Contracts as Tools to Promote Morality and Social Order: The Tang Dynasty’s Regulation of Contractual Relationships

Abstract

This article examines the laws regulating contractual relationships during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). Based on an examination of contemporaneous laws and statutes on contractual relationships, as well as archaeological evidence of extant contracts from the Tang Dynasty, this article concludes that dynastic China had developed a body of sophisticated contract laws by the Tang Dynasty. The Tang rulers’ regulation of contracts was aimed at maintaining the desired
social structure and stability, and promoting the moral teachings about trustworthiness.

Keywords: Chinese Law, contract law, Tang Dynasty