<Articles>Hell and Judgement in Medieval China : Law and Justice as seen through T'ang Tales of Damnation

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  • <論説>中世中国における地獄と獄訟 : 唐代地獄説話に見える法と正義
  • 中世中国における地獄と獄訟--唐代地獄説話に見える法と正義
  • チュウセイ チュウゴク ニ オケル ジゴク ト ゴクショウ トウダイ ジゴク

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Abstract

To date, legal scholarship has focused on the institutional mechanisms of Chinese law and ignored popular attitudes regarding law and justice. Justice can only be understood, however, when laws are situated in a social context. The author intends to explore contemporary T'ang attitudes regalding law and justice by examining T'ang era tales of damnation. These tales consist of judgements of hell which were modeled after worldly judgements. The absence of any sense of divine justice, as found in the West, coupled with a traditional belief in immortality, caused these judgements of hell to lose their initial severity, becoming increasingly worldly before disappearing entirely. Precisely because the judgements of these tales mirrored the fashions of the secular world, the attitudes found in these tales accurately reflect contemporary T'ang attitudes regarding law and justice. It thus becomes evident that a conception of empathy underpinned T'ang law and justice.

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 80 (4), 570-597, 1997-07-01

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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