Natural Law and Cosmic Harmony in Traditional Chinese Thought

Abstract. The article attempts to show (i) the way in which the notions of "natural law" and "cosmic harmony" have been applied by Western scholars in the interpretation of traditional Chinese thinking about the role of law in society, (ii) the extent to which the Western interpretations can be supported by the Chinese sources, and (iii), more specifically, the degree to which official Chinese thought subscribed to a correlation between the occurrence of natural disasters and acts of maladministration or injustice on the part of the emperor and state. Generally it is argued that the extent to which Chinese statesmen and administrators actually believed that errors in the infliction of legal punishment or the sentencing of offenders would produce aberrant natural phenomena has been exaggerated by Western scholars.