Book contents
- Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology of the Ancient Mediterranean
- Chronology of Ancient China
- Maps of Ancient China, Greece, and Rome
- The Many Faces of “the People” in the Ancient World
- Part I Authority and Lifestyles of Distinction
- Part II The People as Agents and Addressees
- Chapter 4 Rhetoric, Oratory and People in Ancient Rome and Early China
- Chapter 5 Female Commoners and the Law in Early Imperial China
- Chapter 6 Registers of “the People” in Greece, Rome, and China
- Chapter 7 Food Distribution for the People
- Part III Inversions of the People: Emperors and Tyrants
- Part IV Identities and “Others”
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Chapter 5 - Female Commoners and the Law in Early Imperial China
Evidence from Recently Recovered Documents with Some Comparisons with Classical Rome
from Part II - The People as Agents and Addressees
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2021
- Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology of the Ancient Mediterranean
- Chronology of Ancient China
- Maps of Ancient China, Greece, and Rome
- The Many Faces of “the People” in the Ancient World
- Part I Authority and Lifestyles of Distinction
- Part II The People as Agents and Addressees
- Chapter 4 Rhetoric, Oratory and People in Ancient Rome and Early China
- Chapter 5 Female Commoners and the Law in Early Imperial China
- Chapter 6 Registers of “the People” in Greece, Rome, and China
- Chapter 7 Food Distribution for the People
- Part III Inversions of the People: Emperors and Tyrants
- Part IV Identities and “Others”
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Summary
The subject of this chapter poses a number of problems. The first is a methodological one. The sources for law in the ancient Mediterranean world, and for general social history, are far richer than those from early China, and thus there is an imbalance in the sources available for comparison of the two cultures.1 Second, the attitude toward law, especially in Rome, was far different from that in the Chinese tradition. The Romans were proud of their laws and their legal tradition, and they provided, in their various expressions and promulgations, the foundation of much Western European law, though, of course, not of common law. The Chinese Confucian tradition, on the other hand, denigrated law, if not outright despised it, associating it with the tradition of the so-called “legalists” or fajia, who they thought had assisted the First Emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi, in unifying the East Asian subcontinent in 221 bce and founding the first Chinese empire. This emperor was long considered to be the epitome of a “bad ruler,” having authorized the “Burning of the Books” and the “Burial of the Scholars,” and his name was notorious throughout the imperial period, only being rehabilitated by Chairman Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution.
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- Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China , pp. 156 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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