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I.
TA TSING LEU LEE;
OR
THE LAWS AND STATUTES
OF
THE DYNASTY OF TSING,
A NEW EDITION,
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KIA-KING,
OF
THE ENTIRE CODE OF FUNDAMENTAL LAWS AND SUPPLEMENTARY
STATUTES;
WHICH, AFTER HAVING BEEN REVISED AND COMPLETED, WAS, IN THE SIXTIETH
YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KIEN-LUNG, PROMULGATED IN ITS PRESENT FORM,
BY THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF STATE IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC JUSTICE.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
THE EXPLANATORY COMMENTARY ANNEXED TO THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS,
BY THE EMPEROR YONG-TCHING; AN EXTENSIVE COLLECTION OF ADJUDGED CASES
AND A VARIETY OF USEFUL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS DERIVED FROM
THE MOST APPROVED SOURCES.
Note.—The above is an Abstract of the Title-Page to the Edition of the original Chinese Work, printed in the Year 1799, from which the Fundamental Laws, translated in the following Pages, have been extracted. — A still later Edition, exactly similar in respect to the Fundamental Laws, but containing a greater Number of Supplementary Statutes, and a different Selection of illustrative Notes, has likewise been occasionally consulted.
The Title-page of the later Edition may be translated as follows: "Recently engraved in the 10th Year of Kia-King, a new Edition of the Laws and Statutes of the great Dynasty of Tsing; comprising, agreeably to the universal Compendium promulgated by the Supreme Court of Judicature on the 6th Year of Kia-King, all the Additions and Alterations which have been made of late Years in the supplementary Statutes; also compendious Abstracts from the various Commentaries, and an Appendix, consisting of two Books of additional supplementary Statutes. The whole carefully revised and examined; and each Copy sold for three leang six tsien of silver."
