China's ancient dynasties of the law to maintain ethical morality?

In the ancient Chinese law, the rite occupies an important position, "for the first rite, the rite for the government," the rite is both a moral code, but also legal norms.

Qin Shi Huang to the rule of law, the early Western Han Dynasty is largely "hegemony of the road mixed". Since Emperor Wu "dismissed the hundred schools, revere only Confucianism", Confucianism has become the dominant political ideology, based on which gradually formed a system of feudal legal thought with the rites and laws as the basic characteristics of the merger.

Maintaining the "Three Principles and Five Constants" became the core content of the feudal code of law, and the principle of the rule of law was based on the principle that virtue should be supported by punishment, and rites and punishments should be used in conjunction with the rule of law. From "citing the scriptures to decide on prisons", the implementation of autumn and winter execution, to the "ten major crimes" and "eight proposals" provisions, many legal contents are based on the Confucian hierarchical and ethical relationships as a conviction or pardon Many laws are based on Confucianism's hierarchical and ethical relationships as the criteria for conviction or pardon, and have been honored by successive rulers.