The T′ang Code V 2 – Specified Articles: Specific Articles (Princeton Library of Asian Translations) - Hardcover

Johnson, Wallace

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691025797 ISBN 13: 9780691025797

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1997

Synopsis

This is the second and final volume of the annotated translation of a seminal Chinese legal text. The "T'ang Code", written in 653 AD, is China's earliest law code to survive in its entirety, influencing all subsequent Chinese law, and serving as a model for codes of law in other East Asian countries, including Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The first volume of the Code, published in translation in 1979, specifies the basic principles of T'ang law and explains the structural standards for applying these principles. Volume II describes acts that are punishable by law and enumerates their punishments.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"[The T'ang Code, the earliest Chinese code to survive in complete form, has been compared, as a source of legal norms for a whole civilization, with the Institutes of Justinian in the West. T'ang codified law became the model for the legal systems of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as for all later Chinese law codes: Some of its provisions remained embedded in the Ch'ing legal code still in use at the beginning of the twentieth century. It represented a major stage both in the standardization and rationalization of legal thought and legal vocabulary, and also in the definition and refinement of the broad principles of law.] Wallace Johnson's magisterial integral translation makes this fundamental legal source available to western readers for the first time, in a meticulously accurate and consistent translation."--Denis Twitchett, Princeton University

"[The T'ang dynasty juridical code of A.D. 653 is China's earliest law code to survive intact. It is also the most influential legal corpus ever to have been promulgated in East Asia. Chronologically, it has profoundly influence all subsequent law codes in imperial China. Indeed, its influence is still felt today in certain institutions and social attitudes present in the People's Republic of China. Geographically, it has also strongly affected the laws and mores of neighboring Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.] The monumental task of meticulously translating all of the articles of the T'ang Code into English has now reached a happy conclusion with the present volume. The result should be of compelling interest not only to China specialists but also to cross-culturalists in such fields as jurisprudence, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and political science."--Derk Bodde, University of Pennsylvania

From the Inside Flap

"[The T'ang Code, the earliest Chinese code to survive in complete form, has been compared, as a source of legal norms for a whole civilization, with the Institutes of Justinian in the West. T'ang codified law became the model for the legal systems of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as for all later Chinese law codes: Some of its provisions remained embedded in the Ch'ing legal code still in use at the beginning of the twentieth century. It represented a major stage both in the standardization and rationalization of legal thought and legal vocabulary, and also in the definition and refinement of the broad principles of law.] Wallace Johnson's magisterial integral translation makes this fundamental legal source available to western readers for the first time, in a meticulously accurate and consistent translation."--Denis Twitchett, Princeton University

"[The T'ang dynasty juridical code of A.D. 653 is China's earliest law code to survive intact. It is also the most influential legal corpus ever to have been promulgated in East Asia. Chronologically, it has profoundly influence all subsequent law codes in imperial China. Indeed, its influence is still felt today in certain institutions and social attitudes present in the People's Republic of China. Geographically, it has also strongly affected the laws and mores of neighboring Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.] The monumental task of meticulously translating all of the articles of the T'ang Code into English has now reached a happy conclusion with the present volume. The result should be of compelling interest not only to China specialists but also to cross-culturalists in such fields as jurisprudence, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and political science."--Derk Bodde, University of Pennsylvania

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691025797
• ISBN 13: 9780691025797
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 618