Confucian Legitimacy And Legal Practice Of Legalists In The Middle Of Xi Han Dynasty

The theme of this dissertation is Confucian legitimacy and legal practice of Legalists in the middle of Xi Han Dynasty. The author holds that Confuciaism attained legitimate status in this time, but it was mainly confined to political thought and ideology. We can’t say that Confuciaism didn’t play any real effect in legal practice, but the effect is very small. As a matter of fact, it is the legalists who played a major role in practice, and practice also further developed the Legalists. This is a noteworthy issue. So the author think that we can’t exaggerate the role and influence of Confucianism’ legitimate status, or simply summary the ancient Chinese legal history by “Confucianism of ancient Chinese law” or “Confucianism of ancient Chinese criminal law”, meanwhile we also could not ignore or underestimate the role and influence of Legalists.This paper is divided into four parts. The main content of this four parts as follows: the first part is to raise the question, namely, sum up “Confucianization of ancient Chinese law” and associated views, then the author analyzes these viewpoints, and get preliminary views. Secondly, the author made some supplement or rectification of some views on understanding of the academic circles about “Confucianism’ legitimate status”. Then, the author explores that if Confucianism was orthodox, which school of Confucianism should be? What are the major differences between Confucianism and Legalist? Finally, the author elaborates upon the law of tax in Emperor Wudi governing period with the biggest space of article. The major difference between Confucianism(Including Confucian Dong Zhongshu) and Legalist lies in how to found the relation of government and citizen, which can be mostly reflected in the law of tax.