The Research Of Song Taizong Legal Thought

Song taizong, Zhao Guangyi (939-997) is the second emperor of the Song Dynasty.Whose real name is Zhao Kuangyi. When he became emperor, he inherited the unfinishedreunification and he made efforts to strengthen internal centralization. During his reign, hechanged the policy that emphasize military than the expense of the humanities since the lateTang Dynasty and made a bunch of important policy and valued civil officials, and chose thelegal system that is relatively peaceful. This paper is divided into three parts.The first part of the paper I will discuss the background of the form of Taizong’s legalthoughts. After rebellion of An and Shi, Chinese history came to the Northern Song, whichwent through Separatist period, the destroy of Tang dynasty and rise and decline of FiveDynasties. Northern Song Dynasty absorbed the lessons of history and fought up and downthe country to achieve unity. At the same time, he strengthen centralization and built familyrules of Song. The burden falls on his brother whose name was Zhao guangyi, who was activein the stage of history as a descendants of generals because of his early death. Taizong savedthe power and trained forces and layed a solid foundation for his smooth succession. Taizongcontinued the approach like strengthening centralization, which is the general rules of Chineseancient feudal society.The second part focuses on legal thoughts and practice of Taizong, which is the main partof this paper. Legal thoughts of Taizong can be described as rich and overall. This paperfocuses on the content of its legal thoughts and practice with regard to economic, officialmanagement, criminal law, the three aspects. In political legal thoughts, this paper discussesthe Song Taizong revitalized the literature and Inhibited the martial arts and strengthened thecentralization. In economic legal thoughts, this paper discusses the Song Taizong loved peopleand encouraged them to develop the agriculture. He could also suit his measures to localconditions to adjust the policy in taxy system. As for prohibiting system, he could openedappropriately. In judicial thoughts, he tortured gently and dealed with them properly. He triedto do the suiting punishment to crime.The third part is briefly evaluation the legal thoughts of emperor Taizong of SongDynasty. First, I will make a brief induction and summary about the characteristics ofTaizong’s legal thoughts. Taizong joined in his brother’s army in early ages, however themilitary background made him emphasize law and policy. During his reign, he issued a series of decrees, which far exceeded the number of his brother’s reign years. In Taizong’s reign, inorder to strengthen the centralization, legal means to become an important aspect of their legalpractice. As for theft and robbery which was felony in ancient Chinese feudal society, Taizongwas very strict. But at the same time, Taizong also pursued a rehabilitate policy in differentperiods. All this, and not to cover all the characteristics of emperor Taizong of Song Dynastylegal thoughts, but including the most core and essential features; Secondly, sum up withpraise and evaluation of Taizong of Song Dynasty legal thoughts, simply talking about myown views.