Code, Custom, and Legal Practice in China: The Qing and the Republic ComparedDrawing on archival records of actual cases, this study provides a new understanding of late imperial and Republican Chinese law. It also casts a new light on Chinese law by emphasizing rural areas and by comparing the old and the new. The book asks the question: What changes occurred and what remained the same in Chinese civil justice from the Qing to the Republic? Civil justice is here interpreted to mean not only codified law but also actual legal practice. Since the consequences of court actions frequently differed from the code s intent, this book also addresses the question of how legal practice mediated between code and custom. It aims to track the developing history of the legal system and to discover what it meant in the lives of the Chinese people. Part One covers the revising of the Qing code and the drafting of new codes, especially the Civil Code of 1929-30, the major institutional changes that preceded the promulgation of new laws, and the organizing principles of those laws. Part Two, the main body of the text, uses case records from both the Qing and the Republic to examine certain topics that engendered frequent litigation: conditional sales of land, topsoil ownership, debt, old-age support, and women s choices in marriage, divorce, and illicit sex. The book demonstrates the contrasting logics of Qing and Republican law: of privileges granted by the absolutist ruler versus rights independent of the will of the ruler, of a survival ethic versus a capitalist one, of patrifamilial property versus individual property, of reciprocal parent-child support versus unidirectional support, and of partial and limited choice for women versus independent agency. The book shows, however, that in actual practice the new legal systems made many accommodations to traditional customs, thus making major concessions to social realities while still holding to radically different principles. The author demonstrates the inadequacies of a simple contrast between the Chinese legal tradition and modernity, or between China and the West. He argues instead for paying attention to the local knowledge of modernization and to the logics not only of the codes but also of customs and court actions. He shows, finally, the importance of both systemic structure and individual choice for this social and cultural study of Chinese law. |
Contents
Introduction I | 1 |
Institutional and Procedural Changes in the Late Qing | 31 |
The Guomindang Civil Code of 192930 | 49 |
Dian | 71 |
Topsoil Ownership | 99 |
Debt | 119 |
OldAge Support | 136 |
Marriage | 155 |
Marriage | 180 |
Conclusion | 201 |
Other editions - View all
Code, Custom, and Legal Practice in China: The Qing and the Republic Compared Philip C. Huang No preview available - 2001 |
Code, Custom, and Legal Practice in China: The Qing and the Republic Compared Philip C. Huang No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
abduction adultery Article Baodi Baxian Bernhardt brought suit Chen China Chinese civil code civil law claim code's codified law conception consent contract court criminal code customary Dan-Xin debt dian title dian-holder dian-maker divorce diya draft example Fu and Zhou Fujian guan Guo Wei Guomindang Civil Guomindang code Guomindang law Guomindang lawmakers heyou household division Hu Hanmin Hu Shi Huang husband illicit sex judicial Judicial Yuan late Qing legal practice legal system loan logic magistrate marriage modern née old-age land old-age support parents patrilineal payment peasant popular custom principles provisions punished Qing code Qing law redemption rent Republic Republican sell Shen Jiaben Shunyi social sold sons statute stipulated subsoil owner substatute taels tenant term Tianjin tion topsoil owner topsoil ownership Wang Wang Chonghui widow wife woman women Wujiang Yibin yongdian yuan Yuan Shikai Yueqing Zeng Zhang Zhang Zhidong Zhao zhaotie
References to this book
The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in ... David G. Atwill Limited preview - 2005 |