Analysing The "Non-litigation" Culture And The Revelation To The Current China

In the history of China’s traditional legal thoughts, divergent ideas were upheld by different schools, such as "control oneself and observe the proprieties" and "adjust manners to keep neutral" in Confucianism, "govern by doing nothing" in Taoism, and "execute cruel torture to decrease crimes" in Legalism. Such ideas, with the same orientation of "No Litigation", respectively used to take a leading position in the process of rule by law in China. The tradition of "No Litigation" has been formed and esteemed in China based on the complicated society background. Not only China’s ancient structure of "small peasant economy", but also China’s cultural idea of "harmony of heaven and human" and China’s dominant doctrine of the mean Confucian have together formulated and influenced the legal idea of "No Litigation" in China. As of the movement of "paying supreme tribute to Confucianism while banning all other schools of thoughts" in Han Dynasty, Confucianism has become the dominant ideology of China’s society. And thus, such Confucian ideas as "control oneself and observe the proprieties", "prize harmony and keep neutral", "value justice above material gains" and "contain crimes by morality" have become the ideological core of "No Litigation". During the process of rule by law thereafter, the ideal of "No Litigation" was displayed in such practices as "combining the two ways of etiquette and laws", "ruling of morality with its priority to penalty", "suppressing and despising litigations" and "appeasing disputes by mediation".In the legal idea of "No Litigation", the top value goal was to keep the order of China’s feudal family-country system, which was established on the basis of China’s ancient patriarchal clan, system ethics. The process of rule by law was dominated by Confucianism ideologies of etiquette-law ethics, and thus to keep the feudal moral principles was the object and requirement of achieving the Confucian rule order, in which the individual was just obligation-oriented.Historically speaking, China’s ancient society ruled by etiquettes with the purpose of "No Litigation" maintained thousands of years’cultivation culture. It gave priority to the order of the society, which should be respected and prized to some degree. However, under the modern legal thoughts, the tradition of "No Litigation" was with its historical limitations. By overemphasizing the society order, the idea of "No Litigation" contained the further development and growth of the society and the process of rule by law. And without necessary authority control mechanism, the "No Litigation" idea actually ruined the order. The way of "rule by morality" advocated by the idea was an unequal order which definitely resulted in "rule of man". The modern idea of establishing "the harmonious socialist society" deeply embodies China’s traditional spirits. While when inheriting and carrying forward our legal traditions, we should objectively acknowledge the values of such traditional ideas, fully understand the historical limitations and negative influence, and thus get inspiration from such critical inheritance process.