Chen's research characteristics

As an important representative of a new generation of legal historians in China after the reform and opening up, Professor Chen has made great achievements in China's traditional legal culture, legal research in Tang and Song Dynasties, the history of contemporary China's legal thoughts, the comparison between Chinese and Western litigation cultures, and the methodology of legal historiography, especially in the field of judicial tradition research in Song Dynasty. With his creative academic achievements, he has made outstanding contributions to the prosperity and development of legal historiography after the reform and opening up, and has an academic position that cannot be ignored. His main academic achievements are:

(A) the legal history of the Yuan Dynasty

In 1980s, Professor Chen put forward the first textual research in "A Preliminary Study of Civil Procedure and Civil Regulations in Yuan Dynasty". It was not until February of the third year in Zhi Zhi, Yuan Yingzong that "litigation" became an independent provision for the first time by category, and there was a trend of separation between civil litigation and criminal litigation, with a relatively strict litigation system. This view has been widely quoted by the law circle, especially the procedural law circle, and has had a great response.

(2) The research field of the history of legal thought in contemporary China.

The book History of Contemporary China's Legal Thought, edited by Professor Chen, takes the legal thought of China's * * * production party as the main research object (65438-0997). At that time, the History of Legal Thought in China from 65438 to 0949 after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) was rarely discussed in the legal field, and there was no systematic monograph. Professor Chen made an in-depth and systematic study on the history of legal thought in China from the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) from 65438 to 0949 to the mid-1990s. The research object covers the legal thoughts of China's * * * production party, scholars engaged in legal education and research, democratic parties and personages without party affiliation. In the historical evolution, according to the clues of the new democratic legal system period, the people's democratic legal system period, the anti-rightist expansion of 1957 to the "Cultural Revolution" period, and the basic formation period of the socialist concept of rule of law, this paper expounds the internal laws of the development and evolution of legal thought. Summing up the historical experience and lessons, thus revealing the theme of "modern society must implement the rule of law", and making a valuable and innovative exploration in the research field of the history of legal thought in contemporary China.

(3) Study on the legal history of Song Dynasty.

As early as 1980s, Professor Chen proposed that the legal history of the Song Dynasty should be emphasized in the legal history of China. From 65438 to 0998, he published the article "The Legal Concept of Scholar-officials in the Song Dynasty" in Legal Research, paying attention to the relationship between the intellectuals in the Song Dynasty, who read the four books and five classics, were gentle, familiar with laws and regulations, engaged in public affairs, and "enjoyed the world and worried about the world", which was full of humanistic care and judicial tradition in the Song Dynasty. Professor Chen used the method of "sociology of understanding" of German sociologist Weber to put the "scholar-officials" group which had an important influence on the judicial tradition in Song Dynasty under the background of social transformation, and studied the influence of "scholar-officials" group on the judicial tradition in Song Dynasty from the perspective of social development. The combination of history and theory opened a new window for the study of legal history in Song Dynasty. Professor Chen is the deputy editor-in-chief of the Song Volume of China Legal System published in 1999. This book is an important part of the national social science key project "General History of Legal System in China" during the Seventh Five-Year Plan and the Eighth Five-Year Plan. Professor Chen stayed up all night, took on the main task of writing this book, and assisted the editor-in-chief Professor Zhang to unify the manuscript and write more than 250 thousand words. Professor Chen's works, based on detailed historical data, integrate the legal thought and legal system of the Song Dynasty, and make incisive and profound exposition on the legislative thought and activities of the Song Dynasty. Professor Chen's efforts have made an important contribution to the success of this set of books. After the publication of this set of books, it is considered to be a comprehensive summary of the research on legal historiography in the past 100 years, and it can be called the century work of legal historiography. Mr. Huang Jingjia, a famous legal historian in Taiwan Province Province, once commented: "A magnificent masterpiece sums up historical experience with an incisive sentence and reviews China's inherent legal tradition with scientific methods in modern society. Such famous mountains and thriving industries should be enough to shine forever. " From June 5438 to February 2000, The General History of Legal System in China won the National Book Award. Since then, Professor Chen has published several works, such as Virtue Principles and Trial Art in the Judicial Activities of Scholar-officials in Song Dynasty, Modern Interpretation of Judicial Tradition in Song Dynasty, Litigant, Litigation and Scholar-officials-the Transformation and Significance of Judicial Tradition in Song Dynasty, Litigant and Lawyer: Differences and Significance of Chinese and Western Judicial Traditions, and Textual Research on Judges, Judicature and Jurisprudence in Song Dynasty. This paper makes an in-depth study of the judicial tradition and Chinese and Western legal culture in the Song Dynasty from different angles, emphasizing the reinterpretation of history with modern consciousness and excavating the historical resources that can be used for reference in the narrative of judicial tradition, thus demonstrating the vitality and distinctive research characteristics of China's legal history. Related papers have been reprinted many times by Xinhua Digest, China Social Science Digest, China Renmin University Copy Materials, Lawyer Digest, etc., which has aroused widespread concern in academic circles at home and abroad.

(4) The relationship between China's legal tradition and modern society.

That is, the historical reference of legal history. Professor Chen believes that tradition and modernity are not separated, and there is an inherent inheritance relationship between them. Tradition is the predecessor of modernity, and modernity is the continuation of tradition. Professor Chen believes that the so-called legal history mainly refers to the West, while the history of China has nothing to do with the law, and the judicial tradition has no reference. He further pointed out that "in the past century, the mainstream of China's history, whether politically or culturally, mainly criticized tradition, learned from the West, especially Chinese mainland, and even lacked confidence in its own history". "In the eyes of some scholars, there is nothing new and no historical resources to inherit in ancient China except autocracy, cruelty and darkness. In fact, this is a serious misunderstanding of the ancient judicial tradition in China, and it is also a blind eye to the lack of real memory of its own history. " . As far as the study of Chinese legal history is concerned, he thinks that we should pay attention to how to reinterpret history with modern consciousness, so as to feel the ancient history of China in the narrative of judicial tradition, through historical texts and the spiritual world, so as to discover the reasonable legal operation mechanism and the pursuit of fairness and justice in ancient Chinese legal tradition, and provide historical resources for the rule of law construction in China in the new century. Jurisprudence and law are not only technical terms to protect human material interests, but also related to the wisdom of life. The instrumental rationality of modern rule of law cannot solve all the problems of human life. On the contrary, China's legal culture is more meaningful here, because China's laws not only solve the problem of human life, but also pay more attention to the meaning of life. For example, the humanistic spirit of "respecting life, paying attention to prisons and caring for justice" of the scholars in the Song Dynasty is consistent with the judicial idea that China tried hard to pursue, and both tradition and modernity are seeking the balance of power and the realization of judicial justice in order to realize this idea, which also reflects the "fusion of horizons" between tradition and modernity. Professor Chen pointed out that although the history and judicial tradition of the Song Dynasty have long been turned into historical traces, the problem lies in how we modern people use our brains to ignite the spark of inspiration and activate those memories buried under the dust of history.

(5) Methodology of legal history research.

Professor Chen has his own unique views on. In the 1990s, faced with the strength of western culture and the mature achievements of western rule of law, scholars were inevitably influenced. They "not only wove the beautiful ideal of China's future rule of law with terms in western jurisprudence, but also cut the history and tradition of China with the knowledge pedigree of western jurisprudence" (reflecting on the typology method in the study of legal history-another way of thinking in the study of China's legal history). Professor Chen believes that "typology" method needs to be reflected in the study of legal history. Of course, the reason why the law circle pursues Weber's theory so much lies in its profound thoughts, while the contemporary law circle advocates the western civilization ruled by law and despises or even ignores the inherent tendency of the national tradition, which is a more profound reason. Faced with this situation, Professor Chen profoundly pointed out that western scholars, represented by Weber, are based on the west and solve western problems. Even in their works, they made a judgment on China, but after all, they didn't specifically study the China issue, and the historical materials they were based on were inevitably biased. Although "Watching the Moon through the Curtain" is full of insights, it can't be regarded as a strict academic evaluation of China's research. Professor Chen pointed out that, first of all, we should admit that China and the West have different legal traditions and forms of expression. "Law, as a kind of life wisdom, is ultimately produced to solve the problems in human life." Different times and different societies (nations) have different thoughts on the concept, norms and principles of law based on different understandings of the meaning of life, resulting in different legal wisdom. However, as the legal wisdom to solve social problems, it is bound to have certain universality because it points to the same human life. In this sense, Professor Chen profoundly expounded that the Chinese and Western legal traditions lie in: 1. Pursuing the legality of law; 2. Law is not a simple embodiment of the will to power; 3. Restrict power. The trend in three aspects is the same. At this point, Professor Chen returned to the theme of his research-scholar-officials, litigators and petty officials in the judicial tradition of the Song Dynasty, and pointed out that his research was to understand the relationship between the social behavior of these three groups as successors, defenders and executors of the legal tradition of the Song Dynasty and the judicial tradition of the Song Dynasty from the perspective of legal order. Professor Chen disagrees with Weber's assertion that the ancient Chinese legal system and judicial tradition have remained unchanged for thousands of years from the perspective of typology, and also disagrees with his assertion that there is no logical reasoning in ancient China's justice, but only "Kadi justice" based on contextual interpersonal situational reasoning. However, the theoretical basis against his assertion is "Weber's concern for legal persons in major legal systems in the process of studying legal legitimacy and its development". Professor Chen proposed "to understand China's legal tradition from the internal logic of China culture and to explore the value of legal culture from the perspective of life wisdom.

As a law educator, Professor Chen has long devoted himself to teaching and educating people. With a rigorous academic attitude and solid academic foundation, he showed the rich legal wisdom and legal culture in China traditional society (especially in the Song Dynasty) through lively explanations, paying attention to enlightening students' minds, teaching them to "understand the legal history of China from the perspective of life wisdom" and guiding them to seriously observe and think. As the dean of the Law School of Henan University, in order to improve students' academic level and ability to independently carry out scientific research work, integrate the strengths of various schools, and enable students to absorb all aspects of academic nutrition, he has widely hired academic masters and celebrities at home and abroad such as Jiang Ping, Jiang Wei, Qi Duojun, He Weifang, (Taiwan Province), Qi, Chen as professors. During more than 20 years of legal education, he has trained many undergraduate, master and doctoral students in law. Most of them have become the main leaders or business backbones of political and legal organs, universities and other institutions. Many years later, many students still remember Professor Chen's teaching. Professor Chen's "20 years of hard work, peaches and plums all over the world" has made outstanding contributions to legal education in Henan and even China.