On The Group Of Attorney At Law During Ming And Qing Dynasty From The Angle Of Specialization

The attorneys at law were a part of intellectual group.They showed a strong inclination of socialization and specialization during Ming and Qing Dynasty. They gradually moved towards specialization on the lawsuit skills and organization. Even more important,they interacted with the country.society and other groups that the particular society image was portrayed.It can be an important angle of view to study the changes of the society of Ming and Qing Dynasty.The attorneys at law were not the roots but the products and the expression of plenty of lawsuit. During Ming and Qing Dynasty, the composition of the attorneys at law was extensive. There were the children of official’s family, the related lineally to the Royal Family, the official and petty officials, they all possibly became the attorneys at law. Interests was the basic driving force for the attorneys at law to engage legal service. Their income was better than the ordinary people. They were characterized by the striking geographic, mainly in the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.Specialization was the lawsuit character of the attorneys at law. They provided legal services to the parties litigant and form a specialization group by their peculiar knowledge and culture. In judicial proceedings,they not only taught others how to file a lawsuit or helped others write statement but also gave advising for the parties litigant, greased the wheels and acted for the parties litigant to engages in a lawsuit,etc. Litigation documents that emerged in multitude and being diffused was the important achievements of the attorneys at law’s specialization.Building social network resources is the important ways to expand the living space and seek group position for the attorneys at law. Various forms of competing and union were in the group of attorneys at law. The attorneys at law in some areas even organized social organizations that like association,for example, the Poxie party, the Cangjie Society,the Writing Society and the Wencang Society.They showed the tends of systematism.Living in the surroundings of trying to destroy lawsuit and administering justice, the attorneys at law was antithetic to the official,but sometimes they also showed associated for interest. Common interests allied the attorneys at law, petty officials, yamen runners,the men who writing statements for the parties litigant, the small official in town and country and the parties litigant,etc.All these worked together and got common benefits in the judicial proceedings.It even became a common model of legal proceedings.The construction of the attorneys at law society image is the exterior token of approved status. The attorneys at law projected different images including an attorney at law or a pettifogging lawyer in legal proceedings. But there are more mercenary pettifogging lawyers among old records because of the official opinions. The action of the attorneys at law is in a direction away from the idea of "prevent litigation" in the Confucian School. Their principled stand is far removed from the ideality of being a official by learning. They made efforts to seek for the correspondency of the Confucian School and official opinions.lt promoted a formation of group consciousness and practicing consciousness.The group of the attorneys at law tep forwards in the specialization process. But they can’t change their fate in adversity due to the official judiciary powers.The specialization process of the attorneys at law was in the changes of the local society. The attorneys at law promoted the communication of fundamental legal knowledge, litigation means and the systemization of the judicial adjudication. It also lays a solid foundation for the Professionalization of modern lawyers. There is an acknowledged emphasis on the group specialization.The lawyers in the Republic of China was basically based on the attorneys at law who lived in the end of the Qing Dynasty.The changes of local society was shown by the interaction between the attorneys at law and the local society.