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Thank you very much, Martin, for inviting me to visit Princeton, and thank you all for attending today’s lecture. It’s a great honor to speak here at East Asian Department. Today I will talk about the transmission and publication of laws in Early Imperial China based on newly manuscripts evidence. Sir Henry Maine, in his book “Ancient Law,” posits that the transition from Customary Law, known only to a privileged minority such as aristocracy, to a period of publicized law, marked a monumental milestone in legal history. He suggests that similar patterns emerged in Rome, exemplified by codes like the Twelve Tables, as well as in Greece, Italy, and Western Asia, at similar points of time during social development. Laws were inscribed on tablets and published to people, displacing the exclusive knowledge previously held by an oligarchy. Maine’s theory regarding the evolution from customary law to publicized laws likely resonates with evolution of law in China during a similar period. If the historical records are to be believed, as the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.) came to its end, prime minister of Zheng state, was the first to publicize the penal code in 536 BCE (Zhao 6), marking a historic moment in Chinese legal history. However, this move triggered controversy as it challenged existing social order by disrupting social hierarchies and reducing the aristocratic monopoly on legal authority. In the wake of innovation and encouraged by its success, other codes were promulgated throughout the fifth century BCE, often inscribed on bronze vessels or bamboo slips, signifying China’s transition into an era of written laws. For example, twenty years later, in 513 BCE, ministers of the Jin state, also inscribed laws on bronze tripods for public dissemination. Publication of law was closely linked with significant social changes of the time. As the traditional social hierarchy, rooted in rituals, gradually collapsed, government became more centralized and social mobility increased. The laws, monopolized by the aristocracy insufficient for effective governance amidst these changes. This shift carries profound importance in China’s legal history, marking a pivotal transformation in governance and social control, and highlighting the complex relationship between legal evolution and social dynamics. While China did transition into an era of written law during the late Spring and Autumn period in the fifth century BCE, the earliest extant legal code transmitted to us was the famous Tang law code from the seventh century CE. For over a millennium, Chinese laws were lost, leaving our understanding of law very limited, relying mostly on fragmentary law citations found scattered throughout historical records. Since the 1970s, several Qin and Han legal manuscripts have been excavated from various tombs, including No.11 Qin Tomb, No.247 Han Tomb, and legal manuscripts acquired from Hong Kong antique market by Yuelu Academy of Hunan University, where I come from. These recently discovered legal manuscripts as well as the administrative texts found at archaeological sites provide valuable materials for research into laws and legal systems of early imperial China (221 BEC-9 CE). They demonstrate that the Qin and Western Han laws aimed at regulating nearly every aspect of governance and social conduct, played a crucial role in overseeing officials and governing the populace. As obedience to laws as well as enforcement of laws relied on their effective transmission and publication, the Qin and Han empires attempted to effectively and promptly promulgate laws, reflecting the sociopolitical system of their time. This topic merits further research, and I attempt to utilize excavated manuscript texts to reconstruct the process of transmitting and publishing laws during this period. Assisted by digital technology, modern laws can reach and take effect across an entire country upon their enactment. However, during the Qin and Western Han periods, constrained by the conditions of the time, the simultaneous dissemination and publication of laws upon enactment across vast territories was unfeasible. Considering this scenario, and likening the promulgation of law to a form of communication between authorities and recipients, several questions arise: When did the dissemination of a law start after its approval by the emperor? How were laws copied and transmitted across such a vast territory? To whom were laws transmitted? Were all laws communicated to both officials and the common people, or did it depend on the nature and function of the laws? Especially for commoners, who often lacked literacy and comprehension of legal language, how were laws made accessible? What was the efficacy of law dissemination? A study of these questions can enrich our understanding on the functioning of legal and administrative systems and social control in early imperial China. First, let’s discuss when did law dissemination begin. In the Qin and Western Han empires, only the emperor had the authority to approve laws. Laws served as a means for the emperor to govern the entire realm under his rule. These laws encompassed statutes and ordinances, both of which could be made to resolve legal issues through imperial decree, thereby gaining legal validity upon the emperor’s approval. For the effective enforcement of newly enacted laws at local level, swift transmission from the central court to local offices was imperative. A Yuelu ordinance offers insight on this process: The ordinance states: In case that [a petition] is submitted to be made into an ordinance and for which the imperial edicts states “approved,” fix the date of submission according to the date on which the document [with the imperial approval] was sent down, and [on the day] send down the new ordinance. The ordinance may appear complex, but its purpose is to address three specific dates: the day when the emperor approves a petition, thereby enacting it into law, and sends down the document with imperial approval, determines both the day of petition submission and the day of sending down this newly approved ordinance to offices. However, upon closer examination, this ordinance may seem perplexing. In the actual decision-making process during the Qin and Western Han dynasties, the submission for a petition from officials for the creation of a law would occur first. Then, the emperor would receive the petition, deliberate with high-ranked court officials and approve it. Finally, the approved ordinance would be sent down to relevant offices across the state. This process involved a time gap between the three steps. Thus, the Yuelu ordinance aims to synchronize the three dates, namely the dates of petition submission, ordinance enactment, and ordinance dissemination. This ordinance mandates that a new ordinance be handed down on the day of its approval, aiming to swiftly promulgate it for enforcement. Accordingly, the enactment of a law by the emperor also marked the start of its transmission. This Yuelu ordinance sheds light on the formula “sent down on X day of X month of X year”,” commonly found in the fragmentary texts pertaining to imperial edicts discovered in the northwest region of Western Han China. There places were marked with black circles on the map. For example, one slip from the site states, “The imperial decision states ‘Approved’. Sent down [the ordinance] on the gengchen day of the seventh month of the third year of Emperor Xiaowen. [The ordinance] contains 66 characters in total.” As this formula provides important information about law enactment and dissemination, it was likely imperative to include it in these documents of imperial edicts when sending them down from the central court. As we have seen, once a new law was enacted by the emperor, it was immediately sent down on the day of enactment. Then, two key aspects played a significant role in the transmission of the new law: first, to whom a law was transmitted; second, the method through which the law was disseminated. Let’s first talk about the recipients of laws. The formula “when receiving the document, administer its affairs and send it down to those who should use it, according to the document of the edict” is frequently found in the excavated imperial edicts. Scholars put forward that it was necessary for each office to write down this formula when receiving a document of an edict, as it required offices to carry out duties in accordance with the new law. Additionally, it is noticed that the formula also instructed offices, when receiving a document of an edict, to transmit it further to the relevant offices responsible for its implementation. This requirement fits the circumstances of Qin and Western Han. First, historical records indicate that the volume of Qin and Han laws expanded to such an extent that even officials were not aware of all the laws. Furthermore, for a law to be effective, it was adequate to convey it to intended recipients who would enforce and adhere to it. Moreover, considering the considerable resources required to disseminate a legal document across the entire empire, it was both economical and efficient to distribute laws to specific recipients.