Chinese Legal History

Catalog description

This MLA course introduces students to the history of law in imperial China through a close reading of primary sources in English translation and highlights of the best relevant scholarship. We begin with the Confucian and Legalist classics and the formation of law in early China. Then we explore how law served as a field of interaction between state and society during China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911). Specific topics include the formation and function of imperial legal codes; autocracy and political crime; evidence, review, and appeals; the regulation of gender and sexual relations; the functioning of local courts; property and contract; the informal sphere of community regulation outside the official judicial system; and law in cultural context, as seen in religious practices and popular fiction. There are no prerequisites for this class: prior knowledge of Chinese history and/or language are welcome but not expected or required.