caa a22 4500 386397686 CHVBK 20180307112143.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1989 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0362502800002595 doi S0362502800002595 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0362502800002595 Turner Karen Department of History, Holy Cross College Worchester, Massachusetts The Theory of Law in the Ching-fa [Elektronische Daten] [Karen Turner] The Ching-fa, one of the four "lost” books attached to the Ma-wang-tui Lao tzu, addresses issues of universal concern for legal theory. This paper examines how the Ching-fa's nine short theaties present fa linked with tao as a Law or model for guiding and judging the legitimacy of the ruler's use of coercion. I attempt to demonstrate that the conception of a universal and timeless Law offered a more universally applicable standard for governing than did the old laws based on the practices of the ancient sage kings. The text's notion of law linked with a timeless, natural principle, tao, is compared with early Western theories of universal law and its relation to justice. I conclude that the content and ultimate purposes of law are different in these early traditions but that in both cases the emerging imperial states were better served by theories of law based on abstract standards rather than on particular histories and customs. Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1989 Early China Cambridge University Press 14(1989), 55-76 0362-5028 14<55 1989 14 EAC https://doi.org/10.1017/S0362502800002595 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0362502800002595 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Turner Karen Department of History, Holy Cross College Worchester, Massachusetts NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Early China Cambridge University Press 14(1989), 55-76 0362-5028 14<55 1989 14 EAC CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge