On the Discourse Construction and Creative Transformation of Headnotes in Traditional Chinese Law

The headnotes had persisted for nearly nine centuries in traditional Chinese law, before their abrupt disappearance after the late Qing legal reforms. It was caused by the wholesale adoption of foreign-especially Japanese and French-statutory structures. Since the abortion, this element of legislation has been absent for over a century. The phenomenon warrants careful examination and deep reflection today. The functions of headnotes, including indexing, naming, ordering, and structuring, still hold referential and practical value for addressing legislative difficulties, unifying judicial application, and advancing legal research and education. Now that conditions for inheriting and innovating headnotes in legislation are in place, we should actively explore how to restore their use, drawing on both domestic and international legislative experience.