Editions of  the Qing Code

Da Qing lü jijie fuli 1646

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Xingbu xianxing zeli (1680)

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Da Qing lüli 大清律例 (Code of the Great Qing, 1740 edition)

This online version of the Code of the Great Qing has been established according to the modern punctuated edition by Zheng Qin and Tian Tao, published by Zhonghua shuju in Beijing in 1998 (complete reference under link). It includes the imperial prefaces, charts and tables of the introductory chapter, and has been typed under the close scrutiny of LSC project members in Beijing (Sun Jiahong and Luca Gabbiani), and checked again during its transcription in our database (by Lee Ju-ling, a doctoral student in Lyon's IAO, and Wu Chun-huei, administrative and research assistant, EFEO Centre, Taipei), so as to provide the most reliable edition. We will be grateful, however, to readers who will bring any remaining typos and mistakes to our attention.

This online edition respects the great divisions of the Ming and Qing codes: six special parts (bu 部), each corresponding to one of the six central boards or ministries (liubu 六部), preceded by a general part exposing the “names and rules” (mingli 名例) used in the other parts. The six special parts are subdivided in more specialized “sections”, men (門), including a varying number of statutes (lü 律), each of them followed by a varying number of sub-statutes (tiaoli 條例). Statutes are numbered from 1 to 436, and make up the table of contents – or “eye” (mu 目) – of the code; the sub-statutes are appended to a statute, and therefore bear the number of this statute, followed by their own number. The first sub-statute appended to the first statute is thus numbered tiaoli 1-01, and is followed by tiaoli 1-02, 1-03, etc., in accordance with the numerotation initiated by Prof. Huang Ching-chia in his 1970 edition of the Duli cunyi (讀例存疑).

The 1740 edition of the Code of the Great Qing was the first to be titled lüli, because li or tiaoli were put on an equal footing with lü. In the Ming code, tiaoli had been appended to the lü, or statute laws, as mere examples of their possible applications. Over time, their legal strength was progressively accrued, until they were conferred, from 1740 on, the same importance than the statutes. Tiaoli can therefore be rightfully translated as “sub-statute” in this and all later editions of the code.

The phrasing of many statutes includes a “small commentary”, or “little notes” (xiaozhu 小註), added when the Qing first promulgated under their name a barely modified version of the Ming code. They appear in blue character in this online edition. In red are the proper names, most of them place names, thus providing basic information for our intended purpose: to situate the origin and destination of the legal norms in the Chinese territory.

Da Qing lüli-Duli cunyi 1905

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Last update on Monday 7 December 2015 (16:15) by  G. Foliot