“和合而同”——论中国古代契约的“贵和”思想

“Harmony and Unity”:the Idea of “Harmony is Precious” of Contracts in Ancient China

"和为贵"一直是中国传统文化中的一种精神,被称为"贵和"思想。中国古代民间的契约实践充分体现了传统的"贵和"思想。古代契约的"和合而同"思想就是对"贵和"思想的具体化。古代创制契约是把契约当作一套制度性安排,通过这套制度,使不同的利益主体能够"和合而同",从而订立契约实现各自的预期利益。在不同的历史时期,体现"贵和"思想的契约语式亦有变化,但都是"两和立契"的表达,如"先和后券""两共平章"和"三面评议"语式,且与古代契约简单—完善—简约的发展特征相一致。古代契约的"贵和"思想对规范市场经济条件下的市场行为和促进经济发展,仍有其现代价值和现实意义。

Harmony has been China traditional culture,known as the idea of“Harmony is precious”which was fully embodied in the practice of contracts in ancient China.As far as the contractual consensus was concerned,the idea of“harmony and unity”was the concrete expression of the idea because the contract system created by ancient China was regarded as a set of institutional arrangement through which different contractors were able to reach an agreement and realize their expected profit.For the contract language styles,there were differences in historical periods when those styles,such as“xian he hou quan”type,“liang gong ping zhang”type and“san mian ping yi”type,reflected the idea of“harmony and unity”,and showed the different language characteristics which were simple,perfect and concise.The idea of“harmony and unity”is still valuable and significant and we can draw on it to standardize market behavior and perfect market theory even under the market economic conditions today.