Presentation And Demonstration Of Liang Qichao's Contribution On Historical Science Of Law

Liang Qichao's legal thinking is one of the source in China's legal system and legal theory construction of the past century. Liang Qichao is both the terminator of Chinese old history and the explorer of Chinese new history. He wrote the history of professional law in his own understanding, from a new perspective. If Shen Jiaben had led Chinese law to receive a modern law track on the basis of ancient China, Liang Qichao then had moved forward a step greatly with applying to modern western jurisprudence profound knowledge. In a sense, Liang Qichao is greater in the original law theoretically and is more worthy of recognition.The"China's Developed Jurisprudence"and"On China's Enactment of Gains and Losses of History"are the works of his on behalf of the historiography research works. He deciphered the contending between pre-Qin Confucian, Mohism, the Legalists and the Taoist as the struggle among"laissez-faire"(Taoist),"the rule of man"(Confucianism, Mexico), and"the rule of law","nationalism"(Legalists). He believed that in ancient China, the struggle between advocating"natural law"and against"natural law"existed. He carded the statute law in past dynasties in China's history systematically,and listed four shortcomings of Chinese written laws:incomplete variety of the kinds laws,excessive fixity of laws, incompleteness of law style,impropriety of law systems. Therefore, he pointed out the problems that should be paid attention in the future, which are worth consulting till now.He is the first person who widely introduced Western legal thought and legal system to Modern China. The western doctrine he brought was broadly referred to every walk of life with deep impact, which was far exceeding Shen Jiaben,more than Yan Fu. Lots of the modern Western thinkers were introduced by him, including Montesquieu, Rousseau, Kant and Bentham, Bluntschli, Bornhak and others. He comprehensively explained the polity doctrine of state system, the separation of powers doctrine, the rule of law and address political and legal doctrine, utilitarian law, the state and national theory in depth with noting his personal understanding as well.As a jurist, he is diligent in thinking and is brave in exploration. He stressed that the legal system in the process of transplantation should stick to the principle of national conditions, which requires that the western legal doctrine should accord with the situation of the local community. Its success has its failures. Making Liang Qichao as a typical case of the modern thinkers, we can try to understand the pioneers in that specific era with the struggle experience and successes and failure. Basing on this, it's significant for the contemporary law construction.But it is undeniable that his writings is greater in enlightenment than in forces; and it's inevitable for taking it for granted in legal theory for lacking actual law study. Liang's not as strict as Shen Jiaben in historical research and he is not as distinguished as Yang Honglie and John Wu in foreign language. Thus, it is inevitable for taking his own subjective assumptions and imagination in the evaluation of Chinese traditional legal enactments and in Western ideas and modern legal introduced by him. But standing where the height of that era, he promote the Modern History of a major step, creating specialized legal history academic tradition in the modern history paradigm. Therefore, his outstanding contribution can not be denied. During the period of the Republic of China, the generations of historians and scholars absorbed Liang Qichao's history research results along the new history paradigm opened up by him, and they developed that in various aspects as well. They actually far exceeded Liang in mastering data, in research vision, in multidisciplinary approach use and in the Chinese and foreign legal system and legal thinking on the depth and breadth, which gives an impact till now.