A Comparative Study Of Customary Laws According To The Contracts From The Northwest Of China

A large number of contractual documents have been unearthed in the northwest of China.These manuscripts written in different languages,besides in Chinese,there is also transcribed in Kharosthi,Sogdian,Ancient Tibetan,Uighur,Tangut,and so on.This article compares the similarities and differences among contracts written in different languages from the perspective of law and economics,and explore the characteristic of their customary laws.It is helpful to understand the cultural features and social background of the countries and regions in the eastern section of the Silk Road.It manifested the cultural exchange and conflict,communication and interaction,reference and adjustment among ethnic groups in the northwest of China.As the contracts shows the abundance of common law,This paper mainly discusses the content of contracts,penalty for breach of contracts,guarantee and writing form of contracts.The contents of contracts include debit and credit,tenancy,buying and selling,employment and so on.The first chapter mainly takes the debit and credit contracts as an example to discuss.Focuses on the interest rates in debit and credit contracts and finds that there is considerable difference.The interest rates were generally too high,such as contracts by Chinese,Tangut and Uighur.in especial the Uighur contracts,and the word "Lamb Interest" appears to describe this phenomenon.The Second chapter discuss the penalty for breach of contracts.The penalties include parity compensation,double compensation,mortgage and corporal punishment.Ancient Tibetan contracts and Tangut contracts with mortgage of output physical.Ancient Tibetan contracts has property mortgage significantly.Uighur contracts penalty in gold for the emperors and nobles distinctly.Kharosthi contracts and Ancient Tibetan contracts with criminal penalties.Kharosthi contracts,Ancient Tibetan contracts and Tangut contracts penalty to pay more cereals and cloth,act as the function of the currency.Chapter third expound the guarantor in the contracts,whose identity is mostly the family members of the debtor,playing the role of witness,supervision and substitution to repay the debt,as long as the debtor is unable to repay,whether it is escape or death,the guarantor is jointly and respectively liable.It's also different among ethnic groups in the signature and painting of specific guarantees.For instance,the majority of contracts in Chinese are signed,Tibetan are sealed,and Uighur has both.The forth chapter compares the different forms of contracts.The results show that the formation of Chinese contracts is the earliest and it has a deep influence on other contracts.At the same time the national contractual format owning their obvious characteristics,such as the contracts by Uighur and Mongolian with first-person appellation,Tangut contracts have "sincerely",Sogdian contracts with annals both King and Chinese era calendar at the beginning.Kharosthi contracts is often praise of the King at the beginning of the statements,Ancient Tibetan and Uighur contract used the Chinese zodiac calendar,Tangut and Chinese contractual annals with the emperor and Chinese era calendar,etc.It is found that the existence of customary law such as buying and selling,debit and credit,tenancy,employment by comparing the contracts unearthed in Northwest of China.It always reflects the spirit of contracts throughout the history of ancient society development.Therefore,civilization and culture communication is a two-way,and the national contracts to a large extent deeply influenced by the Chinese contracts,and embodies the Chinese culture along the Silk Road.