Qu Tongzu Legal Method Study

T'ung-tsu ch'u promotes the development of Chinese science of law with his unique research methodology. His works are the important achievements of the ancient Chinese science of law. In his research, he mainly uses the methods of the comparison research, structuralism analysis and cultural functional theory which embody in his three important works, Chinese Law and Chinese Society, Han Social Structure and Local Government in China under the Ch'ing.As a basic analysis tool, the comparative method goes throughout the entire process of T'ung-tsu ch'u' s ancient law and social research. In his research, there are comparisons from different aspects, such as comparison between real and ought to be, comparison between home and abroad, historical comparison. T'ung-tsu ch'ii describes the reality of the ancient Chinese society with his comparative method and demonstrates the feasibility and scientific nature of his theoretical premise--"the political society stays in basic form from Han dynasty to Ch'ing dynasty". He also overcomes the difficulty of connecting synchronically and diachronically researches and lays the foundation for the following researches.T'ung-tsu ch'ii divides the ancient Chinese society into two parts:family social structure and class social structure with the research method of structuralism. In family structure, he carries on his research in the social micro level. On the other hand, he does the research from the perspective of legal operating in the social macroscopic level, including occupation identity, the distribution of wealth and power. It reveals the two important characteristics of ancient Chinese society—family and class, and demonstrates that the ancient law is a law of identity.According to the research methods of cultural functionalism, T'ung-tsu ch'u reverts law as a cultural phenomenon and investigates ancient law and society from the following four aspects:the law controlling over social class, the standards of family forming, the regulation of family order and the defense of the mainstream thoughts. Through the method of cultural functionalism, he finds out the firm dominant belief—Confucianism, and demonstrates the view that Confucianism is ruling the ancient Chinese social order strongly.T'ung-tsu ch'u's researches become milestone of the science of the law and cause a sensation in the alchemical world. It is hard to separate his researches from his unique research methods. His researches are the product of the specific social background, which embody the wide thought. They are the combination of China and west, not just the simple copy. In the aspect of value orientation, he collects various historical data with objective attitude and purses the science with superior wisdom and courage. We should understand the essence of his research methods and provide new momentum to the development of the science of law...