Download or read book Law Codes in Dynastic China written by John Warren Head and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In telling the story of Law Codes in Dynastic China, John Head and Yanping Wang offer a bird's eye view of Chinese legal history from the earliest dynasties to the last. They survey the majestic sweep of China's legal tradition by allowing the details to emerge from the works of many scholars and then connecting those details in a storyline that revolves around a unifying theme: legal codification. In this way, Law Codes in Dynastic China brings to life such characters as the Duke of Zhou, Confucius, Khubilai Khan, and dozens of other emperors, rebels, scholars, and eunuchs. The book also illuminates the great movements and philosophies of China -- Imperial Confucianism, Legalism, correlative cosmology, Daoism, and others -- all in order to reveal both the spirit and the practicalities of law in dynastic China. This new one-volume text will prove valuable not only for researchers in the areas of Chinese law, legal history, and Chinese history, but also for students in a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs and for legal practitioners whose work calls for them to have a historically-based understanding of China's legal culture. For all readers, the book provides comprehensive citation to authorities and sources for further study -- with special emphasis on recent findings and translations. Moreover, for the general lay reader, the book offers a fascinating look at the intersection of three paths of literature and learning: law, history, and China. In doing so, it facilitates a broader appreciation of contemporary China as well. "I have never enjoyed reading a book of History so much since Terry Jones' The Crusades. However, it is also a serious book. Despite the breaktaking speed with which the authors drag the reader through the highs and lows of Dynastic China, the authors are careful in their presentation and are faithful to the sources... a useful sourcebook for researchers as well as an entertaining read." -- Law & Politics Book Review

Download or read book The Great Ming Code Da Ming lu written by and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imperial China’s dynastic legal codes provide a wealth of information for historians, social scientists, and scholars of comparative law and of literary, cultural, and legal history. Until now, only the Tang (618–907 C.E.) and Qing (1644–1911 C.E.) codes have been available in English translation. The present book is the first English translation of The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lu), which reached its final form in 1397. The translation is preceded by an introductory essay that places the Code in historical context, explores its codification process, and examines its structure and contents. A glossary of Chinese terms is also provided. One of the most important law codes in Chinese history, The Great Ming Code represents a break with the past, following the alien-ruled Yuan (Mongol) dynasty, and the flourishing of culture under the Ming, the last great Han-ruled dynasty. It was also a model for the Qing code, which followed it, and is a fundamental source for understanding Chinese society and culture. The Code regulated all the perceived major aspects of social affairs, aiming at the harmony of political, economic, military, familial, ritual, international, and legal relations in the empire and cosmic relations in the universe. The all-encompassing nature of the Code makes it an encyclopedic document, providing rich materials on Ming history. Because of the pervasiveness of legal proceedings in the culture generally, the Code has relevance far beyond the specialized realm of Chinese legal studies. The basic value system and social norms that the Code imposed became so thoroughly ingrained in Chinese society that the Manchus, who conquered China and established the Qing dynasty, chose to continue the Code in force with only minor changes. The Code made a considerable impact on the legal cultures of other East Asian countries: Yi dynasty Korea, Le dynasty Vietnam, and late Tokugawa and early Meiji Japan. Examining why and how some rules in the Code were adopted and others rejected in these countries will certainly enhance our understanding of the shared culture and indigenous identities in East Asia.

Download or read book Origins of Chinese Law written by Yongping Liu and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Origins of Chinese Law develops and supports an original, yet controversial, picture of early Chinese law. Casting doubt on the accepted premise that there was a unified system of law and punishment throughout the ancient Chinese empire based on the wuxing, or five punishments, the author suggests a more complicated and diverse picture: that from their earliest origins the Chinese people were subject to different laws and punishments based on their clan or social status." "Using a wealth of literary evidence from the Confucian classics and historical writings, and making use of recent archaeological excavations of oracle bones, bronze inscriptions, and bamboo strips, the author elucidates the central concepts that formed the basis of early Chinese law such as Li, covenant, punishment, and the theories and practice of law of the Qin and Han dynasties."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book China s Legal Soul written by John Warren Head and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new look at Chinese law and society reflects the "triple anniversary" that 2009 will mark for Chinese law reform. In 1979, the People's Republic of China embarked on a dramatic new phase of legal transformation; thirty years before that, in 1949, Mao announced the creation of the PRC itself, another moment of legal reorientation; and thirty years before that, in 1919, the May Fourth Movement also had legal reform at its core, as thousands of protesters in Beijing erupted at the refusal Western powers to acknowledge that China's legal system was no longer inadequate and uncivilized. This claim--that China's legal system is inadequate and uncivilized in--remains in play today, particularly in respect of how China approaches the rule of law and human rights. Professor Head's new book (following his earlier work, Law Codes in Dynastic China) examines these issues by focusing on modern China's "legal soul"--by which he means the set of fundamental and animating legal principles or values that give a society its unique spirit and character. His lively and insightful comparison of contemporary Chinese law with dynastic Chinese law--readily accessible by (and written for) non-specialists--addresses these central questions: (1) what sort of a "rule of law" does today's Chinese legal system hope to achieve against its ages-old Legalist-Confucianist background; and (2) is there any modern correlative to the Imperial Confucianism that gave dynastic China its "legal soul," or is today's China "soul-less," as some would claim? In addressing these questions, Head insists on looking beyond easy assumptions and assertions found in much Western legal literature about China and its law; instead, he relies heavily on leading contemporary legal scholars at Chinese universities and their views on politics, constitutionalism, and rule of law in China. "Readers will be impressed by the wide variety of sources cited in China's Legal Soul's footnotes and by the book's detailed tables. ...[I]t is appropriate for nonlawyers with an interest in legal philosophy or Chinese history and is recommended for university and law school libraries." -- Law Library Journal

Download or read book Chinese Legal Codes as Causation and Effect in Chinese Political Thought written by Andrew Edgerton Nuquist and published by . This book was released on 1939 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Civil Law in Qing and Republican China written by and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1994-08 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The opening of local archives to Western scholars in the 1980's has provided the basis for this reexamination of civil law in Qing and Republican China. This pathbreaking volume demonstrates that, contrary to previous scholarly understanding, Qing and Republican courts dealt extensively with such civil matters as land rights, debt, marriage, and inheritance, and did so with striking consistency and in conformity with the written code.

Download or read book Chinese Legal Tradition Under the Mongols written by Paul Heng-chao Ch'en and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-08 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evolution of China's legal tradition was one of the most striking aspects of the transformation of Chinese civilization under Mongolian domination. Paul Ch'en's exploration of the legal system of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and its first substantial legal code (the Chih-yuan hsin-ko, or Chih-yiian New Code) provides a key to our understanding of the impact of the Mongols on traditional Chinese law and society. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code written by Jiang Yonglin and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation and social agenda for China. Zhu, emperor during the Ming’s Hongwu reign period, launched a series of social programs to rebuild the empire and define Chinese cultural identity. To promote its reform programs, the Ming imperial court issued a series of legal documents, culminating in The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lu), which supported China’s legal system until the Ming was overthrown and also served as the basis of the legal code of the following dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911). This companion volume to Jiang Yonglin’s translation of The Great Ming Code (2005) analyzes the thought underlying the imperial legal code. Was the concept of the Mandate of Heaven merely a tool manipulated by the ruling elite to justify state power, or was it essential to their belief system and to the intellectual foundation of legal culture? What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs? Jiang addresses these questions by examining the transformative role of the Code in educating the people about the Mandate of Heaven. The Code served as a cosmic instrument and moral textbook to ensure “all under Heaven” were aligned with the cosmic order. By promoting, regulating, and prohibiting categories of ritual behavior, the intent of the Code was to provide spiritual guidance to Chinese subjects, as well as to acquire political legitimacy. The Code also obligated officials to obey the supreme authority of the emperor, to observe filial behavior toward parents, to care for the welfare of the masses, and to maintain harmonious relationships with deities. This set of regulations made officials the representatives of the Son of Heaven in mediating between the spiritual and mundane worlds and in governing the human realm. This study challenges the conventional assumption that law in premodern China was used merely as an arm of the state to maintain social control and as a secular tool to exercise naked power. Based on a holistic approach, Jiang argues that the Ming ruling elite envisioned the cosmos as an integrated unit; they saw law, religion, and political power as intertwined, remarkably different from the “modern” compartmentalized worldview. In serving as a cosmic instrument to manifest the Mandate of Heaven, The Great Ming Code represented a powerful religious effort to educate the masses and transform society.

Download or read book The T ang Code written by and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Heaven Has Eyes written by Xiaoqun Xu and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-03 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heaven Has Eyes is a comprehensive but concise history of Chinese law and justice from the imperial era to the post-Mao era. Never before has a single book treated the traditional Chinese law and judicial practices and their modern counterparts as a coherent history, addressing both criminal and civil justice. This book fills this void. Xiaoqun Xu addresses the evolution and function of law codes and judicial practices throughout China's long history, and examines the transition from traditional laws and practices to modern ones in the twentieth century. To the Chinese of the imperial era, justice was an alignment of heavenly reason (tianli), state law (guofa), and human relations (renqing). Such a conception did not change until the turn of the twentieth century, when Western-derived notions-natural rights, legal equality, the rule of law, judicial independence, and due process--came to replace the Confucian moral code of right and wrong. The legal-judicial reform agendas that emerged in the beginning of the twentieth century (and are still ongoing today) stemmed from this change in Chinese moral and legal thinking, but to materialize the said principles in everyday practices is a very different order of things, and the past century was fraught with legal dramas and tragedies. Heaven Has Eyes lays out how and why that is the case.

Download or read book Law and Order in Sung China written by Brian E. McKnight and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-10-30 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is the first comprehensive study of law enforcement in traditional China. The depth and rigour to which the subject is treated makes it invaluable in the study of Chinese society or law and order.

Download or read book Circulating the Code written by Ting Zhang and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2020-04-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to longtime assumptions about the insular nature of imperial China’s legal system, Circulating the Code demonstrates that in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) most legal books were commercially published and available to anyone who could afford to buy them. Publishers not only extended circulation of the dynastic code and other legal texts but also enhanced the judicial authority of case precedents and unofficial legal commentaries by making them more broadly available in convenient formats. As a result, the laws no longer represented privileged knowledge monopolized by the imperial state and elites. Trade in commercial legal imprints contributed to the formation of a new legal culture that included the free flow of accurate information, the rise of nonofficial legal experts, a large law-savvy population, and a high litigation rate. Comparing different official and commercial editions of the Qing Code, popular handbooks for amateur legal practitioners, and manuals for community legal lectures, Ting Zhang demonstrates how the dissemination of legal information transformed Chinese law, judicial authority, and popular legal consciousness.

Download or read book The Spirit of Traditional Chinese Law written by Geoffrey MacCormack and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the end of the eighth century A.D., imperial China had established a system of administrative and penal law, the main institutions of which lasted until the collapse of the Ch'ing dynasty in 1911. The Spirit of Traditional Chinese Law studies the views held throughout the centuries by the educated elite on the role of law in government, the relationship between law and morality, and the purpose of punishment. Geoffrey MacCormack's introduction offers a brief history of legal development in China, describes the principal contributions to the law of the Confucian and Legalist schools, and identifies several other attributes that might be said to constitute the "spirit" of the law. Subsequent chapters consider these attributes, which include conservatism, symbolism, the value attached to human life, the technical construction of the codes, the rationality of the legal process, and the purposes of punishment. A study of the "spirit" of the law in imperial China is particularly appropriate, says MacCormack, for a number of laws in the penal codes on family relationships, property ownership, and commercial transactions were probably never meant to be enforced. Rather, such laws were more symbolic and expressed an ideal toward which people should strive. In many cases even the laws that were enforced, such as those directed at the suppression of theft or killing, were also regarded as an emphatic expression of the right way to behave. Throughout his study, MacCormack distinguishes between "official," or penal and administrative, law, which emanated from the emperor to his officials, and "unofficial," or customary, law, which developed in certain localities or among associations of merchants and traders. In addition, MacCormack pays particular attention to the law's emphasis on the hierarchical ordering of relationships between individuals such as ruler and minister, ruler and subject, parent and child, and husband and wife. He also seeks to explain why, over nearly thirteen centuries, there was little change in the main moral and legal prescriptions, despite enormous social and economic changes.

Download or read book Code Custom and Legal Practice in China written by Philip C. Huang and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What changes occurred and what remained the same in Chinese civil justice from the Qing to the Republic? Drawing on archival records of actual cases, this study provides a new understanding of late imperial and Republican Chinese law. It also casts a new light on Chinese law by emphasizing rural areas and by comparing the old and the new.

Download or read book The T ang Code Specific articles written by Wallace Stephen Johnson and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 591 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume II describes acts that are punishable by law and enumerates their punishments. For contemporary readers, the Tang code is more than simply a legal document. Studying the 445 'specific articles' sheds considerable light on Chinese culture.

Download or read book Law State and Society in Early Imperial China 2 vols written by Anthony J. Barbieri-Low and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 1544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China, Anthony J. Barbieri-Low and Robin D.S. Yates offer the first detailed study and translation into English of two important early Chinese legal texts from the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE).

Download or read book Circulating the Code written by Assistant Professor of History Ting Zhang and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to longtime assumptions about the insular nature of imperial China?s legal system, Circulating the Code demonstrates that in the Qing dynasty (1644?1911) most legal books were commercially published and available to anyone who could afford to buy them. Publishers not only extended circulation of the dynastic code and other legal texts but also enhanced the judicial authority of case precedents and unofficial legal commentaries by making them more broadly available in convenient formats. As a result, the laws no longer represented privileged knowledge monopolized by the imperial state and elites. Trade in commercial legal imprints contributed to the formation of a new legal culture that included the free flow of accurate information, the rise of nonofficial legal experts, a large law-savvy population, and a high litigation rate. Comparing different official and commercial editions of the Qing Code, popular handbooks for amateur legal practitioners, and manuals for community legal lectures, Ting Zhang demonstrates how the dissemination of legal information transformed Chinese law, judicial authority, and popular legal consciousness.