Traditional Chinese law

Traditional Chinese law refers to the laws, regulations and rules used in China up to 1911, when the last imperial dynasty fell. It has undergone continuous development since at least the 11th century BC. This legal tradition is distinct from the common law and civil law traditions of the West – as well as Islamic law and classical Hindu law – and to a great extent, is contrary to the concepts of contemporary Chinese law. It incorporates elements of both Legalist and Confucian traditions of social order and governance.

To Westerners, perhaps the most striking feature of the traditional Chinese criminal procedure is that it was an inquisitorial system where the judge, usually the district magistrate, conducts a public investigation of a crime, rather than an adversarial system where the judge decides between attorneys representing the prosecution and defense. "The Chinese traditionally despised the role of advocate and saw such people as parasites who attempted to profit from the difficulties of others. The magistrate saw himself as someone seeking the truth, not a partisan for either side."

Two traditional Chinese terms approximate "law" in the modern Western sense. The first, lü (律), means primarily "norm" or "model". The second, fa (法), is usually rendered as "statute".

The laws of the aristocratic societies of early China put substantial emphasis on maintaining the distinct ranks and orders among the nobles, in addition to controlling the populace. As a result, li (禮), meaning ritual and etiquette, governed the conduct of the nobles whilst xing (刑), rules of punishment, governed the commoners and slaves.

The early rulers of the Zhou Dynasty issued or enforced laws that already exemplified the values of a primogeniture regime, most notable of which is filial piety. The earliest document on law in China that is generally regarded as authentic is the Kang Gao (康誥), a set of instructions issued by King Wu of Zhou to a younger prince for the government of a fief. The Kang Gao is a chapter of the Book of Documents.

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