The Root of Legal Thought in Tang Dynasty

On the Legal System of China in Tang Dynasty

In the long-term historical development process, ancient Chinese legal culture is profound and has a long history. As one of the five legal systems in the world, Chinese legal system is one of its outstanding representatives. Tang Law is the most complete and representative code in China feudal society, which has a far-reaching influence on the legal history of China and Southeast Asia.

The Tang Dynasty inherited and developed the orthodox legal thought of "the combination of etiquette and law" in feudal society, emphasized the principle that social atmosphere needed the combination of morality and punishment, and highlighted the guiding role of ethics in law. The core of the legal system in the Tang Dynasty, On the Law of the Tang Dynasty, takes Confucian ethics as the guiding ideology of the law, and uses a large number of Confucian classics, and Confucianism is condensed into a kind of etiquette. It is the product of the combination of etiquette and law, which fully embodies the relationship between etiquette and law in ancient Chinese law. The content of Tang law follows the spirit and requirements of etiquette. In the Tang law, ceremony is the main basis for determining its general principles, charges and penalties. At the same time, it also incorporates a large number of feudal hierarchical identity differences, and describes in detail various legal relationships between kinship and inferiority and the consequences of legal actions. The general provisions in the Tang Law, in its first title law, embody the legislative spirit and basic principles of the whole code and restrict other unified contents.

On the Laws of the Tang Dynasty is a complete criminal code formulated by Tang Gaozong and a comprehensive feudal code. The combination of legal text and exposition is not complete, which embodies the unity and development of jurisprudence in Tang Dynasty. There are 12 laws in the Tang dynasty, and the structure is relatively simple. The simplicity of laws is also one of the principles of the legislation of the rulers in the Tang dynasty. The order of each law has its inherent logic, namely, naming cases, prohibition, job system, household marriage, stable storage, taking advantage of wealth, theft, litigation, fraud, miscellaneous laws, arrest to death and prison break. It records a great deal of information about politics, social economy in the Tang Dynasty, and is an important basis for studying the class relationship, hierarchical relationship, official system, military system, land system and tax system in the Tang Dynasty.

The basic feature of Yi Shu in the Tang Dynasty is a thorough, systematic and complete explanation of Yi Shu in the Tang Dynasty, which is the embodiment of the essence of ancient China law. Its interpretation of the law enriched the content of the law and its legal color, and established a legal system, thus making the ancient jurisprudence of China reach the highest level. It represents the highest achievement of feudal law in China and even the world. It consists of two parts: legal text and corresponding legal interpretation, with clear content and easy application; The provisions of the Tang law cover a wide range, and they are sparse but not leaking, which comprehensively safeguarded the stability of the feudal ruling order in the Tang Dynasty. The interpretation of the law in the Tang Dynasty is a concentrated expression of the experience of the interpretation of the law in ancient society, and all kinds of interpretations of the law are basically contained in this criminal law.

The laws of the Tang Dynasty were formulated on the basis of the Emperor's Law of the Sui Dynasty, which inherited the laws of the previous generation. According to the experience of feudal legislation and judicature since Qin and Han Dynasties, the Law of the Tang Dynasty sorted out some effective charges, criminal system and judicial principles, and made clear provisions on all major aspects of social relations. Therefore, it was a masterpiece of China's feudal laws before the Tang Dynasty, and it became the blueprint for the formulation and interpretation of feudal codes in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, which had a wide and far-reaching impact on the establishment and improvement of feudal legal systems in ancient Japan, Korea and Viet Nam.

Another important code in the Tang Dynasty is the Six Codes of the Tang Dynasty, which is an important document of the feudal state administrative system. This document, like A Brief Discussion on the Laws of the Tang Dynasty, had a great influence on the political and legal system of the later feudal society. It is the oldest existing administrative code in China, and its compilation is of great significance in the history of feudal legislation in China. Its formulation was not only a treasure of Tang Wenhua, but also played an important role in ensuring the political stability and the normal operation of state institutions in the Tang Dynasty, and had a far-reaching impact on the political, legal, economic and cultural development of later generations, which enabled the feudal administrative system in ancient China to last for more than 1,000 years. The Six Codes of Tang Dynasty brought together all the legislation with administrative nature, and after careful compilation, they kept pace with the statutory format, making the administrative code two basic systems alongside the feudal criminal law. This is not only a pioneering work in the history of feudal legislation in China, but also one of the signs of the maturity of China's administrative legal system, and it also plays an important role in the history of legal system in the Middle Ages of the world.

Law is the embodiment of the will and desire of the ruling class in a country. The history of peasant uprisings caused by the tyranny and harsh laws of the rulers of the Sui Dynasty left a deep impression on the founders of the Tang Dynasty. They accepted the historical lessons of the demise of the Sui Dynasty and took various measures to establish and stabilize the autocratic rule system. Li Shimin was a key figure in the formulation of national policies in the early Tang Dynasty. He has a profound and wise understanding of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. He stressed that in order to maintain long-term stability, we must implement enlightened rule, attach importance to the law, combine leniency with severity in criminal law, and emphasize the means of governing the country with morality as the mainstay and punishment as the supplement. Legislative activity is one of the important contents. In order to restore the economy, stabilize the situation and consolidate the ruling order, the rulers of the early Tang Dynasty formulated a set of five feudal punishments (including flogging, flogging, imprisonment, exile and death penalty) on the basis of summing up the experience of the previous dynasties, which has been praised by later generations.

In the early Tang Dynasty, amending statute law was the main content of legislative activities. In the late Tang dynasty, "compilation" became the main content of legislative activities in the late Tang dynasty and the main form of adjusting laws according to the needs of the situation. The legal system in the late Tang Dynasty is not only a continuation of the legal system in the early Tang Dynasty, but also a copy of the legal system in the early Tang Dynasty. In the late Tang Dynasty, the status of Sui became more and more important. It has not only become a formal code, but also its legal effect and scope of application far exceed laws, decrees, forms and forms, while the latter mostly become words.

To sum up, the Chinese legal system, as one of the five legal systems in the world, has been in a leading position in the legal development process of the world for a long time, and has influenced neighboring countries and become the dominant legal system in the vast areas of East Asia, in which the legal system of the Tang Dynasty played a decisive role. It is a mature form of China's traditional legal system, which forms the characteristics of China's legal system and lays the theoretical foundation of China's legal system.