On The Evolution Of The Inaugural Oath System In Modern China

The inaugural oath system is a political ritual,based on the consideration of maintaining a stable social state when the power is transferred,that when taking office,elected or appointed public officials swear publicly according to the relevant provisions of constitutional laws to voters,representative bodies,judges or other political symbols to abide by the Constitution,be loyal to the country,and perform duties according to law,showing such a fact that a new public official begins his or her term of office.The inaugural oath system in modern China has been developing for nearly 40 years.During this period,the system was constitutionalized twice,and the legal system regulating the swearing-in activities of public officials,leaders of people’s organizations and party officials was revised many times and perfected.At the same time,since 1928,the swearing-in ceremony began to spread to central and local administrative organs,people’s organizations,party and league organizations,and multi-level,multi-field ceremony exhibition became an indispensable part of Chinese political life at that time.It is important that in the time and space background of "Western learning spreading to the east" and " the influences of Western culture and civilization",the inaugural oath system in modern China gradually matured,not entirely borrowing from Europe and America,but rooting the system experience of western countries into China’s inherent oath tradition.Therefore,by reviewing the evolution of the inaugural oath system in modern China,it is of rich historical value to explore the legal thoughts and political traditions behind its origin.This paper,in the perspective of legal history,from the "inherent traditions" "reference transformation" "modern creation" three dimensions,use historical statement,literature analysis,comparative law and multimodal discourse analysis and other research methods to sort out the evolution of the inaugural oath system in modern China,and make embedded investigation and analysis of the legal thoughts and political traditions behind the origin.This paper consists of three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The body and conclusion are divided into the following five chapters:The first chapter discusses the expression form of the inaugural oath system in ancient China from the Angle of "the way of Heaven",and analyzes the legal thought and political tradition behind its transformation.After that,it mainly analyzes the transformation of the rudiment of the inaugural oath system in ancient China and how the conflict between official and folk oath traditions reached a compromise in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China under the influence and impact of modern civil rights thoughts.Chapter two explores the significance of Sun Yat-sen’s inaugural oath as provisional president of the Republic of China in 1912,mainly based on ceremonies and vows.Then,it explores the root of attaching importance to the oath problem in Sun Yat-sen’s theory and thought.On this basis,the paper summarizes and extracts the evolution of the inaugural oath system in modern China in China’s inherent legal and political tradition and western historical experience according to Sun Yat-sen’s consciousness of learning and thinking of harmonizing Chinese and Western.The third chapter,based on relevant articles,carries out embedded analysis on the official and folk inaugural oath system in the Beiyang government period,including the Chinese Revolutionary Party and the government protecting the Constitution,through the procedure records,historical materials of constitution making,government archives and other documents,combined with the social trend of thought at that time.The fourth chapter analyzes the inaugural oath system and the performance of the ceremony in Nanjing National Government period from the two levels of the party system and the political system,combined with the relevant meeting minutes,bulletins,files and the ideological trends of the political circle of the Kuomintang,the Nanjing National government and the local government.The fifth chapter,from the aspects of ceremony,symbol,oath and so on,makes an overall investigation,analysis and summary of the success and failure of the inaugural oath system in modern China in the development course of nearly 40 years.