On Qian Yi People In Northwest Region's Legal System Changes

The Yi is a historically glorious nationality. Originally Yi's ancestors lived in the basin of the Jinsha River, afterwards proliferating gradually to places such as eastern Yunnan, southern Sichuan and western Guizhou, and the northwestern Guizhou is one of the main areas of the Yi nationality. Due to the remote location and deeply influenced by the ethnic traditional culture, the dynasties before Tang and Song implemented the policy of Jimi system. During the Yuan and Ming period, the central government administrated the area through the Native Chieftain System, like setting up Pacification comminations and Jimi Guard Houses. In the early Qing period, instead of abolishing the Native Chieftain System, the local administrative zones, such as the Fu, Ting, Zhou and Xian were established and formal officers were sent to control the area. This reform exerted great influence to the area and some historical changes in the aspects such as politics, economy, culture and so on took place in the area, especially the change of legal system was prominent and significant.Before the period of the reform of formal officers replacing national head man, the legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region characterized by diversification. From the perspective of legal system, the valid laws and regulations in the area included the laws used to control the frontier ethnic minority groups set by the central government, the regulations made by the regional authority of the Northwestern Guizhou, as well as the traditional custom law of Yi nationality. From the range regulated by the law, the content comprises varieties such as, administration, crime, economy, politics, the regime of dispute resolution and so on. After the period of the reform of formal officers replacing national head man, great changes in legal system took place in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region, especially in the aspects of administration law, economic law, civil law and the system of dispute resolution, which had great affect on the social development of Northwestern Guizhou. With a research angle of the "formal officers replacing national head man" system in the Northwestern Guizhou during the early Qing Period, the dissertation discussed the problem of the change of the legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou. Specifically, the dissertation will be divided into the following eight parts.The introduction elaborated the research meaning, thinking, method and point of view of this dissertation. This part first introduced the natural geographical condition, the social development condition and the history of the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region, and then illustrated the research value and the meaning to the establishment of legal system by undertaking the research about the problems of changes of the legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region. Secondly, it summarized the research status and lack of the legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region by reading the related research achievements about the topic such as the culture of Yi nationality, the Native Chieftain System in Guizhou, the legal system of Yi, the national law of Guizhou and so on, in order to emphasize the necessity and importance of conducting the research of the change of the legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region. Thirdly, it illustrated the basic structure and research thinking of the dissertation and gived a brief introduction of the research methods. Lastly, it concluded the main idea, the original points and the lack of the paper.The first chapter "formal officers replacing national head man and the institutional change in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region" was the foundation of the dissertation. Firstly, it defined some important concepts in the paper, like "the Northwestern Guizhou","the Yi nationality","formal officers replacing national head man","changes for the legal system" and made the concentration and basic scope of the research clear. Secondly, it illustrated the general condition of the "formal officers replacing national head man" in Qing dynasty and the abolishment of the Native Chieftain System in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region, which was the main reason of the changes of the legal system. Lastly, it elaborated the institutional change theory, the analytical tool of the paper and then illustrated the basic conditions for the change of various systems including legal system here so as to discuss the following questions.Firstly, the second chapter "the vicissitude for the political legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region" illustrated the original and special political and legal systems in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region before the "formal officers replacing national head man" period, such as "zexi","local official","clan","rank". secondly, it analyzed the policy of Jimi system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region adopted by the central governments of past dynasties and the condition of local officers system and its implementing before "formal officers replacing national head man" period. Thirdly, it discussed the changes of political and legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region after "formal officers replacing national head man" period. Specifically, it introduced the condition of setting up the administrative system like"Fu","Zhou","Xian" and the resident formal officials as well as the primary level "Liajia" institution and the military establishment "Dao". Lastly, it analyzed the remaining and its reason of the local officials systems in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region, especially stressing the problems of how to govern the region, handle the matters properly and give advice to the central government by relying on the remaining local officers.The third chapter "the vicissitude for the economic legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region" first analyzed the original large land ownership, including subinfeudate, possession and rent form, and small land ownership, new landlord class, land possession type and the rent form after the "formal officers replacing national head man" period. Secondly, it analyzed the situation of changes for the taxation institution in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region from "the volume by pay in labor","under the earth formal name the general headquarters recognizes accepts" to "the land tax poll tax". Finally, with the record of contracts written in Yi language in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region, it discussed the changes of civil legal systems such as land deal, pawn, lease and so on.The fouth chapter " the vicissitude for the marriage and family legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region" mainly discussed the original Mar(?)age system and family inheritance system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region and the problem of changes and unchanged.The fifth chapter " the vicissitude for legal system of dispute resolution in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region" first introduced the traditional dispute resolution in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region and the jurisdiction system here set by the central government. Secondly, it demonstrated the enhancement of Qing's jurisdiction in the criminal, civil and economic aspects in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region after "formal officers replacing national head man" period as well as the changes of the original dispute resolution system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region.The sixth chapter "the driving force, ways and methods of the vicissitude for legal system in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region" specifically analyzed the interaction between external and internal force for the legal system changes in the Northwestern Guizhou Yi region, the change form integrating force and cause, path of change with synchronization of transplant and localization and the change result of changed and no change.The conclusion part mainly illustrated the deep consideration about some questions of universal meaning, such as the interaction and accommodation between state law and the traditional legal system of Yi nationality, the change and no change of legal system and so on.