In 1748
Baron de Montesquiet (1689-1755) was a French 18th-century bourgeois Enlightenment thinker, a representative of the classical natural school of law, and the founder of bourgeois legal theory and the doctrine of "separation of powers".
Montesquieu was born into an aristocratic family near Bordeaux, France. His grandfather was President of the Bordeaux Parliament (i.e. President of the Bordeaux Courts) and his father held military positions. Montesquieu lost his mother at an early age. At the age of 19, he obtained a bachelor's degree in law and worked as a lecturer. In 1715, he married in 1715, indé de Latrigue, daughter of a wealthy officer, which brought him a generous dowry. The following year he succeeded his uncle as Speaker of the Bordeaux Parliament. But then, tired of it, he sold his hereditary position, gained a huge fortune, and began a long academic trip. He traveled around Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and other countries, and made friends with famous scholars, he was erudite and talented, in addition to specializing in law, he also studied history, philosophy, sociology and natural sciences, and was elected as a member of the French Academy, a member of the Royal Society and a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. A very generous economic foundation, extensive knowledge, and special experience in traveling around European countries have enabled Montesquieu to develop a "compromised", "moderate", "cautious" (Zhang Yanshen) personality, compared with Hobbes, Montesquieu is much more moderate, and far less radical than Rousseau, which also trains Montesquieu's gentle way of thinking, in Montesquieu's works, moderate state, moderate government, moderate law, The words gentle ruler are everywhere.
Montesquieu lived in the same era as Louis XIV. Louis XIV pursued the authoritarian way of ruling with "unity as the state", living an arrogant and lascivious life, sharp and complex domestic social contradictions, the vast number of commoners living at the bottom of society could not survive, frequent riots occurred, and the bourgeoisie could not enter the political arena under the shadow of feudalism. Therefore, they all urgently demanded the overthrow of the autocratic rule of the feudal dynasty, the seizure of power, and the establishment of a new state. In addition, from the other side of the English Channel came the fashion of fighting for human rights and freedoms and opposing feudal despotism, as well as the ideas of other bourgeois Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke. All these reasons led to the decline of Feudal rule in France, the rapid development of capitalist relations of production, and the imminent arrival of a bourgeois revolution. Montesquieu's theory of politics and law adapted precisely to the requirements of this era, reflecting the needs of the French bourgeoisie at that time and becoming a weapon in their anti-feudal struggle.
Montesquieu's long works are mainly three: in 1721 Montesquieu published the book "Persian Letters" under the pseudonym "Puerto Mado". In the book, he pretends to be the correspondence of two Persian nobles traveling to Europe, and ruthlessly attacks the feudal absolutism of France at that time. After the book was published, it became popular, and Montesquieu became a national figure. In 1734 he published "The Causes of the Rise and Fall of Rome", in which he concluded that Rome's prosperity was due to the establishment of a republican system, enlightened laws, the wisdom of the rulers, the simplicity of the people,the good character, and so on; while the decline of Rome was due to the implementation of the monarchy and the policy of foreign plunder, the corruption of the people, and so on. (1) In 1748, Montesquieu published his most important work, On the Spirit of the Law, a tome that took 20 years of long-term research. In a sense, "On the Spirit of the Law" is a deepening and expansion of the "Theory of the Causes of Rome's Rise and Fall". The difference is that more than a decade apart, Montesquieu has become more moderate, and he has changed his original intention of believing in a republican form of government to admire the more conservative constitutional monarchy. After the publication of "On the Spirit of the Law," it was violently attacked by feudal forces such as the church while causing a sensation throughout the country. After the publication of the book "On the Spirit of the Law", it was translated into many languages at that time, and it was all the rage in Europe and the United States, and it was printed in 22 editions in less than two years. At the beginning of the 20th century, during the Republic of China, which received a large number of foreign ideas, there was a Chinese translation. On the Spirit of the Law was first translated by He Lizhi, Cheng Bingxi, Zhang Xiangwen, etc. as Chinese, and the book was titled "The Essence of All Nations" (1902). In 1913, there was another translation by Yan Fu, which was titled "Fa Yi". In 1961, Zhang Yanshen's new translation of "On the Spirit of the Law" was published by the Commercial Press, and in 1982, it was listed as a world academic masterpiece in Chinese translation.
Montesquieu devoted his life to compiling the monumental work "On the Spirit of Law", which is a classic work drawing on the essence of bourgeois jurisprudence, and can also be said to be an encyclopedia integrating political, legal, historical, geographical and other knowledge. In his book "On the Spirit of Law", he systematically discussed the relationship between law and political system, law and freedom, law and climate, law and soil, law and national spirit, law and trade population, law and religion, etc., focusing on the theory of natural law, the theory of political system, the theory of decentralization, and the idea of rule of law.
After carefully reading Montesquieu's monumental work "On the Spirit of Law", a very strong impression is the objectivity and scientific nature of his research methods, he insists on examining the spirit of law from the order of law and other things, we can see the research methods of sociology, a country's political system, climate, soil, national spirit, customs, customs, trade population, religion, etc. can be regarded as the basic social conditions of a country, and the legal situation of a country is the result of the comprehensive action of various social factors in this country. This can actually be said to be an empirical research method of society. Another point that must be mentioned again is the doctrine of separation of powers, and when people talk about the separation of powers, they naturally attribute it to Montesquieu. The doctrine of separation of powers originated from Aristotle and Polybius's mixed polity theory and Cicero's principle of checks and balances of power, and became clearer under Locke's interpretation, Montesquieu took up this and went further with the baton, but how to achieve a good balance between the three powers of mutual separation and restraint is more after Montesquieu. The legislative power certainly had a high status here in Montesquieu, and he admired the way in which England established the bourgeoisie's own domination through a compromise between the nobility and the bourgeoisie, and hoped that the bourgeois revolution in France would also proceed in this way, and the legislature was accordingly divided into two chambers: the house of commoners and the house of nobility. Montesquieu's doctrine of separation of powers was far less refined than the later constitutionalism of the three powers of checks and balances in the United States, for example, the judicial power of one of the three powers was a very weak power, with neither financial power nor military power, and judges also strictly followed the written code to try cases, and their term of office was determined according to actual needs, usually for a short term. The real beginning of the power of justice was the judicial review system established by Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison in 1803, stating that the meaning of the law was the duty of the judiciary.
Montesquieu was a rich man who represented the interests of the big bourgeoisie, and his Treatise on the Spirit of the Law, published 41 years before the French Revolution, could not predict the manner of the French Revolution and inevitably had the limitations of its time. For example, his constitutional advocacy of a constitutional monarchy modelled on that of Britain in compromise with the feudal forces did not correspond to the extremely acute contradictions of French society at that time; he somewhat exaggerated the role of natural geography in law; and in his analysis of the situation in Asian countries, especially In China, he borrowed too much of a more effective set of reference systems that he was familiar with in Europe, and thus appeared less accurate. For example, readers will naturally treat this masterpiece with caution when studying it.