Special Issue Article
1. Liberalism, New Confucianism and the Democracy Movement of Taiwan in the 1950s: From Xu Fuguan’s Perspective
Su-san Lee Associate Professor, Department of History and Geography,Taipei Municipal University of Education
2. Liberty or Equality: Yin Hai-Guang and Xia Dao-Ping’s Reflection On Relationship between Politics and Economy in “Free China”
Zhuo-En He Professor, Institute of Chinese Modern History, Huazhong Normal University
3. Yin Hai-Guang’s Critique and Resonsideration of Confucianism
Ming-Hai Jian Post-doctoral research fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
4. Can We Deduce the Principle of Rule of Law from Confucianism? An Analysis Based on the Conception of Moral Autonomy
Hsin-Chuan Ho Professor, Department of Philosophy, National Chengchi University
5. Equal Rights in Institutions and Individuals
Pin-Fei Lu Assistant Research Fellow, Center for General Education, Taipei Medical University; Part-time Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Program of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Tsing Hua University
6. Public Governance in Pluralistic Society: in Light of Free China Magazine
Kun-Lu Wu Associate Professor, Department of Public Affairs, Ming Chuan University
Special Issue Article
Liberalism, New Confucianism and the Democracy Movement of Taiwan in the 1950s: From Xu Fuguan’s Perspective
Su-san Lee Associate Professor, Department of History and Geography,
Taipei Municipal University of Education
Xu Fuguan (1904-1082) was a Confucian democrat active in the political and cultural scenes on Taiwan during the period of White Terror. His friendship and debates with liberals of Free China shed much light on the intellectual dimension of Taiwan’s democracy movement in the 1950s. Through the approach of contextualization and narrative history, this article tries to capture the milieu of that era, revealing the personalities of leading liberal intellectuals and their different roles in the democratization enterprise as seen from Xu’s eyes. It also illustrates the economical, political, philosophical and moral polemics between new Confucians and liberals from Xu’s perspective. Those debates were reminiscent of the controversies of the May Fourth Movement while anticipating the contentions between liberals and the New Left in China in the 1990s. Such repetitions suggest that the predicaments confronting Chinese societies persisted throughout the 20th century.
Keywords: liberalism, new Confucianism, liberal democracy movement, Xu Fuguan, Hu Shi, Lei Zhen, Yin Haiguang
Liberty or Equality: Yin Hai-Guang and Xia Dao-Ping’s Reflection On Relationship between Politics and Economy in “Free China”
Zhuo-En He
Professor, Institute of Chinese Modern History, Huazhong Normal University
In the first half of 20 century, by the strong influence of socialism, there were some notable trends of social equality and planned economy ideas in Chinese liberalism. After some liberals fled to Taiwan in 1949, to show the difference from communist, they began pay attention to discriminate about "true" equality (socialism) and "false "equality (socialism). And after the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States got involved in Taiwan's military security affairs, the KMT quickly developed to the direction of Centralization of State Power. Liberals like Yin Hai-Guang and Xia Dao-Ping began rethink of the relationship between liberty and equality, advocating a free economy to promote political freedom and thought freedom. This adjustment indicated the change of political background of society could affect the direction of some trend of thought just as the learning resource did. Revealing of the meaning "there is no political freedom without economic freedom" indeed marks a very important development from the perspective of the modern Chinese intellectual history, whether they reflect on its positive side or negative side, and whether this represents the "end" on ideas of freedom and equality.
Keywords: freedom, equality, Taiwan, 1950s, “Free China”
Yin Hai-Guang’s Critique and Resonsideration of Confucianism
Ming-Hai Jian
Post-doctoral research fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
Yin Hai-Guang is a important intellect of modern history in China and Taiwan. Yin Hai-Guang is called “son of May Fourth” or “a post May- Fourthian”. He was an anti-traditionalist and a ruggedly individualistic man. His critique of Confucianism and New-Confucianist is very strong. Yin Hai-Guang is a great liberalist of modern history in China and Taiwan. We can start from Yin Hai-Guang’s anti-traditionalist Confucian modes of thinking to approach the question.
Keywords: Yin Hai-Guang, New-Confucianist, May Fourth, Liberalism, Anti-tradition
Can We Deduce the Principle of Rule of Law from Confucianism? An Analysis Based on the Conception of Moral Autonomy
Hsin-Chuan Ho
Professor, Department of Philosophy, National Chengchi University
In this paper, I would like to investigate the issue whether it is possible to deduce the principle of rule of law from Confucianism. Admittedly, instead of “rule of law”, the ideal state is “rule of sage-king” in traditional China. Nevertheless, the point is whether it is possible to seek the resources for the justifications of rule of law in Confucianism by a new interpretation or so-called ‘creative transformation’. Through the comparative analyses with the justifications of rule of law in liberalism, such as Lock’s ‘liberty under the rule of law’ based on human reason, the transformation from Rousseau’s ‘general will’ to Kant’s ‘categorical imperative’ , and Rawls’s principles of justice which are analogous to categorical imperative, I indicate we could deduce the principle of rule of law from idealistic Confucianism which originated from Mencius, through Sung-Ming to contemporary neo-Confucianism. As the justifications of rule of universal law, Mencius’s “human nature is good”, Lu Hsiang-shan’s “mind is principles” and Wang Yang-ming’s chih liang-chih are all based on the conception of moral autonomy. From this viewpoint, I conclude that it seems possible to deduce the principle of rule of law from Confucianism.
Keywords: Confucianism, Liberalism, Principle of Rule of Law, Moral Autonomy, Universalizability
Equal Rights in Institutions and Individuals
Pin-Fei Lu
Assistant Research Fellow, Center for General Education, Taipei Medical University; Part-time Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Program of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Tsing Hua University
If we search for the ways citizens can be moral agents bearing with genuine equal rights from the vantage points of the institution and the individual citizen, an immediate result is this: the very possibility of moral agents bearing with genuine equal rights must be determined by the capacity individuals recognizing each others as free and equal. Since the capacity plays such a key role in realizing genuine equal rights for all, what exactly should institutions and individuals take the capacity be, so that it also provides an account specifying reasonable and distinguished responsibilities for institutions and individuals? This article is to facilitate two aims in responding to the question. First, accepting Nancy Fraser's integrating ideal orientating for both redistribution and recognition, I argue that, comparably, due to its necessary, efficient and direct effect in promoting and substantiating the capacity recognizing each other as free and equal, `the capability approach,' first introduced by Amartya Sen, in the debate `Equality of What' should be the chosen theory in governing the institutional design. Second, some normative aspects for individuals realizing genuine equal rights are also made clear.
Keywords: Capability, Recognition, Equal Right, Liberalism, Institution, Moral person
Public Governance in Pluralistic Society: in Light of Free China Magazine
Kun-Lu Wu
Associate Professor, Department of Public Affairs, Ming Chuan University
The literature of governance has become a new focus of public affair theory and management research, but still delinked from the design of institution in reality and the future scenario of totality. This article is written in light of the thoughts of authors from Free China Magazine, especially that of Mr. Lei Chien, Mr. Yin Hai-kuang and Mr. Dai Du-heng, to compile the history of development of pluralistic society of Taiwan and to bridge the gap between the governance towards plurality in Taiwan.
Keywords: governance, pluralistic society, institutional design, Free China Magazine
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