Abstract:

The essential meaning of China' s ancient "democracy" is "master of the people". It employs the deeprooted bad habits of the mass, suggests wise governors to make decisions for the people and provides a basis for autocratic monarchy. Besides of these heavily criticized features, it is positive in requesting the monarch as "master of the people" to "nourish the people" and "cultivate the people" like "parents of the people". Such an idea is shared by modern "democracy" to protect people' s rights and saves ancient "democracy" from being totally denied. Modern "democracy" derived from the west with the original meaning as "civil autonomy" and is valuable in highlighting that every citizen is born with autonomy. But modern western "democracy" should not be blindly admired, because "civil autonomy" is always practiced in a representative way and, when implemented, such "representative democracy" on behalf of the public may cause "bribery scandals" related to congressmen' s benefit. In both domestic and foreign history were cases in which the concept of all "citizens" in "democracy" was narrowed down into that of some "people", so that other citizens who were not part of the people were deprived of "democratic" rights. We should learn from such painful lessons and bear in mind that the "democracy" we are building now should be "civil autonomy" for all "citizens".

Key words: master of the people, parents of the people, civil autonomy, people s democracy