Abstract

This article examines the laws regulating contractual relationships during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). Based on an examination of contemporaneous laws and statutes on contractual relationships, as well as archaeological evidence of extant contracts from the Tang Dynasty, this article concludes that dynastic China had developed a body of sophisticated contract laws by the Tang Dynasty. The Tang rulers' regulation of contracts was aimed at maintaining the desired social structure and stability, and promoting the moral teachings about trustworthiness.

Introduction

The U.S. legal scholarship has devoted little attention to dynastic Chinese contract law history. This lack of attention is glaringly obvious considering China's important role in the world economy. China is projected to become the largest economy in the world in a few years. Because contract law governs economic relationships, a thorough understanding of Chinese contract law is necessary in our globalized economy and interconnected world. Understanding the past of the Chinese contract law will shed more light on its present.

This article represents a pioneering effort in the United States to study dynastic Chinese contract law by examining contractual regulations during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). It focuses on the Tang Dynasty for three reasons. First, historians agree that the Tang Dynasty represents the height of the Chinese dynastic era. Second, the Tang rulers created the earliest Chinese legal code which survived in its entirety (hereinafter the "Tang Code"). Chinese historians believe that the Tang Code represents a watershed moment in the Chinese legal history — the culmination of legal experiences from all previous dynasties and a strong influence for all subsequent dynasties. Finally, archaeological discoveries of extensive written records including extant contracts from the Tang Dynasty make it feasible to examine actual Chinese contract practices during that time.

Based on an examination of contemporaneous records of laws and rules on contractual relationships as well as archaeological evidence of extant contracts from the Tang Dynasty, this article concludes that dynastic China had developed a body of sophisticated contract laws by the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). The Tang rulers' regulation of contracts was aimed at maintaining the desired social structure and stability, and promoting the moral teachings about trustworthiness.

A few caveats are necessary. The research and conclusions herein depend on and are limited by the availability and quality of historical records. Despite the progress made during the past few decades by Chinese and international historians and archaeologists, knowledge of the Tang Dynasty and its laws remains fragmented and subject to revision based on the discovery of new documents and/or interpretations. The conclusions in this article may appear synchronic. However, evidence suggests that Tang laws evolved within the 300-year period examined in this article. Due to a lack of consistent archaeological records, this article does not attempt to trace any legal changes during this time period. For the same reason, this article does not address possible geographic differences which existed during the Tang Dynasty.

This article begins by introducing relevant aspects of the Tang society to provide proper cultural, economic, social, and political context for the understanding of Tang laws on contractual relationships. Section I provides an overview of the Tang Dynasty including a brief description of the massive administrative systems and general information about industrial and commercial activities as well as landownership. Section II briefly describes the legal reforms in the early Tang Dynasty, sources of law and the development of the Tang Code. 

Section III sets forth applicable Tang laws and regulations on contractual relationships. Tang rulers regulated contractual relationships extensively. They issued rules on people's capacity to contract and on subject matters of contracts. The laws required certain formalities — written contracts and government approval — for important transactions, and prohibited coercive behavior in sales transactions. Tang laws also imposed warranties of quality in some sales transactions. When a party failed to perform under a contract, the breaching party would be punished by lashes with sticks, the number of lashes depending on the amount of money owed and length of delay, in addition to being required to pay. The contract laws were designed to maintain the hierarchical social structure and morality.

Section IV examines dynastic Chinese contract practices as revealed by archaeological evidence of extant contracts from the Tang Dynasty in light of applicable Tang laws. The records show that Tang Chinese engaged in consistent contract practices and viewed contracts as the private ordering of their affairs. They conceptualized their contractual relationships in legal terms and used contracts to allocate risks between themselves, similar to their modern counterparts.