| Focusing on the origin and development of Cao Wei legal system, this dissertationintegrates the views of literatures handed down from ancient times and literatures unearthedregarding the various legal forms, institutions, rules, facts and cases of Cao Wei, in order toseize the intrinsic features of Cao Wei legal system dynamically. Specifically speaking, thisdissertation tries to hold a meticulous research towards the codes, decrees, Ke, and LvZhangju through the investigation in the manifestation of Cao Wei legal system. In themeanwhile, this dissertation also restores and analyzes which chapter the Crime of Wei shouldbelong to, and discloses the thoughts of Confucianism, ritual system established by Confucianclassics argumentation, and how the traditional relationship between the politics and religionsinfluenced the Cao Wei legal system and even the successive generations, through theresearches on Eight Deliberations and Tiao Jiao. And all the above considerations could notdefinitely cover every aspect of Cao Wei legal system. Therefore this dissertation shall betaken as a study towards the “several problems” hereof. Furthermore, the argumentation ofthis dissertation has gone beyond the limits of the exact period of Cao Wei for a detailedexplanation. According to the historical development, it extends properly to investigate thesource of such legal system, and deduct the situations of Han and Tang Dynasties, with a finalintention to account for the historical development of Cao Wei legal system during Han andTang Dynasties. For this reason, this dissertation is a dynamic research which does not onlylimit to the historical facts in Wei for the explanation of legal system then. With the title of AnComprehensive Study of Cao Wei Legal System, this dissertation consists of five chapters andeach chapter of it is comprised of several subtitles.Chapter one is the “comprehensive review of the code of Wei”. Firstly, it concentrates onsome basic problems, such as when the code of Wei was compiling, revising andpromulgating, and what are the titles and order of its compiling, for sake of disclosing theexternal features of the code of Wei. Secondly, the code of Wei derived from thetransformation of old codes in Qin and Han Dynasties. Then the code of Jin followed thepattern of Wei. Based on the aforesaid historical facts, this chapter makes efforts to rediscoverand reconsider the orders of the titles of the code of Wei. At the same time, this chapter alsoholds researches on some legal languages in code of Wei and Jin based on the annotations for the code of Jin unearthed in recent years, and tries to clarify the development of some clausesand regulations during the period of Han, Wei and Jin. As the first part of this dissertation,chapter one covers a lot of things, which does not only include simple facts such as time, titles,order, and textual research of legal languages, but also means significantly in understandingthe transformation of the legal systems of ancient China during Wei and Jin period. Moreover,for the whole dissertation, such fundamental research in this chapter shall be the forcefulevidence to support the researches in Chapter three, and especially for restoring where the titleCrime belong to.Chapter two is the “Study on Decree, Ke, and Lv Zhangju of Wei”. Decreee, Ke andLv Zhangju we discussed in this chapter are all the legal forms prevailing in Wei. For thedecree of Wei, this chapter gives a general review of its contents, styles and its relationshipwith decree of Jin, carefully distinguishes its three major chapter titles and their specificcontents, and pays specially attention to Decree of Ranks, which is less touched by thepredecessors. For the Ke of Wei, this chapter states the specific situations about how Weichanged the Han Ke in order to explain the relationship between Ke and decree. And from thestudy on Wei Ke as well as the relative regulations compiled under this chapter, we couldobtain nine examples. For the Lv Zhangju, this chapter mainly focuses on the process how ittransformed from the annotation of laws into a legal form. Although the three points abovecould not cover all the legal forms of Cao Wei, they enjoy rich compiling and studies.Therefore, combined with Chapter one, chapter two could constitute a specific study for thelegal forms during Cao Wei.Chapter three is the “Study on Crime of Wei”. The rediscovery of this chapter towardsthe Crime of Cao Wei is very different from the old system of dividing the crimes accordingto the objects of crimes. It pays attention to the comparison between the codes of Wei and Han.The codes of Wei abolished, adjusted and established several new chapter titles. And theadjustment of chapter titles must lead to a different classification of crimes in laws. Therefore,this dissertation does not only consider the source of the crimes, but also tries to restore thecorrect position of each crime in chapters of code of Wei. Meanwhile, it also takes the variouscodes of Han, Jin and Tang Dynasties as the evidences, for a further understanding in thesignificance, namely, the legal system of Cao Wei serve as a link between past and future. Forinstance, the subject of involving others in a crime under conspiracy in ancient China wediscussed in this chapter shall serve for the above purpose. Chapter four is the “Study on Eight Deliberations of Wei”. The system of “EightDeliberations” was historically described as to be accepted into laws since Wei, but it is lackof written literatures at that time. Although the Code of Tang has the written text for thissystem, most of those literatures are annotations for Confucianism classics. Except the legaltexts, the annotations made by early Confucianists for the writing of “EightConsiderations” for abatement in Zhou Li are the common understanding of such systeminwardly. They could also be regarded as another approach for investigating the EightDeliberations. Besides, all the manifestations of Law Confucianization and judicial operationof Cao Wei require an endeavor in searching facts of Eight Deliberations of Wei. As ahistorical investigation, how the Eight Deliberations became the system and especially how todefine the eight kinds of persons, such as Qin, Gu, Xian, Neng, Gong, Gui, Qin, and Binrespectively. It also requires a correct explanation of texts more than the laws only. The keypoints of Eight Deliberations and the inheriting of thinking are as follow, loving the kinsman,worshiping the achievements, respecting the able man, entertaining guests with ritual and soon. This also concerns the ritual system and soaking the argumentations of Confucian classics.Therefore, this dissertation is labeled with “Reanalysis”. Except the clarification ofmeanings of Eight Deliberations, this dissertation especially use a part to discusses the“Achievement” in order to expound the culture and ritual influences brought by thedeliberation for achievement.Chapter five is the “Study of Tiao Jiao of Wei”. In Han Dynasty, the feudal ethnics andrites of Confucian were integrated with politics, and at the same time influenced the politics.From Wei, Jin to Tang, Law Confucianization became the inevitable trend. Therefore,investigating how the Confucian unification of politics and Confucianism were carried out byTiao Jiao is probably a good microscopic point of view for such study. How the contents andthoughts of Tiao Jiao changed before Tang Dynasty? The politics and religious ideas ofConfucian and the historical deposits of their practices may be helpful for us to learn aboutwhat Tang people proposed as “The foundation of politics and religion lies in the virtue andrites”. Why the ancient people summarized the relationship between rites and laws at such ahigh level. If we only pay attention to Tiao Jiao and the unification of politics andConfucianism in Cao Wei, it is effortless to hand over a dissertation. However, a dissertationlike that is insufficient to prove the traditional Confucian unification of politics andConfucianism and Law Confucianization. Therefore, this dissertation is supplemented with the historical development of Han and Tang Dynasties in this part, in order to attest moreeffectively the existing and spreading of the unification of politics and Confucianism sinceHan and Wei. |
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