Preface

ZHANG Shiming WANG Jidong

Alfred North Whitehead once succinctly said：“A science that hesitates to forget its founders is lost.” On the surface，it appears to be abnormally worded，and runs counter to the academic path that often stresses the return to the source，since it seems plausible that the following scholars should forget about their own origin and the names of early masters should be erased from memory.However，it is obviously a misapprehension of Whitehead's stating.It is impossible for a scholars such as Whitehead who is basked in the history of thought to regard the knowledge of the history as worthless.His words are similar to the teachings of Qi Baishi，i.e.“the one who learns from me will succeed，but the one who imitates me will fail”.It only requires that successors must get rid of the control from the previous generation，take their predecessors as a stage rather than a boundary，so they can break out after seeking entry into the innermost recess of a hall.It contains a large measure of truth that obsessive praising the founders for their great accomplishments leads to the dearth of criticism，getting into a rut and showing little initiative to promote original knowledge.

The opinion pieces on the origination of “economic law” in China carried by the various works tended to argue that Ye Jianying proposed at the Second Session of the Fifth National People's Congress in June 1979：“With the development of economic construction，we also need various economic laws.”Later，some scholars further advanced the origin of the “economic law” can be traced back at least as far as Hu Qiaomu's long article Acting in Accordance with Economic Law and Accelerating the Realization of the Four Modernizations，a speech offered in October 1978 at a meeting of the State Council.This article clearly states that the problem of developing of economic legislation and economic justice is particularly acute to reflect the interests of the state，enterprises and employees and all kinds of interestship in the legal form.Academics generally believe that China economic law is the product of reform and opening up，only 20 years of history.The present author disagreed with this argument in the monography The Study on the Development of Economic Law Theory and pointed out：as early as 1942，Zhang Zeyao had carried out a sophisticated study of the essence and characteristics of economic law.The conclusion of the Chinese economic law with only 20 years of history is completely untenable.

During the period of the Republic of China，many scholars made painstaking efforts in their endeavors to open up mountains and forests，introduce new theories and set up new disciplines.The literature suggests Chinese academic research regarding economic law during this period has great significance in intellectual history.A lot of available literature indicate the following characteristics：Firstly，with the continuous development of bureaucratic capital，national capital，it can hardly be gainsaid that the economic elements of modernity during the Republican period exhibited sign of the sharp increases，government strengthened the legislation to suit the capitalist economic order，and the initial development of economic law at that time responsed to the actual needs.Economic development and legislative building mutually beget each other，the topics of concern and the focal points for economic law scholars are closely related to the Republic of China's economic situation and economic legislation.The inextricably connection between the academic exploration of economic law in the Republic of China and the social reality itself reflected the distinct thought of making study serve practical purposes.Secondly，during the Republic of China，many Chinese jurists of that time gifted with exceptional academic talents，had the experience of studying abroad and had a good command of foreign languages.The discussion on issues related to economic law were all further made on the basis of various research perspectives in the West.In terms of quality and the quantity，their studies are no lack of remarkable place.Thirdly，there are only a few works on the study of economic law in comparison with those from the perspective of social law.The background，definition and nature of economic law，its relationship with social law and other issues are analyzed.Japaness economic law scholars in the 1930s mostly advocated Goldschmidt's theory，while the vast majority of Chiness economic law scholars adopted Kaskel's theory，indicating that the theoretical profundity is not on a par with that in Japaness economic law circles.

As the years pass，the historical events have become a trace，but it is still difficult to annihilate the extraordinary insight and talent revealed by economic law scholars at the time.Needless to say，no matter what extraordinary history maybe，it is inevitably be pushed to the edge by the hand of time and finally settled at the bottom of a deep river.Knowledge on economic law is accumulated little by little，advancing with the times.Our current research is more than a match for the academic of the Republic of China in economic law.However，this vertical comparison is meaningless because the two are inherently different from each other，and should not be asserted broadly or rigidly.It would be myopic to ignore the economic law research during the Republic of China.Looking back is merely a means，and its purpose is to stimulate the creation of consciousness，carry forward the cause pioneered by our predecessors and forge ahead into the future.