Gao Heng (; January 1930 – 22 August 2019) was a Chinese

legal scholar Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and historian, known for his research on the

Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts The Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts () are early Chinese texts written on bamboo slips, and are also sometimes called the Yúnmèng Qin bamboo texts. They were excavated in December 1975 from Tomb #11 at Shuìhǔdì () in Yunmeng County, Hubei, China. ...

and the legal systems of the

Qin Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...

and

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

dynasties. He was a research professor at the Institute of Law,

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...

(CASS). He was elected an honorary academician of the CASS in 2006.

Biography

Gao was born in January 1930 in

Guanghua County Laohekou () is a county-level city in the northwest of Hubei province, People's Republic of China. It is located on the Han River (Hanshui), near the Henan border. The entire county-level city has an area of and a population of 490,000 (2002). I ...

(now

Laohekou Laohekou () is a county-level city in the northwest of Hubei province, People's Republic of China. It is located on the Han River (Hanshui), near the Henan border. The entire county-level city has an area of and a population of 490,000 (2002). I ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

, Republic of China. After graduating from Provincial Jiangling High School, he entered

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and i ...

in 1950 to study law. Upon graduation in 1955, he was selected to study in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and spent a year learning Russian at the Beijing Russian College. He entered the Department of Law of

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in November 1956, and graduated in February 1961 with an associate doctor degree. After returning to China in 1961, Gao was assigned to work at the Institute of Law of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

(part of the

since May 1977). During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

, he was sent to perform manual labour at a

May Seventh Cadre School The May Seventh Cadre Schools () were Chinese labor camps established during the Cultural Revolution that combined hard agricultural work with the study of Mao Zedong's writings in order to "re-educate" or ''laogai'' (reform through labor) cadres an ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was promoted to associate professor in 1982 and professor in 1988. He retired in December 1990. In August 2006, he was among the first batch of scholars to be elected honorary academicians of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Gao died in Beijing on 22 August 2019, aged 89.

Contributions

In his early career, Gao published many papers about the legal systems of the Soviet Union and the West, a few of which were published in the major national newspapers the ''

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...

'' and the ''

Guangming Daily The ''Guangming Daily'', also known as the ''Enlightenment Daily'', is a national Chinese-language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1949 as the official paper of the China Democratic League. St ...

'', as well as the journal ''Legal Research''. He also translated a number of legal works into Chinese. Beginning in the 1970s, Gao focused his research on the

, a large cache of

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

government and legal documents unearthed in 1975. His initial findings were published in the 1977 book ''Shuìhǔdì Qínmù Zhújiǎn'' (), which he co-authored. He proposed a systematic overview of the Qin dynasty's penal servitude laws and concluded that Qin's penal servitude was a lifelong punishment, which was only abolished by Emperor Wen of the

Western Han The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

in 167 BC. The finding caused a sensation in academia at the time, as it overturned erroneous understandings of the laws of Qin and

held by scholars since

Yan Shigu Yan Shigu () (581–645), formal name Yan Zhou (), but went by the courtesy name of Shigu, was a famous Chinese historian, linguist, politician, and writer of the Tang Dynasty. Biography Yan was born in Wannian (, in modern Xi'an, Shaanxi). His an ...

of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

and of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

. He also studied Qin's economic laws such as the ''Jinbu Lü'' (金布律; "currency and property law") and Han dynasty documents such as those found in Juyan. Gao's research on the legal history of China was highly influential. He co-edited the ''General History of Chinese Legal System'' and the ''General History of Chinese Legal Thoughts'', among other major systematic works in the field.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gao, Heng 1930 births 2019 deaths Chinese legal scholars Historians from Hubei People from Xiangyang Wuhan University alumni Beijing Foreign Studies University alumni Moscow State University alumni Chinese expatriates in the Soviet Union Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Legal historians