Abstract
Scholars have long been arguing over the main basis of magistrates’ judgements in civil justice of Ming-Qing China. This article analyzes Ming-Qing officials’ way of thinking focusing on the three elements that guided their consideration----that is, “lijiao (moral ethics)”, “qiyue (agreements)”, and “shengcun (subsistence)”----, instead of long discussed “qing (human considerations), li (moral principles), fa (laws)”. Chapter 3 and 4 of this article respectively deal with lawsuits concerning land disputes and wife-selling. Through the analysis of these cases, this article argues that the relative importance of these three elements were different according to the kinds of disputes. In the land disputes, the qiyue element had priority, while in the wife-selling cases, the lijiao element was more emphasized. In any case, however, Ming-Qing officials used to take these three elements into consideration in order to pass the judgements that they thought equitable.
Keywords
civil justice、moral ethics、agreement、subsistence、equity
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