Talk about the differences between Chinese and Western law from a cultural point of view

Western legal culture refers to the ancient Greek and Roman legal culture developed on the basis of Europe, North America and the region affected by the legal culture. As far as the Western legal culture is concerned, there are differences between the two in terms of the rule of man and the rule of law, obligations and rights, and attitudes toward the law. I will explain the reasons for the differences between Chinese and Western legal cultures from the following points

I. The economic bases of Chinese and Western countries are different

According to the Marxist point of view, the economic base determines the superstructure, and the law exists as a category of the superstructure, and therefore, the law is a reflection of the level of socio-economic development and adaptations, and it is created and developed with the needs of the economy.

(1) China is a traditional agricultural country, based on the natural economy

The natural economy of self-sufficiency is based on the family as the most basic production unit, which determines that people's activities are mainly confined to the family, the region, the limited space of kinship, the interaction between family members has become an important part of the interaction between people, and the ethical relations of family members have become an important part of social relations. The ethical relations between family members became an important part of people's social relations, and on this basis, the highest norms regulating the feudal family and marital relations were formed, that is, the most important ethical norms, i.e., the father is the father's program, and the wife is the husband's program. In traditional Chinese society, the state is formally based on the patriarchal bloodline family, forming a patriarchal state. The state is an amplification and direct extension of the family, a politicization of blood relations, and the principle of the king as a subject has become the supreme norm in the field of political life of the state. This is the enlargement and extension of the supreme norm regulating family and marriage relations in the field of political life. In regulating social relations, whether between families or in state adjustments, they will be closer to ethical social norms and have no affinity to the law. People do not have any independence or freedom, and all that society requires is obedience and obedience to orders. This cultural spirit of ethical dependence is the root of the rule of man in China. At the same time, this kind of dependence, this kind of obedience and obedience also contains actually emphasize is certain responsibility and obligation, people have no independence also can't talk about the right.

(2) The West has a long history of commodity economy, which is linked to the division of labor and exchange

The division of labor implies the division of interests and the formation of different economic interests. Different subjects of interest in order to meet their respective needs must be exchanged with other economic subjects economic subjects, which also means that there may be a conflict of interest between the different subjects of economic interest, so in order to make the exchange go smoothly must be formulated *** with the compliance of the legal rules to force the redistribution of benefits to protect the rights of social subjects. On the other hand, the commodity economy has lifted the bondage of personal dependence on human beings and made them independent. Everyone emphasizes his or her individual rights and freedoms and does not tolerate interference from others. In the market economy, no one wants to play the role of the individual to satisfy their personal interests. This requires the law to adjust the various needs between people to maintain a good market order, to protect the exchange of interests. In the conditions of commodity economy, people are more inclined to need to protect their rights through the law.

Second, Chinese and Westerners think differently

(a) From the ancient Chinese philosophical theory is always a grand overall view

The traditional Chinese philosophy, whether Confucianism or Taoism, emphasizes the overall view. "Everything under heaven is born in the presence of something, and something is born in the absence of something", where both the presence and absence are emphasizing the whole, and Laozi believed that the universe is a whole, i.e., the Tao. The whole itself has a certain degree of ambiguity, and this holistic view requires people to recognize and grasp the whole through intuition and sensibility when observing things, rather than being able to grasp it through logic. Therefore, based on this way of thinking, what China needs is not angular laws, but customs, habits, morals and so on, which have the generality and sensibility of the whole. They pay more attention to the heart of the individual, to the inner feelings of the person, to the inner emotional experience of the individual, and ultimately to a better grasp of the self by grasping the natural world. They see the changes in nature as the guide for their personal behavior, and this simplest use of nature reflects a kind of reverence for nature, which fails to separate people from nature and does not detach them from their dependence on nature. This dependence is reflected in the society, that is, man's dependence on man, and therefore, what is mapped out in Chinese philosophy is a kind of responsibility and obligation of man to man, which is also the philosophical hotbed of the rule of man in China.

(2) Western philosophy is a kind of constitutive theory, a way of thinking that emphasizes the unitary individual

Westerners believe that human beings are the main subjects of the universe, and that everything else is an object, and that human desires can be found in everything in the universe, and that the purpose of the existence of the natural world lies in satisfying human needs. Under their thinking, the subject and the object are opposites, which completely liberates the subject from the object and emphasizes the freedom and power of the individual. Everyone has the right to pursue personal interests and free from outside interference, but this will inevitably lead to conflict, which needs to be adjusted through the formulation of some rules to clarify the interests of the moral and ethical ambiguity so that he lost the possibility of regulation, can only rely on the mandatory law.

Three, the geopolitical environment of China and the West is different

From the geostructure, China is surrounded by the sea, plateau, grasslands, deserts and forests, and since ancient times, China has been a vast, rich in produce, which will form a nearly closed state of mutual isolation from foreign societies. They are accustomed to live in peace and security, fixed home is not good at activities, which formed the core of the cultural situation in the Central Plains, is the Chinese nation has a very strong national cohesion and centripetal force, which is the Chinese nation's best traditions, but on the other hand, this strong traditional force will be confined to the thinking of the countrymen, is that they are not easy to accept foreign cultures, it is difficult to be changed by foreign cultures, any to China's culture are y engraved on the Any culture that comes to China is y engraved with the Chinese seal and loses its original vitality. This also makes China lose the opportunity to communicate with foreign legal culture, China also lost the rule of law.

In the West, especially in ancient Greece and Rome, the birthplace of the Western method, they are located on the peninsula, sea transportation is more convenient than China. Philosopher Feng Youlan, in "A Brief History of the Development of Chinese Philosophy," categorized China as a continental country that enjoys mountains and is quiet, and the West as a maritime country that enjoys water and is active. He said, "Confucius said, 'Those who know are happy with water, those who are benevolent are happy with mountains; those who know move, those who are benevolent are quiet.'" Thus the environment around the water shaped the Westerners' dynamic character. They are good at business, which is the prototype of the Western commodity economy and the origin of the Western rule of law.