The Contribution of Legal Studies to the History of the Manju Empire
(57th Meeting, 2014)
During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian rulers promulgated laws which were partially founded on concepts of Chinese legal philosophy. They extended the classical Confucian system of social relationships by a new category and applied it to the Mongol and Han nationalities. During the Manju reign of the Qing Dynasty, the Manju rulers continued to apply the vertical concept of relations in society and put their nationality into the first and highest position of all nationalities, before Mongol and Han. While this fact appears to be obvious and self-evident and is occasionally treated as anecdotal, it offers a unique perspective of interdisciplinary studies and demonstrates how Chinese philosophy, history and legal studies can provide essential contributions to the field of Altaic studies.