Traditional Chinese Civil Law Concepts and Norms

Author: Liang Fengrong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: The history of Chinese law is an integral part of the five-thousand-year history of Chinese civilization. The meticulous content and systematic completeness of ancient Chinese criminal law are widely recognized, and scholars both at home and abroad have written extensively on it, with the breadth and depth of research continuously expanding. In contrast, the study of traditional Chinese civil law remains relatively underdeveloped, despite the pioneering efforts of some scholars who have laid a solid foundation. However, these efforts have not yet fully dispelled the influence of the ancient Chinese theory that "there was no civil law in the middle ages." In the rich and long-standing traditional legal system of China, although the concept of modern civil law does not exist, there have always been corresponding legal adjustments for property and personal relationships. The foundation of modern Western civil law is Roman law. Based on the understanding that Roman law can be divided into three parts—person law, object law, and procedural law—this book attempts to conduct a systematic and comprehensive study of the property and creditor relationships, marriage and family relationships, and traditional concepts of civil litigation that existed in ancient China.
Chapter 1 explores the origins of traditional Chinese civil law in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties; Chapters 2 to 5 comprehensively introduce and systematically discuss the civil legal relationships and corresponding norms in the Qin, Han, Wei-Jin-Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Sui-Tang periods, respectively; Chapter 6 highlights the development and changes in social identity relationships and the legalization of the institution of during the Northern and Southern Song dynasties; Chapter 7 provides a general introduction to the civil legal relationships and norms of the Yuan Dynasty; Chapters 8 and 9 focus on the relatively active commodity economy within the feudal society during the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as the development and perfection of property and creditor relationships related to it.
Based on a wealth of historical documents, this book makes the utmost use of archaeological material evidence and draws on the academic achievements of predecessors and contemporary scholars to systematically analyze, organize, and summarize the civil relationships and corresponding legal norms of ancient China, with the aim of identifying certain ethnic origins of modern Chinese civil law. Therefore, this book serves as a valuable reference for judicial practitioners, legislative theorists, historians and educators, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in law and history.