Legal Systems And Social Orders In Tang & Song Dynasties

The legal systems of Tang & Song Dynasties compromised a vital stage of the whole ancient Chinese legal systems' development—succeeding the former and enlightening the latter. The Penal Complex of Song succeeded The Tang Code so closely that it is possible for us to make a research into the two dynasties' legal systems together. The transformation of Tang & Song Dynasties is also a key and heated theme in the historical circle. It is of great significance to study the social pattern of Tang & Song together, with the legal systems as the entry. The dissertation consists of 9 chapters, summed up as the following 4 aspects:1, The relationship between legal systems and other constitutions, cultural phenomena. The Introduction, as a separate chapter, deals with the ancient rituals and proprieties' origin of the legal system, and the various expressive forms of the combination of proprieties and law;The attributes of legal systems and its relation with the predominate political and philosophical ideologies: Familial Law being the basis of National Law. the 8th chapter deals with the relation between law and Imperial Examinations. The change in social strata made by the Imperial Examinations also caused the judicial officials' quality to be enhanced drastically: more winners in the Examinations were enrolled in the judicial officials' band;administrative abilities were more stressed (including the judicial ability).2, Frames of the legal systems. The 1^st chapter deals with the text of law and the legislation, explaining the transformation from Lu(law), Ling (edict), Ge (amendment) , Shi(regulation) into Chi (imperial order), Ling (edict), Ge (amendment) , Shi (regulation) and the frequent utility of Li (precedent cases), stressing the royal intervention and the enhanced flexibility. The 2nd chapter deals with the issue of penal punishment involving the basic traditional Five Punishments (flogging with a whip, flogging with a stick, imprisonment, banishment, death penalty), which was the nucleus of ancient Chinese legal systems, not only suppressing the people, but also measuring the degree of seriousness when the officials committed crimes (though they could actually substitute the punishments by deprivation of office, redemption by paying copper or coins, but the Five Punishments in the law decides on the seriousness of the administrative punishment). The 3rd chapter deals with the judicial charges, with the "Ten Arch Crimes" as the nucleus, including murder, robbery(theft), loot, adultery and imposture, etc.3, Issues of judicial procedures. Mainly contained in the 4th chapter, it covers the procedures of launching a lawsuit, holding a trial and the regulations about court verdicts, setting forth the propositions of the enforcement of imperial justice;the thicker classical scriptural academics than its lawful meaning;the primitiveness of court verdicts in Tang & Song Era compared with those of the posterity. Besides, the 8^th chapter also covers the some details of the judicial procedures when it reaches the apparatuses such as the Three Councils, the Censor ate, the Great Court, the Board of Punishment, the Judicial supervisors'Bureau, etc, in another perspective.4, The legal systems' should develop towards equality , which is generally regarded as a tendency. However* during this progress, social strata and worldly human relationships intervened and actually caused the inequality of the legal systems. The legal prerogatives seemed to be projecting, which varied and changed frequently and drastically during the Tang & Song Era. The 5th chapter deals with the imperial prerogatives involving the emperor's amnesty power and its impact exerted on the legal and judicial systems. It is just the inevitable feature of the legal and judicial systems under the monarchical politics. The 6th chapter deals with the prerogatives of the officials and nobles. What with the decline the nobles and what with the more chance for plebs to enter the officials' band under the developed national Imperial Examinations, the traditional Eight Deliberations became nominal, the Deprivation of Offices in exchange for Punishment was strengthened, the Redemption of punishment by Paying Copper or Coins was descending, even to the ordinary people. The 7th chapter goes through the Familial Law ruled under the National Law, with "Z/a?z?o"(to be punished for being related to or friendly with somebody who has committed an offence) as the gateway, depicting the life status of the joint family, especially the phenomena of settling and suppressing official lawsuits by means of Familial Law, Joint Family Regulation and neighbors' Contracts. It also mentions the decline of the Familial Law's influence rightly since the South & North dynasties, and its direct outcome of the weakness of Familial Law and strengthening ofNational Law in the Tang & Song Era. But, Familial Law is still the basis of the National Law. With the activities and advocates of the Song Confucians, Li School (a Confucian school of idealist philosophy) , the foundation of the joint families and Amiable Village became predominate after until Song and latter posterities.