Abstract: The idea of human rights in modern China is only a transplant from the western world. However, its development in modern China has its own logic.In the west, the idea of human rights is a kind of valuerationality;while in China it is treated as an instrumental rationality to achieve a goal.When human rights is seen as an instrumental rationality, its value will be easily ignored and even abandoned in its process of melting into the social reform or revolution practice. The inner tension between the realistic salvation and enlightenment of the mind in modern china submerged the real meaning of human rights, making the pursuing of human rights only exist among few intellectuals. To the majority of normal people, it didn't intrigue their true awareness and consciousness of human rights.