Abstract:

Because of specific national conditions, there was no independent civil code in ancient China, but there were many civil legal standards and a developed legal civilization. In the Qing Dynasty, the independent civil legal standards were compiled in Standards on Households (Hu Lü) in The Laws and Precedents of Great Qing (Da Qing Lü Li) and Regulation is for the Board of Revenues (Hu Bu Ze Li). The civil legal standards not only represented the final form of ancient Chinese civil law, but also faced modern transformation. In this process, the valid part of civil law in The Current Criminal Law of Great Qing (Da Qing Xian Xing Xing Lü) and the valid part of civil law in the Regulation is for the Board of Revenues were applied until The Civil law of the Republic of China was promulgated in 1929. The characteristics of the civil legal standards in Qing Dynasty could be summarized as the following: the diversification of the source of civil law; Confucian culture’s integration of Rites (li) with Law guided the civil legal standards; the state attached great importance to the power of clans and the patriarchal clan system, and compensated for the deficiencies in the law with the clan regulations; finally, the principle of introducing precedent (li) from legal cases, and legislation in accordance with changes in objective circumstances.