| The Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties are an important stage in Chinese history.They inherited the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Later Sui,Tang Dynasties and lasted for more than three and a half centuries,during which,apart from the brief unification of the Western Jin Dynasty,they belonged to a period of great division.In the whole study of Chinese legal history,the study of the legal system of Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties has always been weak.And the focus of attention is mainly on the legal system of Cao Wei and Jin Dynasties,while the legal system of Southern and Northern Dynasties is still lack of enough attention except Liang,Chen and Northern Qi Dynasties.As we all know,the Western Jin Dynasty is the unified regime of the three kingdoms,the Eastern Jin Dynasty is the continuation of half of the country in the southern of the Yangtze River,and the Southern Dynasty is the continuation of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.Where did the Northern Dynasty come from? It originated from the "Sixteen Kingdoms of Wuhu" Chaos in the North China during the Eastern Jin Dynasty,and confronted the Southern Dynasty after the unification of the Northern Wei.During the period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms,the nomads who moved inward established political power in the North China one after another.These Hu regimes that entered the Central Plains in this period had one common point: to reform the old customs and traditions of themselves,to respect Confucianism and to learn the advanced agricultural culture of the Central Plains.It is inevitable for the historical development to replace the nomadic grassland culture with the agricultural culture of the Central Plains.Otherwise,these Hu regimes would not be able to really have a solid foothold in the farmland areas of the Central Plains.After a long period of confrontation and a short period of unification of the Former Qin Dynasty,the North China was finally unified by the Northern Wei Dynasty.The Northern Wei Dynasty was the founder of the Northern Dynasty,built by the Tuoba tribe of the Xianbei nationality.It rose outside the fortress,penetrated into the Central Plains and continued to grow.The Northern Wei Dynasty,unlike the other Hu regimes in the Sixteen Kingdoms period,did not "prosper or perish at any time",but eventually succeeded in winning the Central Plains and became a stable dynasty in comparison with the southern Han dynasty.As a result,Northern China had gradually become stable,and new opportunities for political,economic and cultural development had been obtained.The Northern Wei Dynasty,the regime established by nomadic peoples,was able to achieve a stable rule over the Yellow River Basin not only because of its powerful force,but also because of many other factors.Among the many factors supporting the long-term and stable rule of the Northern Wei Dynasty,the legal system was an important part.The Northern Wei Dynasty was founded in 386 and split into two parts in 534.It lasted for about One and a half centuries.Since the beginning of Tianxing Law in 398,many times had been revised during this period,until the first year of Emperor Xuanwu Zhengshi(504),Zhengshi Law(commonly known as the Northern Wei Law)was finally completed.It can be seen that the Northern Wei regime attached great importance to the construction of the legal system.During more than one hundred years,the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty carried out many activities of formulating and amending laws.What caused the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty to enact and amend laws many times? It should be said that this is the result of the social and cultural development of the Northern Wei Dynasty,that is,when the social and cultural development of the Northern Wei Dynasty reaches that stage,the relevant social and cultural factors will promote its laws and regulations.Throughout the whole history of the Northern Wei Dynasty,it is actually a history of constant cultural change.From the perspective of culture,this paper studies the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty,that is,taking the legal system as an integral part of the social culture of the Northern Wei Dynasty,and probes into the relationship and interaction between the legal system and culture.In this perspective,the study of various cultural factors in Northern Wei society as an inseparable and organic whole helps to regard the whole society as a complete cultural system,and helps to examine the great role of cultural factors in the development of legal system in Northern Wei from a higher angle and in a more comprehensive way.So,what are the cultural factors that restrict and determine the legal process of the Northern Wei Dynasty?Law is the product of human culture.As a kind of cultural phenomenon,law is the object achievement of human activities,which condenses the subjective strength and ability embodied in human activities.But culture is a very complex category,which contains many aspects.From the point of view of the content,culture is mainly composed of behavior mode,way of thinking and values.Among them,the factor of production and life style in behavior mode has great influence on the legal system.As the production and life style of Tuoba Xianbei as the ruling nation has gradually changed from nomadic culture to farming culture,the foundation of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty has changed fundamentally.The legal system originally rooted in the nomadic production and life style has to be changed.In addition,social ethics is also an important core factor,which belongs to the category of values.Values determine rules of conduct,and social ethics and morality as values inevitably have a decisive impact on the legal system as rules of conduct.Therefore,among the many cultural factors affecting the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty,production and life style and social ethics and morality are the core factors.Of course,laws and regulations,political culture and the vigorous promotion of the supreme rulers are also indispensable factors for the development of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty.From this point of view,this paper explores the development and evolution of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty by investigating the changes of social and cultural factors such as production and life style,political culture,ethics and morality.The basic logic behind this paper can be summarized as follows: the change of production and life style→ the change of ethical concepts →the change of legal system as a rule of conduct.It can be seen that production and life style are the most fundamental cultural factors determining the legal system.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the full paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is about the definition of "culture".Because culture is an extremely complex category,it is necessary to define the concept of culture used in the article,specify which aspects it contains,what is the specific meaning of the so-called "cultural factor" in this article.Next,this paper will discuss the logical relationship between legal system and culture,and point out how to analyze and study the legal system through the cultural factors in the Northern Wei Dynasty.The second chapter is the historical evolution of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty.This chapter Starts from the legal system of the former Northern Wei Dynasty,and discusses in detail the customary law of Tuoba Xianbei,the legal system of the Dai State,the legal system of the early Northern Wei Dynasty and the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty after Emperor Xiaowen.Through a comprehensive analysis of the whole process of the formation,development of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty,this paper tries to present the overall development of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty more than one hundred years.The third chapter analyses the factor of production and life style in the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty,that is,the economic cultural factors affecting the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Objectively speaking,the influence of the factor of production and life style on the legal system is enormous.As a ruling nation,Tuoba Xianbei’s production and life style had gradually changed from nomadic culture to farming culture as a whole,the foundation on which the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty relied had undergone fundamental changes.The law originally rooted in the nomadic economy had to be changed.During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen in Taihe,with the successive establishment of salary system and land equalization system,the production and life style of the Northern Wei Dynasty had thoroughly changed into farming culture.Therefore,the change of production and life style is the most fundamental cultural factor affecting the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty.The fourth chapter analyses the political cultural factors of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty.From the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty to its perdition,it had undergone tremendous changes in political culture.At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty,the nature of the tribal adult system violated the emperor’s inner desire for a high degree of centralization.Emperor Daowu,assisted by the scholars of the Han nationality,began to establish rules and regulations on the basis of the Han system.During this period,one of the main lines of political cultural change was to constantly strengthen imperial power.After comparing the governing policies of Cao Wei and Western Jin Dynasty,the Northern Wei Dynasty chose to learn from Cao Wei’s fame and rule of law,and the ruling group also called Jin Dynasty a hypocrisy because of the inheritance of Cao Wei.After entering the Central Plains,the transformation of political culture had become an irreversible trend,but its path was not smooth,and the traditional political culture of Xianbei sometimes returned.By the time of Emperor Xiaowen,the direction of Sinicization had been unbreakable.Emperor Xiaowen had taken various measures to push forward the change of political culture.The establishment of the Nine-rank system and the scholar-bureaucrat system had almost completely transplanted the political system of the Southern Dynasty.As a result,the political culture of the Northern Wei Dynasty had undergone tremendous changes.Political cultural factors significantly affected the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty.The fifth chapter analyses the social cultural factors that affect the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty,including social ethics,education,religion and other factors.The influence of Confucianism on Tuoba Xianbei ruling group began before the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty.After the establishment of the Northern Wei regime,the influence was increasing and deepening.All emperors in the Northern Wei Dynasty emphasized Confucianism as an important guide for governing the country;while emphasizing Confucianism,they respected and advocated Confucianism and established Confucian education,which was gradually widely promoted.In this way,Confucianism and its ethics and morality continued to infiltrate into society constantly.After Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang,the Northern Wei regime realized a thorough cultural transformation: Confucian education was further developed and innovated,and highly Confucian ethics and ideas were firmly rooted in Tuoba Xianbei ruling group,bureaucratic group and the whole society.Under the strong impetus of the Supreme ruler,the core factors of social culture in the Northern Wei Dynasty eventually realized the highly Sinicization and completely Confucianism,and the Confucianism of the laws in the Northern Wei Dynasty was naturally a matter of course.The concluding part summarizes regularly the development of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty,and points out that "culture is the fundamental factor determining the rapid and even leaping development of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty".Among the many cultural factors affecting the legal system of the Northern Wei Dynasty,the production and life style and Confucian social ethics and morality are the core factors.In addition,the vigorous promotion of the supreme rulers played an important role in the evolution of the legal system in the Northern Wei Dynasty. |
PDF Full Text Request