Certain Aspects Of Chinese Customary Law In The Light Of Japanese Scholarship

Henry McAleavy

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00112443

Certain Aspects Of Chinese Customary Law In The Light Of Japanese Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

Henry McAleavy

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IN October 1948, the Governor of Hong Kong appointed a committee to consider the position of Chinese law and custom in that colony. The report of this committee, which was published in February 1953,1 will have drawn attention to the fact that the old family law of China, quite apart from the limited recognition given to it by the courts, continues to exercise considerable influence on the lives of millions of Chinese, not only in Hong Kong, but in the other British territories of South-East Asia. In China itself, as regards matters of the family, the Civil Code of the former National Government had never, over most of the country and for the mass of the people, any very eifectual force, and the customary law continued to exist in almost undiminished vigour until the establishment of the People's Government in 1949.2 Since then the situation has changed completely. New laws regarding marriage and property are effectively enforced, and have everywhere replaced the old customs and, what is still more important, an extremely efficient system of mass-education in the principles of Communism will before long have expelled from people's minds those beliefs on which the old Chinese law was based. From now on, apart from Formosa, it is only in Hong Kong and among the communities of overseas Chinese throughout South-East Asia that Chinese customary family law will continue to exist, but even with such limitations it is still of sufficient importance to make its study of practical significance.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , October 1955 , pp. 535 - 547

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00112443 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1955

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^{page 535 note 1} Chinese Law and Custom in Hong Kong. Report of a Committee appointed by the Governor in October, 1948. Hong Kong, February, 1953.

^{page 535 note 2} This fact, which will hardly be questioned by anyone who lived in China during the period, is emphasized by such Japanese writers as Professor Noboru Niida. See, for example, his Chugoku no Noson Kazoku , 2nd edit., Tokyo, 1954, pp. 4–6.

^{page 535 note 3} Chinese Law and Custom in Hong Kong, p. 3.

^{page 536 note 1} These are not assembled in one Corpus. For the Manchu Dynasty, apart from the Ta-Ch'ing Lu-li (the Penal Code), they include the Ta-Ch'ing Hui-tien , as well as the various Tse-li , Sheng-li , etc.

^{page 536 note 2} Chugoku Noson Kanho Chosa Tokyo, vol. I, 1952; vol. II, 1954.

^{page 537 note 1} Keeton, G. W.: The Elementary Principles of Jurisprudence, 2nd edit., 1949, p. 333, note 2.Google Scholar

^{page 537 note 2} Gutteridge, H. C.: Comparative Law, 2nd edit., 1949, appendix, p. 199.Google Scholar

^{page 537 note 3} Escarra, Jean: Le Droit Chinois, 1936. See especially p. 481.Google Scholar

^{page 537 note 4} Valk, Marc van der: An Outline of Modern Chinese Family Law, Peking, 1939.Google Scholar

^{page 537 note 5} Lingat, Robert: Les Regimes Matrimoniaux du Sud-Est de l′Asie, vol. I, 1952. See p. 16.Google Scholar

^{page 537 note 6} Ku-yiian, Ch'en: Chung-kuo Fa-chih Shih , 2nd edit., Commercial Press, Shanghai, 1935, preface, p. 1.Google Scholar

^{page 537 note 7} Fa-lii Ta Tz'u-shu , 3 vols., Commercial Press, Shanghai, 1936. See vol. I, p. 453, sub verbo ti-fu .

^{page 538 note 1} China Review, vol. VIII, p. 69.

^{page 538 note 2} See the obituary notice by Pelliot, T'oung Poo, vol. xxiv, pp. 302–3.

^{page 538 note 3} Chinese Law and Custom in Hong Kong, p. 16.

^{page 538 note 4} Escarra: op. cit., pp. 91 and 505.

^{page 538 note 5} Jamieson, G.: Chinese Family and Commercial Law, Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, 1921.Google Scholar

^{page 539 note 1} G. Jamieson: op. cit., pp. 2–3.

^{page 539 note 2} G. Jamieson: op. eit., pp. 4–5.

^{page 540 note 1} Robert Lingat: op. cit., pp. 16–7.

^{page 540 note 2} G. Jamieson: op. cit., p. 26. Lingat: op. cit., p. 22.

^{page 540 note 3} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, p. 211.

^{page 541 note 1} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, pp. 217–8.

^{page 542 note 1} The Confucian Analects, Book II, Chap, v (Legge's translation).

^{page 542 note 2} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, p. 217.

^{page 542 note 3} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, pp. 189, 190.

^{page 542 note 4} 1 Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, pp. 212–3.

^{page 542 note 5} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, p. 213.

^{page 542 note 6} Niida: Chugoku no Noson Kazolcu, pp. 47, and 166–70.

^{page 543 note 1} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, p. 552.

^{page 543 note 2} Niida, : Chugoku Shakai no Ho to Rinri , Tokyo, 1954, pp. 1–36.Google Scholar

^{page 544 note 1} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, pp. 549–60.

^{page 544 note 2} Shiga, Shuzo: Chugoku Kazokuho Ron , 2nd edit., Tokyo, 1951, pp. 17–9.Google Scholar

^{page 544 note 3} Niida: Chugoku Shalcai no Ho to Rinri, pp. 48–55.

^{page 544 note 4} Taiwan Shiho, vol. II, pt. 2, p. 554.

^{page 544 note 5} Niida: Chugoku no Noson Kazoku, p. 44.

^{page 544 note 6} G. Jamieson: op. cit., p. 52.

^{page 545 note 1} Lingat: op. cit., pp. 20–1.

^{page 545 note 2} I-Li or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial. Translated by John Steel. London, 1917, vol. II, p. 20.

^{page 545 note 3} Shiga: op. cit., pp. 69 and 168.

^{page 545 note 4} Shiga: op. cit., p. 131.

^{page 546 note 1} Niida, : Torei Shui , Tokyo, 1933, p. 246; Shiga: op. cit., p. 163.Google Scholar

^{page 546 note 2} Yuan tien chang (1908 edit.), ch. 19, f. 16b; Shiga: op. cit., p. 164.

^{page 546 note 3} Shiga: op. cit., p. 164.

^{page 546 note 4} Niida: Torei Shui, p. 245; Shina Mibunho-shi, p. 663.

^{page 546 note 5} Niida: Shina Mibunho-shi, p. 662.

^{page 546 note 6} Chugoku Noson Kanko Chosa, vol. i, p. 270.

^{page 546 note 7} Shiga: op. cit., pp. 176–7.

^{page 546 note 8} Shiga: op. cit., p. 167; Niida: Shina Mibunho-shi, p. 664.

^{page 546 note 9} Niida: Shina Mibunho-shi, pp. 663–4.

^{page 547 note 1} Shiga: op. cit., p. 171.

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