The View On "Harmony And Compatibility" Spirit In Chinese Traditional Law Culture

This thesis holds that"harmony-compatibility", as a culture category, embodies the overall characteristics and central idea of ancient Chinese culture, including the traditional culture of law. The author will explain the culture of"harmony-compatibility"from a legal point of view, and then extract its unique meaning and value to provide merit for the modern society. This thesis presents three viewpoints: Firstly, " harmony-compatibility " constructs the basic structure and form of the traditional Chinese legal functions; Secondly,"harmony-compatibility"forms unique social governance; Thirdly,"harmony-compatibility"realizes a double-value choice which includes"justice in form"and"justice in essence". To prove the above-mentioned standpoints, the author will begin with a research on the ideological and cultural origin of"harmony-compatibility". Bearing the modern scholars'understanding in mind, the author will put forward his own comprehension of"harmony-compatibility".Specific conclusion can be summarized as:"Harmony"is a kind of state, referring to harmonious, whereas"compatibility"is a kind of method, meaning combination and harmony."Compatibility"is a method to achieve and a premise of"harmony"."Harmony-compatibility"recognizes the existence of different things, but such difference or confrontation is not absolute. By way of congruity, all things can exist systematically, stably and orderly.On the basis of a comprehension of"harmony-compatibility", the study will, in the following, bring more light to the spirit of"harmony-compatibility"in traditional law and culture. The first part will analyze the ancient Chinese society, covering economic, political, cultural and other aspects.Its broad approaches are as follows: Firstly, the small-scale peasant economy determines the fundamental social structure based on families and blood relationship unit. It is one of the decisive forces in the formation of law and order. Secondly, the victory of the unidirectional feature of politics by means of violence requests that the interest group in power adjust the interests of the conquered and the interests of other groups, and to a certain extent, recognize and regulate their interests and rights in order to achieve social stability. Therefore, the demand for political stability becomes the second force to determine the formation of law and order.Thirdly, agricultural economy leads people to respect and rely on nature and climate, and provoke people into thinking of the relationships between human beings and nature in a simple way. As the thought deepens, it gradually forms the idea of"the unity of man and nature", which is the philosophical origin of the idea of"harmony-compatibility"and dominates the social order as a result of natural law, namely the"hierarchical order pattern."Thus, the"hierarchical order pattern"has indisputable authority and legitimacy no matter in theory or in reality. It successfully integrates the contradictions and conflicts among all social forces in face of the birth of social order, and becomes the basic framework of the functioning of the ancient politics, law and ethics.The"hierarchical order pattern", as the basic framework of ancient society, is an organic whole of"harmony-compatibility", combining families with nation. Within this basic framework, the ethics of family has been enlarged to the ethics of the nation, and social relations are deeply rooted in a social ideology where the patriarchal clan system and moral principles function as the mainstream values. Therefore, the ancients used the"harmony-compatibility"of the conflict, destabilizing factors for the "non-alone" and "not an absolute" treatment. They formed a "ceremony convert" and "penalty" in the role model of governance. Part of this article will focus on "convert" and "penalty" in the content and function of the complementarities and coordination. From a macro perspective, the governance and the role of law reflect the value of the ancients'attitude .This approach is used today to describe the scope of the"justice in form"and"justice in essence"in the balance between orders. The same legal value of this option is a micro legal system performance significantly. With the"harmonization"and"integration"methodology,"harmony-compatibility"puts two seemingly opposing categories in both contents and the value into an organic unity to meet demand for the purpose. This part will start a search for principles and rules that can express"harmony-compatibility"in the law of different dynasty to analyze"harmony-compatibility"in the method and the value in the system, for instance,"the obedience of law and the obedience of morals","the crime of statutory and non-statutory","prosecute and refuge""equality and inequality"The fourth part of the thesis is an evaluation about the spirit of"harmony-compatibility"in the traditional legal culture, divided into positive and negative aspects.On the one hand,"harmony-compatibility"prescribed an ethical relationship between"man and nature"in ancient society, and formed the ancient legal principle, which is"relationship between man and nature had become the main basis of law."This is the first contribution of"harmony-compatibility"for modern culture. In addition, the holistic thinking of"harmony-compatibility"also unifies human beings, nature and the society into a community, which is the second contribution of this idea. On the other, however, although it has perfect methods and ideal values, all these failed to be carried out in ancient society. On the contrary, it became a tool for the ruling class in feudal society. Therefore, in the development of modern society, we should draw a lesson from the past in this aspect.The last part of this thesis is a modern conversion from"harmony-compatibility"to"harmony". The author has stressed, at the outset of this thesis, that"harmony-compatibility"and"harmony"is different both in nature and in connotation. As a concept in the new age, the connotation of harmony is more abundant than the instrumentalism. However, as a category of values,"harmony"can draw merits from the method of"harmonious-cooperative"in the pursuit of its own values. This is what the author means by conversion between them. A harmonious society should be a coordination of various aspects, the methodology of cooperation and the application would be used to carry out the overall harmonization. This performance can be manifested in the following: It can ethically orientate the relationship between man and nature; the holistic thinking and cooperation can define the position of legal system in society;"harmony-compatibility"can harmonize the contradiction between law and ethic.