Recently, the book "Research on the Legal Reform Ideology of Shaanxi Jurists" was published by the Shaanxi People's Publishing House. The book adheres to the method of combining history and theory, integrates ideological research, historical fact research, character evaluation, and case analysis into one, realizes the organic combination of macroscopic exposition and microscopic discussion, and in addition to comprehensively demonstrating the particularity and typicality of Shaanxi school of legal science, it also makes specific analysis and exposition on many aspects of shaanxi school of legal reform thinking, which is a thick and innovative legal history work.
The "Shaanxi School of Legalism" was an important school of legal science in the late Qing Dynasty, with Xue Yunsheng, Zhao Shuqiao, Ji Tongjun, and other Officials of the Shaanxi Criminal Department as the main body, and through the three dynasties of Tongzhi, Guangxu, and Xuantong, forming such legal achievements as "Reading Cases and Doubts," "Tang Ming Law Compilation," "Preparing for the Examination," "Lecture Notes on the Great Qing Law," and "Lecture Notes on the Current Laws of the Great Qing Dynasty," and their own distinctive legal reform ideas, which had a positive impact on the revision of law and judicial adjudication in the late Qing Dynasty, and promoted the innovation and development of China's legal civilization. Therefore, the "Shaanxi School of Law" is known as the integrator of traditional Chinese law. Due to the different backgrounds of the times and life experiences, the legal reform ideas of lawyers such as Xue Yunsheng, Zhao Shuqiao, and Ji Tongjun have both inheritance and differences. With the decline of the Chinese legal system, "Shaanxi school of law" has gradually withdrawn from the historical stage, but the wisdom and rational factors condensed in the legal reform ideas and legal writings of Shaanxi school lawyers still have certain historical value.
About the Author:
Wang Bintong, male, from Xi'an, Shaanxi, Doctor of Law, teacher of the School of Rule of Law of Northwest University of Political Science and Law, master tutor, executive dean of the Institute of Chinese Law and Rule of Law Civilization, vice president of the Fengqiao Institute of Experience and Social Governance, and vice president of the Ma Xiwu Trial Methods Research Institute. He has published more than ten papers in Chinese and foreign journals such as Guangming Daily, Journal of the National School of Administration, and Chinese Historical Research. He won the first prize of the 13th China Youth Law Forum.
Review:
Dr. Zhao Junpeng of Shaanxi Normal University praised the book "Research on the Legal Reform Ideology of Shaanxi Lawyers" in his book review, which provides a historical mirror for the construction of the rule of law. The book review reads as follows:
History is the best teacher. To build a socialist country ruled by law, it is necessary to inherit China's excellent traditional legal culture and draw wisdom and strength from history. China's excellent traditional legal culture is one of the oldest and most profound legal cultures in the world, and the Chinese legal system has long been unique in the forest of the world's rule of law, and the development of legal codes and the depth of thought are rare in the world. Law is the study of annotating and elaborating ancient Chinese law, with the aim of guiding legislative improvement and judicial practice. In the late Qing Dynasty, the Shaanxi group of lawyers composed of Officials from the Shaanxi Punishment Department systematically sorted out and studied traditional Chinese law, and introduced a number of outstanding achievements, making Shaanxi school of law a collection of traditional law. In August 2021, Dr. Wang Bintong of Northwest University of Political Science and Law published a new book "Research on the Legal Reform Ideology of Shaanxi Lawyers" published by Shaanxi People's Publishing House, with a total of nearly 230,000 words, which is a masterpiece of Chinese legal history and the study of China's excellent traditional legal culture, which not only refines the common characteristics of Shaanxi lawyers as a whole, but also sorts out and analyzes the legal ideas of their representative figures; not only grasps the reform propositions of Shaanxi lawyers ideologically, but also explores the practical value of their case adjudication, which can be described as of great significance and distinctive characteristics.
First, it systematically displays the ideological content of legal reform among Shaanxi lawyers, opening a door to understanding the excellent traditional legal culture. In the midst of the great changes that had not occurred in the late Qing Dynasty for thousands of years, Shaanxi school of legal science still inherited the traditional Chinese legal science, especially the methods and academic views of Qing Dynasty legal science, and at the same time, it also made fruitful explorations according to the changes in the relationship between laws and regulations, the needs of judicial practice, and the implementation of legal reform, forming a new logic of governance, and showing wisdom beyond history in the process of change and invariance. Based on the representative writings of Shaanxi lawyers, the author systematically analyzes the ideological inheritance and reform propositions of Xue Yunsheng, Zhao Shuqiao, and Ji Tongjun, and points out that "Shaanxi School Of Legalism" is based on the new changes in legislation and justice in the Qing Dynasty, and broadens the focus to the comparison of previous laws and Western laws, the evolution of laws and regulations, the flow of prison laws and regulations, and the refinement of the main points of the new laws. Therefore, the essence of the Shaanxi school of legalists, the spirit of the new law, the principles of Western law, and the combination of Chinese and foreign criminal laws, the root source and the law should be considered at any time, so that the ideas of the light and the heavy, the use of the times, and the changes with the times are fully revealed. It has opened up a new and important field for understanding China's excellent traditional legal culture.
Second, it comprehensively refines the ideological value of legal reform of Shaanxi lawyers and fills the gap in the study of the value of Shaanxi school of law. In the Qing Dynasty, in the face of the long-standing, broad and profound traditional legalism, it has created many famous lawyers, so that the Yu and Shaanxi schools have been formed. The Shaanxi school first began with Xue Yunsheng, and the successors Zhao Shuqiao and Ji Tongjun continued and developed the legacy of the Shaanxi school of legalism, and the law cao was vertical and horizontal, and the writing of books and sayings made the shaanxi school of legal science a grand view. However, due to various reasons, there is still room for the study of Shaanxi school of law in the academic circles, especially the refinement of its ideological value. On the basis of the existing research materials, the book wanders and deeply cultivates the reform propositions, progress and shortcomings of the Shaanxi school of lawyers, and the influence on the cultivation of the law of the late Qing Dynasty with a huge pen, and extracts the advanced nature, era value and historical contribution of the school of thought from different angles, which cannot but be said to be a continuous development of the research level and fill a blank in the study of the value of the Shaanxi school of law.
Third, the panorama shows the practice of the Shaanxi school of lawyers' legal reform ideas, and vividly interprets the wisdom and experience of China's excellent traditional legal culture. Xue Yunsheng "read the name of the punishment concerns people's lives, not he Cao Bi, studied the law finely, analyzed the millang, had the experience and doubts, and took notes", Ji Tongjun "the cause of the crime, the case certificate is determined", Xue Yunsheng "If the prisoner is talking to his family, make sure to hide his feelings, and rehabilitate it in vain", showing the practical direction of the late Qing Dynasty law. The author uses the "Case of the Killing of a Brother" as an example to echo the theory of law, which not only confirms the Shaanxi school of lawyers' thinking on the rule of law of compassion and punishment, not to be indulgent, the integration of reason and law, and changes with the times; through the case-adjudication technique of inferring from the scriptures, the old law, the old law, and the new law, the flexible and rational consideration of conviction and sentencing between the relatives of "relatives" and "mortals" and "meritorious service", but also shows excellent judicial skills and excellent legal literacy. The leap from theory to practice, the display of superb skills in practice, and the practical experience of integrating analytical methods with reasonable methods are enough to provide rich nutrition for the construction of the rule of law in the new era.
In short, the book explores the content, value and practice of the legal reform ideas of Shaanxi lawyers with a new perspective, provides a useful perspective for readers to understand the historical contributions of Shaanxi lawyers, especially the contribution of the rule of law, and also provides an important reference for readers to enhance the self-confidence of Chinese culture and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional legal culture in the new era.
Edit: Cheng Ke