The two-sided influence of the traditional Chinese rites and laws system on the folk life of Chinese society

The combination of rites and laws is the core of traditional Chinese culture: for thousands of years of traditional Chinese legal culture, its core feature is the combination of rites and laws, which also makes it synonymous with the Chinese legal system, and profoundly influences the development of Chinese legal culture in the later generations, and at the same time has a guiding effect on the Southeast Asian countries in the Confucian cultural circle. From this point of view, the analysis of the historical lineage of the introduction of rites into law and the combination of rites and law will help us to understand the traditional Chinese legal culture more profoundly and help us to learn the history of legal development in China.

The development of the system of rites and laws has a slow process: after the change of law by Shang Yang in Qin, the guiding ideology of "law-based, severe punishment and harsh law" dominated, and the principles of "rule of law" and "heavy punishment" were pushed to the extreme, with a large number of severe punishment and harsh law. The principle of "rule of law" and "heavy punishment" was pushed to the extreme, and a large number of harsh punishments and harsh laws were used to carry out brutal rule, but even so, feudal rites and rituals also occupied a certain position in the Qin Laws. During the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu and his advocacy of the "virtue and punishment, rituals and laws" of the legal thought formally on the stage of history. He was guided by the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, and formally put forward the legal thought of "Virtue and Punishment". He pointed out that the heavenly universe is composed of yin and yang, which are indispensable to each other, but the status of the two sides is not the same, with yang as the main and yin as the auxiliary, and there are more yangs than yins. Corresponding to the yin and yang, the relationship between virtue and punishment is also the same, that is, virtue is the yang, the main birth; punishment is the yin, the main kill. According to the doctrine of heaven and man: feudal rulers must act in accordance with the way of heaven to govern the country. Therefore, based on the theory of yang and yin, moral and criminal legal thought is formed, which emphasizes the moral and ritual education, punishment and punishment as a supplement, the implementation of the first moral and then criminal, moral and criminal and the combination of rites and laws of the principle of the Han "Nine Chapters of the law" in the maintenance of the ritual system, the high Lord Liu Bang ordered Dr. Shusun Tong presided over the development of etiquette, annexed to the "Nine Grass Laws" after the "Pongzhang Laws". The Pangzhanglü's eighteen articles are all norms for adjusting the system of etiquette, which is an important part of the Han law. The supreme ruler also issued many "orders" to strengthen the legal protection of feudal etiquette, and in order to embody the Confucian principle of compassionate punishment, Emperor Xuan Di's Yuankang four-year period (62 B.C.E.), the first year of the reign of Emperor Xuan Di. In order to reflect the Confucian principle of compassionate punishment, Emperor Xuan's Yuankang four years ( 62 B.C.) stipulated that the elderly over 80 years old would not be held criminally liable for other crimes except for false accusations of killing or wounding; and Emperor Cheng's Hongjia one year (20 B.C.) stipulated that children under 7 years old who fought and killed someone or who had committed a capital offense could ask the court captain to waive the death penalty. The law allowed certain relatives to conspire with each other to hide and harbor crimes without being held criminally liable. For example, in the fourth year of Emperor Xuan Di Jie's reign (66 B.C.), a decree was issued: "To this day, a son who hides his parents, a wife who hides her husband, and a grandson who hides his oldest parent are not to be seated. Parents hide their children, husbands hide their wives, and grandparents hide their grandchildren, all of whom are guilty of the crime of death, and they are asked to report to the court." This kind of relatives have to hide the principle of mutual concealment is actually a typical depiction of the feudal system of etiquette. The provisions of the Han law on marriage and family law is the content of the ritual, such as the divorce system in the "seven abandoned, three do not go" and other provisions of the Western Han Dynasty, "the Lord of Virtue and the punishment of the auxiliary, the rites and laws," the Confucian ethical rites and laws of the Confucian system at that time played a positive role, and the later generations of feudal legislation has had a far-reaching impact.

After thousands of years of development of several dynasties, the combination of rites and laws finally reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty: Li Shimin removed the previous Confucianism and law of the two schools of thought to refute the prejudice of the two schools of thought, the fusion of the use of rites and punishments since the Han since the two hands of the rule of the experience, and clearly put forward the virtue of the rites and penalties complementary to each other as an indispensable. Emperor Tang Taizong said, "The prohibition of the loss of etiquette is written in the Book of Penalties." Changsun Wuji was ordered to compile the "Yonghui Laws", in the "name of the Ordinance" chapter pointed out that: "virtue and etiquette for the foundation of political education, punishment for the use of political education, as if the dusk and the sun and the autumn also need to become." Became the basic guiding ideology of the early Tang legal system, "Tang Law Review" in the provisions of the "ten evils", whether it is to jeopardize the emperor's person, power, dignity of the conspiracy against the emperor, treason, conspiracy and rebellion and great disrespect, or a serious danger to the order of the community of the wrong way, or to undermine the feudal ethical relations of the evil of the wrong way, filial piety, unholy and unrighteous and civil strife, all jeopardize the core of feudal rites - the power of the monarch. All of them jeopardize the core of feudal rites - the right of the ruler, the right of the husband, and the right of the father, reflecting the basic principle that the rites are the punishment of the people. Marriage and family, the Tang law vigorously defend the rule of patriarchal patriarchal system, in addition to the provisions of the male head of respect for the parents, but also give parents the right to property, the right to admonish their children and grandchildren and the right to marry; and so on these are reflected in the strong Confucian Confucian etiquette hierarchy, the Tang dynasty, "the Lord of the rites of the punishment," "virtue and etiquette for the foundation of the use of the penalty" ideas laid down and implemented.

The Tang Dynasty's "rituals and punishments" and the implementation of the idea of the Tang Dynasty's combination of rituals and laws reached the peak of China's feudal era, not only at that time on the rule of the feudal rulers played a positive role in the development of the legal system of the subsequent dynasties also played a guiding role.

In the modern era, the ritual law system ushered in a crisis, and ultimately failed to survive the catastrophe and died in the clouds of history: "Qing New Criminal Law" was not implemented because of the demise of the Qing Dynasty, but it was one of the most important new codes developed in the legal reform of the late Qing Dynasty. It was a new type of code in the modern sense, adopting the model of modern Western criminal codes. The new criminal law abandoned traditional criminal law ideas and principles to a certain extent and adopted the principles and terminology of modern Western criminal law ideas. In the process of revising the new criminal law, the Ritualists interrogated it many times, thus triggering the dispute between Ritual and Law. The new criminal law was a product of compromise between the two schools. Therefore, many feudalistic things were preserved in the criminal law. For example, after the text of the new criminal law, five articles of the Provisional Statute with strong patriarchal ethical color were added, in which some feudal provisions such as relatives committing crimes against each other were retained. This also represents the demise of China's ritual system that has lasted for thousands of years and the emergence of China's modern legal system.