| As well known, the eastern and western dynasties were prosperous and open times on the development of canons. They were also the period of the formation and development of the orthodox thought of feudal laws and their regulation in China. It's also known that Since the policy of "Discard the hundred schools and respect only Confucianism" of Emperor Hanwu, the development of legislation in Chinese ancient feudalism, for a long time, had made the thought of canon as their guidance, and the thought of Confucianism had stepped into the center of the politics from its peripheral position and influenced various aspects of social life in Han Dynasty.Simultaneously, this dynasty was significant for development of Chinese law. And with the guidance of governing the country with the thought of canons in Han Empire, "the focus of academics in Han was on the canons of Confucianism; the history of politics was called the canonic politics; and the legislation in Han was treating the canon as their law." The feudal legislation was conducted in accordance with the thought of Confucianism, which was just the spirit and soul for the construction of law in feudal China. Thus the hermeneutics of Han Dynasties had profound effect on Chinese culture of law. The traditional culture of law in China, a kind of "culture of rituals and laws" with the thought of Confucianism as the essence for the construction of the feudal laws in China, paid much attention to the intimating relationship between the rituals and the laws. Since its birth, the thought of Confucianism continued influencing the ancient Chinese people's conception of politics and legislation, and their practice of law. It became the unique feature of the oriented culture of law, and the core of Chinese legislative systems. The Confucian movement of law in Han dynasty was so vigorous that it bitted the dust and didn't declare its accomplishment until the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The fruit of this movement-- The Tang Law Dredges Opinion became the most typical representative of Chinese law system. After that, the Confucian movement of law was derived from the same origin and inherited by the governors in the dynasties of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing. Until late Qing, the Chinese legislative systems, which had been making the Confucianism of the culture of law as their tenor, declared their dissolution with the emergence of multi-systems of law and the subversion of the empire of Qing. In this sense, the study of Chinese ancient laws, if not taking the hermeneutic into its perspectives, or not taking the role and its influence of the conception of penal code and morality of hermeneutic in ancient law, obviously, would be inappropriate. Therefore, this thesis is to do some research on the relationships between the laws in Two Hans and their conceptions of penal code and morality of hermeneutics from the aspect of the latter and with the conceptions of penal code and morality as the cutting point, and further, to give a macro-certification on the core of the traditional culture of law—the rituals.Except the introduction and conclusion, the paper includes the following five chapters:Chapter one discusses the basic conceptions and the origin and development of the Pre-Qin Confucianism and its laws. First of all, this part, accordingly, explains several key words involved, such as the basic meaning of the penal code, the morality, and so on. Then the author analyses the formation of the ideas of law in the Pre-Qin Confucianism to demonstrate the formation of the conception of penal code and morality in the Pre-Qin Dynasty and the development of its thought of law. This part also points out the important role of the conception of penal code and morality in the thought of law in the Pre-Qin Dynasty. From the perspective of practice, the construction of the legality of ruling by using "morality" has a long history throughout the whole ancient society of China. Morality came into being the substantial, sometimes the decisive factor of the issue on the legality in Chinese traditional politics. Especially, if a king paid attention to his morality, and adopted the policy of benevolence, although his means of coming into power was not legitimate, the legality of coming into power still could be recognized by the people. It's not difficult to see that the Confucian of the pre-Qin had a great influence on the origin and development of the laws at that time.Chapter two analyses the establishment and development of hermeneutics of Han and its conception of penal code and morality from the perspective of the conception of penal code and morality. After the attack of making officials as teachers, laws as norms, serious punishment, and burning the books and burying the literati, the study of Confucian, with the efforts of the Confucian scholars, came to enter the center of the politics from peripherals by its adopting the advanced thoughts of other schools and its continuous development. From the perspective of its theoretical thought, the new school of Confucian was a tolerant open thought system: After its wide adoption of the conception of penal code and morality from the school of Daos, the means of making the ministers subjecting to the king, and the reform and development of many scholars of Confucian especially Dong Zhongshu, the new Confucianism formed a completely legal theoretical system of Chinese traditional ethical politics. This made the conception of penal code and morality, which had been disputed severely by the schools of Confucianism and legalism and once fought against each other, lay together in the field of the emperor's politics. Although the disciplines and laws, in fact, had been the basic language in Han's political lives, the ways of thought on law was still "rituals". The"rituals", advocated by the hermeneutics, was the most basic "laws", the origin of law. The current, although made it possible for the laws to become a new style of political norms, was still regarded as a means or an excuse to realize "ruling by rituals". The aim of penalty was not to reach the order of law, which our modern people are familiar with, but to realize the "rituals". This became the general knowledge after the emperors of Yuan and Cheng in western Han. Beginning with the establishment and development of the early Han's conception of penal code and morality of hermeneutics, the dissertation takes into consideration of both Daoism and legalism in the study of the early Han's ConfucianBy concretely analyzing the variation of the Confucian's thoughts in early Han and the growth of hermeneutics, the intrinsic relationships between the Confucianism, and the Daoism and the legalism, early Han's adoption of the Daoism and Legalism, the formation of the thought of Yin & Yang penal code and morality in current Confucian classics, the establishment and development of the conception of penal code and morality from the succession of Emperor Wu to the Shiquge Conference, this chapter totally demonstrates establishment of hermeneutic in Han dynasty and its development, and the formation of the conception of penal code and morality of hermeneutics.The third chapter analyses the conception of the penal code and morality in Han's hermeneutics and its thought of law, discusses the thoughts of law in Gongyang School, Guliang School, and the study of Confucian classics. The Gongyang School was a branch of the Confucianism with its unique nature in Confucian tradition. It was also a school with great power in Han's hermeneutics. In the study of current Confucian classics, the school of Gongyang, especially, distinct from others with unique academic tradition of its own. At present, the researches on the basic thought of the school of Gongyang are mostly from the perspectives of history and philosophy. However, except Dong Zhongshu's thought of law and waiting of prison in Spring and Summer, the circle of the history of law seldom concerns Gong yang's thought of law. While talking about the research of the awaiting of prison in Spring and Summer, mainly scholars, not on the standpoint of hermeneutic, hardly focus on the real intention of the awaiting of prison the Confucianism, but only stood on the level of some phenomenon. Mr. Jiangqing thinks: "the study of Gongyang is the political Confucianism that is different from the Confucianism of human nature; its anxiety is the anxiety of institutions; its practical aim is not for the present morality, but for the change of the systems and establishing laws". The main issues that Gongyang concerns are those of national politics and their laws, and the purpose that the scholars study Gongyang is to discuss politics by study, to correct the current mistakes, and establish laws for the Han dynasty. That's why there are rich thoughts of law in the study of Gongyang. Regretfully, by now, the research on the thoughts of law in the school of Gongyang has still hardly been seen. The author thinks that the study of Gongyang and their scholars' thoughts of law in Han Dynasty mainly manifests in the following aspects:Firstly, the thought of the combination of rituals and laws, and the interchange between the penalty and the morality in the conception of hermeneutics and power; Secondly, the thought of the king's supreme power, and the laws from the king in the Grand Unit; Thirdly, the thought of changing laws in the Three Unities; Fourthly, the thought of crimes for revenge in ethic order. During the middle and late periods of western Han, there arose the school of Guliang. Conclusively, from the essential content and its course of rising and developing of the conception of penal code and morality in the study of Guliang, the author finds its main thoughts of law are: First, the thought of ritual system; Second, the necessity of forgiveness in ruling by laws; Third, the thought of taking the people as the foundation; Fourth, the thought of morality before penalty. In Han Dynasty, besides the study of the current Confucianism, the study of the Confucian classics also arose in late western Han. The arising of the Confucian classics has its complicated political and cultural background, and it connected with the practice of politics and law in Western Han. While in Eastern Han, the hermeneutics of Confucianism was widely used in the operation of politics and law for "the officials who made great contributions in Eastern Han were all close to the Confucianism". This had great influence on the order of Han's politics and laws. This chapter analyses on the prominent thoughts of preferring ceremony to penalty, the opposition of revenge, the prevention of crimes, and the Proper Dharma against fate, and discusses further the effect of the Gonggu law's divergence on the thought of law in middle and late Western Han, and the divergence between current and the Confucian classics on the thought of law in Eastern Han. In this chapter, the author, describes and illustrates the thoughts of law in Two Hans' Confucianism comprehensively and systematically, and analyzes the thoughts of law and its transitional history in different schools of hermeneutics which the academic circle seldom concern.Chapter four gives a systemic illustration on the conception of penal code with morality in Two Hans, and the institutions of law in Han Dynasty. This part elaborates the relationships between the senses of hermeneutics and the forms of law, the system of discussing crime, the criminal code systems in Han Dynasty, the prison administration systems, and the relationships between the canons of Confucianism and the codes of law, and points out the signality of introducing the hermeneutics into the decree to the Confucian of Han's law, and the important role of the Confucian hermeneutics on the construction of the systems of law. Since the establishment of the Western Han, with the efforts of scholars in the early Han Dynasty, the Confucianism greatly developed. Furthermore, it had set off the thought of learning the canons of Confucianism. Especially, after Emperor Hanwu's adopted the policy of "Discard the hundred schools and respect only Confucianism", the canons played a very great role of integration to the society in Han Dynasty. "Governing the country is an important project in the study of Han's history." So far, however, there are still many issues that have never been studied further by the scholars Among them, the following two are especially stand-out: one is the influence of the Confucian canons on the forms of law, particularly the decrees, while the other is the starting time of the Confucian of Han's law.Currently, most of the scholars are of the opinion that these two events happened after the adoption of "Discard the hundred schools and respect only Confucianism", especially after the "the debating on crime in Spring and Summer". By analyzing the issues about Two Hans' hermeneutic and law in Historical Records, History of Han Dynasty, Post-Han Dynasty Record, Conference Record of Western Han, and Conference Record of Eastern Han, the author proposes that they appeared soon after the establishment of Western Han. During the early period of Western Han, the scholars of Han paid attention to the role of "keeping tradition". They kept changing the situation of "less elegance and more rituals " of ruling class in the inner part of the Han empire, which made the Confucian canons such as The Poetry, The Book and so on, have entered into the range of ruling class, and changed behavior of "looking down upon the Confucianism" the early Han's ruling class. Thus the Confucianism prospered in early Han's society. Deeply influenced by Emperor Gaozhu, and Emperor Hui,etc, Emperor Wen absorbed into more Confucian canons, and he created the precedent of "introducing the canons to the decrees." After Emperor Hanxuan acceded to the throne, he ordered to select filial piety in November, the third year of Dijie. He blamed himself for performing "the way of king", and declared that there be some defaults in the thought of Confucianism, so he said: "I already fall short, lead the people to be unclear, sleep poorly the early morning to be popular. Once pondering ten thousand sides, I can not forget the root..."then he conveyed the words: "the filial piety, is the root of kindness." "Then he ordered to recommend one person who is well known for his filial piety, and one for his kindness around the counties or kingdoms." Obviously, the hermeneutic conception of penal code and morality had already rooted deeply into the forms of law as decrees in Han Dynasty. After Han, the rituals, following China's process of being the Confucian, showed the trend from surface to substance. Concretely, it manifested the penetration of the meaning of canons to the laws and institutions in Han Dynasty. The conception of penal code and morality had a great effect on the systems of debating the crimes, prison administrations, the thought of hermeneutic, and the laws and institutions as well. Furthermore, the thought of five elements in yin and yang in hermeneutics influenced on the penal code significantly . It also made the five penal codes and others institutional and formal. In this chapter, the author, does systematic researches on the influence of the thought of five elements in yin and yang, which, especially, as "the rule of Chinese thought", was seldom considered by scholars who research the Chinese law.Chapter five discusses the conception of penal code and morality of Han's hermeneutics and its practice in law. In this period, as the development of hermeneutics, the conception of penal code and morality, under the influence of governing the country with hermeneutics, had penetrated into the legislation and justice of Han, and made great contribution to both of them. It also had a great and deep effect on the practice of law and put to the use that can't be underestimated. This chapter analyzes the canonization and Han's legislation, demonstrates the situation of the conception of penal code and morality of hermeneutics entering into the legislation in both central and local governments; gives a certain analysis on the practice of legislation and its style of the benevolent officials, the cannoned officials, and the skilled scholars, the phenomenon of the conception of penal code and morality entering into the Han's law and law's explanation of "different ideas and refuting others" in explaining the laws with canons, and the role that the chapters in hermeneutics play on those in laws. This part also discusses the responsibility of abusing the classics and breaking the Han's law. The last part of this thesis does some research on the influence of the conception of the penal code and the morality of Han's hermeneutics in the traditional culture of law, generalizes the whole passage and thinks over the further efforts about this research. This chapter offers some new ideas on the following issues: the time of Chun Qiu Statute, the starting time of the Confucian of Han's law, and the reason and time of recovering "the sin of heresy."Conclusively, the Han dynasty was a prosperous and open time of canons. At the same time, it was also the important period on the form and development of the orthodox thought of feudal law and its regulation in our country. Their simultaneous flourish is never accidental, and there must be close ties between them. Exploring the inner relationships between these events helps us not only to understand, the form and development of the thoughts of China's ancient law, its systems, its confucianization, but also to understand the penetration of the hermeneutics into the ancient laws and their interaction. The conception of penal code and morality of canons in Han Dynasty had entered deeply into the thoughts of law, their systems, and the operation of practice, and formed the historical connection between the rituals and the laws. From the situation of historical development, in the designing of the country's systems, the dynasties after Han couldn't walk out of the framework of rituals and laws designed by the hermeneutics in Han Dynasty, instead, the rituals and laws were the basic norms that maintain our feudal country's structures of organization and power all along. From the emperors' respect of the Confucian canons in all dynasties, we can see that the rituals and laws in the conception of penal code and morality, is the criminal law of both politics and religion, and a country's law of a dynasty, which covers the most important system in a reigning monarchy such as the rights and obligations of an emperor, the political structures, and the relationships between the emperor and the minister, and so on. It became the basic standard system which was generally complied and performed in Chinese ancient society. It was the basic law that governed the states and kept the peace in the history, and profoundly influenced our traditional culture of law. Therefore, in order to study of the history of law in Han Dynasty, the relationships between the conception of penal code and morality, and the Han's law is an important research project that can't be ignored.
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