Translator's Note

One of the goals of the Journal of Chinese Law is to facilitate
intellectual exchanges between Chinese and American scholars and
lawyers. As part of meeting this goal, the Journal of Chinese Law
strives to provide translations of important and provocative Chinese
legal writings that would otherwise be inaccessible to interested law-
yers and scholars.

For this issue, the editors of the Journal of Chinese Law have
selected an article by Mr. Liang Zhiping, a lecturer in law at People's
University in Beijing. The article originally appeared in a 1986 issue
of the Journal of Chinese Social Science.* Mr. Liang traces the devel-
opment of law in China from an anthropological perspective, and
illustrates how the concept, nature, and function of law in China have
been influenced by China's unique culture and politics. Mr. Liang
also provides insights into some of the differences between the legal
cultures of China and the West by contrasting the formation of the
state and the development of law in ancient China with that in West-
ern civilizations.

As is often the problem in translating, the original article
assumed that its audience had a certain degree of familiarity with Chi-
nese classical literature and history. In an effort to clarify many of
these references and to provide the reader with a broader context in
which to consider Mr. Liang's analysis, the editors have added a sub-
stantial number of supplemental footnotes.

* Liang Zhiping, Fa Bian, ZHONGGUO SHEHu! KEXuE, Apr. 1986. at 71.