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Three Periods of China's Ancient Legal System
Slave society period

At the end of primitive society, the ritual centered on ancestor worship ceremony gradually evolved from habit to law. The legal system in the early summer was still in its infancy, and the legal concept of "Yu punishment" recorded in Zuo Zhuan, that is, the crime of punishing heaven, was probably the customary law accumulated by Kai and his successors according to the customs of the later clan. By the Shang Dynasty, the law with criminal law as the main body in ancient China had begun to take shape, and the so-called "criminal name followed business". Five punishments (Mo, Mo, Mo and Gong) were popular in Shang Dynasty, but the punishment methods were not standardized and there was no strict punishment system.

In the early Spring and Autumn Period, the vassal states basically followed the laws of the Western Zhou Dynasty. After the middle period, the Jing Tian system was destroyed, the county system gradually replaced the enfeoffment system, the monarchy declined, the regime moved down, the patriarchal clan system declined, slavery collapsed, and the feudal system was gradually established. Due to the change of economic base and class relationship, the legal system has changed, and the most important reform is that the vassal States have published written laws centered on the protection of private property. When Zheng was in power, it was the first time that China officially published a written code. The bamboo punishment created by He Deng is easy to carry and spread, which is a great progress in the history of legal development.

Early feudal society

During the Warring States period, the landlord class who gained political power in various vassal States used the power of political power to carry out political reform movements aimed at developing and consolidating feudal relations of production and establishing feudal politics in various countries. Li Kui of Wei formulated the Code, which is divided into six chapters: thief, thief, net (or prisoner), arrest, miscellaneous and preparation. The legislative skills are initially mature, which can be called the first systematic feudal code in the history of China and the origin of later codes.

Later, when Shang Yang entered the Qin State to preside over the reform, he brought the code into Qin, and in the process of reform, he adapted the code into the Qin law, replacing the French word with the French word, emphasizing the universal applicability, stability and necessity of the law, which was a stable and universal rule. Since then, China's ancient codes have been named after French characters. After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, he continued to carry out the legalist thoughts and policies since Shang Yang's political reform. Among them, Han Fei's thought of combining law, technique and potential, which centered on the rule of law, had a great influence on Qin Shihuang's political power and legal activities and became his guiding ideology. There were many legal orders in Qin dynasty, and the style and content were quite complete, and the judicial institutions and litigation systems were gradually formed.

After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Xiao He added three chapters of household law, promoting law and stabilizing law to the six chapters of Fa Jing, resulting in nine chapters of law, commonly known as Han law. In Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu put forward the rule of governing the country with both rigidity and softness, which was the guiding ideology of the legal system in Han Dynasty after Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Great changes have taken place in the penalty system, so far the penalty system in China has moved from barbarism to civilization and progress. In the judicial system, there are central and local judicial organs, litigation and trial systems. "Prison Sentence in the Spring and Autumn Period" is a direct embodiment of the infiltration of Confucian culture into the legal system. Its essence is: it is necessary to investigate the motives of the perpetrators according to the facts of the case; Those people with evil motives will inevitably bear criminal responsibility even if they attempt to commit a crime; The first offender will be severely punished; Those who have no evil thoughts subjectively will be given a lighter punishment.

Great achievements were made in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, such as the new law of Wei, the law of Jin in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (also known as Taishi Law), the law of Linzhi Pavilion in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the great unification of the Western Wei Dynasty, the law of Northern Qi Dynasty and the law of Northern Zhou Dynasty. During this period, the feudal legal form became more and more complete, the constitution was more and more scientific, the penalty system was more and more standardized, and the etiquette and law were more and more integrated, among which the law of the Northern Wei Dynasty was the origin of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In order to safeguard the privileges of the landlord class, the "eight opinions" and "official duties" were written into the law. The so-called "eight opinions" refers to the provisions that eight categories of people commit crimes and enjoy exemption from punishment and commutation according to law. "Official position" means that an official commits the crime of imprisonment and is allowed to use official goods and titles to make amends according to law. In the litigation system, the "Deng Wengu" direct complaint system was established. Deng Wengu is located outside the court. Those who are dissatisfied can play drums directly to the emperor or the Central Chief Justice. This system was used until after the reform in Qing Dynasty.

The development period of feudal society

The connecting link between the preceding and the following is the Huang Kai Law of the Sui Dynasty, which has significantly improved the text style and basic content compared with the previous feudal code. It is a summary of the laws since Qin and Han Dynasties, which laid the foundation for the laws of the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty took "morality as the foundation of politics and religion, and punishment as the purpose of politics and religion" as the legal guiding ideology, which pushed the feudal legislation to a peak, including the Law of Military Morality, the Law of Zhenguan, the Law of Yonghui, the Law of Shu State, the Law of Kaiyuan, the General Classification of Criminal Laws of Dazhong, and the Six Codes of Tang Dynasty. Among them, Yonghui Law and Law Book are the most famous. This paper summarizes the experience of legislation and legal annotation since the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties, not only traces back the main legal principles and systems in history, explains their evolution, but also quotes Confucian classics as the theoretical basis of law as much as possible. Make "sparseness" and "law" have the same legal effect, and from then on "all prisons in the world are based on sparseness" has become the legal basis for unified interpretation of the law. Civil, administrative and criminal legislation is unprecedented.

The Criminal Law of the Song Dynasty, which was formulated in the early Song Dynasty, was the first feudal code published in the history of China. The legal characteristics of this period are: confirming the feudal tenancy relationship and the system of selling farmland houses, strengthening the control of judicial power through activities, and the punishment is more cruel. The abuse of torture such as breaking sticks, stabbing and matching is a retrogression of the criminal system.

The legislation of the Yuan Dynasty includes Da Za Sa, Zhi Yuan homing pigeon, Da Tong Yuan Zhi and Yuan Zhang Dian. There was no obvious progress in the development of the legal system in this period, which had several characteristics: ethnic discrimination and oppression were carried out, and the people were divided into four classes: Mongolian, Semu, Han and southerner; Cruel suppression of the resistance of the peasant class; Maintain the cruel exploitation and oppression of farmers by the landlord class; Confirm the legality of keeping handmaiden; While inheriting the laws of the Han nationality, it also retains the customary law of the Mongolian nationality.

Late feudal society

The laws of the Ming dynasty are much stricter than those of the Tang dynasty, and the so-called "which is lighter?" Ming Taizu's guiding ideology is "ruling chaos with heavy code". Daming Law has increased and enriched the content of strengthening centralization and absolutism, and it is a feudal code that has developed compared with the law of Tang Dynasty. Ming Taizu personally formulated Da Gao, collected typical cases in which officials and people punished crimes with severe punishment at that time, and formulated new legal norms. Ming Taizu admonished his subjects, which directly reflected the idea of severe punishment. In order to adjust the powers and responsibilities of the organs of feudal state and better concentrate on the central government, the administrative code "Da Ming Hui Dian" was formulated.

Laws of the Qing Dynasty is the last feudal code in the history of China. Kang Xi copied the Ming Hui Dian in the Qing Dynasty and formulated the Kang Xi Hui Dian, which was later revised by Yongzheng and other four dynasties. The management, examples and principles of activities of administrative organs at all levels from the founding of the Qing Dynasty to Guangxu years were recorded in detail. It is the most complete administrative regulation in China feudal times, and it is also the confluence of administrative legislation in China feudal times.

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