Читать книгу Circulating the Code - Ting Zhang - Страница 8

Codified law has a long history in the Chinese legal system.² Judicial officials at all levels used the codified law as a standard and authority to judge cases and pass sentences. Because the codified law was one of the symbols of the emperors’ political authority as well as a tool of imperial control over state and society, the authority to compile and issue the dynastic Code belonged to the throne. The state was also responsible for issuing the validated Code and other regulations widely enough that the members of bureaucracy could implement and follow them. Before the late Ming period (1550s–1644), the state by and large monopolized the production and circulation of legal codes. For example, the central government of the Northern Song (960–1127) articulated its exclusive right to print books related to laws, strictly banning the private and commercial printing of legal books.³ An imperial edict issued in the Qingyuan period (1195–1200) states: “Whoever privately prints the penal Code, statutes, regulations, ordinances, or classified statutes is to be punished by 100 blows of the heavy bamboo.”⁴

Compared with the Song rulers, Ming emperors were more open-minded about the commercial publication and the circulation of the Code in society. The main concern behind the strict restrictions on private publishing of books in the Song was the potential divulgence of government secrets to its rivals. This concern was greatly alleviated in the Ming. The Ming government thus took a much more relaxed attitude toward private and commercial publishing activities than the Song did.⁵ Viewing the codified law as a fundamental tool to transform social customs and restore Chinese culture and society that had been “damaged” under Mongol rule, the Ming rulers were enthusiastic about promoting the Code and other laws to their subjects, including both officials and commoners.⁶ The imperial court and the central government were still the major publishers of the Code, but many local administrations began to be involved in the printing and publishing of the Code, commentaries, and legal handbooks. In the late Ming period commercial publishing boom, some private and commercial publishing houses began to publish law books. However, judicial officials and official publishers still played a leading role in editing and publishing the Ming Code and other books that convey the dynastic laws.⁷