Gao Heng, a Hubei jurist and member of the Honorary Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, passed away

The reporter learned from the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences that Comrade Gao Heng, a member of the Communist Party of China, a member of the Honorary Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a researcher and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Law, and the former vice president of the Chinese Society for the Study of the History of Legal Thought, and a famous jurist, died in Beijing at 7:30 on August 22, 2019 at the age of 90 due to illness.

According to public information, Gao Heng is a native of Laohekou City (formerly Gwanghwa County) in Hubei Province, born in January 1930, completed private school and primary school education in his hometown, and received secondary education in Xiangyang County No. 1 Junior High School and Hubei Provincial Jiangling Senior High School from September 1945 to January 1950. In September 1950, he was admitted to the Law Department of Wuhan University to study, during which time he accompanied the class to Shishou County, Hubei Province to participate in the land reform movement from October 1950 to January 1952, joined the Chinese New Democratic Youth League in June 1952, participated in the Wuhan Judicial Reform Movement with the teachers and students of the whole department from September to November 1952, and interned at the Wuchang District People's Court in Wuhan city in June 1955. After graduating from university in September 1955, Mr. Gao Heng was approved to study abroad through organizational selection, and in the same month he entered the Preparatory Department of the Russian Language Institute in Beijing for one year, entered the Law Department of Moscow University in the USSR in November 1956, and graduated in February 1961 with an associate doctorate.

In March 1961, Gao Heng returned to China, and in September of the same year, he was assigned to the Institute of Law of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (renamed the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in May 1977) as an assistant researcher, during which he accompanied the Institute of Law to Jinxian County, Liaoning Province, from November 1964 to July 1965, he participated in the "Four Qing" Movement. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Gao Heng served as a master tutor since 1978, joined the Communist Party of China in March 1980, was named an associate researcher in April 1982, a researcher in July 1988, a glorious retirement in December 1990, enjoyed a special government allowance issued by the State Council in 1992, was elected as a member of the first honorary faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in August 2006, and served as a member of the Academic Committee of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Secretary of the Party Branch of the History of Jurisprudence and Legal System.

In his early years, Gao Heng engaged in theoretical research on the state and law, and published several academic papers on the construction of the Soviet legal system and Western political and legal thought in important newspapers and periodicals such as People's Daily, Guangming Daily, and Legal Studies, and completed many translations. Since the 1970s, Mr. Gao Heng has been engaged in the collation and research of the legal history and legal literature of the Qin and Han Dynasties for a long time, participated in the collation and interpretation of the Bamboo Jane of the Tomb of the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin, and participated in the publication of the "Bamboo Jane of the Tomb of the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin" (1977 edition of the Cultural Relics Publishing House), and was one of the earliest scholars in the legal field to use the excavated documents to conduct legal history research. Mr. Gao Heng conducted pioneering research on a number of issues in the Qin and Han laws, and for the first time put forward the argument that the prisoners of the Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty, such as Chengdan, Ghost Salary Bai Cang, and Subordinate Concubines, were officials and slaves who served for life, systematically demonstrated the system of imprisonment in the Qin Dynasty, and attracted widespread attention from the circles of history and legal history. Mr. Gao Heng's examination of the official system of the Qin Dynasty, the system of Shu Shu, and the nature of the laws of the Han Dynasty corrected many erroneous theories, such as his study of the "Jin BuLu" and "Tian Law" that changed the understanding of Yan Shigu of the Tang Dynasty and Wang Yinglin of the Song Dynasty. In the study of the history of legal thought, Mr. Gao Heng has also made remarkable achievements, and his research on the legal thought of the Han Dynasty "introducing the scriptures to prison" and Dong Zhongshu's "virtue and punishment auxiliary" and Zhang Fei's legal studies has important academic value and has been widely praised by the legal historians.

Gao Heng loves legal research and teaching, has long served as an academic member of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has served as a graduate tutor of the Department of Law of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences since 1978, and is one of the earliest graduate tutors in the field of legal history (including the history of the legal system and the history of legal thought). Mr. Gao Heng attaches great importance to and actively participates in academic activities, and has served as a researcher at the Institute of Law of Nankai University, a professor of the Institute of Legal History of China University of Political Science and Law, a member of the postgraduate tutor group of the History of Legal Thought of China University of Political Science and Law, and has successively participated in the writing of the multi-volume "General History of the Chinese Legal System" and the multi-volume "General History of Chinese Legal Thought" of the national "Seventh Five-Year Plan" key project, and served as the deputy editor of the Han Dynasty volume of the "General History of the Chinese Legal System", the standing editorial board of the "General History of Chinese Legal History", and the deputy editor of the Han Dynasty volume. Mr. Gao Heng has long served as a director of the Chinese Legal History Society, a standing director of the Professional Committee of the History of Chinese Legal Thought, and a former deputy editor and editor-in-chief of the Collection of Legal History, making contributions to promoting academic exchanges in legal history and prospering the study of legal history, and is deeply respected and loved by the legal history community.