72 documents
Unless otherwise specified, the descriptions of sources in this section are extracted from Pierre-Etienne Will and collaborators, Handbooks and Anthologies for Officials in Imperial China: A Descriptive and Critical Bibliography, 2 vols., Leiden: Brill, 2020
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Description
documentTypeBook
TitleLüli xuzhi 律例須知 [What must be known from the Code]
Topic1. Code and commentaries
Historical periodLate Qing (1797-1911)
CountryChinese
AuthorYe Shizhuo 葉世倬
Publication typeWoodblock
Comment

The author of this short pamphlet (18 folios, plus 4 on the mourning system), who signs as circuit intendant of Yanping 延平, Jianning 建寧, and Shaowu 邵武 prefectures in Fujian (分巡延建邵道), explains in his foreword that he made a selection of articles in the Penal Code easily broken by “ordinary people confined to the baseness of what they have heard and seen and restricted by the filthiness of their bad customs” (百姓囿於見聞之陋,錮於習染之汙), and added some explanations. There is an appendix on mourning degrees, titled Fuzhi 服制. The work was meant as a tool to help the local officials in his jurisdiction (through whom it was to be distributed to the households) educate their constituents and keep them away from breaking the law. It consists in a succession of short paragraphs marked by the character yi 一, quoting or paraphrasing the law with occasional explanations in small characters added. They deal with a wide variety of crimes and dismeanors, starting with violence within the family. The succession of entries is by free association rather than following the order of the Penal Code. The text sounds indeed much easier to grasp by ordinary people and closer to the accidents, conflicts, and simple illegalities of everyday life than the Code itself. Some entries concern region-specific matters dealt with in substatutes, such as illegal emigration to Taiwan or the surveillance of vagrants in Beijing. The substatutes dealing with baojia organization are quoted in full, and several entries concern economic transactions.

SubjectLaw
LanguageChinese
Call Numberoki B3813600
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