From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Taih? Code
was a group of laws in Japan. It was the law during the 700s c.e., which was the
Nara period
in Japan.
[1]
Here, "code" means "set of rules."
The Taih? Code had two kinds of laws. It had
ritsu
which were laws about
crime
and how to arrest people. It had
ry?
, which were laws about how to run the government. For example, the ry? said which areas were provinces and who would run them and what things the governors were and were not allowed to do.
[1]
The lawmakers who wrote the Taih? Code copied things from Chinese laws. This was the
Tang Dynasty
in China. But the Japanese lawmakers wrote the Taih? Code to give more government jobs to Japanese noblemen. This was different from the Tang Dynasty laws, which said anyone from any family could work for the government if they took and passed the right tests.
[2]
Modern scholars do not have a copy of the entire Taih? Code, but they think it is about the same as the later Y?r? Code.
[1]
If the Taih? Code and the Y?r? Code count as the same thing, then they lasted from 702 c.e. until the start of the
Tokugawa
period in 1232 c.e.
[3]