Gems of Chinese Literature/Liang Ch‘i-ch‘ao-Liberty
“Without Liberty, better die.” New words these! During the 18th and 19th centuries these words were the foundation on which States were established by the various peoples in Europe and the Americas,―will liberty in the same sense serve the purpose of the modern Chinese nation? I reply that liberty connotes equal rights for all; it is an important factor in human life, and there is no direction in which it will fail to serve such a purpose. At the same time it should be noted that a distinction must be made between real liberty, false liberty, complete liberty, partial liberty, the liberty of civilization, and the liberty of savages. “Liberty! Liberty!” has gradually become the pious catchword of our callow youth of to-day. But the leaders of our “new people” say, If China would forever enjoy the blessings of a complete civilization and of a genuine liberty, it is necessary to begin by defining exactly that in which liberty consists. Allow me then to discuss this question.
Liberty is diametrically opposed to slavery. If we examine the histories of the development of liberty in Europe and in the Americas, we shall find that the struggle was confined to the four following points: (1) administrative liberty, (2) religious liberty, (3) national liberty, and (4) economic liberty. The object of the first was to protect the people against their own government; of the second, to protect members of a church against the church; of the third, to protect one's own nation against foreign nations; and of the fourth, to protect the people against the operations of Capital and Labour. Administrative liberty may be further divided under three heads, the respective objects being (1) to secure the liberty of the masses in regard to officials, (2) to secure the liberty of the whole nation in regard to the government in power, and (3) to secure the liberty of colonies in regard to the mother country. The principles on which the practice of liberty depends are no more than these.
Liberty means that every man shall be free, except that he may not encroach upon the freedom of others. And since it is forbidden to each individual to encroach upon the freedom of others, it follows that such subjection of the individual is also a point of importance. How can this be regarded as a drag on liberty? Liberty connotes the freedom of the whole community and not the freedom of the individual. In the early ages of savagedom, individual liberty prevailed and the liberty of the community did not exist; whereas in civilized times the liberty of the community has predominated and the liberty of the individual has decreased. These two statements are indisputable and contain no shade of error. If the liberty of the individual is to be accounted true liberty, then of the inhabitants of the world who enjoy the blessings of liberty, none can be compared with the people of China at the present day.
The gentry, bullies of the countryside, gobble up their poorer neighbours like fish, and there are no means of resisting them; traders abscond, leaving their debts unpaid, and those who have been swindled have no means of redress. Now, it is open to all men to become gentry or traders; it follows, therefore, that the liberty of the community is also a point of importance. Is not this so? In the highest classes there are men and women who make a perfect cesspool of official life;―is this liberty? In the towns there are young and old who look on opium as a necessary food;―is this liberty? In a civilized State, there would be, for light offences of the kind, a money fine, and for grave offences, sequestration of property. Other points in like manner; but so many are they that, were I ten men, I could not reckon then all up. Viewed in this light, I ask you, “who are they who enjoy liberty,[1]―the people of China, or the people of other nations?”
- ↑ Here, the evils, not the blessings, of too much liberty.