Chinese Traditional Contract Spirit And Its Contemporary Value:A Research Based On The Compilation Of Chinese Contract In The Past Dynasties

The contract documents in the ancient China’s dynasties are in various genres and rich in content,which demonstrates contractual relationship’s long history in China and its great influence on people’s social life.The development of social contractual relationship has led the foundation for the formation of Chinese traditional contract spirit.It’s also of great significance in carrying forward contract spirit in contemporary China and driving socialist market economy in a healthy way.It’s worthy of our attention and study.In order to interpret Chinese traditional contract spirit systematically and pertinently,this thesis takes The Compilation of Chinese Contract in the Past Dynasties as the research text.The thesis teases out the types,characteristics and development stages of Chinese traditional contract through a review of the collected title documents in successive dynasties and attempts to reveal its spiritual core.On this basis,the thesis compares and analyzes the similarities and differences between Chinese traditional and contemporary contract spirits,illustrating Chinese traditional contract spirits’ advantages,limitations and its contemporary value.The thesis makes analysis mainly in three parts: on the basis of teasing out the development history of Chinese contracts,the first part illustrates the spirit’s basic connotation,which is consisted of the following four ideas: keep promises and treasure credits,sticking to the principle of integrity;enter into a contract of both parties’ own free will,pursuing freedom and equality;earn money and interests in a proper way,advocating the spirit of justice;share the benefits and assist each other,maintaining social harmony.The second part draws a comparison between Chinese traditional contract spirit and contemporary contract spirit.It discusses the differences and coincidence of these two spirits in different times,and sheds light on the advantages and limitations of traditional contract spirit: Compared with contemporary contract spirit,the traditional spirit has its advantages.On one hand,it has a mind pattern which attaches great importance to the benefit of the whole society and harmony.On the other hand,despite of appealing to legal means to punish violations of a contract in upholding contract spirit,it also emphasizes moral education’s function in improving people’s self-consciousness of abiding a contract.However,given to the limitations of feudal hierarchy,it’s inevitable to see the limitations of Chinese traditional contract spirit: the strong ethical tendency beyond the law,its instability and compromise,the restrictions on contract party’s identity as well as the lost of contract party’s subject spirit.Based on the above analysis,this thesis puts forward a scientific look at Chinese traditional contract spirit.Moreover,it explores the effective way to blend traditional spirit with modernity.The third part discusses Chinese traditional contract spirit’s contemporary value.It elucidates the significance of studying Chinese traditional contract spirit and how this study affects our country in establishing an honest,high moral standard society ruled by law,in stipulating governments’ credibility and in creating China’s modernity.The spirit’s contemporary value mainly includes: inherit Chinese virtue of honesty,nourish the value of integrity,lead people to hold fast to the moral trait of honesty;reinforce the moral implications of the rule of law,provide local resources support to the construction of the rule of law,highlight to run the country by combining the rule of law and the rule of virtue;inspire the government to enhance the construction of honesty,reinforce the concept of administration according to law,guide officials to abide by laws strictly;strengthen the intellectual foundation of socialistic modernity’s development,converge the consensus of China’s modernization construction,rebuild Chinese people’s rationality and spirit.