This article contextualises the debate in Chinese legal scholarship on qingli and fali in their historical backgrounds by tracing the roots, themes, and variations in the dialogue. The earliest record of the debate be...This article contextualises the debate in Chinese legal scholarship on qingli and fali in their historical backgrounds by tracing the roots, themes, and variations in the dialogue. The earliest record of the debate between Legalism and Confucianism serves as the ground for us to examine the necessity of morality in the practice of law, while the introduction of Confucian ideals into law since the Han dynasty opened up the process of coalescing morality with law in imperial China. Through the case study of xiao (filial piety ), the article argues that the Confucianisation of law took a long time to complete.展开更多
文摘This article contextualises the debate in Chinese legal scholarship on qingli and fali in their historical backgrounds by tracing the roots, themes, and variations in the dialogue. The earliest record of the debate between Legalism and Confucianism serves as the ground for us to examine the necessity of morality in the practice of law, while the introduction of Confucian ideals into law since the Han dynasty opened up the process of coalescing morality with law in imperial China. Through the case study of xiao (filial piety ), the article argues that the Confucianisation of law took a long time to complete.