Consciousness Of Legal Nihilism In Journey To The West

Journey to the West is a novel of the gods and demons created by Wu Cheng ’en in the Ming Dynasty.It is a classic work of Chinese gods and demons novels.It mainly tells the story of Tang Sanzang and his three apprentices seeking scriptures in the West,reaching the peak of ancient romantic novels.Wu Cheng ’en lived in the middle and late Ming Dynasty,when capitalism began to sprout economically.The enlightenment of thought rises,the liberation of human nature rises,the citizen literature develops vigorously,and the creation of novels and operas flourishes.Politically,it went through five periods: Filial Emperor Hongzhi,Emperor Wuzong Zhengde,Emperor Shizong Jiajing,Emperor Muzong Longqing and Emperor Shenzong Wanli.The social situation in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was very different from that at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty.Politically,the national contradictions,class contradictions and internal contradictions of the ruling class were intensifying and becoming increasingly acute.Therefore,although there are some language and plot descriptions of obeying the law,the main line of Journey to the West is to express the rebellion against the legal system with moral principles as the core at that time.Based on this,this thesis focuses on the legal nihilism in Journey to the West.This thesis is divided into five chapters.The main contents are as follows:The first chapter is the introduction,which mainly introduces the current situation of this research field at home and abroad,the deficiencies of the current situation of this research field,the research methods of this thesis and the innovation points and deficiencies of this thesis.The second chapter mainly expounds the manifestation of legal nihilism in Journey to the West.According to the classification way of department law,the author divides the manifestation into four parts: jurisprudence,civil law,criminal law and procedural law.The legal nihilism in jurisprudence of Journey to the West is mainly manifested as violating the spirit of rule of law,highly advocating the role of moral education and neglecting the role of law in sanction.At the same time,the main characters also have the problem of selective law-abiding.The legal nihilism in the civil law of Journey to the West is mainly manifested as the violation of contract law and marriage law.The legal nihilism in the criminal law of Journey to the West is mainly manifested in the violation of the "ten evil","six killing","six stolen goods" and other criminal law norms.The legal nihilism of Journey to the West in procedural law is mainly manifested in four aspects: prosecution,evidence,trial and execution.The third chapter mainly analyzes the causes of legal nihilism in Journey to the West.The author discusses the causes from five aspects: ideology,politics,economy,judicial system and public accomplishment.The ideological reason for the legal nihilism in Journey to the West is that "punishment cannot be abolished in prosperous times,but it is not still in prosperous times",that is,"virtue is the principal and punishment is the secondary".The political reason for legal nihilism in Journey to the West is that the cruelty of autocratic rule leads to people’s hatred of the legal system.There are two reasons for legal nihilism in economic aspects.On the one hand,smallscale peasant economy promotes absolutism,which indirectly leads to legal nihilism.On the other hand,small-scale peasant economy leads to slow development of private law,which directly leads to legal nihilism.In terms of legal literacy,the legal nihilism in Journey to the West is caused by the low legal literacy of the public,the ignorance and ignorance of the law,and the concept of "settling litigation" and "no litigation" are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.The fourth chapter mainly reflects on the legal nihilism in Journey to the West.Combining the manifestations and causes of legal nihilism in the second and third chapters,it puts forward three suggestions.First,we should set up correct legal consciousness and discard the idea of legal nihilism.Second,we need good laws and good governance to foster a sound atmosphere of rule of law.Third,we need to improve people’s legal literacy.Since there are no special thesis on legal nihilism in Journey to the West,the innovation of this thesis is to fill the gap in this research.The disadvantage is that there are some phenomena of legal nihilism in Journey to the West,which has not been studied in this thesis.