Southern Song Dynasty True Dexiu Legal Thought

Song dynasty is the mature period during the development of Chinas feudal society. The prosperous economy provided a solid base for the superstructures. The theory system of traditional Confucianism has developed as Neo-Confucianism full of more philosophy thoughts, and produced great influences on the whole feudal social ideology.The author select Zhen-Dexiu's legal thoughts as the object of this paper. As a famous Neo-Confucian in the later period of the Southern Song Dynasty, he experienced the declining political situation, grasped the Truth of Neo-Confucian, and knew the suffering consciousness of the survival of a country. He made a grate contribution in the process of Neo-Confucianism became the ruling ideology. This dissertation based on Zhen'Dexiu's essays tries to construct the Law World in the frame of Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Neo-Confucianism. This paper focus on Zhen-Dexiu's legal thoughts such as contents, characteristics, effects on later generations. Under the guidance of historical materialism, the author use the methods combining historiography with law to explain legal thoughts which under the vision of Neo-Confucianism not only has the deep bedrock of philosophic theory, but also show the advanced law idea and effective legal practices. Systematic arrangement and analysis of Zhen-Dexiu's legal thoughts helps the readers understand the Neo-Confucianism's legal thought and its influences in history.