1. Research on Confucius and Confucian legal thought: "General Theory of Confucian Legal Thought"
In 1981, he published papers such as "How to Understand and Evaluate Confucius' Legal Thought", taking the lead in The study of Confucius and Confucianism from the perspective of law broke through the lingering fear and confusion left by the Cultural Revolution in this field at that time, and immediately received responses and praise from scholars at home and abroad.
After the publication of "General Theory of Confucian Legal Thought", it was immediately praised as an excellent work in the circles of legal history and Confucianism. Book reviews have been published in 18 newspapers and periodicals including Chinese Social Sciences, Dushu, International Confucianism, Law, Confucius Studies, Law Review, Guangming Daily, and Wenhui Po.
In the process of researching Confucius and Confucian legal thought, the author pays attention to the comparison of Chinese and Western legal culture and the legal thought of pre-Qin philosophers, focusing on the macro-level aspects of Chinese philosophical thought, political thought, ethical thought, as well as writing, archaeology , legal systems and other micro-levels to explore the content and characteristics of Confucian legal thought, boldly innovate in methodology, and thus put forward a series of quite innovative viewpoints.
First, it is proposed that the differences between Confucianism and Legalism in the pre-Qin period were not the opposition between the rule of man and the rule of law, and there was no main line of struggle between the rule of man and the rule of law in the history of Chinese law after the Qin and Han dynasties. The extreme monarchical despotism of Legalism is a typical form of rule by man. Therefore, it is inappropriate to use the opposing viewpoints of Confucianism and Legalism to comment on Confucianism and Legalism and to describe the history of ancient Chinese law and legal culture.
Secondly, the assertion that Confucian etiquette is a "natural law" is questionable. Western natural law, whether religious or rational, places a supreme God, or external justice, above or outside human society and human law, allowing people to worship it. The "rituals" and "natural principles" of Confucian law are neither above human beings nor outside human beings, but are among human beings, in people's daily life, and in the hearts of people. Therefore, Confucian law has ideal law and concepts of justice, but it cannot be reduced to Western-style natural law.
Thirdly, Confucius’s opposition to Jin’s casting of the punishment tripod was not his opposition to the promulgation of statutory law. A large amount of data proves that Xingshu and Xingding were not the beginning of the promulgation of statutory laws in China. The "Hanging Laws as Wei" in the Western Zhou Dynasty was a much earlier form of promulgation of statutory laws. Confucius opposed Jin Xingding because he opposed arbitrary legislation and the establishment of chaotic laws and adhered to the principle of etiquette. In ancient China, customary law has always existed. The coexistence and complementarity of statutory law and customary law is a characteristic of the Chinese legal system.
Fourthly, it uses rich historical materials to discuss that ancient Chinese law implemented a comprehensive conviction and sentencing system that combined legal and illegal crimes. This is another reason why the Chinese legal system is different from the civil law system and the maritime law system. One of the characteristics. Confucian law opposes the solidification and mechanization of the relationship between crime and punishment, but it does not advocate arbitrary judgment of crime and punishment.
Fifth, it discusses that the cultural characteristic of Confucian legal thought is ethical law, and analyzes the origin, basic principles, and basic characteristics of Confucian ethical law.
Sixth, the "Spring and Autumn Judgment" was re-evaluated. I believe that the "Spring and Autumn Judgment" cannot be summed up without analysis as "Punish whoever you want, and punish whatever you want." Judging from the few remaining cases of "Spring and Autumn Prison Judgment", they all changed the seriousness into the lightness. "Spring and Autumn Judgment" was an important intermediate link in the transition from the harsh punishments and laws of the Qin Dynasty to the combination of etiquette and law in the Tang Dynasty. It was a turning point from Legalist legislation and judiciary to Confucian legislation and judiciary. It played a positive role in promoting the development of the Chinese legal system. effect.
Seventh, although there was no systematic written civil law in ancient China, it also had a rich civil law culture. The special topic studied the civil legal cultural value of Confucian concepts of integrity and justice and interests and their important role in the formation and development of China's unique civil legal culture.
The eighth one discusses the influence and evolution of Confucian legal thought in Chinese history. Among them, "Tang Lv Shu Yi" is a typical feudal ethics law; the main aspects of Huang Zongxi's thoughts during the Ming and Qing Dynasties still show that he is still a master of Confucian social critical thought, and his "governed law" The proposition that "then there is governance for people" is not a rule of law thought; Shen Jiaben's contribution is not that he is a reformist, on the contrary, he ended the Confucian law in ancient China as a Confucian-type enlightened bureaucrat; Sun Yat-sen's "People's Situation and National History" "On the significance of creating a modern Chinese legal culture that combines Chinese and Western elements, his "Five Powers Constitution" is not a replica of the Western "separation of three powers", but a centralized system that strives to connect the traditional people-centered ideas with modern civil rights ideas. type of government. All these embody the explorer's unique experience and are of great enlightening significance.
Eighth, when studying and elaborating the legal thoughts of Confucian masters and other historical figures, there are also some characteristics in the method. The first is to start from the original work and use data to speak, and strive to avoid one-sidedness and out-of-context interpretation; the second is to examine the legal thoughts of Confucius, Mencius, Xun and other figures as a subsystem of their overall ideological system to avoid dismemberment and separation; It is to explore and analyze their legal thoughts from three levels: first, the ideal legal level, which is also the value standard for their evaluation and design of real society and real law, such as Confucius's "benevolence", Mencius's "benevolence and righteousness", Xunzi's "Etiquette and Righteousness", as well as propositions such as "law comes before kings" and Song Confucianism's "natural principles"; followed by their principles on legislation, law enforcement, judiciary, and law-abiding, such as the idea of ??valuing the people, the idea of ??the mean, the idea of ??familyism, and the idea of ??monarchism. etc.; The third is the level of specific legal claims, such as punishment, "straight" execution, father and son hiding from each other, etc.
"Difficult Pioneering--Mao Zedong's Legal Thought and Legal Practice"
2. Research on modern and contemporary legal thought: "Difficult Pioneering--Mao Zedong's Legal Thought and Legal Practice"
The research on "The Spread and Development of Marxist Legal Science in China" brought Professor Yu Ronggen's research vision from ancient law to modern and contemporary law. In the study of modern legal thought, Mao Zedong is one of the central figures that cannot be avoided. The nearly 300,000-word book "Difficult Pioneering - Mao Zedong's Legal Thought and Legal Practice" provides a comprehensive analysis of this great man from a legal perspective. This book is positioned in Mao Zedong's personal legal thoughts and legal practices, rather than "legal thoughts in Mao Zedong Thought."
The book is divided into eight chapters. Chapters 2 to 7 describe Mao Zedong’s legal thoughts and legal practices at various stages in his life from his youth to becoming the leader of the People’s Republic of China. Chapter 3 points out that the time when Mao Zedong established the class theory of law was from the end of 1920 to the beginning of 1921. The sixth chapter writes about Mao Zedong’s legal thoughts and legal practices during the Anti-Japanese War, believing that this was the mature period of Mao Zedong’s personal Marxist legal thoughts and belonged to the legal thoughts and legal practices in Mao Zedong’s ideological system. Chapter Seven discusses Mao Zedong's great achievements in the construction of the new democratic legal system and the socialist legal system in New China, especially the constitutional thoughts in the preparation for the establishment of the new CPPCC and the formulation of the first People's Constitution, and the "Three Antis" and "Five Antis" The economic criminal law thought and the creation of systems such as probation, control, and amnesty were emphatically analyzed. After the late 1950s, consistent with Mao Zedong's mistakes in governing the party and the country, his legal nihilism tendencies gradually grew, but he still made significant contributions to international relations and international law.
Chapter 8 selects six topics to provide a theoretical analysis of Mao Zedong’s brilliance and great mistakes in legal thought and legal practice. The six topics are: seeking truth from facts and the ever-changing law, the mass line and the "four major democracies", party leadership and democratic legal system, class struggle and "reasonable rebellion", democratic politics and people-oriented, "rule by man", "rule of law" and sages Spirit. The article believes that the legal concept of class struggle as an instrument, the people-oriented theory of democratic rights, advocating the spirit of sages and neglecting the institutionalization and legalization of democracy, etc. are the deep-seated legal ideological reasons for Mao Zedong's major mistakes in legal practice in his later years. 3. Research on Legal Anthropology and Legal Sociology: "Qiang Customary Law"
Yu Ronggen and his research team selected areas where the ethnic population is not too large, the residence is relatively concentrated, the history is very long, and the cultural heritage is very rich. The Qiang people are the subject of field surveys and theoretical research. The book "Qiang Customary Law" conducts a detailed investigation, argumentation and analysis of the Qiang customary law from five different perspectives:
The history and current situation of the Qiang people and the occurrence and development trajectory of their customary law; property relations, Contents of customary law in marriage relationships, inheritance relationships, family relationships, criminal relationships, and litigation relationships; customs and rules in the chieftain system, religious beliefs, township rules and regulations, village rules and regulations, etc.; from the aspects of economic background and cultural characteristics A theoretical analysis and refinement of the Qiang customary law; a hook-and-loop analysis of the historical relationship between the Qiang customary law and national laws, revealing the cultural change trend in which customary law and national law are increasingly integrated and gradually give way to national law.
This research is first of all an academic and cultural supplement. For the first time, it literalizes and fixes the legal cultural tradition of the Qiang people, filling a gap in the research on legal anthropology, sociology of law, ethnic law and the cultural history of the Qiang people. This is a start-up work that belongs to the road ahead.
At the same time, the study of ethnic customary law also has considerable practical urgency. The folk culture represented by customary law and the elite culture represented by national statutory laws belong to different systems, and there are difficulties in integration. This difficulty still exists today and is one of the reasons why the process of rule of law in ethnic minority areas is so difficult. This requires us to summarize historical and current political wisdom and experience and achieve a just right dynamic balance in adhering to the principle of legal unity while taking care of national habits.
This research also advocates a rigorous and empirical style of study. Around 1994, when the project was launched, due to misunderstandings about the commodity economy, impetuousness grew in the academic world, and the academic approach of "one sword for ten years" and focusing on fieldwork was greatly impacted. It is against this background that the members of the research team put aside their personal gains and losses, as well as so-called benefits such as finance and professional titles, and plunged into the mountains, overcoming the lack of oxygen in the mountains, eating habits, language barriers and other various problems. Difficulties, obtaining a large amount of reliable information and true feelings. The "Qiang Customary Law" was written, and it was even more developed.