Civil Mediation In The Local Society

Mediation is the most culturally representative and the most culturally charming among the judicial forms of traditional Chinese society.The reason why mediation system originates and flourishes in China is that it has a profound social and economic infrastructure as well as cultural roots.On the one hand,it’s closely related to our traditional culture such as the values of "advocating harmony" and "appeasing suits".On the other hand,there is traditional social structure in ancient China showing families and their country are united,in which the country’s political system and Patriarchal are unified.At the same time,self-sufficient farming civilization is full of closure,consanguinity.In the closed society filled with acquaintances,mediation will naturally become an important way to resolve local disputes and maintain social order.Traditional Chinese mediation system had become nearly complete by the time of Qing Dynasty.Taking local community as the starting point,this paper selects the fairly representative Huangyan litigant among the files of different counties in Qing Dynasty as research material,by describing and doing a research on civil mediation cases recorded in litigation files,summarizing the characteristics of the Qing Dynasty counties’ mediation and proposing Enlightenment about current civil mediation system.This paper is divided into five parts.Part I: Analyze the economic,social and cultural soil of mediation prevailing in China,in which self-sufficient peasant economy,patriarchal society showing family and state are unified,Confucian ideas respecting harmony conciliation make conciliation become the best way to resolve disputes.Part II: by stating and commenting the Huangyan litigation files,this paper analyzes its legal value,that is,Huangyan litigation files provides the basis for us to do a research on our Rural Society Civil Mediation in Qing Dynasty by its integrity,originality,richness.Part III: By sorting and analyzing the specific cases of Huangyan litigation files,this essay summarizes the types of grassroots mediation in Qing Dynasty and probing the procedures,status and role of the civil mediation in Qing Dynasty Counties.Part IV: Analyze the characteristics of the civil mediation in Qing Dynasty Rural Society.By examining the Huangyan litigation files,it can be found that once disputes occur,the parties and officials will turn to mediation firstly,focusing on the use of "love","truth" and family regulations to resolve disputes in the mediation process,as well as attaching great importance to the maintenance of patriarchal society and moral order.Part V: analyze the enlightenment traditional mediation system given to the modern society,of which mediation not only meet the principle of equality and voluntarines and pay attention to the effective combination of "love","reason" and "Law" but also focus on efficiency.