Great Ming Code

Timeline

1. 1367Yingtian Prefecture · JiangnanAfter proclaiming himself King of Wu, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Left Chancellor Li Shanchang as chief compiler of the laws and ordinances, compiling them on the basis of the Tang Code. That year 285 articles of law and 145 ordinances were completed, and the 'Direct Explanation of Laws and Ordinances' was distributed to prefectures and counties. This was the founding version of the Great Ming Code in institutional history, concurrent with the Wu regime's state-building.
2. 1373–1374Yingtian Prefecture · JiangnanIn the winter of Hongwu 6, Minister of Justice Liu Weiqian was ordered to make a detailed revision of the Great Ming Code; each completed section was posted in the corridors for the founding emperor's personal review. The work was completed in the second month of Hongwu 7, with sections following the Tang Code, totaling thirty volumes and 606 articles, presented in a memorial by Hanlin Academy scholar Song Lian and promulgated, becoming the first systematic penal code after the founding of the dynasty.
3. 1389Yingtian Prefecture · JiangnanAfter the abolition of the chancellorship, the Ministry of Justice requested that recent regulations be classified and appended to the code. The Hanlin Academy and Ministry of Justice placed the General Principles Code at the head, followed by six sections corresponding to the Ministries of Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Works. This structure corresponded to the Six Ministries' administration, ending the twelve-section Tang Code structure used for centuries and laying the groundwork for the final version of Hongwu 30.
4. 1397–1644Yingtian Prefecture · JiangnanIn the fifth month of Hongwu 30, the founding emperor formally promulgated the repeatedly amended code as the sole basis for adjudication inside and outside the capital, strictly forbidding his officials from lightly proposing changes. Thereafter the Ming supplemented the code with regulations while leaving its text largely unchanged. After the Qing conquest, the new Qing code directly inherited this final version in structure and many of its articles.