由于国情的特殊性，法制文明发达的古代中国没有出现一部单行的、纯粹的民法典，但民事立法仍大量存在。清代民法以《大清律例》“户律”、《户部则例》等为主体，不仅是中国古代民法的最后形态，而且面临向近代转型，《现行刑律》中的民事有效部分和《户部则例》中的民事有效部分，一直适用，直至 1929 年《中华民国民法》颁布才宣告终止。清代民法具有以下特点：民事法律渊源的多元化；以儒家礼法文化作为民事法律的指导思想；重视宗法族权，以家法族规补充国法；因案生例，循变立法。

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.