Chinese Law and Justice: George Thomas Staunton (1781‑1859) and the European Discourses on China in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Year: 2017
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: George Thomas Staunton’s 1810 translation of the so-called ‘Qing penal code’, the \nTa Tsing Leu Lee (in the coeval transliteration), represented a major chapter in the \nhistory of Sino-European relations, particularly the evolution of British presence and \nactivities in China. It was, at the same time, an important development in Sinological \nlearning and Western knowledge of China in terms of understanding how to manage \ncommercial relations that had been strained for over a century and were undergoing \ncrucial changes at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It also represented a decisive \nstep forward in a longstanding European discussion about the Chinese empire and its \ninstitutions, society, culture and civilization that attributed particular importance to the \nsubject of law and justice and their place within the Chinese state. The first and second \nparts of this essay retrace the most significant moments of this debate in the European \nculture and experience, with a special focus on the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment \nperiod, when admiration for and even an idealization of China reached their \npeak, only to decline quite quickly and irreversibly at the turn of the century. While \ndemonstrating that contradictory opinions about China always coexisted in European \nopinion, this essay proceeds to present Staunton’s interpretation of the Chinese legal \nand judicial system and to clarify its particular meaning with regard to previous and \ncurrent debates and the political-economic context of Sino-British relations. The last \ntwo parts deal with the discussions prompted in Europe by the English publication of \nthe Qing code and the first two translations in French and Italian. In so doing, the essay \nshows that Staunton’s intention to promote a favourable view of Chinese institutions \nand a respectful attitude towards them did not correspond to the development of mainstream European, and especially British, opinion. Indeed, in the decades following its \npublication, under the pressure of free trade and Protestant missionary opinion, British \npublic opinion became increasingly negative, including the adoption of severely critical \nmental attitudes and intrusive policies towards China, thus preparing itself for the military \naggression known as the First Opium War.
Author: Guido Abbattista
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2902127170