What are the characteristics of traditional Chinese legal culture?

1. The national governance model of "from rites to punishment" and "virtue and punishment"

Rites originated from religious ceremonies in ancient Chinese society, and were transformed into behavioral norms reflecting the hierarchical order after entering the class society. Its main function is to "distinguish the noble from the lowly, and to order the inferiority and the superiority".

According to Confucianism, in order to govern the country, we cannot be strict and severe in punishment, and we should not kill by killing. The provisions of criminal law must be based on ethical norms, and we should evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of legislation, justice and law enforcement in accordance with the principles of ethics and morality. Moral adjustment is the main, supplemented by legal (penal) adjustment, so as to maintain the good and simple social order.

2. The spiritual value of harmony

The core of the traditional legal culture of Confucianism is the legal concept of harmony. Confucian culture advocates "love, harmony, integrity, mediocrity", "gentleman and different", "harmony is precious", "self-restraint and return to propriety "treat others with sincerity", "do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you", etc. They believe that harmony is more effective than conflict in maintaining social order, emphasize harmony and unity, and advocate "harmony", "mediocrity", and "harmony". "

Pursuing the homogeneity and balance of society as a whole, it seeks to achieve the normal operation of the social and political order, and takes the stability of the political order as its highest goal.

3. The judicial principle of artificially depreciating litigation and pursuing a litigation-free society

Harmony is the highest value of Chinese culture. For thousands of years, the highest standard of dispute resolution is "harmony", feudal officials in the trial is to avoid litigation, focus on mediation, peace as a good thing. As a result, the Confucian legal ideals of "a world without lawsuits" and "a world without thieves" were formed.

4, "heavenly", "national law", "humane" combination, focusing on mediation dispute resolution mode

Chinese ancient society was mainly agricultural and agricultural. p>China's ancient society is mainly agricultural natural economy. The people lived in clusters by blood ties and in neighborhoods by geography, and their relationships with each other were intertwined and intertwined. In this socio-economic and cultural tradition, living in harmony was both a need of the masses and a hope of the rulers.

In the strong support of the government, the ancient generally prevalent clan mediation, neighboring friends and relatives mediation, grass-roots mediation and county and state mediation. This shows that mediation to resolve disputes, both the mass base and the government needs, the imperial court oracle, township rules and regulations and family law to become an important way to solve a large number of civil and minor criminal cases in the ancient society of the country.

5, compassionate people's feelings, cautious punishment of the humanized legal system

In the ancient Chinese feudal legal system for more than two thousand years, based on the people-oriented thinking and the moral and penal system to support the need for national governance, in the criminal law there are a lot of compassion for the people, the light sentence and light punishment of the humanized system, these valuable legal features. These valuable legal qualities and civilized traditions are undoubtedly important historical references for the construction of the rule of law in China today.