Pure, orthodox and incorruptible, Judge Bao has been serving as the preeminent embodiment of justice in China for almost a thousand years, so much so his court case have been adapted as stories, novels and plays over the centuries. Now, for the very first time a series of eight ballad-stories on Judge Bao, dating from the period 1250ndash;1450, are offered in a complete and annotated translation. These texts will provide the reader a complete reflection of the legend of Judge Bao in its earliest phase of development, with an extended introduction placing the ballad-stories in context with the development of the Judge Bao legend. These ballad-stories, in contrast to past plays dating from the same period, present abuse of power and corruption as endemic in the courts and bureaucratic service, and show Judge Bao imposing the rule of law even on the emperor.
Ch. 1. The tale of the early career of Rescriptor Bao -- ch. 2. Judge Bao selling rice in Chenzhou -- ch. 3. The tale of the humane ancestor recognizing his mother -- ch. 4. Dragon-design Bao sentences the white weretiger -- ch. 5. Rescriptor Bao decides the case of the weird black pot -- ch. 6. The tale of the case of dragon-design Bao sentencing the emperor's brothers-in-law Cao -- ch. 7. The tale of Zhang Wengui. Part one. The Tale of Zhang Wengui. Part two -- ch. 8. The story of how Shi Guanshou's wife Liu Dusai on the night of the fifteenth, on superior prime, watched the lanterns. Part one. The story of the judgment of dragon-design Bao in the case of Prince Zhao and Sun Wenyi. Part two.
China as an emerging world power is currently undergoing a tortuous process of reform in its legal system. China's difficulties are rooted in their worldview regarding justice and the supernatural. In contrast to the West, the Chinese do not regard divine powers as law-givers. In their view, since great antiquity laws have been created by human authorities for rulers to effectively control their subjects. This notion of rule by law is fundamentally different from the Western idea of rule of law based on protecting the rights of individual citizens. The Chinese emphasis on criminal justice is rooted in their conception of morality which is tied to their cosmology and supernatural beliefs. This book focuses on criminal justice by drawing upon court cases which appear in historical records. The author has included legendary stories, folk tales and wuxia (martial heroes or knights-errant) novels because they inform us in an interesting manner about the popular beliefs in justice and the supernatural, which guided the day-to-day action of the ordinary people. The author draws examples primarily from antiquity to the Song dynasty (960-1279) when these beliefs could very well be garnered from the rich sources of Zhe Yu Gui Jian (Exemplars in Judging Criminal Cases) containing 395 cases and Yi Jian Zhi (Accounts of Strange Happenings) containing 2,776 episodes, many of which involving the supernatural, as well as the captivating stories of the legendary Judge Bao who lived during the Song. This book concludes with a discussion of continuity and change down to the present in the context of a broad social and political landscape.
Of all the issues presented by China’s ongoing economic and sociopolitical transformation, none may ultimately prove as consequential as the development of the Chinese legal system. Even as public demand for the rule of law grows, the Chinese Communist Party still interferes in legal affairs and continues in its harsh treatment of human rights lawyers and activists. Both the frequent occurrences of social unrest in recent years and the growing tension between China’s various interest groups underline the urgency of developing a sound and sustainable legal system. As one of China’s most influential law professors, He Weifang has been at the forefront of the country’s treacherous path toward justice and judicial independence for over a decade. Among his many remarkable endeavors was a successful petition in 2003 that abolished China’s controversial regulations permitting the internment and deportation of urban “vagrants,” bringing to an end two decades of legal discrimination against migrant workers. His bold remarks at the famous New Western Hills Symposium in 2006, including his assertion that “China’s party-state structure violates the PRC Constitution,” are considered a watershed moment in the century-long movement for a constitutional China. With In the Name of Justice, He presents his critical assessment of the state of Chinese legal reform. In addition to a selection of his academic writings, this unique book also includes many of He Weifang’s public speeches, media interviews, and open letters, providing additional insight into his dual roles as thinker and practitioner in the Chinese legal world. Among the topics covered are judicial independence, judicial review, legal education, capital punishment, and the legal protection of free speech and human rights. The volume also offers a historical review of the evolution of Chinese traditional legal thought, enhanced by cross-country comparisons. A proponent of reform rather than revolution, He believes only true constitutionalism can guarantee social justice and enduring stability for China. "He Weifang has argued for two decades that rule of law, however inconvenient at times to some of those who govern, must be embraced because it is ultimately the most reliable protector of the interests of the country, of the average citizen, and, in fact, even of those who govern."—from the Foreword by John L. Thornton, chairman, Brookings Institution Board of Trustees and Professor and Director of Global Leadership at Tsinghua University "What struck me—and shocked me as a foreign visitor—was not only that the entire discussion was explicitly critical of the Chinese Communist Party for its resistance to any meaningful judicial reform, but also that the atmosphere was calm, reasonable, and marked by a sense of humor and sophistication in the expression of ideas."—from the Introduction by Cheng Li, director of research and senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings
After thirty years of Mao era (1949-1979) which was struggle-based, the Communist Party of China has begun to change its position as a pioneering revolutionary party, evolving into a universal ruling party that transcends class interests. Meanwhile, administrative and judicial reforms oriented toward a more efficient, serving government and the rule of law have been actively carried out. As the earliest work on constructive jurisprudence of new proceduralism in China, this book elucidates some of the most critical problems in the process of constructing a legal order and realizing institutional innovation in China: democracy, fair and reasonable procedure, interpretation techniques, cognitive ability of legislation, position and function of the jurist group, and professional ethics, etc. Besides, it expounds five pairs of contradictions in the modernization process of Chinese legal system, namely, substantial and procedural justice, moral and legal debates, formal and reflective rationality, the major responsibility on bureaucrats and lawyers, and the motivation of public welfare and profit, and explores appropriate approaches to combine the different factors. Scholars and students in Chinese legal and social transformation studies will be attracted by this book. Furthermore, it will help different civilizations conduct rational dialogues on justice and order.
This anthology features translations of ten seminal plays written during the Yuan dynasty (1279Ð1368), a period considered the golden age of Chinese theater. By turns lyrical and earthy, sentimental and ironic, Yuan drama spans a broad emotional, linguistic, and stylistic range. Combining sung arias with declaimed verses and doggerels, dialogues and mime, and jokes and acrobatic feats, Yuan drama formed a vital part of ChinaÕs culture of performance and entertainment in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. To date, few Yuan-dynasty plays have been translated into English. Well-known translators and scholars have supervised the making of this collection and add a short description to each play. A general introduction situates all selections within their cultural and historical contexts.
Regional Literature and the Transmission of Culture provides a richly textured picture of cultural transmission in the Qing and early Republican eras. Drum ballad texts (guci) evoke one of the most popular performance traditions of their day, a practice that flourished in North China. Study of these narratives opens up surprising new perspectives on vital topics in Chinese literature and history: the creation of regional cultural identities and their relation to a central “Chinese culture”; the relationship between oral and written cultures; the transmission of legal knowledge and popular ideals of justice; and the impact of the changing technology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the reproduction and dissemination of popular texts. Margaret B. Wan maps the dissemination over time and space of two legends of wise judges; their journey through oral, written, and visual media reveals a fascinating but overlooked world of “popular” literature. While drum ballads form a distinctively regional literature, lithography in early twentieth-century Shanghai drew them into national markets. The new paradigm this book offers will interest scholars of cultural history, literature, book culture, legal history, and popular culture.
A much-needed account of the hierarchy of justice that defines China’s unique political-legal culture. To many outsiders, China has an image as a realm of Oriental despotism where law is at best window dressing and at worst an instrument of coercion and tyranny. In this highly original contribution to the interdisciplinary field of law and humanities, Haiyan Lee contends that this image arises from a skewed understanding of China’s political-legal culture, particularly the failure to distinguish what she calls high justice and low justice. In the Chinese legal imagination, Lee shows, justice is a vertical concept, with low justice between individuals firmly subordinated to the high justice of the state. China’s political-legal culture is marked by a mistrust of law’s powers, and as a result, it privileges substantive over procedural justice. Calling on a wide array of narratives—stories of crime and punishment, subterfuge and exposé, guilt and redemption—A Certain Justice helps us recognize the fight for justice outside the familiar arenas of liberal democracy and the rule of law.
The twelve case studies in Chinese Law: Knowledge, Practice and Transformation, 1530s to 1950s, edited by Li Chen and Madeleine Zelin, open a new window onto the historical foundation and transformation of Chinese law and legal culture in late imperial and modern China. Their interdisciplinary analyses provide valuable insights into the multiple roles of law and legal knowledge in structuring social relations, property rights, popular culture, imperial governance, and ideas of modernity; they also provide insight into the roles of law and legal knowledge in giving form to an emerging revolutionary ideology and to policies that continue to affect China to the present day.
Explores the social and cultural significance of Chinese communist legal practice in constructing marriage and gender relations in the turbulent period from 1940 to 1960.
