Comparative Law
March 7 2006
Asian Legal Systems: China
Confucius
• 551-479 B.C.• Analects• Li• Fa
Chinese Dynasties
• 221 B.C. -1911
• See handout
• Periodic warlordism and civil war
• But much remained the same
Chinese religions
• Buddhism• Taoism
19th Century China
• Opium War (1839-1842)• European spheres of
influence• Dowager Empress Wu
Cixi• Rebellions (e.g. Taiping,
Boxer)• Failure to reform• Abdication of Pu Yu, the
last Qing Emperor
Early 20th Century China
• World War I
• Nationalists (GMD) – Sun Yatsen, Chiang Kai Shek
• Communists (CCP) Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai
Japanese Invasion
• 1931 Manchuria
• 1934 Long March
• 1937 Attack Beijing
• Unity between Nationalists and Communists
• Occupation except North (Communist)
Peoples Republic of China
• 1949
• Nationalize industry, land redistribuion
• 1951 uprising in Tibet (1959 failed coup)
• 1957 “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom”
• 1958 Great Leap Forward – a disaster
Cultural Revolution
• 1966 reaches Beijing university
• Red Guards
• Gang of Four (Jiang Qing)
• 1976 Mao dies, arrest of Gang of Four
Deng Xiaoping
• In power from late 1970s to 1993 when Jiang Zemin took control
Modern leader
• Jiang stepped down officially in 2002 (but remains powerful behind the scenes)
• Power passed to next generation of technocrats led by Hu Jintao
