On China's Traditional Anti-litigation Thought

There are six parts in this paper. The first part is introduction. The traditional anti-litigation is one main aspect of traditional litigation concepts. The study of traditional anti-litigation is important for updating present outworn concepts and for setting litigation concepts which are correct and suitable to the features that belong to nation's transition process. What's more, it is also significant for setting some litigation systems suited to anti-litigation.The second is about the historical background of traditional anti-litigation thought and the origin of the traditional anti-litigation thought. The anti-litigation thought is formed in special period. Traditional anti-litigation thought is influenced by various schools in hundred schools of thought contend and have a profound theoretical relationship with Taoism, legalism and Confucianism.The third part is talking about the theoretical basis of traditional anti-litigation thought. It can be divided into"harmony between man and nature"and"the doctrine of the mean"respectively. The former has a long history and it is also an important theoretical point in the production of our traditional harmony thoughts. The latter backs this view in four aspects: focus on"harmony","humility","degrees of development"and"morals and law".The fourth part focuses on the content and the causes of anti-litigation. Anti-litigation exists in the common concepts with various subjects and connotations. It has its own characteristics. There are different connotations and causes between officials'and ordinary people'anti-litigation. The official's anti-litigation is a result of non-litigation values, officials'achievements and so on. While, the ordinary people'anti-litigation results from the influence of patriarchal system concepts, besides which, the influence of"fear-litigation", calculation of cost of litigation and so on can also account for a large part.The fifth part contributes to the evaluation of traditional anti-litigation thought, which consists both the reasonable and negative factors. Anti-litigation thought do a lot of contributions to ancient judicial system. However, nowadays people devoted to constructing harmonious society and approve to govern this society by laws. Anti-litigation thought destroies the agreement and authority of national laws and prevent the realization of nomocracy modernization. But it is still significant for saving judicial resources and setting mediation systems. Therefore, we should view it dialectically.The sixth part is the conclusion. As a traditional litigation concept, anti-litigation has its reasonable aspects as well as negative aspects. The realization of Chinese judicial concepts is a complex progress in which the modern judicial concepts and traditional litigation concepts adapt to each other. And it is really still a long way to make them integration. We should tread its two aspects differently, kicking off the negative aspects of anti-litigation thought and using the positive aspects.