Legal Institutions in Manchu China

Mrs van der Sprenkel is a Lecturer in Sociology in the University of Leeds.

• Introduction 1 1. Some relevant aspects of Chinese social structure 7 2. The theory and functions of government in China 28 3. The structure of the administration 37 4. The personnel of the administration 50 5. Codified law 56 6. Judicial procedure 66 7. Jurisdictional aspects of the isu and the guild 80 8. Local and customary jurisdiction 97 9. The complex of legal institutions considered as a whole 112 10. The content and sources of law and its effectiveness as a support for the social order 124 Appendices 1. A specimen page from the Ta Ch'ing La Li (Penal Code) 131 2. Examples of deeds of sale, mortgage and loan 133 3. Proverbial sayings which indicate popular attitudes to court trial 135 4. Extracts from the Tso-chih yao-yen (Precepts for local administrative officials) by Wang Hui-tsu 137 5. Extract from Pei Ch'i Tzu I (Essays on the meaning of tenrms), by Ch'en Ch'un 151 Bibliography 153 Character Index: index of characters for Chinese and Japanese names and expressions 163 General Index 175

'This book is a well written survey of Ch'ing legal institutions from a sociological point of view ...Mrs van der Sprenkel has read widely in the literature on Chinese institutional history and has attempted to summarise this as it seems to bear on Chinese law and society.' Mary C. Wright in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies