A Historical Lecture on the Integration of Ritual and Law in Chinese Traditional Legal Culture

Author: Shi Guangquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The integration of rites and law is a major topic in legal history. Since the establishment of the discipline of legal history, it has attracted the attention of numerous scholars. To this day, the focus on it has not diminished. Enduring and ever-renewing, this is perhaps a prominent characteristic of the study of the integration of rites and law. The following aspects of this book differ from previous research on the integration of rites and law: , In terms of structure, it combines rational perspective with historical evolution. This means combining horizontal and vertical research, as well as synchronic and diachronic research. Second, in terms of methodology, it adopts a cultural studies perspective and combines research methods from institutional history and intellectual history. The construction at the institutional level and the trends at the spiritual level are interactive, and the evolution of the relationship between rites and law at the institutional level is often linked to the evolution of the thoughts of thinkers. Third, in terms of the historical period of research, it extends both backward and forward. Previously, the focus of research was often concentrated on the Han to Tang dynasties, artificially narrowing the historical space of the study. It should extend backward to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and forward to the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Fourth, it divides the historical evolution of the integration of rites and law into "legal moralization" and "moral legalization," summarizing two models of the integration of rites and law. Fifth, it increases the study of the role of family laws and clan rules after the Song dynasty in the development of rites and education in the process of the integration of rites and law.