The Warring States Period And The Age Of Enlightenment Criminal Law Thinking Research

We are at the turning point of the history, which is the rise of modernization. Because the nature of modernization is open, competitive, and outstretched, it will sure to spread all over the world and all the aspects of human life. Although the oriental history is far longer than that of the West, an undisputed is that the civilization of criminal justice first took place in the West, while the Chinese legal system with a long history was not in the process of the modernization of criminal law.Some people think that the reason for this is that China has no ideology reform similar to that of the Enlightenment in the West. Actually, in the Warring States Periods of ancient China, the movement of ideological enlightenment was lunched, which took place one thousand years earlier than that of the West. It was called "the golden era of Chinese philosophy". Then not only a series of thoughts and systems were produced but also some great figures and works came into being. They are all influential to the development of criminal law in the world. A new era for both Chinese feudal society and western capitalist society started and became a key link in the human history.On the basis of this, those who believe that there is no enlightenment movement in the Chinese history are incorrect and irresponsible for the modem construction of Chinese cri inal law. In fact, the western humanism has been in a crisis since the 20th century. While the westerners are working hard on restoring and reshaping the humanism, the Chinese humane tradition and humanism draws the attention of the westerners again.The spirits of modern criminal law such as freedom, equality, and humanity are based on the respect for the awareness of individuality. Such kind of abstract awareness of individuality is the developed spirits of community economy. It is the root of the western spirits and the soul of modem criminal law. Being lacked of the awareness of individuality and giving excessive emphasis on the awareness of whole society, the traditional Chinese thoughts of criminal law established from the Warring States Periods went short of the gene of legality. The process of shaping the modern spirits pf Chinese criminal law is the one of combining Chinese and western thoughts and reconstructing the spiritual foundation of the contemporary criminal legality. To establish the character of modern criminal law needs to creatively convert the Chinese native resources of criminal law and to adopt and syncretize the international resources.This article is aimed to master the evolution and the historical condition of both Chinese and western criminal law spirits, to search the similarities and differences of the ideas of criminal law in the Warring States Periods and the Enlightenment era, to explore the historical and cultural origins thereof, to have a further understanding about the history of Chinese and foreign thoughts of criminal law, the tradition of criminal law, and the modernization of criminal law. A new train of droughts for the research on the modernization of Chinese criminal law is to be provided.IntroductionHistory is like a running river, while spirit is the controlling element therein. The thoughts of criminal law that seems to be limited in the field of criminal law is actually a cultural phenomenon. It is hard to understand it within the field of law, even within the field of ideological culture. The economy, society, and political reforms in the Warring States Periods and the Enlightenment era have been reviewed in the introduction in order to have a better understanding about the thoughts of criminal law of the Warring States Periods and the Enlightenment era.Chapter One: Human - oriented and criminal law humanity - the humanity basis of Warring States Periods and the era of EnlightenmentThis chapter firstly probed the connotation and the spiritual implication of humanity tradition, humanism and humanity foundation and pointed out that humanistic spirit is national, multiple, and in the category of culture. There is no nationalit...