Regulating Official by Law, Defining Duties and Obligations

Abstract

In the autocratic system of feudal China, the rulers must depend on a medium of power to effectively apply their powers to the administration of the country and society and the enforcement of their orders, and this medium of power was the official. Officials were a group of people who had administrated the state, so they were the personified tools to enforce the national functions and powers. Therefore, the so-called “Ren Zhi” (the ruling of man) in ancient China was in essence “Guan Zhi” (the ruling of officials). In order to give a full play to the functions of the ruling of officials, it was necessary that the officials be regulated first. Han Fei once said, “The wise emperors rule officials instead of the common people”, which was regarded by the feudal emperors as the standard for ruling, hence the theoretical pattern was formed: “Ren Zhi” (the ruling of man)—“Guan Zhi” (the ruling of officials)—“Zhi Guan” (regulating officials)—“Li Zhi” (good administration of officials)—“Zhi Min” (regulating the common people). With the fact that the bureaucratic team was the backbone of the feudal autocratic system, and that how well the officials were regulated would affect the rise and fall of the country, so the tradition of regulating officials by law took shape pretty early in order to consolidate the complicated bureaucratic networks and to guarantee their operation. The main contents of the law on regulating officials included: defining the authorities, the power and responsibilities of the officials; setting the behavioral pattern of officials and the mechanism for them to adjust and restrict themselves; implementing a series of systems concerning recommending, testing and supervising the officials so that the appointed officials could show respect to justice, be abided by law, serve the state, and be responsible to the sovereigns. With the advance of social civilization and the development of national institutions, the laws on regulating officials were continuously enriched, contributing to the situation in which there were laws for officials to follow in various aspects such as the organizational construction, the political operation, the economic and cultural planning, the settlement of civil affairs, and the judicial judgments. Thus, the feudal officials had played a crucial part in society. If the administrative laws of ancient China were regarded as an indispensable part of Chinese legal system, then the laws on regulating officials should be considered as the core of ancient administrative laws, and the two of them were not only mutually promoted but also organically integrated.