Research On Legal Dissemination And Its Social Impact In Ming Dynasty

The process of legal dissemination is the process of socialization of legal information,as well as the process of legal transformation of social subjects.Reading legal information can enable the public to consciously identify with and practice the normative requirements of the law,thereby achieving the goal of social order and stability.Throughout history,rulers of all dynasties have attached great importance to the dissemination of law.As early as the Xia and Shang dynasties,a pattern of dissemination of law has initially formed and continued to develop,reaching maturity in the Ming and Qing dynasties.In the Ming Dynasty,many systems were established to disseminate laws,which included much more content and audience groups than before.Penalties for violating legal dissemination measures were also very severe,and this had certain effects.Transmission and reception are two important stages of legal communication."Dissemination" includes three important factors:disseminators,information,and media,which constitute the means of dissemination of law."Receive"mainly focuses on the impact of legal communication on the audience,and tests the effect of legal communication from the audience’s attitude and behavior towards the law.This article will explore the legal communication of the Ming Dynasty from two perspectives:the channels and influence of legal communication.Using media bias theory and other methods of dividing the attributes of media communication,we can divide the legal communication channels of the Ming Dynasty into two categories:spatial bias and temporal bias.In the process of legal dissemination with spatial attributes,on the one hand,official codes have been compiled and printed into pamphlets to encourage villagers to hold them,set fixed legal hanging places,use coercive force to protect them,and constantly suppress the development of civil litigation books,creating a visual legal space with a unified order for the public.On the other hand,using traditional folk culture and customs to speak and read the law,bringing folk gatherings into the orbit of legal operation,forming an aural legal space,transferring villagers’ beliefs in moral ethics to national laws,and making value judgments.In the time-biased dissemination of law,officials create two legal scenarios for the public:isolation and integration of people through the design of judicial venues and rituals,in order to condense judicial ideas and cultivate the public’s reverence for the law.Under the influence of the dissemination of law in the Ming Dynasty,the public also developed two attitudes towards law.Firstly,people who have more visual legal space built by contacting with words have trained rational legal logic and formed an ideal judicial concept system.The other part of the general public with limited cultural level has long been immersed in the legal situation under the influence of ethics,the concept of retribution between gods and ghosts,and military prestige,resulting in a complex legal mentality that recognizes and fears the law.Comparing the legal communication channels of the Ming Dynasty with the people’s legal views under its influence,we can find that,the combination of time bias and space bias as a media has created a comprehensive communication channel for the legal communication of the Ming Dynasty,improved the level of legal knowledge of the people.stimulated their enthusiasm for learning the law,painted an ideal social blueprint for the public,and promoted judicial officials to adjudicate according to law,which is worth learning from.However,at the same time,the practice of combining the dissemination of legal concepts with ethics and the concept of retribution,in the social context of the time,although it could quickly and effectively cultivate the legal consciousness of the people,it also to some extent inhibited the germination of civil rights,hindered the development of the rule of law,and required vigilance.