Explanatory Legal History – with a focus on the study of traditional Chinese legal culture

Author: Hu Xusheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-20
Features: The Chinese nation has a long-standing tradition of academic and cultural heritage. In our classical culture, academic fields such as Confucian studies, history, and literature have achieved remarkable brilliance, becoming an important part of the world's cultural heritage. However, like the cultural traditions of any other nation, the development of classical academic culture in China has been uneven and has had its shortcomings. Notably, despite having a long tradition of written law, the study of law as a discipline has long lagged in development and growth. Since the late Qing Dynasty, with changes in social structure, the influence of foreign cultures, and the establishment of law schools, law has only gradually gained its independent status as a discipline. Yet, the tumultuous history of China over the past century has made it difficult for law to take a steady path, often oscillating between imitating foreign legal systems and annotating existing laws. During the decade of the Cultural Revolution, legal studies were even completely halted. With both inherent weaknesses and subsequent neglect, Chinese law can truly be said to have faced a harsh fate and a difficult journey.
Since the late 1970s, the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, the revival of legal education, and the gradual development of legal systems have provided an unprecedentedly favorable environment. Over the past decade and a half, the level of legal research in our country has made significant progress, and the rapid increase in legal publications also reflects these achievements. However, the lack of a theoretical legal series written by domestic scholars remains a clear shortcoming. We believe that the healthy development of law and the legal system relies on deep theoretical exploration. While law is indeed closely linked to real-life realities, this does not mean it is merely a mirror of social life experiences or just an echo of existing national laws. Law should have a transcendent aspect—it must guide existing laws at both the value level and through theoretical analysis. Constructively, it needs a critical nature. Against the backdrop of China's specific academic context, it must seek a reasonable balance between foreign theories and inherent traditions, pursuing moderate transcendence. Thus, it can not only provide a blueprint for China's modern legal system but also offer creative responses to major legal issues worldwide. This is the mission of contemporary Chinese legal scholars, and creating the conditions for fulfilling this mission is the responsibility of legal publishers.
The "Young and Middle-aged Legal Scholars' Series" is exactly such a series dedicated to publishing new works in legal theory. We hope that the series can become a stable and sustainable platform for high-level theoretical achievements and a window showcasing original academic works by Chinese legal scholars. We know that turning this vision into reality requires not only the efforts of the publisher but, more importantly, the strong support and rigorous work of legal scholars in China and abroad. "A hall cannot be supported by a single pillar"; "A clear spring depends on the living water from its source." With these modest intentions, we respectfully invite your kind attention.