Abstract
There were three meanings by the term “law by examples” from the beginning of Tang Dynasty: general principles of Law, general formula （or “permanent form”）, and collections of the analogy of Court Cases. During the time of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, an official by the name of Zhao Renben compiled a book entitled “Legal Precedents”, and it was one of the kind of “collection of legal precedents”. This kind of collection was somewhat more objective, and thus carried out some regulatory function in jurisdiction. They were basically legal precedents of the central government. As for its content, based on the actual precedents, in addition to the statements of facts, the court verdict also cited some legal codes and administrative orders as basis for judgment. Emperor Gaozong once （probably around 676-697 A.D） abolished the use of law by examples, and it was not revived until the First Part of Orders of Kaiyuan Reign was put into effect in the year of 719 A.D. At the same time, these collections were used as basic textbooks for the Law Students in Imperial College. But they just disappeared after the Song Dynasty and were not seen in the bibliographies ever since.
Keywords
Collection of Legal Precedents、Zhao Renben、jurisprudence、Commentaries on the Collections of the Court Orders、Orders concerning the Households
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