The Tang Code (唐律) was the criminal or penal code established during the Tang Dynasty in China. Supplemented by civil statutes and regulations, it became the basis for later dynastic codes not only in China but elsewhere in East Asia. The Code synthesised Legalist and Confucian of law, and is considered one of the greatest achievements of traditional Chinese law. The Tang Dynasty (唐朝 Hanyu Pinyin táng cháo; 618-907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China. ... East Asia can be defined in either cultural or geographic terms. ... In Chinese History, Legalism (法家; pinyin Fǎjiā) was one of the four main philosophic schools at the end of the Zhou Dynasty. ... Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical, religious and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ... Traditional Chinese law refers to the laws, regulations and rules used in China up to 1911, when the last imperial dynasty fell. ...
Ch'ü T'ung-tsu has shown that the "Confucianisation" of Chinese law was a slow process and that the amalgamation of the Confucian views of society with the law codes was completed only in the great TangCode of CE The code is regarded as a model of precision and clarity in terms of drafting and structure.
The five regular punishments established by the Tangcode were in descending order of severity: death, life exile, penal servitude (forced labour), beating with the heavy stick, or beating with the light stick.
Once the articles of the code had been established at the beginning of the dynasty, there was a reluctance on the part of the founding emperor or his successors to change them.
This provision (on-i no sei 蔭位の制) existed in the Tang law, however under the Japanese ritsuryo ranks for which it was applied were higher as well as the ranks obtained by the children.
It defined 8 heavy crimes for which death was inevitable even for high-ranked aristocrats (such as attempting to kill the Emperor, or killing his own relatives, etc.).
The code based itself on the Ten Abominations of the Tangcode, but suppressed two crimes related to the disruption of a family's structure (through adultery for instance).
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