17
Zhang, ―rights‖ simply mark the innate capacity of anyone to act, not only to act morally.
8
He in
fact denies, contra Yan Fu, that Rousseau believed these ―natural‖ conditions were inherently
good at all. Zhang claims that ―the good Rousseau ascribes to these original [state of nature]
people simply points to the time before they began fighting with slaughtering each other…it is
not the goodest good‖ but a relative term only (ZQJ 26).
These capacities for action Zhang identifies with Rousseau‘s concept of ―will‖: it is these
innate capacities that construct the social contract. Force cannot create them or sustain them,
because as Rousseau pointed out once the source of forceful imposition is lost so too are the
activities that found and sustain a polity. Yan believes rights and capacities can be created by
means of violence, and Zhang acknowledges that the capacities of ―rights‖ are like force in that
they exert powerful influences on existing environments and can even depose tyrants (ZQJ 34).
As Su Dongpo [蘇東坡, 1037-1101 CE] has said, ―What does the ruler rely upon?
In the Book of Documents, it is written: …‗When [their hearts-and-minds are]
gathered together, they are as loyal ministers; when scattered apart, they are as
enemies.‘…Therefore I say, what does the ruler rely upon? Simply the hearts-and-
minds (心) of people.‖ When ―gathered together,‖ this means gathered together as
in a contract; when ―scattered apart,‖ this means dissolving the contract. This
should be obvious. Therefore, when the people[‗s hearts-and-minds] are scattered,
they regard their ruler as an enemy, and oppose him. This [opposition] has
nothing to do with what Rousseau calls force (ZQJ 34).
8
In other essays, including ―On Accommodation as Founding‖ (《調和立國論》), Zhang elaborates how he
believes disparate moral (and immoral) visions of political life can work together to found and sustain polities. I
discuss this possibility more fully in later chapters.
Convention