Study On Bi Of Qin And Han Dynasties

Not only historian but also legal historian scholars have studied the Bi of the Qinand Han dynasties for long time. With more and more resources of bamboo slipsbeing collected and studied, it offers us new evidences to study the issue. However,the conception, origin and the distinction of diverse types of Bi still require asystematic textual research, as well as the compilation and archiving,application injudicial practice of the relevant legal documents of Bi. This article attempts toreproduce the whole picture and the application in practice of Bi by arranging therelevant ancient historical documents and excavated documents.After discussing the summary of the academic history, the first section of thisthesis describes the meaning and origin of Bi based on the summary and analysis ofthe existing research results.The author of this thesis prefer Professor Xun Shihong’sview of cocption of Bi to others’. Bi has a dual meanings, one is Zeli(existing model),Gushi(past practice)which are known as lv(codes),Ling (regulations),Judicialprecedent,the other is Bifu (Legal analogy)of Lvling and Zeli. The author also thinksthat the there is close connection between the two aspects of meaning,and this viewwill be discussed detailedly in the following part. The source of the Bi, is related tothe attention that legal practice paid to the old cases no later than the Spring andAutumn Period. This point can be proved by ancient historical documents and thejudicial documents of excavated documents Baoshan Chu Slips（The Chu inscribedbamboo slips from Baoshan）.Due to the emphasis on guiding role of existing judicialcases,the tradition of judicial precedent is as important as the statute traditional,whichis summarized theoretically by Xuncius. These practice and theory directly orindirectly affected the legal activities about Bi.Chapter two of this thesis is about research of different kinds of Bi, such as theBi of Lvling, JueshiBi(judicial precedent),Bi of private contract, Bi of Liyi(ritual)andZhengshi(administrative affairs)in therm of theory,the situation of which is morecomplex. The anchor makes a further summary about views of other scholars, tosupplement some researchs which are not discussed in precious study. In the firstplace,Bi of lvling is developed by analogy for the existing lvling,which is a kind ofanalogy behavior. We could still regard it as a nominal word because it is legally binding on similar situation in the future.Due to the progress of legislationtechnology,the number of penal Bi of lvling in early Han dynasty is far less than thatof early Qin empire. Moreover, most of Bi of lvling concern about identity in earlyxihan dynasty.And what is frequently found in the documents handed down fromancient times is mainly the Bi of imperial edict, effecting throughout West Han andEast Han.In the second place, Jueshibi is existing case which date back fromTingxingshi(precedent of Qin government).However, the author would refute theargument that Tingxingshi is not precedent and carries through a research of Jueshibiin Han dynasty. In the third place, we could figure out that Bi in the private contratproves the university of Bi. At last,we do some research of Bi of Lliyizhengshi(ritualand administrative affair),which discussed wildly about the ritual,rewording, capacityinheritance and so on. The objects of Bi of Liyizhengshi are extensive,and it isregarded as the legal basis of administrative and ritual dispute.The chapter three discusses the application and practice of Bi on the basis ofdocuments study of diverse type of Bi, further demonstrates the dynamic operation oflegal practice. It is necessary to compile the text of Bi,and systematize,assemble allkinds of Bi into codes.Then the thesis would discuss the compilation of Bi which iseasily neglected. people are easily affected by the Bangu’s argument that Bi is thetools of judicatory corruption in judicial practice.The author try to prove there aremany thrict standards of application of Bi which is aim to realize justice.However, themiscarriage of justice is very common in hisrian books due to the drawback of Bi andcorruption of judicial officials,the change of criminal policy.In the last part of thesis, the author summary the whole thesis,aiming to furtherillustrate the role, significance, important status of Bi in the legal system of the Qinand Han.The author believe it is a very important issue in the Chinese legal historyResearch.