On Legal Culture Of The Grand Canal

Scholars worldwide have conducted scores of studies which has a great many insights sincethe1969publication of a landmark paper by Lawrence M. Friedman using the concept of ‘legalculture’ for the first time. The law, as a phenomenon of human culture which has a long course ofhistorical development, differs or resembles strikingly in different regions. Why? Which factorsaffect the legal culture? These problems prompted us to set our sights on history.The paper tries to analysis the legal culture of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal basinwhich takes the Taierzhuang section as the object in the perspective of legal sociology. Thepaper is divided into three parts:⑴the relations between the economy and the law,⑵the politicsand the law, and⑶the informal organizations and the law.One of the focuses of this study is how economic activities influence on the legal culture.The grain transport in the Ming and Qing is the most important economic activity in Taierzhuangsection. Therefore, the article mainly studies on the grain transport. By combing the history ofthe Grand Canal, it is found that grain transport largely determines the economic development ofcities along the canal, and grain transport-related economic activity has a huge impact on thelocal political environment, resident employment and social conducts. It is believed that the legalculture of the region along the Grand Canal is marked with the imprint of the canal. It is alsostudied how grain transport system in the Ming and Qing operated.Politics is the important aspect of intuitive reflection of legal culture. It is carefully analysedhow the hydraulic bureaucracy governed the Grand Canal in the Ming and Qing, and how thehydraulic bureaucracy teamed up with the local government in the hydraulic affairs. This paperexamines canal management of different structure, mainly focuses on the concept and effect,such as public institutions, staffing, duty etc. in Taierzhuang in the Ming and Qing. Afterstudying some specific administrative or judicial activities, it comes to that politics play a decisive factor on the formation of legal culture in the totalitarian society.As parts of society, the informal organizations can not be ignored. It is the frequent tradeactivities and streams of people in Taierzhuang section of the Grand Canal that provide the soilon which the informal organizations take root. The rules in the business group，the gangs and thebandits are studied in order to know how the informal organizations influence on the legalculture.This paper describes the basic outlook of the legal culture of the Taierzhuang section of theBeijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, studies the interactive relationship of the environment,inhabitants and the law. It was hoped that this paper could be a vivid case for the study on legalculture of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal basin.