The Awakening Of National Consciousness And Traditional Legal Modernization

Citizen抯 notion refers to the idea or knowledge about the popularity of state authority. The source of citizen抯 notion is the self-affirmation about independent personality. Its main appearance is a kind of mentality that people claim rights from state actively and fulfill their responsibilities voluntarily. Chinese traditional legal theory abided by Confucianism is based on ethics of clan. Its basis is to negate human抯 independent personality. Its aim is to uphold emperor抯 autarchy. Emperor arid patriarch have absolutely eminent domain to citizen and family member. So, citizen抯 notion is different basically to traditional legal spirit. Chinese traditional law inhibited strictly the birth and development of citizen抯 notion by ruling of social polilics, economics and culture. As people have no independent personality, no self-determination idea and no right consciousness, they are all indifferent to state authority and keep distance to it. In their opinion, law is a bad thing. So, the core of Chinese traditional law is not to protect citizen抯 right but to maintain emperor抯 power. Thus, departed from social activity, Chinese law couldn抰 make progress for a long period. Since Opium War, with deepening of nation crisis and knowing more of west society, people抯 ideology changed greatly. More and more Chinese realized that independence and freedom are not only personal natural rights but also the most effective protection of accelerating people抯 rallying and creativity and saving and constructing the country. The essential reason of west countries? Abstract strong lies in that the democratic and constitutional system makes people and state into one party. In contrary, autocratic monarchy in China depart people from state. Those who without right consciousness or self-determination idea mean that they are no sense of responsibility or obligation. Therefore, the essential way of saving and constructing the country from weak to strong is to reform Chinese traditional law system through studying west countries?law system. Personal independence and equality adding by political domestic and ruling by law become a trend of social thought that can抰 be reversed. These mean the awakening of citizen抯 notion and become a strong power of promoting Chinese trad~Etional law抯 modernizing. Awakening or development of citizen抯 notion and modernizing of CI~iinese traditional law have intimate relationship. One is the other抯 premise and base. They promote each other. Their relation is consensus to the process of social changing in recent age in China. Their relation is also effected and restricted by the condition of politics, economics and culture of that time in China.