Yiian officials were reluctant to simply adopt the staid and rigid dictates of the T'ang code and favored codes of a more casuistic nature and less unified theme. Laws based on precedent were preferred, and collections of cases and the courts' rulings and decisions were compiled, and these in addition to various legal codes were employed in drawing up a national legal practice. The result was a compromise between the traditional Chinese reliance on codification and the flexibility of legal authority derived from precedent law. Though the yasa became effectively null and void, many of its laws, customs, and practices entered the new legal system through adoption into the codes or by their occurrence as precedents.
It was in this way that Qubilai Khan and his advisers were able to combine harmoniously Chinese legal tradition, Mongol customary law, and the new social and political realities that accompanied the establishment of the Yiian dynasty. From 1271 until 1320, changes in the legal system were initiated either to restore or create those Chinese institutions that would be necessary for the administration to function. From 1320 until the demise of the Yiian government, Mongol traditions were fully integrated within the Chinese institutions, and new codes were established. Not all were happy, and the words of one Confucian scholar were not an uncommon criticism.
All that is recorded [in the Yuan tien-chang] is, however, in the style of bureaucratic documents and, among them, seven - to eight-tenths are also mixed with colloquial language, common sayings, and vulgar expressions distorting the important essence. Its form is furthermore tangled and is loose without trace or order.*’
This criticism of a Yiian legal code was a veiled reference to translations from Mongolian and the influence of Mongol and foreign overlords and administrators contained within the document. An eminent scholar from the Ch'ing era, Yao Nai (1731-1815) was more forthright in his criticism and prejudice, contemptuously condemning the Yuan tien-chang for its minute, rustic, and confusing use of expressions. Despite these shortcomings the Yiian leaders persevered in their work of codification. In 1324 copies of these new compilations were distributed to officials, and in 1328 Qa'an Toq Temiir (ruled 1328-32) ordered the compilation of the Ching-shih ta-tien (Great Institutions of Statecraft). The Yiian ruler considered himself a man of letters and had a great respect and love of Chinese arts and culture. It was Toq Temiir who in 1329 established the Academy of the Kui-chang Pavilion to accommodate not only his scholars but his splendid collections of books, paintings, calligraphy, and curios.
The Ching-shih ta-tien documentary compilation was completed in 1331 and involved close collaboration between Mongol and Chinese officials in expediting numerous documents covering an array of institutions. This survey followed the style of Chinese collections from the T'ang and Sung dynasties and demonstrated a further growing acceptance of Chinese culture by the Mongol ruling elite. The section on judicial institutions, the Hsien-tien, comprised 22 subsections of all then-current regulations and an appendix containing all outdated legal material. Subsections included 'Administrative Regulations," "Imperial Guards and Prohibitions," "Terms and General Principals," "Ordinances of Sacrifices," "Regulations of Study," "Family and Marriage," "Theft and Violence," "Food and Goods," "Complaints and Suits," "Homicides and Injuries," "Amnesties," "Grand Abominations," "Conflict and Battery," "Empty Prisons," "Evilness and Misdeeds," "Leniency of Punishments," and so on.
Various Chinese officials petitioned the Qa'an to pursue updates and modifications to these legal codes, arguing that the needs of a changing society demanded it. However, the relentless predominance of Chinese influence in these compilations suggests the bureaucrats had ulterior motives. The Qa'an Toq Temiir was content to encourage this cultural trend with the Academy of the Hsiian-wen-ko (formerly Kui-chang) Pavilion expanding its literary activities. In 1334 he issued an edict ordering Mongols and central Asians resident in China to observe mourning of their parents. In 1343 he ordered the compilation of the "Three Histories," completed in 1345, which traced the histories of the Liao, Chin, and Sung dynasties with the implication of the continuity the Yiian represented. It was stressed that the study of these histories was necessary for scholars and officials to properly understand the present and to perform better in government.
The final major legal code of the Yuan dynasty was officially promulgated in 1346. This was the Chih-cheng t'iao-ko. which contained 150 decrees, 1,700 articles, and 1,050 precedents. Challenges to this code continued, but there is evidence that it continued to be used and consulted right up to the end. This follows the pattern established from the onset of Mongol domination of both Chinese and Mongol officials namely challenging, modifying, revising, and adding to the codes and legal compilations produced during the Yiian era. Chinese scholars continued to be apprehensive of their Mongol masters, often believing them incapable of the refined and sophisticated thought necessary to appreciate Chinese culture and Chinese legal systems. This was a demonstrably false impression of the Mongol elite as the cultural achievements of the Yiian government and of the brotherly state to the west, the Il-Khanate, clearly illustrate. In the field of Confucian studies and other intellectual pursuits, later, widely respected Chinese scholars have accepted that the record of the Yiian dynasty compares favorably with the records of other eras.
The Mongol rulers initially showed interest in Chinese legal codes and practices in respect to their new Chinese subjects, but as their knowledge of these codes grew and their acquaintance with Chinese culture developed, so too did their involvement in the Chinese institutions until those very institutions, suitably modified by exposure to Mongol sensitivities, became an integral part of the Yiian government. As the Mongols became increasingly familiar with Chinese ways, their initial mistrust decreased and their antagonism dissipated. After 1320 it was clear that Mongolian customs were becoming accommodated and integrated with the increasingly dominant Chinese institutions.
World History
