On Zuo Zongtang's Legal Thought And Practice

Zuo Zong-tang was a historical character with great influence on China's modernhistory. There are many books and articles about him, but less research on his legalthought. As to the writing of linking his legal thought to practice, it belongs to a newattempt so far. Since his practice can represent the value of his legal thought better, I havechosen the topic, Talk about Zuo Zong-tang's Legal Thought and Practice. I expect toshow the aspect rarely known by the people of Zuo Zong-tang truly and vividly. The papertakes the writing sequence from inside to outside and according to his practical fields,explains his legal thought from three respects of military affairs, administration ofofficials and foreign affairs. In the middle period of the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty was in the condition ofhaving difficulties at home and abroad, which was on the brink of collapsing. Facing thecrisis, Zuo Zong-tang "built up with his military intelligence", suppressed peasantuprisings by force and arms and put an end to existing riots. In managing troops, he putforward the thought of ruling the army by law and claimed that strict military disciplineshould be implemented. He set down some military codes in order to regulate armymen'behaviors. In civil wars, he introduced traditional legal thought about "the combination ofhumanity and punishment" to the military field and accordingly established the militarylegal thought of "the combination of pacification and extirpation". And in fighting againstpeasants, he paid attention to grasping the nature and characteristic that existed in eachrise and adjusted the primary and secondary of pacification and extirpation in a flexibleway, so provided the strategy assurance by which the military tasks were finishedsuccessfully. However he realized that "peasant uprising frequently took place because theadministration of officials wasn't put in order". Therefore he advocated rectifying it inorder to eliminate potential threat. He followed the Confucian view of "rule by men",hence focused his mind on how to manage officials and offered a brand-new visual angleto officials' management in the administrative law. He considered that both supervisionand solicitude are important. Especially to the latter always ignored, he put forward theopinion of training and sympathizing in the hope of improving their accomplishments andpromoting their follow-up growth. Through "strengthening the forces to pacify rebellions"and "administrating officials", Zuo Zong-tang did his best to get rid of the internalsufferings for the Qing Dynasty. But he didn't forget to pacify foreign aggressions at thesame time. With the attitude of facing the world, he was conscious of the disparitybetween China and the west. Thus he initiated the Westernization Movement and began tostudy the advanced technological culture in the west. He firmly "safeguarded the feudalitywhen saving the Qing Dynasty" and proposed the thought of "Morals is the root whiletechnology is the tip", similar to Zhang Zhi-dong's view of "Chinese knowledge is thefundamental while foreign knowledge is the incidental". In this way, he limited theadjusting range of law on the western skills. Further he proposed the principal "learn fromand tame the west" and established some foreign affairs' enterprises, which explained thisprinciple concretely. In order to resist military and economic invasion of western powers,he held that China must fight back from two respects of military affairs and economy andguided the path about how to realize for national independence and prosperity, which fullyembody his patriotism. His far sight was advanced at that time, which inherited anddeveloped Wei yuan's thought. The article places Zuo Zong-tang in the context of great transform of the late QingDynasty and combines his military-political career and the westernization practice,attempts to display the content of his legal thought. I have carefully read Zu...