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Yu Zhining
Tang chancellor and legal jurist who co-authored the seminal Tang Code with Commentary (Tanglü Shuyi).
Mural guide
Mural of the event “Promulgation of Tang Code”, which this person took part in.
During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, the expanding Tang Empire required a definitive legal code with binding jurisprudential commentary to standardize justice across the empire.
Also known as Zi Zhongmi · Duke of Yan
Yu Zhining (588 CE–665 CE) was a distinguished Tang chancellor and legal scholar. Collaborating with Zhangsun Wuji, he co-compiled the 30-volume Tang Code with Commentary, the gold standard of imperial Chinese statutory law.
Life and times
- 588 CEBorn
Northern and Southern
Sui
Tang - 653Promulgation of Tang Code
Took partage 65Harmonizing legal codes with Confucian ethics, establishing the foundational jurisprudence of the East Asian legal sphere. - 665 CEDied
Works
Literature · Prose2- Tang Code with CommentaryTangZhangsun Wuji's 653 commentary on the Yonghui Code, China's oldest complete legal code
- Tang Code with Commentary: Tang Code with Commentary: Preface to the General PrinciplesTang
- Literature · Sayings2
- Punishing So That Punishment May EndTangIdiom in the preface to the Tang Code: law that aims to make itself unnecessary
- Killing So That Killing May EndTangIdiom in the preface to the Tang Code: the death penalty as a check on killing
