The Great Qing Code

Until recently, Chinese law was not much studied either in China or abroad. It is now generally realized that law has been very important in Chinese society, and that most of what has been said about it is wrong. The result has been that "the new scholarship on legal history has already begun to influence perceptions of Imperial Chinese state and society in the broader sino-logical community, and may well have an impact on scholars of contemporary China". Along with this development of an interest in Chinese law among sinologists has come a realization among students of comparative law of the necessity to consider Chinese law. One of the problems of pursuing this new interest in Chinese law has been the lack of translations of the relevant materials. This translation of "The Qing Code", the principal code of the last Chinese dynasty (1644-1911), is prefaced by an introduction in which Professor Jones sets the scene, and describes some of the problems facing scholars coming to the study of the code for the first time. William C. Jones is the author of "General Principles of Chinese Civil Law in China".