Exploring The Demise Of Litigants In The Late Qing Dynasty

Pettifoggers in ancient China not only played an important role in legal affairs, but also have a far-reaching influence on the evolution of litigation system and legal profession in Modern China history. Researches on Pettifoggers is mainly concentrated with its evolution, comparison of Pettifoggers and modern lawyers and cultural aspects. Most of the related studies treat Pettifoggers as part of the ancient legal culture or as a facet of the ancient judicial system and pay little attention to the social roles they played including social status and social image and whether they have important impact on the evolution and extinction of the industry.This dissertation, from the view of Sociology of law, investigate Pettifoggers' living conditions and social roles they played in the late Qing Dynasty and analyze the group consciousness and social psychology so as to reveal the intrinsic reason for which they were replaced by Lawyers and died out in the social transformation of late Qing Dynasty.Research shows that: 1) a pettifogger in traditional society had three identities, namely, a "cultural man," legal man " and the economic man", who was expected to provide legal services of freelancers. The rise and demise of pettifogger industry was closely linked with the social roles formed in particular historical circumstances. 2) The changes of role performance of pettifoggers which resulted from changes in economic environment, political environment and cultural environment in late Qin Dynasty are the external reasons of the demise of pettifogger group. The rise of pettifogger industry and decline of lawyer industry is the inevitable result of the above environmental choice: the disintegration of self-sufficient natural economy gradually stripped Pettifoggers survival of the soil; the independence of the disintegration of the Chinese legal system and the judiciary to Pettifoggers gradually lost useless; imperial examination system of the abolition of the rise of the new law education for loss of talent base in Pettifoggers, resulting in Pettifoggers in the modernization of the law on road declining. 3) The subjective factors affecting role performance of Pettifoggers lie in their self cognition. That is, they not only want to help him through illegal ways to survive, but also want to get the respect of their rights from the law. Role performance is not only affected by the expectations of the society, but also subject to their role cognition and understanding. Therefore, the demise of Pettifoggers not only closely linked with the society transformation of Qing Dynasty but also is subject to their social psychological contradiction.By taking the social role of Pettifoggers as the breakthrough point and analyzing the motivation leading to the demise of Pettifoggers industry, the research can to some extent make up the inadequacy of existing research which does not pay due attention to the close link on Pettifoggers social role and the history of the evolution. It also helps get a more comprehensive grasp of the reasons for which Pettifoggers die out from autocratic society. Moreover, it can enlighten researchers and people to improve the contemporary self perception of "legal person" so as to form the benign interaction and coordination between the lawyers, the law and the rule of law society.