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

Author: Hu Xusheng
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: The Chinese nation has a long tradition of academic culture. 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 country, the development of classical academic culture in China has been uneven and has had its shortcomings. Notably, although we have a long tradition of written law, the study of law as an academic 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. However, the turbulent history of China over the past century has made it difficult for law to take a smooth path, often oscillating between imitating foreign legal systems and annotating existing laws. During the decade of the Cultural Revolution, it was even completely halted. With both inherent weaknesses and inadequate nurturing, 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 in-depth theoretical exploration. While law is indeed more closely linked to real-life realities than natural sciences, this does not mean it is merely a mirror of social life experience or just an echo of existing state law. Law should have a transcendent aspect—it must provide guidance for existing law at both the value level and the level of theoretical analysis. Constructively, it needs to maintain a critical nature. Against the specific academic background of China, it must seek a reasonable balance between foreign theories and inherent traditions, pursuing moderate transcendence. Thus, it can not only provide a blueprint for the modernization of China's 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 precisely 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 the original academic works of Chinese legal scholars. We know that turning this vision into reality requires not only the efforts of publishers but, more importantly, the strong support and rigorous work of legal scholars in China and abroad. "A hall of talents is not a single branch of a tree"; "A clear spring depends on the living water from its source." With these modest intentions, we respectfully request the discernment of the wise.