Lawyer's Tea House (Issue 9)

Author: Zhang Shibo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: As the saying goes, famous mountains and waters produce famous tea. Tea trees are originally wild plants, known as "the fine trees of the south," and are generally grown in warm and humid climates, with beautiful natural environments and sparsely populated mountainous areas. If the environment is damaged or polluted, the growth of tea trees will be affected, the taste of tea will change, and good tea will become inferior tea. Therefore, it can be seen that the quality of tea trees largely depends on the environment. The same applies to drinking tea. A refined environment and a tranquil atmosphere are the basic requirements for tea appreciation. If one is in a noisy and chaotic environment, even the most discerning tea connoisseur will find it difficult to appreciate the subtleties of tea drinking. In short, tea trees need a good environment, and drinking tea also needs a good environment. Therefore, creating and maintaining a good "tea environment" should be the common goal that all tea lovers strive for.
The rule of law also requires a corresponding environment. The rule of law is both a social management model and a social behavior pattern. In any country, the realization of the rule of law must be based on the behavioral habits of "playing by the rules" among its members, and the social environment plays a crucial role in shaping these habits. In a beautiful environment, people's behavior tends to be beautiful; whereas in an ugly environment, people's behavior tends to become ugly. In other words, the environment can change people's behavior. For example, many Chinese people have the bad habit of spitting everywhere, but they often restrain themselves in the clean and bright lobbies of five-star hotels. Many Chinese people lack the habit of obeying traffic rules, but they often behave properly when traveling abroad in well-ordered places. The reason is the environment. Therefore, for China to become a modern rule-of-law state, it must strive to build an "environment for the rule of law" that meets its needs.
The so-called "environment for the rule of law" refers to a social environment that ensures and encourages people to act according to legal rules. In such an "environment for the rule of law," abiding by the law is the basic behavioral pattern of people. Whether it is high-ranking government officials or ordinary citizens, everyone must honestly "play by the rules." In such an "environment for the rule of law," those who uphold the law are strong, and those who abide by the law are numerous. People with evil intentions or bad habits will, like spitting in the lobby of a five-star hotel, feel the pressure of the environment and consciously or unconsciously restrain their behavior.
Truly, creating such an "environment for the rule of law" is not an overnight or one-person effort, but we must start today and start with ourselves. The academic style and writing style in the field of law now deserve reflection: we may read the adversarial nature of law from Western systems but fail to notice the Chinese cultural emphasis on moderation; we may understand the paradigms of academic papers but cannot escape rigid language. Such an atmosphere inevitably confines people's thoughts within rigid frameworks.
The emergence of The Scholar's Tea House breaks this situation. The Tea House advocates speaking in the language of the common people, discussing their concerns, and exploring legal principles in their daily lives. It is fresh and innovative, without arrogance or rigid adherence, offering only equal exchanges and intellectual collisions. It brings law out of its lofty "ivory tower" and into the homes of ordinary people—this is the consistent pursuit of The Scholar's Tea House.