1.1 Brief Legal History in China
1.1.1 Chinese Law’s Origin
China is a country with a long history.About 500,000 years ago， ape persons lived in the western mountain， Beijing， called homo erectus pekinensis . 5,000 years ago， China entered civilized society and began to form state and law.
In about 21 century BC， China set up the first state，夏（Xia Dynasty）。It was said that禹（Yu） controlled yellow river flood，so he became the first king in Xia Dynasty。As a matter of fact， not only in China， but also in other orientcountries， such as Egypt， Mesopotamia， India， this kind of great projects， building pyramid， controlling river flood， conquering natural disaster， played a very important role in forming ancient orient states.
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Along with building the first state， China had the first law，禹刑（ Yu Xing）. It was said that maladministration in Xia Dynasty caused to create Yu Xing . That is to say，the first law was a product of suppressing the internal disorder or rebels. Yu Xing was the customary law， unwritten，unpublished，and already missing.
春秋战国（In the period of Spring-Autumn and Warring States，770BC-221BC），China had its first statutory law in 536 BC，刑鼎（Xing Ding），which was written and published，and cast in the vessel。Comparatively，the first statutory law in the West，the Twelve Table in ancient Rome，was enacted between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD，namely，200—500 years later than the first Chinese statute.
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1.1.2 Chinese Law in Feudal Society
Between the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period（770BC-476BC），China entered the feudal society，including different dynasties，in which most dynasties were unified， such as秦（Qin， 221BC-206BC），汉（Han）， including西汉（West Han，201BC-8AD）and东汉（East Han， 25—220），隋（Sui，581—618），唐（ Tang，618—907），宋（Song）， including北宋（North Song，960—1127）and南宋（South Song，1127—1279），元（Yuan，1279—1368），明（Ming， 1368—1644），清（Qing， 1616—1911）;A few dynasties were divided，such as三国（Three Kingdoms，220—280），南北朝（ South and North Dynasty，420—589），五代十国（Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms，907—979）。So the centralized autocratic and unified states are dominant in the Chinese history.
Qin Dynasty was the first state with the centralized and autocratic monarchy. 秦始皇（the first emperor of Qin） conquered other six states in the Warring States period and finally unified all over China through wars and political andChapter 1 Legal Culture in Ancient China economic reform for years.
儒家（the Confucian）and法家（the Legalism） were main academic thoughts in the period of the Spring-Autumn and Warring-States which had great impact on the monarchs in various states。Generally speaking，the Confucian stressed on the role of morality over punishment， preferred for monarch’s mild ruling to tyranny， and paid more attention to the educational role in transforming people and thought of penalty as a secondary way to education. On the other hand， the Legalism stressed on the severer law and punishment in order to control the society. The Legalists thought that emperor who ruled a state only depended on morality must fail， in contrast， the emperor who ruled a state depended on the law would be definitely successful. The First Emperor of Qin（259BC-210BC） hated the Confucian and ordered to burn the Confucian books and kill the scholars. On contrary he advocated the Legalism and李斯（ Li Si， 284BC-208BC）， a famous Legalist， then became his prime minister and under his leadership秦律（Qin Law） was enacted。 Qin Law was composed of six parts， namely，盗（rules of crimes to violate the property），贼（rules of crimes to violate personal rights）， 囚（rules to imprison）and捕（rules to arrest），杂（rules to punish other crimes），具（rules to punish severely or leniently）.
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汉律（Han Law）was another famous and important law in feudal society，which drew a lesson from Qin Dynasty quickly perished for severe law and began to stressed，the Confucian role.董仲舒（Dong Zhongshu，179BC-104BC）， a great Confucian in Han Dynasty， advocated“Ousted Hundred and the Confucianism Worship Alone”。汉武帝（Emperor Han Wudi,156BC-87BC） rejected all kinds of theoretical schools but Confucius as a national philosophy. Since then，the Confucian became the ruling ideology in the feudal society. But the Legalism still played an important role in keeping the social security and order. Actually it is with clearly confluent trend of Confucianism and the ideology of Legalists in Chinese political philosophy. Both are the important methods in ruling the state and society.
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