On Chinese Bourgeois Thoughts Of Press Law In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Early Republic Of China

Along with the western mode of running newspaper introduced to China, modern press surged up in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. At that time, the first group of law which prescribes principle of protecting freedom of expression enacted to promote modern press. On the back of these laws, what thought contests existed? What transformation in thoughts of press law occurred? The solution to these questions was in favor of using thoughts of press law in contemporary China. The body can be classified into three parts as follows.Firstly, on the basis of documents retrospect and contextual analysis, it is regarded that theory of constitutional government and democracy was the basis of thoughts of press law in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.Secondly, the writer discusses the main content of thoughts of press law. After Opium War, Chinese capitalist precursors advanced that it was essential to enact modern press law. Subsequently, they put forward to the thoughts of press law which had distinctive Chinese flavor. There were lots of people involved in this discussion. The writer chose 6 of them who had thoughts of press law and democracy to lucubrate the main content.Finally, based on historical and cross-cultural comparisons, the writer summarizes characteristics of thoughts of Hong Rengan, Zheng Guanying, Kang Youwei, Wang Kangnian, Sun Zhongshan and Zhang Taiyan. It is considered that there are 4 characteristics: (1)Thoughts of press law were representation of political theory;(2)Compared to western theory, thoughts of freedom of expression in China were characterized by utilitarian and practical;(3)Chinese began balance the relationship between individual rights and freedom of expression;(4)People have introduced the idea of forming perfect press law system at that time.