"Nine Dynasties Legal Examination" is a representative work by modern scholar Cheng Shude, and is regarded as one of the pioneering works in the study of ancient Chinese legal history.
The whole book aims to reconstruct the legal system of the nine dynasties before the Tang Dynasty (including Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, etc.). The author systematically compiles and researches the legal provisions, criminal names, edicts and other materials that are scattered in historical records, documents and fragments of laws and regulations, organizes and analyzes them by category according to the order of dynasties, and strives to restore the evolution of ancient Chinese laws.
The book is divided into eight volumes, and its main contents include chapters such as "Han Code Examination", "Wei Code Examination", "Jin Code Examination", "Southern Dynasty Code Examination", "Northern Dynasty Code Examination" and "Sui Code Examination", etc., Covering the changes in legal structure, criminal naming system, judicial system and legal provisions. In the book, Cheng Shude not only pays attention to document comparison, but also reveals the relationship between legal inheritance and innovation in various dynasties from the perspective of institutional history.
"Nine Dynasties Legal Examination" is of extremely high academic value. It fills the gap in the lost ancient legal documents and provides a solid foundation for the study of ancient Chinese political systems, judicial practices and legal thoughts. It is an indispensable and important book for researchers to understand China's legal tradition and institutional evolution.
