In his introduction to Confucian Political Philosophy and Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights, Harry Hsiao argues that pre-Qin Cofucian thought had much of the respect for human rights that characterizes modern democracies, but that after the authoritarianism of the Qin and Han dynasties Confucianists were put in a bind.
他表示先秦儒家思想中有濃厚的民主自由人權精神，但是秦漢帝制以後的儒家，在逆境中委曲求全，放棄了不少。