Civil Law And The System Of Tang And Song Dynasties

The fundamental feature of the Civil Law aims at regulating the commercial and economic relationship between equal subjects. When the feudal society developed prosperously during Tang and Song Dynasties, the system of Civil Law took great advance, although it changed during Five Dynasties with ten countries and was not as outstanding as that during Ming or Qing Dynasty. However, the there appeared a breakthrough in standardization of Civil Law, which was absolutely different from the past time. For example, with respect to creditor's rights, it was the first time to put forward the difference between pledge and lien rights and also to figure out the additional conditions for redeem; with respect to real right, it was proposed to distinguish the ownership based on chattel and real estate; with respect to inheritance, and more detailed supplements and provisions were made in relation to the mode of inheritance and distribution. Moreover, the household registration system was established initiatively. All of those were considered the most important creation and development of Civil Law in Tang and Song dynasties. In addition, beginning with "introduction of ethical codes into law" in Han dynasty and ending with "combined ethical codes with law" in Tang dynasty, the ethical codes impenetrate the whole law system, especially in the field of marriages and families. Among those, the thoughts of "no marriage between people with same last name" as well as "seven prohibited bad things(not respective to parents, not giving birth to child, lewd, jealous, having bad habits, stirring up one side against the other and theft) and three necessary avoidance as to divorce one's wife experienced historic evolution from feudal society. It is worthwhile to notice that, some thoughts of law with humanization were suggested, such as the protection of creditor, personal rights of women, determination of possess of drifters, and so forth. Those thoughts of equality have extended and affected people until today.During South and North Song dynasties, a greater progress was made in the legislation of civil matters than that in Tang dynasty as the booming economy and the thinking turnover of the rulers occurred, pushing the legislation of civil matters into a new stage. The change was not only a follow of appropriate parts of Tang's law, but also a reference of legal thought and system developed in Five Dynasties with ten countries. Moreover, there was its own original creation, which reflected further that the legal thought and system during this period became better and approaching perfection day by day and brought about a profound influence on that in thereafter Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties as well as East Asian countries nearby. For example, the legal thought of utilitarianism was proposed in Song dynasty and this practical thought incurred to a strong repercussion and played a steady role in roily society and economy, and also an academic atmosphere was formed, which was valuable in drawing up a law. In addition, the contribution was remarkable in relation to family inheritance, stipulating the statutory shares of estate of unattached women, establishing the distributing pattern of inheritance of persons without offspring, and so on.Based on the study and analysis on thought and system of Civil Law in Tang and Song dynasties, it is realized that some piths are still worthwhile to be referred to at present and simultaneously some legal thoughts based on feudal privilege and hierarchy should be discarded completely. Therefore, when making legislation in the future, we should study the history of ideas and legal system in ancient times seriously. Furthermore, it is essential that before we draw up civil code, we should recall the course of law development, grasp the skeleton of extension and evolution, and keep its essence and discard its dross. Meanwhile, the legal environment is required to be continuously created and improved, so as to serve the socialist modernization better.