A Study On Liu Kunyi's Legal Thought

Liu Kunyi (1829-1902),another name Liu Xianzhuang,born in Xinning,Hunan Province,is a general of Xiang Army。He took part in Xiang Army to suppress Taiping Heaven Rebellion in his early years。Then he took charge of of Jiangxi,Guangdong,Guangxi,Jiangsu,Anhui。After Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang passed away,he was one of the most prestigious figures in the latter period of Xiang Army group。Liu Kunyi developed a great amount of thought on law on the military,politics,economy and diplomatic。His thought of law evidently was influenced by the feudal thought on law。The crisis from home and abroad in modern times stimulated him to safeguard the Qing Dynasty,and this also promoted him to establish a whole set of laws on military,politics,economy and diplomacy。In the first year of Guang Xu's reign,he took the post as the governor of Jiangsu,Anhui,Jiangxi,and later he gradually changed to be a westernizationist,so his thought about law was influenced by the westernizationists and reformists。What's more,he took the post of governor for a long time,during which he paid much attention to managing the people,officials,army and diplomacy。In addition, he was filial to his emperor and people。He also supported the reform and proposed to use western system to change old China。In short,his post and ideology pushed him to set him thought on law。Militarily, he thought the army should be controlled with strict discipline。besides controlling his army with strict discipline,he also put a premium on the well-performed ones in accordance with the military rules。Also,he followed the social tendency to get his army modernized by studying the western laws to exercise and manage his army,and select the generals and soldiers so as to set up a western-like modern army。What's more,he paid attention to the change of modern military system,asking for regulations to dismiss the green army,and advised to set up a unified military management office by learning from Japan's military regulation。Politically,he asserted that cultivating good carders was more important than drafting laws。He also paid special attention to selecting the officials and punishing those malfeasants。Sometimes,he also ran counter to the traditional political system to regulate and punish those officials。Liu Kunyi paid attention to governing people and maintaining the order of the society by the ruling method of"carrot and big stick"。He pushed his claims that the masses should be governed by Baojia system,and Tuanlian should be organized and drilled to punish and suppress people who destroyed the feudal order seriously。On the other hand,he was lenient to some outlaws and to raise people's life so as to solve the ruling crisis。Liu Kunyi had been insisted on the absolute monarchy and opposed to the idea of"people's rights"and to change the feudal political system,however,under the circumstance of the severe country crisis,his views on people's rights,parliament senate house to some extent had transformed。Economically,he advocated legislating to develop railway,mining,and modern agriculture and to make rules to forge and circulate silver currency。He also suggested legislating to levy the stamp tax and he protected China's interests and rights in economic trade with foreign countries。In diplomacy,Liu Kunyi formed a strong notion of convention , advocating dealing with foreign countries according to the conventions。He was opposed to the unfair conventions and he even had the idea of changing the convention。He had a clear international law consciousness from his act of criticizing the aggressors'invasion and opposing to the stupid diplomacy act of the domestic governors。Furthermore,Liu Kunyi paid attention to the selection and appointment of the diplomatic officials and advocated to select diplomatic officials from those who knew the foreign and domestic laws and rules and suggested that the carders who had recommended diplomatic officials should be punished Lianzuo system(guilt by association applied to families or a close kin of a criminal)and study the foreign diplomatic rules。In order to deal with foreigners according to the law,he suggested to formulae the foreign affairs law。Liu Kunyi's legal thought belongs to the legal thought of the westernization group。There is a strong tendency to dedicate to the Emperor and the basic spirit is to change the law and to reform。It has an influence on the politics of the late Qing Dynasty, the development of China's early modernization and China's diplomacy。...