Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China has been accorded Honorable Mention status in the 2017 Patrick D. Hanan Prize (China and Inner Asia Council (CIAC) of the Association for Asian Studies) for Translation competition.
In Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China, Anthony J. Barbieri-Low and Robin D.S. Yates offer the first detailed study and translation into English of two recently excavated, early Chinese legal texts. The Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year consists of a selection from the long-lost laws of the early Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). It includes items from twenty-seven statute collections and one ordinance. The Book of Submitted Doubtful Cases contains twenty-two legal case records, some of which have undergone literary embellishment. Taken together, the two texts contain a wealth of information about slavery, social class, ranking, the status of women and children, property, inheritance, currency, finance, labor mobilization, resource extraction, agriculture, market regulation, and administrative geography.
Recenzijos
"Lun des plus grands mérites de ce livre, outre sa volonté dexhaustivité dont témoignent les mille cinq cents pages de texte ainsi que lexcellente qualité de ses traductions, est dźtre une oeuvre scientifique au sens plein du terme. Law, State and Society in Early Imperial China présente en effet en creux une synthčse critique de labondante littérature publiée ces trois derničres décennies sur le droit des Qin et des premiers Han. Les textes étudiés par les auteurs posent de nombreuses questions dinterprétation, en raison notamment des choix effectués lors de lédition des tablettes et des difficultés propres au langage utilisé. De nombreuses thčses, parfois contradictoires, ont pu źtre émises, sur la valeur desquelles les auteurs reviennent réguličrement. Louvrage sappuie donc sur létat actuel des connaissances, dont il sefforce en outre de préciser lesquelles des propositions méritent le plus dźtre retenues. Lintroduction, qui constitue lessentiel du premier tome, présente de surcroīt un véritable discours de la méthode exposant les données principales sur lesquelles sappuie la recherche menée par les auteurs. Le tout place ainsi le lecteur face ą un travail dune grande solidité et le met en position de vérifier lensemble des affirmations avancées.() Les résultats des recherches exposées dans Law, State and Society in Early Imperial China intéressent ą la fois le spécialiste de lantiquité chinoise et lhistorien du droit.() Law, State and Society in Early Imperial China constitue enfin une basesolide pour tout travail de synthčse tentant de décrire lévolution de lancien droit chinois depuis ses origines." - Frederic Constant, Université Paris X Nanterre
VOLUME ONE:
Note to the Reader
1.1 Acknowledgments
1.2 Chinese Dynasties
1.3 Recognized Rulers of the Qin and Han Dynasties and the Xin Period
1.4 Equivalents for Weights and Measures Mentioned in the Zhangjiashan Legal
Texts and Other Parallel Texts
1.5 Early-Han Orders of Rank Mentioned in the Zhangjiashan Legal Texts
1.6 Official Titles Mentioned in the Zhangjiashan Legal Texts
1.7A Place-Names Mentioned in the Zhangjiashan Legal Texts
1.7B Map of Place-Names Mentioned in the Zhangjiashan Legal Texts
(Boundaries, 187186 BCE)
1.8 Types of Punishments and Associated Crimes in the Zhangjiashan Legal
Texts
1.9A Placement of Slips in the Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year
Text
1.9B Placement of Slips in the Book of Submitted Doubtful Cases Text
Introductory Study
2.1 Discovery, Conservation, Publication, and Previous Studies of the
Zhangjiashan Texts
2.2 Principles of Translation and Working Methodology
2.3 Introduction to the Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year Text
2.4 Forms of Legislation and Their Enactment
2.5 Introduction to the Book of Submitted Doubtful Cases Text
2.6 The Judicial Process in a Criminal Case
2.7 The Punishments
2.8 Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
VOLUME TWO:
Note to the Reader
Key to Transcription Symbols and Punctuation
Translation, Part One: Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year (Ernian
lüling )
3.1 Statutes on Assault (Zei lü )
3.2 Statutes on Robbery (Dao lü )
3.3 Statutes on the Composition of Judgments (Ju lü )
3.4 Statutes on Denunciations (Gao lü )
3.5 Statutes on Arrest (Bu lü )
3.6 Statutes on Abscondence (Wang lü )
3.7 Statutes on Impoundment (Shou lü )
3.8 Statutes on Miscellaneous Matters (Za lü )
3.9 Statutes on Cash (Qian lü )
3.10 Statutes on the Establishment of Officials (Zhili lü )
3.11 Statutes on Equalizing Transportation (Junshu lü )
3.12 Statutes on Food Rations at Conveyance Stations (Zhuanshi lü )
3.13 Statutes on Agriculture (Tian lü )
3.14 Statutes on [ Passes and] Markets ([ Guan]shi lü [ ])
3.15 Statutes on the Forwarding of Documents (Xingshu lü )
3.16 Statutes on Exemption from Taxes (Fu lü )
3.17 Statutes on Bestowals (Ci lü )
3.18 Statutes on Households (Hu lü )
3.19 Statutes on Checking (Xiao lü )
3.20 Statutes on Enrollment (Fu lü )
3.21 Statutes on Establishment of Heirs (Zhihou lü )
3.22 Statutes on Ranks (Jue lü )
3.23 Statutes on Levies (Xing lü )
3.24 Statutes on Government Service (Yao lü )
3.25 Statutes on Finance (Jinbu lü )
3.26 Statutes on Salaries (Zhi lü )
3.27 Statutes on Scribes (Shi lü )
3.28 Ordinances on Fords and Passes (Jinguan ling )
Translation, Part Two: Book of Submitted Doubtful Cases (Zouyan shu )
4.1 The Absconding Indigenous Conscript
4.2 The Absconding Female Slave
4.3 The Eloping Lovers from Qi
4.4 A Mutilated Man Unwittingly Marries an Absconder
4.5 Sword Fight between a Runaway Slave and a Thief Catcher
4.6 Beating to Death an Illegally Held Slave
4.7 A Crooked Widow Tries to Cheat Her Runaway Slaves
4.8 A Male Slave Escapes and a Border Guard is Punished
4.9 Falsifying the Account Books (1)
4.10 Falsifying the Account Books (2)
4.11 Counterfeiting a Horse Passport
4.12 A Delay in Forwarding Documents
4.13 A Small Bribe Results in a Large Fine
4.14 A Judiciary Scribe Harbors an Unregistered Person
4.15 A County Magistrate Robs Grain
4.16 A County Magistrate Orders the Murder of a Judiciary Scribe
4.17 A Successful Appeal of a Conviction Gained by False Accusation and
Torture
4.18 The Benevolent Magistrate and the Chu Insurgency
4.19 Shi You Solves the Case of Hair and Grass in the Lords Food
4.20 An Assistant Scribe Robs Grain and Confucian Principles
4.21 A Scribe of the Commandant of the Court Overturns a Sentence for Illicit
Intercourse
4.22 A Cunning Scribe Solves a Robbery and Attempted Murder
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, Ph.D (2001), Princeton University, is Professor of Chinese History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Artisans in Early Imperial China (UW Press, 2007).
Robin D.S. Yates, James McGill Professor of East Asian Studies, History and Classical Studies, McGill University (Ph.D Harvard, 1980) has published widely in the social and cultural history of early China, military science and technology, Chinese women, and Chinese law.
