Analysis Of Cheng Shude’s "Research Of Titles Of Han Law"

This thesis takes “Research of Titles of Han law” in the “Textual Research ofLaw of Nine Dynasty·Textual Research of Han law” as the research object.“TextualResearch of Law of Nine Dynasty” is a classic work in ancient Chinese legal research,and as one part of this work “Textual Research of Han law” is the longest and themost detailed textual research, whose central content is just about “Research of Titlesof Han law”.With the excavation of large amount of legal documents, the integrated studybetween ancient books and coming-up documents has become possible, which furtherhighlights the value of compiling scattering documents. It has been more than80years since Cheng Shude compiled the scattering Han Law, therefore, it’s quitenecessary to give this great work an overall review when we adopt its researchfindings. Through applying the methods of double argumentation, tables, dialecticanalysis and some collations and by the virtue of “Two Year Laws and Decrees” andsome other ancient materials, this thesis presents us a comprehensive analysis on thewriting background of this book, the specific contents of the nine laws, the conceptsof Nine Chapter Law, Direct Law and Indirect Law, and the collation of “Research ofTitles of Han law”.The first chapter sets forth the writing background of “Textual Research of Lawof Nine Dynasty” and both the value and defects of “Research of Titles of Han law”. The article holds different views with other scholars on the writing background andpurpose of “Textual Research of Law of Nine Dynasty”, and the analysis of thecontent of “Research of Titles of Han law” is also helpful to understand itcomprehensively.The second chapter analyses the combined law names between “Research ofTitles of Han law” and “Two Year Laws and Decrees”, the nine law names are “TheftLaw”,“Thief Law”,“Arrest Law”,“Miscellaneous Law”,“Appliance Law”,“Revenue Law”,“Celebration Law”,“Currency Law”and “Farmland Law”. Byanalyzing the nine law names, we can better understand them and at the same timesupply and correct Cheng Shude’s arguments to some extent.The third chapter researches the concepts of Nine Chapter Law, Direct Law,Indirect Law and so on which appear in “Research of Titles of Han law”. On the basisof historical materials, this thesis achieves deepen understanding of the aboveconcepts without following others blindly.The forth chapter is epilogue, which summarizes the contents of first threechapters and the main viewpoints of this thesis.The appendix tries to collate the “Research of Titles of Han law” and shape anew collating version as record of collation. There have existed many collations of“Textual Research of Law of Nine Dynasty”, but most are not accurate enough andmany errors in the book have not been corrected yet. Accordingly, this collation willemendate some errors in the book, such as wrongly written characters, missing words,inverted words, simplified characters, punctuation, missing sentences and so on.By the analysis above, we hope this paper will be of some help for a morecomprehensive understanding of “Research of Titles of Han law” and a moreparticularly knowledge of some relevant issues. In addition, the author wishes thecombined research between coming-up law documents and compiling of scattering Han Law will turn out to be a useful and worthy study.