ON RESPONSIBILITY IN CHINA:

Abstract

Chinese “responsibility” is constituted by the two words: “ze” (charge) and “ren” (office). According to "zhai" (debt) was the etymon of "ze" in ancient Chinese; “ze” corresponded with the right of using a debt. In ancient Chinese books, “ren” had the meanings of “appointment”, “position”, “duty”, “undertaking” and “trust”, and hence, it related to charge of a position, charge of a power, and professional dedication of, and trust on, a position holder. In modern Chinese language, though the two words of “ze” and “ren” are mostly used as one word, we still can tell from their usage the close relationships between ze and right, ren and duty of a position or a power. In today’s real life, however, there is a serous with such a historically close and consequential relationship. This problem assumes as the expansion of the domains of right and power, while responsibilities, obligations, and duties have been often ignored. For example, in contemporary China, the term of "right" has entered ordinary people’s daily expression; especially “labor right”, “right of employment”, “right of property”, “consumers’ rights”, and “environmental rights” become the fastest growing and most concerned right in recent decades. But, the expansion of expressions in “rights” and increasing enactment of relative laws, regulations and moral codes, to a great extent, have not begotten the consequential relationships between rights and responsibilities, powers and duties, and responsible behaviors, but on the contrary, occurred abuses of freedoms, rights and powers. Food safety, environment pollution, official corruption,are most seriously ethical issues in recent years. From these issues, we see that these officials, enterprises and individuals had no any sense of responsibility, duty and obligation, and what they considered were only to abuse power for personal gain, to make power-for-money deal, and to draw water to one's mill, lost minimal conscience and sense of shame. It is thus to raise such a question to us: how to understand and deal with the deviations of freedom from responsibility, right from obligation, and duty from power? This paper tries to discuss the question. First, the author will investigate the understanding of responsibility and relative concepts of duty, obligation, right and power in Chinese context; and second, analyze the key issues of responsibility associated with the expansion of rights and powers in today’s China; and finally, explore the actors’ responsibilities on different levels and offers the author’s suggestions on cultivation of responsibility as a systemic building and moral education.