Song Dynasty. Legal Status

Businessmen in the feudal society are at the suppressed state, some discriminatory provisions can be seen in the ancient feudal codes. In the Song Dynasty, with the development of productivity, prosperity of the commodity economy, contracts are widely used in all aspects of social life, class composition subsequently changed, the previous affiliation has been replaced by the contractual relationship, personal attachment greatly weakened, the rule of origin, who were not in a hierarchy, but by the amount of property, the main sub-families and customers, both in the legal status have no real difference. In this context, the businessman as a symbol of wealth, has become the "pursuited object" by all class, the social status is greatly improved. Meanwhile, the Song Dynasty specific economic and political environment also makes the government's dependence on the merchants greatly enhanced. Because the law is the will of the ruling class, this particular change in the performance of the legal level, it reflected the improvement of the legal status of merchants. Many rights of businessmen in Song have improved, conclude the rights of identity, the management rights, the inheritance rights, the rights of entering political stratum, the litigation rights and so on. These rights have improved greatly compared to the previous generation. However, the improvement of the legal status of the Song Dynasty merchant is only relative, it doesn't mean all of the businessmen's rights have been upgrading; The same time, between the improving of the legal status and the reality, there is a certain gap, a number of decrees to protect the rights of businessmen have not been implemented very well in practice. The improvement of the Legal status of merchants is only the interests of the ruling class for their own needs intentional. The feudal law is only the tool of ruling class to fool the people.