou de suoyiran: Yan Fu dui Yuehan Mi'er ziyou sixiang de renshi yu pipan [How Liberty Becomes Thus: Yan Fu's Understanding and Criticism of John Mill's Liberal Thoughts], by Huang Kewu (Taipei: Yunchen wenhua shiye gongsi, 1998), v.

⁵Robert Morrison, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (Shanghai: Tien-Shih-Chai, 1879), 15.

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⁸Wilhem Lobscheid, English and Chinese Dictionary, with the Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation, part 3 (Hong Kong: Daily Press Office, 1869), 1107.

⁹Lu Gongming, Yinghua cuilin yunfu [A Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language], vol. I, part I (Fuzhou and Shanghai: Marcal and Company, 1872–1873), 284. Lu translated “liberty” as “autonomy and freedom.” Kwong Ki-chiu, English and Chinese Dictionary (Hong Kong: The Chinese Printing Bureau, 1882), 177. Kwong translated it as “self-determination; no limitation of others.”

¹⁰Hori Tatsunosuki, A Pocket Dictionary of the English and Japanese Languages (Yedo: 1862), 315, 456.

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¹⁷For instance, in the paragraph on England and France, it says “英国律法，令各人皆能自主，国家必力加保护。此种法律已为多年之旧风俗矣。······ 法国常设律法，指明各人俱能自主，上下归一体，不得有以上凌下等弊。” See John Fryer and Ying Zuxi, trans., Zuozhichuyan [Homely Words to Aid Governance] (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2002), 37. The original English expression of the statement is thus: “The constitutional provisions for the protection of freedom in this country, may be cited as an instance of the great importance of having such things early ingrained in our national habits and customs… The French have passed repeated laws in favour of freedom, liberty, and equality.” W. and R. Chambers, ed., Political Economy (Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1852), 31.

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¹⁹Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 1, 7.

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⁴⁴John Dewey, Du Wei wu da yanjiang [Five Major Speeches of John Dewey], trans. Hu Shi (Hefei: Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe, 1999), 10, 34.

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⁵⁵Hu Shi, “Jieshao woziji de sixiang” [Introduction to My Own Thought], Xinyue [The Crescent Moon] 3, no. 4 (1931): 6–7.

⁵⁶Jerome B. Grieder, HuShih and the Chinese Renaissance: Liberalism in the Chinese Revolution, 1917–1937 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), 247.

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⁶²“Zou ding xuetang zhangcheng” [Charters of the Establishment of Schools], in Jindai zhongguo jiaoyushi ziliao, Qingmo pian [Materials on Modern Chinese Educational History: Late Qing Volume], ed. Taga Akigoro (Tokyo: Nihon gakujutsu shinkokai, 1972), 215–17.

⁶³Zhang Qing, “ ‘Ziyou’ de jiexian—‘ziyou’ zuowei xueke shuyu zai Qing mo min chu jiaokeshu zhong de ‘chengxian’ ” [The Emergence of ‘Liberty’ as a Disciplinary Terminology in the Textbook of Late Qing and Early Republican Period], in Xinshixue—gainian, wenben, fangfa [New Historiography: Concept, Text, Methodology], ed. Sun Jiang (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2008), 47–75.