Abstract
The legal system in Ancient China experienced the development of legal form from Fa Jing, Lv and Ling in Warring States and Qin period to Lv and Ling in Han period. The discoveries of Qin Bamboo Slips Unearthed at Yun-meng, Bamboo Slips Buried in the Han Dynasty Tomb in Zhangjia Shan—The Second Year Law as well as those documents handed down for generations: We Shu Preface, Wei Shu Treatise on penal law, Tang Law and etc. explicitly record the affairs described in Fa Jing composed by Li Kui in Warring States, which indubitably indicates that it was Li Kui who came from Wei state that laid out Fa Jing Six Chapters. Moreover, Shang Yang who used to be subjected to Wei state also contributed to the introduction of Li Kui’s Fa Jing Six Chapters. Although there were records about Shang Yang “change Fa into Lv” in ancient documents it was still a usual practice that people called Fa Jing six chapters as Qin Law or Qin Fa Jing. Lv, Fa and Ling these three Qin Dynasty dictions appear repeatedly in Qin Bamboo Slips Unearthed at Yun-meng. Based on this discovery, I believe that the “Fa” mentioned above is exactly the Qin Fa Jing six chapters and these three dictions are the core of Qin Dynasty’s legal system. Recent years, some domestic and overseas scholars hold the view that Western Han Dynasty Xiao He did not compose Nine Chapter Law, while according to my combing of Chinese historical textual documents such as Han Shu, Shi Ji and other related materials, I take for granted that from the first year of Han era(206 B.C.) Liu Bang entered the central Shaanxi plain to 202 B.C. he eventually unified China, there were three activities about modifying legislation in big scales: firstly, at the first year of Han era, Han Gao Zu Liu Bang primarily promulgated a “Three-point Law”; the second time was from the second year of Han era (205 B.C.) to the year Han Gao Zu unifying China, the prime minister of Han---Xiao He drafted Nine Chapter Law, based on the recomposing of Qin Fa Jing six chapters and three Qin Lv: Xing, Jiu and Hu, which created and established a new legal system style that was composed of Fa and Lv; the third time happened after Han Gao Zu unified China, he ordered Xiao He to revise legislation and Han Xin to declare military law. The revision of legislation settled the foundation of “Pong Chapter eighteen Chapters” and it is opposite with the record of Jin Shu Xing Fa Zhi which declares it was Shu Suntong that composed “Pong Chapter eighteen Chapters”.
Keywords
Qin Fa Jing、Qin Bamboo Slips Unearthed at Yun-meng、Fa Lv Ling、the Second Year Law、Nine Chapter Law
Cite
Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.
