Originally from:
Doing Buisness in China - Loose-leaf
Doing Buisness in China - Electronic
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Traditional China held neither law nor lawyers in high esteem. While laws would lead to a litigious society in which individuals pursued their own interests at the expense of others, a humane and harmonious society required a morally cultivated populace. Hence warned Confucius: "Lead the people with edicts, keep them in line with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but have no sense of shame; lead them with virtue, keep them in line with rites, and they will not only have a sense of shame but govern themselves."
Labelled litigation tricksters and pettifoggers, purveyors of legal advice were much vilified. In 1820 the Qing emperor, blaming the rise in litigation on unscrupulous scoundrels who in their quest for profits induced people to bring groundless charges, issued an edict demanding severe punishment of anyone who made a living preparing legal documents for others. As a result, China's early lawyers were at times rewarded with up to three years of penal servitude for their troubles.
Although the antipathy of Confucians and China's imperial rulers may have prevented the development of a cohesive legal profession, persons with legal skills did have a role to play in society. That role expanded over time, and by the early 1900s, a legal profession had begun to emerge in China. During the period from the turn of the century until the establishment of the PRC in 1949, regulations were passed specifying the responsibilities, training and qualifications of lawyers, bar associations were formed, several law journals appeared, and the number of lawyers grew rapidly. While in 1913 there were only 1700 lawyers registered with the Ministry of Justice ("MOJ"), by 1935 there were more than 10,000.
Randall Peerenboom - University of California at Los Angeles
