On The End Of Qing Law In Dispute Of Etiquette

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Qing government launched a campaign to amend the legal system. Although the campaign failed to save the Qing dynasty, it caused a great ideological controversy, changed the legal system of the Qing dynasty. This paper introduced the contents of the arguments in detail, analysis the strength of the two sides, the nature of the dispute, the reason caused the dispute, and its' historical significance.The first part is the reason for amending the legal system and the main guidelines of the constitutional reform. The Chinese economics, politics and culture had a lot of changes with the invasion of the western capitalism. Western countries promised to abandon the extraterritorial when Qing government success to amend the legal system. That's the partly reason for the Qing government launched the campaign.The second part is the process of the argument. The argument is divided into four departments according to occurring time and the controversial contents, the arguments about new civil litigation and criminal litigation law, the arguments about New Criminal Law, the arguments about Amendments to the law draft and the arguments between nationalism and familism. This part introduces the contents, the process and the results of each department.The third part is the strength contrast analysis about the Ethic Faction and the Law Faction. In my opinions, the Ethic Faction is not so weak as people thought, and the final victory is belong to the Ethic Faction.The forth part is the nature of the courtesy law battle of latter stage of Qing Dynasty. The two parties' aim was not fully conflict, namely how to keep the dominated role of the ethics. Lastly, a conclusion is drawn that the nature of dispute is the contention of radical or gradual reform. It does not the bourgeoisie and the feudal concept of the legal dispute.The fifth part is the reason caused the Courtesy law battle. Chinese legal culture and western legal culture were rooted in different economical and political conditions, and were in different stages of the legal culture development. The difference between the legal system of China and the Western legal system was caused by the conditions of different civilizations.The sixth part is the historical significance of the courtesy law battle. Neither the ethic faction nor the law faction can dominate the campaign completely in the courtesy law battle of latter stage. Struggle and compromise coexist was common phenomenon. The advanced western legal culture was spreading quickly in China after this dispute. It is also very useful for our socialist construction right now.