Abstract
Abstract This essay serves several critical and metacritical functions in discussing the semiotic implications of the Chinese writing fa. First of all, it examines critically various conceptualizations of " image" in the current disciplines of " imagologies", and then it comments on a contemporary French legal theoretician's image/mirage of ancient Chinese civil law. After these surveys, the essay introduces a highly specialized topic in legal semiotics by tracing the development of the written sign of fa (law) in ancient China before the second century BCE. The written word was interpreted to represent a mythical animal, whose images have recurred in Chinese writing and art history. Focusing on the scriptural representations of fa, this essay analyzes the process of conceptualization of law in ancient China, and its transformations and mutations across the borders of semiotic systems, from the basic verbal and visual levels, to the higher levels of ideology and legal theory and practice.
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