The relationship of the state and law with culture „With Chinese specificity“

Givi Lobzhanidze; Ketevan Akhobadze

The relationship of the state and law with culture „With Chinese specificity“

Givi Lobzhanidze

Doctor of Law Professor, Georgian Technical University

Ketevan Akhobadze

Doctor of Social Sciences (PhD) Expert in the field of culture and art accredited by the National Academy of Sciences of Georgia

Abstract

The paper discusses: The state and law of China are not only in a complex and heterogeneous relationship with culture, but also a historically determined level of development of society, human ability and creative power, expressed in the forms and types of organization of people's life and activity, their mutual correspondence, and also in the material and spiritual values created by the people. A distinction is made between material and spiritual culture, and in a narrow sense, this term refers to the sphere of the spiritual life of the people, which is divided into branches (political culture, labor culture, speech culture, legal culture, etc.).

Culture (Latin cultura - processing) - is a set of material and spiritual values created by humanity in the aspect of socio-historical practice and in the process of creation, which characterize the historically achieved stage of development of society. In a narrower sense, they speak of material (technology, industrial experience, material values) and spiritual (science, art and literature, philosophy, morality, law, education, etc.) culture. Culture is a historical phenomenon, the development of which depends on the changes in the development of social life. It is a characteristic of a certain historical era (the culture of the ancient world, etc.), people or nation (for example, Greek, Roman culture, Chinese culture).

Culture can be an indicator of the level of individual, group or social, mental or moral development (for example, Chinese family culture).

As is known, the Chinese civilizational model does not create a clear boundary between law and culture in the state. These institutional spheres were never considered as separate from each other. It is noteworthy that, unlike the Western tradition, where law was formed as an autonomous normative system, in Chinese thought it represented an organic continuation of ethical order, social culture and cosmological harmony. And the main directions of Chinese philosophy created such an intellectual matrix, on the basis of which order and legal practice in the state were determined by culture.

All this was well manifested in the following principles: law is not an autonomous system; it is a continuation of the cultural-ethical order, because culture is the basis of political order; the legitimacy of the state as an ethical-cosmological institution is based on moral authority and cosmological harmony; Law is a governance technology and its instrumentalization is balanced by cultural traditions and, most importantly, the state is an institutional form of cultural order.

About this, the American philosopher, professor at the University of California, Herbert Fingarette (born Herbert Borenstein, 1921 – 2018) wrote in his work “Confucius: The Secular As Sacred”: “‘For Confucius, society is fundamentally a sacred ceremony“[1].

It should be noted that this monograph has long been recognized as one of the most important philosophical books published on this topic.

Such a formulation reflects the cultural character of the Chinese state - that it is not merely a political organism, but a "civilizational ritual."

Keywords: State and law, Chinese characteristics, family tradition, Chinese culture, cultural policy, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, intercultural, name, honor, and justice.

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