The Social Function Of Songshi In Ancient China

SongShi, described by most scholars, is an ugly and immoral profession, as theydiscouraged social existence and development. Therefore, the feudal dynastiesgovernment combated and prohibited with SongShi without exception in China’shistory. However, in the Song Dynasty, SongShi’s situation changed a lot because ofthe encouragement of lawsuit. SongShi career also began to develop maturely,manifesting the great vitality and characteristics of the times.Since the Middle Ages England was conquered by the Norman, it’s political,economic, legal system had been greatly developed when the kings strengthened thecentralization at the same time. In the13th century, the English lawyer professionappeared and it had obvious professional characteristics.Both of the SongShi and lawyer are legal professions and formed roughly thesame era, so I produced a doubt in the reason why their final fate made such a greatdifference. This thesis will describe and demonstrate from the perspective of socialfunctions. The first part describes the basic reasons for the rise of the two careers. Iwill introduce all kinds of name and origins of SongShi with the “public book” as abackground. I will give readers an initial impression of British medieval lawyers bydistinguishing the difference between senior lawyers and junior lawyers. Explainingthe reasons for the rise of the two careers is the foundation to analysis and comparetheir social functions in nest step.The second part will describe the social functions of the two careers. The threesocial functions of the SongShi in Song Dynasty are: promoting civil legal education;resolving civil litigation needs of the policy; promoting judicial reform in the SongDynasty. The functions of English lawyers are: forming a unique ideology of law;promoting the progress of the legal science, and protecting the legitimate interests ofthe people. And I will briefly discuss their social functions in this part.The third part will compare the social functions with the previous sections as abase. First of all, both of them promote the development of legal education and the popularity of law in civil. However, at the same time, regardless of SongShi orlawyers, they all have some negative impact in the initial stage. The two still havesome differences in the aspects of the public attitude for law, the future direction ofthe legal system and the generation of new legal ideas.The fourth part analyzes the reasons of their different social functions. I willdemonstrate from the aspects of the public, official, and their own point of view.The fifth part takes history as a mirror, demonstrating the reason why Britishlawyers have developed maturely, and why SongShi cease to exist. And I will pointout the reference for our legal system. Finally, I will illustrate the lessons for Chineselawyers according to the advantages of SongShi and lawyers.