The Case in the Vase： What Can a Ming Novel Tell Us about Traditional Chinese Legal Culture？

作     者：Michael Szonyi 

作者机构：Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Harvard University Cambridge MA 02138 USA 

出 版 物：《Frontiers of History in China》 (中国历史学前沿（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2017年第12卷第4期

页      面：621-625页

学科分类：0303[法学-社会学] 0501[文学-中国语言文学] 05[文学] 050106[文学-中国现当代文学] 08[工学] 080402[工学-测试计量技术及仪器] 0804[工学-仪器科学与技术] 0603[历史学-世界史] 

主　　题：Jinpingrnei Ming dynasty, legal history, legal process, corruption, gong'an (case) literature 

摘      要：The more than thirty legal disputes and cases mentioned in The Plum in the Golden Vase （Jinpingmei） make this late Ming novel an invaluable source for the study of law and legal culture in premodern China. This lecture illustrates that the cases in the novel describe in considerable detail each of the formal steps in the Ming process of legal adjudication. But the work also conveys the message that despite the formal process, the legal system does not deliver justice. However, an alternative system of justice that is mostly implicit in the text, the justice of a disinterested and moral Heaven, ultimately prevails. Finally, the contemporary implications of this traditional understanding of law and justice are explored.