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Social Order through Contracts: A Study of the Qingshui River Manuscripts

Social Order through Contracts: A Study of the Qingshui River Manuscripts

Authors
Publisher Springer, Berlin
Year
Pages 284
Version hardback
Language English
ISBN 9789813349469
Categories Jurisprudence & philosophy of law
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Book description

This book is the first Western-language monograph on the study of the Qingshui River manuscripts. By examining over 3,000 contracts and other manuscripts, this book offers constructive insights into the long-standing question of how and why a society in late imperial China could maintain a well-functioning social system with few laws but many contracts, i.e., Hobbesian "words without sword." Three interrelated questions, what contracts were, how and why they worked, are explained successively. Thus, this book presents a non-stereotypical "contract society" in southwest China, arguing that the social order which provides predictability and regularity for economic prosperity could be formed and maintained through contracts even under the condition of relatively weak influence of governmental and legal authorities.
This book benefits readers who are interested in law, society, and history. While presenting the socio-legal landscape of a frontier area in late imperial China for historians, this book provides a novel and empirical interpretation of the supposedly well-known contract device for legal researchers, thereby proposing materials for an integrated theoretical explanatory framework of contracts in general. By employing the innovative theory of blockchain in its key argumentation, the book offers a creative interpretation of historical and social phenomena.

Social Order through Contracts: A Study of the Qingshui River Manuscripts

Table of contents

AbstractDates and CurrencyI. Introduction1.The story of the wealthiest2.Research question: A contract society?2.1.Economic success, social order, and contracts2.2.The general puzzle of how and why the contract worked3.Sources: The Qingshui River region and beyond3.1.A brief introduction to the Qingshui River manuscripts and their studies3.1.1. The discovery3.1.2. Where and when?3.1.3. The content3.1.4. Major collections, publications, and state of the field3.2.Sources in and beyond the Region3.2.1. Taking the Qingshui River manuscripts as the core source3.2.2. Wendou, a cluster of villages, the region, and beyond4.Synopsis and structure of this studyII. Rediscovering Contract in the Qingshui River Region1.Introduction: Standard and borderline contracts1.1.A general and complex term1.2."Standard cases" and "borderline cases"2.Contracts in law and practice2.1.Contracts in contract laws2.1.1. Defining contract in laws: A comparative approach2.1.2. Contracts and the Great Qing Code2.1.3. Contracts without contract law?2.2.Categorization of contracts in everyday life2.2.1. Contractual manuals2.2.2. A necessary hypothesis3.Contents of a contract: Beyond agreementi Table of Contents3.1.The tense of a contract: Future or past?3.2.The performance of contracts3.2.1. Contracts need no performance3.2.2. Producing contracts as the performance3.3.Championing the past in the future3.3.1. Negative obligations in the future tense3.3.2. The established and confirmed3.4.Transcending as an agreement3.4.1. Contract without agreement?3.4.2. Jural relations: An external observation4.Identifying contracts by form: The internal and external4.1.The textual form4.1.1. Essential elements? The changing and unchanged4.1.2. Specialized language and formulaic expressions4.2.The ritual form4.2.1. Customs of contracting4.2.2. Textual reflections4.3.The formulaic beginning of a contract: Indicating and integrating4.3.1. The formula of the beginning4.3.2. Integrating the form and content4.3.3. The indicator as a shortcut5.Paper matters: The materiality of contracts5.1.The burning of contracts5.1.1. The story of Yao the Millionaire5.1.2. A contract of dispute settlement5.2.The non-conceptual contract: The contract and its material carriers5.2.1. The abstract and concrete contract5.2.2. Material carriers other than paper5.3.The validity of the material: Oral and non-original5.3.1. Oral contracts5.3.2. Copies of the contract6.ConclusionIII. Middlemen1.Introduction: Understanding middlemen within a contract2.The primary and the secondary: Formation and restoration 2.1.Four roles2.2.Two levels3.The primary: Introducers, witnesses, and guarantors3.1.Introduction3.1.1. Matchmaking and facilitation3.1.2. Duzhong ii Table of Contents3.1.3. Hanzhong3.2.Witnessing3.3.Guarantee4.The secondary: Arbitrators and peacemakers4.1.The "original middleman"4.2.Arbitration4.2.1. Fact-finding4.2.2. Reasoning4.3.Mediation5.The middleman as the third party and the third party as the middleman5.1.The involvement of the middleman in a contract5.2.Incorporating various third parties as middlemen5.3.A partly open system of middlemen6.Conclusion1V. Scribes1.Introduction: Taking scribes seriously1.1.Scribes and the writing of contracts1.2.Contractual scribes, official scribes, and litigation lawyers1.3.The institution of scribes and its operation2.The demand for scribes 2.1.The typology of contract writers2.2.The number of scribes2.3.The proportion of holographic contracts and the extent of scribal demand2.4.The demand for scribes in different kinds of contracts 3.Drafting of a contract by a scribe3.1.Appointing the scribe3.2.Sources for writing contract content: Words and drafts3.2.1. Yikou or according to the spoken words3.2.2. Yigao or according to the draft3.3.Communicating knowledge of contract forms3.3.1. Knowledge communication from the hinterland to the frontier area 3.3.2. Exercising contract forms in villages: Application and imitation3.4.Postscripts and signatures4.Scribe's fee4.1.To pay or not to pay?4.2.How much?4.3.Which is higher? Comparison of the scribe's fee and the middleman's4.4.Who pays?4.5.How and when to pay?5.Conclusion iii Table of ContentsV. Functioning Mechanism of Contracts in the Society1.Introduction: Contract in its context1.1.Revisiting the contract within the society1.2.The functioning mechanism of contracts2.The question of honoring contracts: Departing from the myth of enforcement2.1.Contractual order as an empirical fact2.2.Generic and sui generis: The logic of enforcement2.3.A weaker "gunman" and a better "bad man"? Shifting to "the internal point of view" 3.Recognition and the rightfulness of the contract3.1.Contract text as justification3.2.Behind the text: Willingness and estoppel3.2.1. Willingness3.2.2. Estoppel3.3.Recognition and property order3.3.1. Universal recognition and its limitations in context3.3.2. Three levels of recognizers3.3.3. Justifying the post-transaction property order in the contract text4.Making recognition provable: Publicity and perpetuity of contracts4.1.Indispensable proofs: Ping in the contract text4.1.1. Ping and the contract manuscript4.1.2. Ping and the middleman4.2.Middlemen and the publicity of contracts4.2.1. From private to public through the middleman4.2.2. Contracts without middlemen4.3.Scribes and the perpetuity of contracts4.3.1. The power of words: Readers in the future4.3.2. Renewing the contract4.4.Provable recognition5.In contract we trust? A blockchain-like trust architecture5.1.Blockchain, non-centrality, and trust architecture5.1.1. Blockchain as a novel solution5.1.2. A noncentral trust architecture5.2.Broadcasting the contract: Distributed ledger in the village society5.3.Chaining the contract: The contextualization of a contract5.3.1. The consecutiveness of contracts5.3.2. Correcting the chaining error: A case5.4.Literacy as a technical barrier5.4.1. Literacy as a technique5.4.2. The fall of a scribe: The price of forgery5.5.Authenticity and the construction of trust architecture6.Conclusion iv Table of ContentsVI. Beyond Public and Private: Contract and Social Order1.Contract as a practical device: Structuring the rediscoveries1.1.The tripartite structure of contracts: A theory1.1.1. An overview: Materiality, formality, and substantiality1.1.2. The sequence of examination1.2.Application and verification1.2.1. Materiality: The remade contracts1.2.2. Formality: The contract of mountain allocation1.2.3. Substantiality: Contracts of kitty and tomb contracts2.Contract as a social system: The technicalization of morality2.1.Contract and its context2.1.1. An overview: Middlemen, scribes, and functioning mechanism2.1.2. Contract as the technicalization of morality2.2.Restoration of order: Challenges from breaches and forgeries2.2.1. Disputes and excuses for breach2.2.2. Forgeries: Legitimization within the context2.2.3. Restoring order through contracts3.Private contracts and public order3.1.1. Applying contracts in public issues3.1.2. Facing the super-large-scale stranger societyVII. ConclusionGLOSSARYBIBLIOGRAPHY

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