AsiA And The PAcific by kennetH Hall During the medieval era the Asian court elite codified prior legal practices into written legal codes.. Chinese dynasties shared the legal values and
Trang 1very warlike, within the state life was very peaceful, and
crime was infrequent One possible reason for this apparent
internal tranquility is that punishments for crimes were swift
and brutal, and the state specified numerous capital offenses,
such as treason, disobedience to the ruling Inca, and thievery
A thief was beaten with stones for a first offense and beaten to
death for the second
Laziness was regarded as a crime—a form of stealing
from an employer and from the state Disabled people were
required to work within the limits of their disability, as were
the elderly It is also known that land was divided into thirds:
one parcel was dedicated to the use of the gods, a second to
the ruling Inca, and the remaining to the landholder The
landholder was expected first to work the land dedicated to
the gods and then to focus on the ruling Inca’s land before
finally paying attention to the personal share of the property
It is also known that the Inca required men to marry by the
age of 20 and people with disabilities to marry people with
the same disability
AsiA And The PAcific
by kennetH Hall
During the medieval era the Asian court elite codified prior
legal practices into written legal codes Chinese dynasties
shared the legal values and customs that complemented the
formal law and procedures as contained in the Tang Code
(624) The Tang Code, which became the basis for judicial
codes in neighboring Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, contains
502 articles The initial 57 articles establish the basic
prin-ciples of justice and judicial procedure; the remaining 445
articles define specific offenses South Asia and most
neigh-boring Southeast Asian countries based their legal codes on
the multiple Dharmasastra Hindu-Buddhist texts that were
codified in the era of the Gupta monarchs (320–550) The
Dharmasastra texts, which outline the Indian system of
juris-prudence, define universal obligations and penalties, but they
were always subject to local caste, religious, and civil codes
that prescribed appropriate local behavior
These Chinese and Indian legal codes were modified to
accommodate local needs and common practices in the law
codes of their neighbors Since issues of social justice were
universally regarded as foundational to civil order, they
took precedence in Asian law Laws reinforced and defined
the privileges of social hierarchy and regulated
landhold-ing, property rights, taxation, and service relationships
Criminal law included elaborate lists of appropriate
penal-ties Commercial law established the standards of the
mar-ketplace Religious law defined appropriate ritual traditions
and practices
Chinese law was shaped by two conflicting approaches
to maintaining societal order China’s humanistic tradition was more optimistic in its hopes for humanity and was thus more tolerant of transgressions than the Confucian legalistic tradition The Confucian legalistic tradition was based in a
The Tang Code was one of the most influential set of laws in the medieval world It was established in 624 but did not take on its final form until 737 Out of this immense work in 12 sections and 502 articles, me-dieval Chinese legal scholars identified criminal laws that were “abominations” because they disrupted the order and the peace of society These laws concerned depravity, family life, the conduct of government, and the security of the emperor Mass murder, which was the slaying of three or more people at a time who had not committed capital crimes, may have been chief among depraved crimes Another depraved crime was the use of sorcery to harm others, especially to mur-der them The burning or dismembering of murmur-der victims before or after death was an abomination Physically harming elder family members was an abomination It was illegal for someone to beat or murder a parent, and aunts, uncles, and elder sib-lings were also protected by the law On the other hand, it was legal for a parent to beat a child, though the law might punish a parent if the harm done to the child was too excessive for the offense for which the child was beaten Treason was an abomination This crime included switching sides during a war, joining a rebellion, or giving allegiance to a foreign ruler Murdering a government official was treason The penalties for these offenses varied from loss of social rank to exile to the hinterlands of the empire
to death, usually by beheading
In general, most reprehensible were violations of the laws protecting the emperor, because the emperor both represented the government and was the father
of all the Chinese people Deliberate efforts to harm him were forbidden Other abominations included failing to carry out duties, such as properly tasting his food before it was served to him, or failing to fol-low dietary laws or to prepare healthful food when cooking his meals Physicians who did not follow ap-propriate procedures when treating the emperor also committed abominations
The aboMinaTions of The Tang Code
laws and legal codes: Asia and the Pacific 603