• *Frontmatter, pg. i*Preface, pg. v*Note on Sources, pg. vii*Table of Contents, pg. ix*List of Tables and Figure, pg. xi*
• CHAPTER I. Introduction, pg. 1*
• CHAPTER II. Beginning of the Kiangsi Soviet, 1924-1933, pg. 11*
• CHAPTER III. Crisis in the Kiangsi Soviet, 1933-1934, pg. 45*
• CHAPTER IOTAV. Yenan, 1935-1944, pg. 64*
• CHAPTER V. Civil War, 1945-1949, pg. 95*
• CHAPTER VI. Prison Management, pg. 109*
• CHAPTER VII. Conclusions, pg. 136*APPENDIX A: Draft Statute of the Chinese Soviet Republic Governing Punishment of Counterrevolutionaries, pg. 155*APPENDIX BETA: Statute of the Chinese Soviet Republic Governing Punishment of Counterrevolutionaries, pg. 161*APPENDIX C: The Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Border Region Statute Protecting Human and Property Rights, pg. 168*APPENDIX D: Draft Statute of the Shensi-Kansu- Ninghsia Border Region Governing Punishment of Traitors During War Times, pg. 172*APPENDIX EPSILON: Draft Statute of the Shensi-Kansu- Ninghsia Border Region Concerning Martial Law During War, pg. 175*APPENDIX F: Revised Method of Handling Traitors' Property, pg. 178*APPENDIX G: Separate Statute of the Shansi- Chahar-Hopei Border Region Concerning Voluntary Surrender and Confession of Traitors1 (Tzu-Shou), pg. 181*APPENDIX ETA: Method for Temporarily Handling Criminals in Prison in Extraordinary Times, pg. 184*
• APPENDIX I: Statute Concerning Voluntary Surrender and Confession (Tzu- Shou) of Traitors by the Nationalist Government's Military Affairs Commission, pg. 186*APPENDIX J: Revised Laws Governing Emergency Crimes Endangering the Republic, pg. 191*APPENDIX KAPPA: Revised Statute Concerning Punishment of Traitors, pg. 193*APPENDIX L: Temporary Statute of Shantung Province for Punishing War Criminals and Traitors, pg. 197*Glossary, pg. 201*Bibliography, pg. 235*Index, pg. 251*Studies in East Asian Law Harvard University, pg. 257.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

During the period 1924-1949, amid civil war with the KMT, war with the Japanese, internal leadership disputes, and other chaotic conditions, rapid shifts occurred in the political culture of China. Patricia Griffin contends that an understanding of how the Chinese Communists created a legal system at this time is essential to a grasp of more recent events. Focusing on the Communists' definition and treatment of counterrevolutionaries, she describes and assesses the contribution of environment, ideology, and leadership in the development of legal techniques used by the Communists in their rise to power. In this book, translations of the major statutes concerning counterrevolutionaries during the period, together with an account of the growth of counterrevolutionary law and the legal structure, explain how the counterrevolutionaries were dealt with and how their treatment changed in response to external and internal stimuli. The author analyzes the roles of ideology and experience as determinants of law toward counterrevolutionaries and, in a final chapter, discusses the implications of the early experience for future legal developments in China. Her topic is of vital importance because of the politically sensitive nature of the subject matter and because of the time period examined. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Law of succession and inheritance.--Marriage laws.--Village organization.--Land tenure and taxation.--Commercial law.--Criminal cases.--Mixed court cases.--1970 appendices: Obituary of George Jamieson.--Book reviews.

• A second Great Wall? - China's post-cultural revolution project of legal construction, William Alford-- the inscrutable occidental? - implications of Roberto Unger's uses and abuses of the Chinese past, William Alford-- power and politics in the Chinese court system - the enforcement of civil judgements, Donald Clarke-- the anatomy of rural family revolution - state, law and the family in rural China, 1949-1966, part one, Neil Diamant-- legal person in China - essence and limits, Fu Tingmei-- the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, William Jones-- sources of order in Chinese law, Perry Keller-- socialist legal theory in Deng Ziaoping's China, Carlos Lo-- citizens v. Mandarins - administrative litigation in China, Pei Minxin-- ruling the country in accordance with law, reflections on the rule and the role of law in contemporary China, Randall P. Peerenboom-- regulating labour relations in China - the challenge of adapting to the socialist market economy, Pitman Potter and Li Jianyong-- legal and institutional uncertainties in the domestic contract law of the People's Republic of China, Daniel Rubenstein-- the history of Shoushen, Kam Wong-- legal pragmatism in the People's Republic of China, Yu Xingzhong.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

These articles represent a collective introduction to the law and legal theory of China. They were chosen to illustrate the best of English-language academic scholarship concerning law in China, whilst also including a range of works having theoretical significance.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Imperial archives and historiography of Western extraterritoriality in China
• Translation of the Qing code and colonial origins of comparative Chinese law
• Chinese law and society in the formation of European modernity
• Sentimental imperialism and the global spectacle of Chinese punishments
• Law and empire in the making of the first Opium War.

How did American schoolchildren, French philosophers, Russian Sinologists, Dutch merchants, and British lawyers imagine China and Chinese law? What happened when agents of presumably dominant Western empires had to endure the humiliations and anxieties of maintaining a profitable but precarious relationship with China? In Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes, Li Chen provides a richly textured analysis of these related issues and their intersection with law, culture, and politics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using a wide array of sources, Chen's study focuses on the power dynamics of Sino-Western relations during the formative century before the First Opium War (1839-1842). He highlights the centrality of law to modern imperial ideology and politics and brings new insight to the origins of comparative Chinese law in the West, the First Opium War, and foreign extraterritoriality in China. The shifting balance of economic and political power formed and transformed knowledge of China and Chinese law in different contact zones. Chen argues that recovering the variegated and contradictory roles of Chinese law in Western "modernization" helps provincialize the subsequent Euro-Americentric discourse of global modernity. Chen draws attention to important yet underanalyzed sites in which imperial sovereignty, national identity, cultural tradition, or international law and order were defined and restructured. His valuable case studies show how constructed differences between societies were hardened into cultural or racial boundaries and then politicized to rationalize international conflicts and hierarchy.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Acknowledgments Introduction
• 1. Imperial Archives and Historiography of Western Extraterritoriality in China
• 2. Translation of the Qing Code and Colonial Origins of Comparative Chinese Law
• 3. Chinese Law in the Formation of European Modernity
• 4. Sentimental Imperialism and the Global Spectacle of Chinese Punishments
• 5. Law and Empire in the Making of the First Opium War Conclusion List of Abbreviations Notes Glossary Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

How did American schoolchildren, French philosophers, Russian Sinologists, Dutch merchants, and British lawyers imagine China and Chinese law? What happened when agents of presumably dominant Western empires had to endure the humiliations and anxieties of maintaining a profitable but precarious relationship with China? In Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes, Li Chen provides a richly textured analysis of these related issues and their intersection with law, culture, and politics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using a wide array of sources, Chen's study focuses on the power dynamics of Sino-Western relations during the formative century before the First Opium War (1839-1842). He highlights the centrality of law to modern imperial ideology and politics and brings new insight to the origins of comparative Chinese law in the West, the First Opium War, and foreign extraterritoriality in China. The shifting balance of economic and political power formed and transformed knowledge of China and Chinese law in different contact zones. Chen argues that recovering the variegated and contradictory roles of Chinese law in Western "modernization" helps provincialize the subsequent Euro-Americentric discourse of global modernity. Chen draws attention to important yet underanalyzed sites in which imperial sovereignty, national identity, cultural tradition, or international law and order were defined and restructured. His valuable case studies show how constructed differences between societies were hardened into cultural or racial boundaries and then politicized to rationalize international conflicts and hierarchy.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Rethinking Chinese law and history : an introduction / Li Chen and Madeleine Zelin
• Classifications of litigation and implications for Qing judicial practice / Jianpeng Deng
• Kinship hierarchies and property institutions in late Qing and republican China / Taisu Zhang
• Social practice and judicial politics in "grave destruction" cases in Qing taiwan, 1683-1895 / Weiting Guo
• Elite engagement with the judicial system in the Qing and its implications for legal practice and legal principle / Janet Theiss
• "Law is one thing, and virtue is another" : vernacular readings of law and legal process in 1920s Shanghai / Bryna Goodman
• Wayward daughters : sex, family, and law in early twentieth-century Beijing / Zhao Ma
• The community of legal experts in sixteenth and seventeenth century China / Yanhong Wu
• Marketing legal information : commercial publications of the great Qing code, 1644-1911 / Ting Zhang
• Regulating private legal specialists and the limits of imperial power in Qing China / Li Chen
• Court case ballads : popular ideals of justice in late Qing and republican China / Margaret B. Wan
• Old forensics in practice : investigating suspicious deaths and administering justice in republican Beijing / Daniel Asen
• Simplified legal knowledge in the early PRC : explaining and publishing the marriage law / Jennifer Altehenger.

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. This book is also available in paperback.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: Ways of Rethinking Chinese Law and History Part I. Meaning and Practice of Law
• Chapter 1. Classifications of Litigation and Implications for Qing Judicial Practice - Jianpeng Deng
• Chapter 2. Kinship Hierarchies and Property Institutions in Late-Qing and Republican China - Taisu Zhang
• Chapter 3. Social Practice and Judicial Politics in "Grave Destruction" Cases in Qing Taiwan, 1683-1895 - Weiting Guo
• Chapter 4. Elite Engagement with the Judicial System in the Qing and its Implications for Legal Practice and Principle - Janet Theiss
• Chapter 5. "Law Is One Thing, and Virtue Is Another": Vernacular Readings of Law and Legal Process in 1920s Shanghai - Bryna Goodman
• Chapter 6. Wayward Daughters: Sex, Family, and Law in Early Twentieth-Century Beijing - Zhao Ma Part II. Production and Application of Legal Knowledge
• Chapter 7. The Community of Legal Experts in 16th- and 17th-Century China - Yanhong Wu
• Chapter 8. Marketing Legal Information: Commercial Publications of the Great Qing Code, 1644-1911 - Ting Zhang
• Chapter 9. Contestation over Legal Knowledge and Limits of Imperial Power in Qing China - Li Chen
• Chapter 10. Court Case Ballads: Popular Ideals of Justice in Late Qing and Republican China - Margaret Wan
• Chapter 11. Old Forensics in Practice: Investigating Suspicious Deaths and Administering Justice in Republican Beijing - Daniel Asen
• Chapter 12. Simplified Legal Knowledge in the Early PRC: Explaining and Publishing the Marriage Law - Jennifer Altehenger.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

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. This book is also available in paperback.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• *Frontmatter, pg. i*CONTENTS, pg. vi*PREFACE, pg. vii*ABBREVIATIONS, pg. xi*INTRODUCTION, pg. xiii*PART ONE. THE YUAN LEGAL INSTITUTIONS, pg. 1*PART TWO. CHIH-YUAN HSIN-KO, pg. 99*GLOSSARY, pg. 167*BIBLIOGRAPHY, pg. 187*INDEX, pg. 199.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The evolution of China's legal tradition was one of the most striking aspects of the transformation of Chinese civilization under Mongolian domination. Paul Ch'en's exploration of the legal system of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and its first substantial legal code (the Chih-yuan hsin-ko, or Chih-yiian New Code) provides a key to our understanding of the impact of the Mongols on traditional Chinese law and society. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chronological Chart-- Preface-- The Cosmological Basis of Morality and the Law: The Importance of Filial Piety-- The History of the Chinese Legal System-- The Precarious Position of the Emperor-- The Role of the Supernatural in Chinese Justice-- The Justice System and the Exemplary Judge-- Judge Bao in Fiction-- The Role of Wuxia (Chinese Knights-Errant/Martial Heroes)-- Continuity and Change.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

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.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• book I. General principles ; book II. Obligations ; book III. Rights over things ; book IV. Family ; book V. Succession.

• [v. 1] book I. General principles.book II. Obligations. book III. Rights over things.--[v. 2] book IV. Family. book V. Succession.

• [v. 1] Book I. General principles. Book II. Obligations. Book III. Rights over things
• [v. 2] Book IV. Family. Book V. Succession.

• [v. 1] Book I. General principles. Book II. Obligations. Book III. Rights over things
• [v. 2] Book IV. Family. Book V. Succession.

• 1. Introduction--
• 2. Defining categories: disputes and lawsuits in North China villages before the communist revolution--
• 3. Informal justice: mediation in North China villages before the communist revolution--
• 4. Formal justice: codified law and magisterial adjudication in the Qing--
• 5. Between informal mediation and formal adjudication: the third realm of Qing justice--
• 6. Two patterns in the Qing civil justice system--
• 7. Extent, cost and strategies of litigation--
• 8. From the perspective of magistrate handbooks--
• 9. Max Weber and the Qing legal and political system-- Appendixes-- References-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

To what extent do newly available case records bear out our conventional assumptions about the Qing legal system? Is it true, for example, that Qing courts rarely handled civil lawsuits those concerned with disputes over land, debt, marriage, and inheritance as official Qing representations led us to believe? Is it true that decent people did not use the courts? And is it true that magistrates generally relied more on moral predilections than on codified law in dealing with cases? Based in large part on records of 628 civil dispute cases from three counties from the 1760 s to the 1900 s, this book reexamines those widely accepted Qing representations in the light of actual practice. The Qing state would have had us believe that civil disputes were so minor or trivial that they were left largely to local residents themselves to resolve. However, case records show that such disputes actually made up a major part of the caseloads of local courts. The Qing state held that lawsuits were the result of actions of immoral men, but ethnographic information and case records reveal that when community/kin mediation failed, many common peasants resorted to the courts to assert and protect their legitimate claims. The Qing state would have had us believe that local magistrates, when they did deal with civil disputes, did so as mediators rather than judges. Actual records reveal that magistrates almost never engaged in mediation but generally adjudicated according to stipulations in the Qing code.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction--
• 2. Defining categories: disputes and lawsuits in North China villages before the communist revolution--
• 3. Informal justice: mediation in North China villages before the communist revolution--
• 4. Formal justice: codified law and magisterial adjudication in the Qing--
• 5. Between informal mediation and formal adjudication: the third realm of Qing justice--
• 6. Two patterns in the Qing civil justice system--
• 7. Extent, cost and strategies of litigation--
• 8. From the perspective of magistrate handbooks--
• 9. Max Weber and the Qing legal and political system-- Appendixes-- References-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

To what extent do newly available case records bear out our conventional assumptions about the Qing legal system? Is it true, for example, that Qing courts rarely handled civil lawsuits those concerned with disputes over land, debt, marriage, and inheritance as official Qing representations led us to believe? Is it true that decent people did not use the courts? And is it true that magistrates generally relied more on moral predilections than on codified law in dealing with cases? Based in large part on records of 628 civil dispute cases from three counties from the 1760 s to the 1900 s, this book reexamines those widely accepted Qing representations in the light of actual practice. The Qing state would have had us believe that civil disputes were so minor or trivial that they were left largely to local residents themselves to resolve. However, case records show that such disputes actually made up a major part of the caseloads of local courts. The Qing state held that lawsuits were the result of actions of immoral men, but ethnographic information and case records reveal that when community/kin mediation failed, many common peasants resorted to the courts to assert and protect their legitimate claims. The Qing state would have had us believe that local magistrates, when they did deal with civil disputes, did so as mediators rather than judges. Actual records reveal that magistrates almost never engaged in mediation but generally adjudicated according to stipulations in the Qing code.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction-- Part I. From Qing to Guomindang Law:
• 2. Civil law in the late Qing and the early republic: the revised Qing code--
• 3. Institutional and procedural changes in the late qing and the early republic--
• 4. The Guomindang civil code of 1929-30-- Part II. Qing and Guomindang Civil Justice Compared:
• 5. Dian--
• 6. Topsoil ownership--
• 7. Debt--
• 8. Old-age support--
• 9. Women's choices under qing law: marriage and illicit sex--
• 10. Women's choices under Guomindang law: marriage, divorce, and adultery--
• 11. Conclusion-- Appendix-- References-- Character list-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Drawing 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.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Introduction-- Part I. From Qing to Guomindang Law:
• 2. Civil law in the late Qing and the early republic: the revised Qing code--
• 3. Institutional and procedural changes in the late qing and the early republic--
• 4. The Guomindang civil code of 1929-30-- Part II. Qing and Guomindang Civil Justice Compared:
• 5. Dian--
• 6. Topsoil ownership--
• 7. Debt--
• 8. Old-age support--
• 9. Women's choices under qing law: marriage and illicit sex--
• 10. Women's choices under Guomindang law: marriage, divorce, and adultery--
• 11. Conclusion-- Appendix-- References-- Character list-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Drawing 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.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Editors' introduction / Zhang Yongle and Daniel A. Bell
• Introduction / Su Li
• The constitution of the territory and politics of a large state / Su Li
• Ancient China's cultural constitution : a unified script and Mandarin Chinese / Su Li
• Scholar-officials / Su Li
• The mixed Han-Tang-Song structure and its moral ideal / Wang Hui
• The symbolic and the functional / Liu Han
• The ideal of civilization / Wu fei
• History, culture, revolution, and Chinese constitutionalism / Zhao Xiaoli
• Response to my critics / Su Li.

How was the vast ancient Chinese empire brought together and effectively ruled? What are the historical origins of the resilience of contemporary China's political system? In The Constitution of Ancient China, Su Li, China's most influential legal theorist, examines the ways in which a series of fundamental institutions, rather than a supreme legal code upholding the laws of the land, evolved and coalesced into an effective constitution. Arguing that a constitution is an institutional response to a set of issues particular to a specific society, Su Li demonstrates how China unified a vast territory, diverse cultures, and elites from different backgrounds into a whole. He delves into such areas as uniform weights and measurements, the standardization of Chinese characters, and the building of the Great Wall. The book includes commentaries by four leading Chinese scholars in law, philosophy, and intellectual history--Wang Hui, Liu Han, Wu Fei, and Zhao Xiaoli--who share Su Li's ambition to explain the resilience of ancient China's political system but who contend that he overstates functionalist dimensions while downplaying the symbolic. Exploring why China has endured as one political entity for over two thousand years, The Constitution of Ancient China will be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the institutional legacy of the Chinese empire.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The right degree of pain : imperial China
• The prison regime : republican China
• Trials of terror : war and revolution
• Reform through labor : the communist state.

In a groundbreaking work, Klaus Muhlhahn offers a comprehensive examination of the criminal justice system in modern China, an institution deeply rooted in politics, society, and culture. In late imperial China, flogging, tattooing, torture, and servitude were routine punishments. Sentences, including executions, were generally carried out in public. After 1905, in a drive to build a strong state and curtail pressure from the West, Chinese officials initiated major legal reforms. Physical punishments were replaced by fines and imprisonment. Capital punishment, though removed from the public sphere, remained in force for the worst crimes. Trials no longer relied on confessions obtained through torture but were instead held in open court and based on evidence. Prison reform became the centerpiece of an ambitious social-improvement program. After 1949, the Chinese communists developed their own definitions of criminality and new forms of punishment. People's tribunals were convened before large crowds, which often participated in the proceedings. At the center of the socialist system was 'reform through labor', and thousands of camps administered prison sentences. Eventually, the communist leadership used the camps to detain anyone who offended against the new society, and the 'crime' of counter-revolution was born. Muhlhahn reveals the broad contours of criminal justice from late imperial China to the Deng reform era and details the underlying values, successes and failures, and ultimate human costs of the system. Based on unprecedented research in Chinese archives and incorporating prisoner testimonies, witness reports, and interviews, this book is essential reading for understanding modern China.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The right degree of pain : imperial China
• The prison regime : republican China
• Trials of terror : war and revolution
• Reform through labor : the communist state.

In a groundbreaking work, Klaus Muhlhahn offers a comprehensive examination of the criminal justice system in modern China, an institution deeply rooted in politics, society, and culture. In late imperial China, flogging, tattooing, torture, and servitude were routine punishments. Sentences, including executions, were generally carried out in public. After 1905, in a drive to build a strong state and curtail pressure from the West, Chinese officials initiated major legal reforms. Physical punishments were replaced by fines and imprisonment. Capital punishment, though removed from the public sphere, remained in force for the worst crimes. Trials no longer relied on confessions obtained through torture but were instead held in open court and based on evidence. Prison reform became the centerpiece of an ambitious social-improvement program. After 1949, the Chinese communists developed their own definitions of criminality and new forms of punishment. People's tribunals were convened before large crowds, which often participated in the proceedings. At the center of the socialist system was 'reform through labor', and thousands of camps administered prison sentences. Eventually, the communist leadership used the camps to detain anyone who offended against the new society, and the 'crime' of counter-revolution was born. Muhlhahn reveals the broad contours of criminal justice from late imperial China to the Deng reform era and details the underlying values, successes and failures, and ultimate human costs of the system. Based on unprecedented research in Chinese archives and incorporating prisoner testimonies, witness reports, and interviews, this book is essential reading for understanding modern China.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Submitting and receiving a complaint in minor matters
• The magistrate's comments on receiving the complaint
• The magistrate's actions in approaching a resolution
• Law and legislation on land, debt, and marriage
• Cases and judicial decisions concerning land
• Cases and judicial decisions concerning debt
• Cases and judicial decisions concerning marriage
• Other relevant matters concerning the resolution of land, debt, and marriage disputes
• Conclusion: Delivering justice and the absence of litigation.

Traditional Chinese law, including Qing law, was often criticized as being inapplicable in civil trials and it was often believed that the magistrate's court preferred mediation rather than decision-making. This volume challenges these views and repairs the distorted picture of Qing civil justice. With a detailed analysis of the Qing law codes and of one hundred nineteenth-century case records from Baodi county, the volume examines much-debated issues such as the approach of Qing law to civil and criminal matters, punishment and mediation in civil trials, Confucius' preference for education and the idea of anti-litigation. A significant contribution to the field of traditional Chinese law this volume will be of essential interest to those who seek to understand the Qing legal system and its development in China.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Traditional Chinese law, including Qing law, was often criticized as being inapplicable in civil trials and it was often believed that the magistrate's court preferred mediation rather than decision-making. This volume challenges these views and repairs the distorted picture of Qing civil justice. With a detailed analysis of the Qing law codes and of one hundred nineteenth-century case records from Baodi county, the volume examines much-debated issues such as the approach of Qing law to civil and criminal matters, punishment and mediation in civil trials, Confucius' preference for education and the idea of anti-litigation. A significant contribution to the field of traditional Chinese law this volume will be of essential interest to those who seek to understand the Qing legal system and its development in China.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• The Development of the Judicial Underworld: A Comparative Perspective Background
• Chapter 2
• The Judicial Continuum
• Chapter 3
• Oaths and Chicken-beheading Rituals
• Chapter 4
• Indictment Rituals
• Chapter 5
• Trials of the Insane and Dressing as a Criminal
• Chapter 6
• Judicial Rituals in Asian Colonial and Immigrant History
• Chapter 7
• Judicial Rituals in Modern Taiwan
• Chapter 8
• Case Study: The Dizang Abbey Conclusion Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book considers the ways in which religious beliefs and practices have contributed to the formation of Chinese legal culture. It does so by describing two forms of overlap between religion and the law: the ideology of justice and the performance of judicial rituals. One of the most important conceptual underpinnings of the Chinese ideology of justice is the belief in the inevitability of retribution. Similar values permeate Chinese religious traditions, all of which contend that justice will prevail despite corruption and incompetence among judicial officials in this world and even the underworld, with all wrongdoers eventually suffering some form of punishment.The second form of overlap between religion and the law may be found in the realm of practice, and involves instances when men and women perform judicial rituals like oaths, chicken-be headings, and underworld indictments in order to enhance the legitimacy of their positions, deal with cases of perceived injustice, and resolve disputes. These rites coexist with other forms of legal practice, including private mediation and the courts, comprising a wide-ranging spectrum of practices. "Divine Justice" will be of enormous interest to scholars of the Chinese legal system and the development of Chinese culture and society more generally.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• The Development of the Judicial Underworld: A Comparative Perspective Background
• Chapter 2
• The Judicial Continuum
• Chapter 3
• Oaths and Chicken-beheading Rituals
• Chapter 4
• Indictment Rituals
• Chapter 5
• Trials of the Insane and Dressing as a Criminal
• Chapter 6
• Judicial Rituals in Asian Colonial and Immigrant History
• Chapter 7
• Judicial Rituals in Modern Taiwan
• Chapter 8
• Case Study: The Dizang Abbey Conclusion Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book considers the ways in which religious beliefs and practices have contributed to the formation of Chinese legal culture. It does so by describing two forms of overlap between religion and the law: the ideology of justice and the performance of judicial rituals. One of the most important conceptual underpinnings of the Chinese ideology of justice is the belief in the inevitability of retribution. Similar values permeate Chinese religious traditions, all of which contend that justice will prevail despite corruption and incompetence among judicial officials in this world and even the underworld, with all wrongdoers eventually suffering some form of punishment.The second form of overlap between religion and the law may be found in the realm of practice, and involves instances when men and women perform judicial rituals like oaths, chicken-be headings, and underworld indictments in order to enhance the legitimacy of their positions, deal with cases of perceived injustice, and resolve disputes. These rites coexist with other forms of legal practice, including private mediation and the courts, comprising a wide-ranging spectrum of practices. "Divine Justice" will be of enormous interest to scholars of the Chinese legal system and the development of Chinese culture and society more generally.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction
• 1. From Epithet to Crime
• 2. Arbiters of Justice in a Lawless State
• 3. The Political Economy of the Anti-hanjian Campaigns4. Engendering Contempt for Female Hanjian and Cultural Hanjian
• 5. Punishing Hanjian beyond Chinese BordersEpilogue: From Crime to Epithet Appendix A: The Revised Regulations on Punishing Hanjian, 1938 187Appendix B: The Resolutions on Preventing Hanjian Activitiesand Espionage, 1939 190Appendix C: Regulations on HandlingHanjian Cases, 1945 Notes Glossary Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Throughout the War of Resistance against Japan (1931-1945), the Chinese Nationalist government punished collaborators with harsh measures, labeling the enemies from within hanjian (literally, "traitors to the Han Chinese"). Trials of hanjian gained momentum during the postwar years, escalating the power struggle between Nationalists and Communists. Yun Xia examines the leaders of collaborationist regimes, who were perceived as threats to national security and public order, and other subgroups of hanjian-including economic, cultural, female, and Taiwanese hanjian. Built on previously unexamined code, edicts, and government correspondence, as well as accusation letters, petitions, newspapers, and popular literature, Down with Traitors reveals how the hanjian were punished in both legal and extralegal ways and how the anti-hanjian campaigns captured the national crisis, political struggle, roaring nationalism, and social tension of China's eventful decades from the 1930s through the 1950s.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• From epithet to crime
• Arbiters of justice in a lawless state
• The political economy of the anti-Anti-hanjian Campaigns
• Engendering contempt for female hanjian and cultural hanjian
• Punishing hanjian beyond Chinese borders
• Epilogue: From crime to epithet.

Throughout the War of Resistance against Japan (1931-1945), the Chinese Nationalist government punished collaborators with harsh measures, labeling the enemies from within hanjian (literally, "traitors to the Han Chinese"). Trials of hanjian gained momentum during the postwar years, escalating the power struggle between Nationalists and Communists. Yun Xia examines the leaders of collaborationist regimes, who were perceived as threats to national security and public order, and other subgroups of hanjian-including economic, cultural, female, and Taiwanese hanjian. Built on previously unexamined code, edicts, and government correspondence, as well as accusation letters, petitions, newspapers, and popular literature, Down with Traitors reveals how the hanjian were punished in both legal and extralegal ways and how the anti-hanjian campaigns captured the national crisis, political struggle, roaring nationalism, and social tension of China's eventful decades from the 1930s through the 1950s.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)