A Study On Common People's Ideas About Law In Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty is a turning time in Chinese history, during which the common people's ideas about lawsuits, contracts and the ghosts and gods' reward and punishment deserve our careful study. With the changes of society, economics and national system, the multitude's universally strengthened their sense of lawsuits, which is brand-new and rational and embodies their sense of law to a large degree. That lawsuits became a common way for people to express their opinions goes against the traditional anti-lawsuit ideas indicts the increase force of the weak group and the trend to the equality of social position and right. Contract relations and national written law were both accepted and observed by people and the former was absorbed step by step by the latter in the Song Dynasty. In the agriculture, handicraft industry, 'commerce and service trades, people always made all kinds of contracts based on mutual agreement. As for the common people in the Song Dynasty, the contract regulations had two levels: customary laws and national laws, and by which people acted. There was another fan- and reasonable justice system in the ordinary people's hearts, which was controlled by ghosts and gods. In the system, all people will get their deserves and ghosts and gods all the time supervised people's evil acts that can't be detected, moreover, they also punished the ordinary people and the lawmen for their evil acts. The above three respects were the elemental parts of the common people's ideas about social and law system in the Song Dynasty. Universal and deep sense of contract was the basic ideas in people's daily lives, lawsuits ideas conveyed the attitudes to and understanding of the laws, the ghosts and gods reward and punishment was the common people's ideals which reflected people's more demand for justice and fair.