The birth of translated works is mostly a result of communicating with readers of different cultures. However, it may not be so easy for a translator to find the corresponding words or expressions. Glancing over the development of legal history, the spread of early legal cultures between China and the West has been through the interactions between missionaries, merchants, and soldiers in combat. At that time, the people in direct contact might feel a great difference between the legal systems of the East and the West. How did the concept of “Quán / Quán lì” (權/權利) give birth to the Chinese world? Quite a few verifications have proved that this expression occurs to reflect the meaning of the word “rights” in international law in the 19th century. As a pure legal concept, the term “rights” implies the legitimacy of power/interests and the autonomy of an individual. It has an origin of “straight, correct, and justice”. On the other hand, in Chinese culture, the word “Quán” refers to the “power of the superior” and the word “lì” is even more suggestive of “profit.” Therefore, “right” from the beginning does not quite match the meaning of “Quán / Quán lì.” Law is a system of signs while different legal cultures represent different systems of signs. “Rights = Quán / Quán lì” implies the coordination and interaction of the interpreters (i.e., the translators) with the senders of communicative signs (i.e., the authors of the original works). In communicating legal discourse such dynamic interpretation will eventually stabilize and show a tendency of precision and monosemic expression characterized by most legal discourse.
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