Delivering Justice in Qing China: Civil Trials in the Magistrate’s Court

Traditional Chinese law, including Qing law, was often criticized as being inapplicable in civil trials and it was often believed that the magistrate’s court preferred mediation rather than decision-making. This volume challenges these views and repairs the distorted picture of Qing civil justice. With a detailed analysis of the Qing law codes and of one hundred nineteenth-century case records from Baodi county, the volume examines much-debated issues such as the approach of Qing law to civil and criminal matters, punishment and mediation in civil trials, Confucius’ preference for education and the idea of anti-litigation. A significant contribution to the field of traditional Chinese law this volume will be of essential interest to those who seek to understand the Qing legal system and its development in China.