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One of the most important law codes in Chinese history, the Ming Code represents a break with the past following the alien-ruled Yuan (Mongol) dynasty and the flourishing of culture under the Ming (1368-1644). This book offers the English translation of the Code.

After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation and social agenda for China. Zhu, emperor during the Ming''s Hongwu reign period, launched a series of social programs to rebuild the empire and define Chinese cultural identity. To promote its reform programs, the Ming imperial court issued a series of legal documents, culminating in The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lu), which supported China''s legal system until the Ming was overthrown and also served as the basis of the legal code of the following dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911).This companion volume to Jiang Yonglin''s translation of The Great Ming Code (2005) analyzes the thought underlying the imperial legal code. Was the concept of the Mandate of Heaven merely a tool manipulated by the ruling elite to justify state power, or was it essential to their belief system and to the intellectual foundation of legal culture? What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs?Jiang addresses these questions by examining the transformative role of the Code in educating the people about the Mandate of Heaven. The Code served as a cosmic instrument and moral textbook to ensure "all under Heaven" were aligned with the cosmic order. By promoting, regulating, and prohibiting categories of ritual behavior, the intent of the Code was to provide spiritual guidance to Chinese subjects, as well as to acquire political legitimacy. The Code also obligated officials to obey the supreme authority of the emperor, to observe filial behavior toward parents, to care for the welfare of the masses, and to maintain harmonious relationships with deities. This set of regulations made officials the representatives of the Son of Heaven in mediating between the spiritual and mundane worlds and in governing the human realm.This study challenges the conventional assumption that law in premodern China was used merely as an arm of the state to maintain social control and as a secular tool to exercise naked power. Based on a holistic approach, Jiang argues that the Ming ruling elite envisioned the cosmos as an integrated unit; they saw law, religion, and political power as intertwined, remarkably different from the "modern" compartmentalized worldview. In serving as a cosmic instrument to manifest the Mandate of Heaven, The Great Ming Code represented a powerful religious effort to educate the masses and transform society.

Analyzes the code's underlying thought in terms of the spiritual and social agenda articulated by the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Zhu Yuanzhang.

Documents how Western traditions influenced the formation of Taiwan's legal structure through the conduit of Japanese colonial rule and demonstrates the extent to which legal concepts diverged from the Chinese legal tradition and moved toward Western law. This work is an analysis of the history and evolution of "western" law in Taiwan.

Reflects on questions that have troubled Chinese scholars of jurisprudence since classical times. This book covers a wide range of topics like interpreting the rationale for and legacy of Qing practices of collective punishment, and assessing the political forces that continue to limit the authority of formal legal institutions in China.

Explores various developments in Japanese law over the latter half of the twentieth century. This book features the work of thirty-five legal experts on various fields of Japanese law, with attention to the areas of environmental law, health law, intellectual property, and insolvency.

The little-examined genre of legal case narratives is represented in this fascinating volume, the first collection translated into English of criminal cases - most involving homicide - from late imperial China. These true stories of crimes of passion, family conflict, neighborhood feuds, gang violence, and sedition are a treasure trove of information about social relations and legal procedure.Each narrative describes circumstances leading up to a crime and its discovery, the appearance of the crime scene and the body, the apparent cause of death, speculation about motives and premeditation, and whether self-defense was involved. Detailed testimony is included from the accused and from witnesses, family members, and neighbors, as well as summaries and opinions from local magistrates, their coroners, and other officials higher up the chain of judicial review. Officials explain which law in the Qing dynasty legal code was violated, which corresponding punishment was appropriate, and whether the sentence was eligible for reduction.These records began as reports from magistrates on homicide cases within their jurisdiction that were required by law to be tried first at the county level, then reviewed by judicial officials at the prefectural, provincial, and national levels, with each administrator adding his own observations to the file. Each case was decided finally in Beijing, in the name of the emperor if not by the monarch himself, before sentences could be carried out and the records permanently filed. All of the cases translated here are from the Qing imperial copies, most of which are now housed in the First Historical Archives, Beijing.

Explores the intersection of Chinese legal practice with writing in many different social contexts.

The first English translation of one of the most important law codes in Chinese history.

Historians and scholars of Chinese and comparative literature look at the influence of the Ming and Qing dynasties (c. 1550-1911) legal culture on literature and the influence of literary conventions on the presentation of legal cases. Essays explore works of crime-case fiction, judicial handbooks for magistrates and legal secretaries, popular attitudes toward Buddhist monks and merchants as reflected in the plaints, the role of professional litigation masters, and the belief in a parallel, otherworldly judicial system.