XXXII Международный конгресс ИИСАА. 26–28 апреля 2023 г.

Россия и Восток. К 300-летию СПбГУ. Материалы конгресса 349 Источниковедение и историография Китая Грядущий в 2024 г. 170-летний юбилей Восточного факультета позволит под- готовить новые публикации, посвященные его выпускникам, флагманам дипло- матической службы в Китае. Colangelo Lara (“G. D’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy) The History of the Introduction of Roman Law in China: Sources and Features of the First Reception The reception of Western law in China is a gradual and long-lasting process which most likely has its roots in the late Ming period, when the earliest, few and isolated yet undoubtedly valuable, references to this subject begin to appear in the works of Jesuit missionaries. However, it is only at the end of the 19th century that this process assumes a wider scope and a more systematic development, being deliberately promoted first by a restricted elite of intellectuals and subsequently by the Chinese government itself. After an initial stage characterized by the Chinese interest towards international law, China starts to look at Western civil law, and especially Roman law which is its foundation, as a model for national legal system reform and as a basis for a new codification. Even though, since then, China has clearly developed its own legal system with Chinese characteristics, it is safe to say that in many respects the Romanist legal tradition constituted an essential source of inspiration in the late Qing period and the process of reception initiated at that time is, to some extent, still ongoing. Although few, yet significant, studies on this topic have already been carried out (Fei Anling 1994 1 , Wang Jian 王健 2 2022, etc.), several aspects still need to be further investigated: which are the main Chinese sources to analyze in order to find the earliest references to the Romanist legal tradition? Which are the major phases of the process of introduction of Roman Law in terms of translation and production of written works, teaching and codification?Which are the distinctive features of each phase? The purpose of this paper is to provide some possible answers to these questions. Focusing on the initial stage of the reception of the Romanist legal culture in China (i.e. the so called “first reception”), this paper also intends to shed some light on the image of Roman law emerging from the descriptions provided in late-Qing sources and on how the perception of the function and value of Roman law has evolved until more recent times. 1 Fei Anling 费安玲 . Luoma fa yanjiu zai Zhongguo de taishi yu zhanwang ( 罗马法研究在中国 的 态势与展望 ) // Bijiao fa yanjiu 比较法研究 , 1994, №.2, pp.191–196. 2 Wang Jian 王健 . Luoma fa chuanbo Zhongguo wenxian jikao ( 罗马法传播中国文献稽考 ) // Luoma fa yu xiandai minfa ( 罗马法与现代民法 ), edited by Xu Guodong 徐国栋 . Beijing: Zhongguo fazhi chubanshe, 2002, pp. 59–98.