An Analysis On The Legal Thought Of "xin Shu" By Jiayi

Jia Yi was not only the leading scholar of the Confucian School in the Qin and HanDynasty, but also the famous jurist and ideologist of the Western Han Dynasty. Forhistory the early Han Dynasty was a changing time.From the " Thought contend ofmany schools " in the Warring States Period to the "Full-time law" of Qin, then to the"Huanglao doctrine" in the early Han, and last to the "Oust others doctrines, theoverwhelming Confucianism" in the period of the Han Wu Empire, the legal thoughtswere always in flux during this important period. The ideology of Jia Yi was deeplyinfluenced by the Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism and taken in these,as he wasborn in that time. Among them, Jia Yi adopted the Confucianism as the core thought,then put the others to make up the insufficient, and thus united these three thoughtsthrough the most harmonious way. Finally he formed an effective legal reform thoughtat the beginning of the Chinese feudalism society.In this sense, the author thinks that the legal thoughts of Jia Yi’s 《New Book》played a special role in the process of the establishment of Confucianism united theruling ideas. His legal thoughts inherited the major theory of Zhou and Qin Dynasty,andinspired the Great Unity of Dong Zhongshu at the same time. The book did an excellentjob for the foundation of the two thousand years China feudal orthodox legal history. So,it has great significance to study his legal thought in the《New Book》. This articleattempts to reveal the origin motivations and the internal logic of the development of JiaYi’s legal thought through his book, with the unity of logic and history view, to make apractice study with the significance of legal cultural.The full text is divided into five parts:The first part is the introduction of Jia Yi’s life and his《New Book》.The second part analyses the social and historical background and its theoreticalbasis of the《New Book》. In order to gain the historical base environment ofthinking-forming through summarizing the early Han Dynasty. By analyzing the originand school belonging of his legal thought, to obtain the logical starting point of the legalthought of and the basic connotation of critical inheritance.The third part presents the essence legal thought of the《New Book》which mainly include the reform concept of "changes because of when"; the arguments of"combination of etiquette and laws" to maintain the feudal ruling; the crime preventiontheory that "the etiquette banned in before, while the law banned in already "; the "indubio pro reo" theory of "rather missing guilty, not to kill innocent"; the thought of"people first" that "people are the foundation of a country"; the legislative theory of"made by Chen Ji"; the law enforcement theory of "impunity for top people"; theEconomic and legislative thought that "drive people to the agriculture" and "strictlyprohibit cast money", and the practice and countermeasure of legal to solve theproblems at that time.The fourth part of the paper judges legal thoughts of Jia Yi’s《New Book》,andmainly analyzes progressiveness and limitations of these thoughts.The fifth part summarizes the modern value of the legal thoughts in the《NewBook》. Namely the modern "ruling with morality and legal" references from the"combination of etiquette and laws"; the modern "in dubio pro reo" implicates "ratherthe missing guilty, not to kill the innocent" and the modern concept rule of law "peoplefirst " fits well with "people are the foundation of a country". Besides, modern Chinaagricultural legislation also can draws lessons from the "drive people to the agriculture".