On The Inheritance And Innovation Of The National Laws Of The Qing Dynasty In The Early Years Of The Republic Of China

As a nation with long history,China’s fundamental realities of multiple ethnic groups are always accompanied by national formation and development process.Adjustment of ethnic relations,formation of united and harmonious ethnic relation pattern,shaping of mutual identity between country and ethnic group,and maintenance of multiethnic country’s unification and stability are significant tasks that neither can be ignored nor can be avoided in national governance of all dynasties.Since Vassal State Law in the Qin dynasty,formulation of ethnic law has become an important way for government to adjust ethnic relations.From then on,whether it was during the period of peaceful unification or splitting and separatism period,the importance placed on formulation and enactment of ethnic law by feudal regime remained consistent.As an important part of national law,ethnic law’s position has never been changed in the long historical development,and the improvement of ethnic law has become a historical line accompanying the development of China’s traditional law.Since ethnic relation has different features in different periods,ethnic issues the government face and needing to be settled are also different.Hence,objectives,tasks and characteristics related to ethnic law are different.As the last feudal dynasty in China’s history,the Qing dynasty inherited relevant achievements of ethnic laws in history.At the same time,because of governor’s ethnic identity,Qing government paid more attention to the development of ethnic law,achieving a great many of representative achievements about ethnic law revealed in the Qing dynasty.Ethnic law also played an irreplaceable role in Qing government’s historical process of expanding territory and governing ethnic regions.In the early 20th century,China was facing unprecedented change.With the establishment of the Republic of China,state system and political system had abrupt change.The system of "six modes" took initial shape in the burst of the introduction of western law to adapt to new system requirement and inherit the concept of law revision in late Qing dynasty in the construction of common law.The following problem was that whether ethnic law could be innovative or made a fresh start like common laws?To figure out it,the author looked up relevant historical documents in the early Republic of China.It found that the development of ethnic law and change of political system had no simultaneous resonance relationship with innovation of common laws during this specific historical transition period.Succession and innovation of ethnic law in the Qing dynasty became distinctive features of ethnic law in the early Republic of China.In legislation and administration of justice in the early Republic of China,how succession and innovation of ethnic law were implemented or reflected?What effects had been achieved in the historical context at that time?What about the impact?Current historical circle does not seem to offer sufficient researches for these questions.If we examine those issues from the historical perspective,it is found that although the improvement degree of laws of Nanking National Government in historical sequence after the early Republic of China surpassed that of Beiyang Government,it stuck to be cautious and progressive and basically adhered to multiple principles formulated in the early Republic of China aimed at ethnic law in the Qing dynasty.For example,the efficacy of Administrative Laws of Ministry of Minority Affairs and Fan Li was once again recognized,which revealed the feature of inheriting and innovating old laws by combining era environment.It can be seen that as a historical transition period that connects the preceding and the following,succession and innovation of ethnic laws in the early Republic of China laid foundation for legal development of following era.As a result,the significance of research on succession and innovation of ethnic law has no longer been limited to the early Republic of China alone.As a historical lead throughout the development process of China’s traditional laws,what was it like during the historical transition period in the early Republic of China?Less importance attached to this issue was neither conducive to revealing overall situation of change of laws in the early Republic of China nor beneficial to getting rid of western law discourse system’s destruction of historical facts.It was a regrettable thing.From the angle of historical lesson,it might be confusing to some extent in the historical context.The study of succession and innovation of ethnic law in the early Republic of China would be helpful to the development of law in new historical transition period.This paper was exactly carried out based on consciousness and academic purport of questions above.This paper is divided into introduction,main body and conclusion.Introduction states the origin and significance of the topic,basic concepts related to topic,research data and research status,research methods,and major innovation and deficiency of this paper.The first chapter introduces basic theory of historical transition,ethnic factor and legal system,mainly including succession and change of laws in the historical transition period,unity and diversity of multiethnic country legal system,necessity for multiethnic country to make ethnic law and its pattern of manifestation.The second chapter introduces general situation of ethnic law in the Qing dynasty,including development process of ethnic laws in different periods of the Qing dynasty,major achievements made by Qing dynasty through basic ethnic code and special ethnic regulation,characteristics,consideration of relevant factors in legislation,and effect and significance of ethnic law in the Qing dynasty,etc.This paper focuses on succession and creation of ethnic law in the early Republic of China.The master of ethnic law of the Qing dynasty makes following statement of succession and innovation more directional.Hence,this chapter is in the position of leading the front and laying the groundwork for the following.The third chapter elaborates succession and innovation of ethnic legislation in the early Republic of China,applies relevant historical documents to analyze the applicability of basic ethnic codes like Administrative Laws of Ministry of Minority Affairs and Fan Li during the period of the Republic of China,presents succession and innovation situation through sorting out formulation situation of special ethnic regulation and summarizes the cause and effect of succession and innovation of ethnic law from the perspective of legislation.The fourth chapter explains succession and innovation of judicial practice in the early Republic of China and interprets succession and innovation of ethnic law from the angle of administration of justice from setting of judicial organs in ethnic regions,adaptability of ethnic law in the Qing dynasty in individual cases and succession and innovation of specific judicial systems.Based on related legislative aspects mentioned in chapters above,this chapter makes practical dimension analysis of ethnic law in the early Republic of China and makes the "historical existence",succession and innovation of ethnic law more concrete.The fifth chapter mainly summarizes the enlightenment of succession and innovation of ethnic law in the early Republic of China to the contemporary era from the perspective of knowing today by reflecting the past and subject,including theoretical value and realistic significance of studying this issue and historical limited knowledge of succession and innovation of laws in the early Republic of China,etc.The conclusion part summarizes and reiterates basic ideas of this paper.Main ideas of this paper can be summarized as follows:during the specific historical transition period of the early Republic of China,the evolution of ethnic law and social transformation,especially the change of political system are not synchronized.The development of ethnic law reflects distinct characteristic of succession of old laws and innovation on this basis.This characteristic explains that although law is closely linked to politics,law has development transformation path independent of politics and corresponding features because of its sociality.On the other hand,because of stability of ethnic factor and development lag of ethnic regions,adjustment of ethnic law to inherit old laws becomes a necessity.For that reason,the study of succession and innovation of ethnic law of the Qing dynasty in the early Republic of China is of important theoretical value and realistic significance to legal transaction and national governance in the transition period.