Reseach On The Ethics In The General Review Of Tang Code

The General Review of Tang Code is a systematic ethical code in the feudalism China, whose promulgation stands for the maturity of ethicality of feudalism law of China. The ethicality of feudalism law began with the system of Officer-advisory and Cautious penalty at early time of Han dynasty, developed and achieved by'Bring ethics into law'at Wei-Jing and South-West dynasty, consummated by'All decided by ethics'at Shui-Tang dynasty. The General Review of Tang Code inherited the Confucianism's patriarchal clan system, brought the though of'guiding it with morality, leveling it with ethics'provided by Confucius into practice, and established the jurisprudent guideline of'morality and ethics as the essence of politics and penalty as the instrument of politics'. The reason why it becomes the ethical code lies in the specialty of the society of China. The social base of the Code is the agrarian civilization of patriarchal clan system, the thought and cultural base is the world perspective of the theory that man is an integral part of nature, the theoretic base is the governance ideals at the early time of Tang dynasty.The General Review of Tang Code includes profound ethnical thought of kindness, piety, social hierarchy, good faith, etc. Among other things, the application of combined exoneration and penalty, the loose use of penalty, the exoneration of suspected crime, the kind treatment of crime, the precautious execution the death penalty. etc, embody the thought of kindness; the punishment of impious act and the protection of pious act embody the thought of piety; the maintenance of imperial dictator governance, the lack of penalty for criminal officers, the different punishment of superior and inferior class embody the thought of social hierarchy; the provisions about the status, private or public property, medication and remedy, transaction and guarantee .etc, embody the thought of good faith. The basic ethnical thought is the integration of ethics and law, the familism, the combination of morality, ethics and law, obligation basis, while some provisions in marital and family law shows the specific enlightened ethical spiritsThe institution of the General Review of Tang Code not only symbolizes the formation of China legal system, but also fully embodies the essence of the old China law. The legal traditions, after many year of inheritance before the Tang dynasty, were imbued deeply in the Code, and exerted great influence on the legislation to both China and aboard. Its ethical spirits influenced dynasties of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing, and became a prototype of criminal law for the following dynasties. The following dynasties followed the guideline of'ethics as essence and morality and penalty as assistance'in legal system construction. Through the diplomatic and cultural exchange with the neighboring countries, the Code still had great influence to the codification of ancient Asian countries, like Japan, Korea, Vietnam, which model them on the Code. The moral principles embodied in the General Review of Tang Code can still provide some reference to the legal system construction of modern China.