China and Democracy Sources arid Resources Mireille DelmasMarty and PierreEtienne Will (eds.), La Chine et la democratie, (China and Democracy) Paris, Fayard, 2007, 896 pp.The contributors to La Chine et la democratie, edited by Mireille Delmas-Marty and Pierre-Etienne Will, address following question: To what extent does Chinese political culture, in both its historical dimension and in a larger sense Chinese in general, contain elements capable of adjusting to values and practices of modern democratic liberalism offered as an example to China over past century or more (l)The book, made up of 21 chapters grouped into six sections, takes reader from past to present, with some authors contributing more than one chapter. The chapters by Anne Cheng and Pierre-Etienne Will in first section, Tradition and reconstruction, challenge some of received ideas on China that feed images of country in Western imagination. Will retraces contrasting images of China in nineteenth century European authors' worb that oscillate between despotism and democracy, adding nuance to usual perception that eighteenth century was characterised by Sinophilia and nineteenth by Sinophobia. Cheng, for her part, applies a systematic and critical analysis to research trends focused on idea of seeds of democracy in Confucian tradition. She traces origins of these currents, stressing need for a more specific definition of Confucianism, which is often used in an essentialist and imprecise way.Will and Jerome Bourgon share second section, which is devoted to imperial institutions. Will deals with curbs on excessive power under Ming dynasty, presenting three censorship missions and a case study from Emperor Wan Li's rule. He makes a nuanced analogy with constitutional control developed in France, and sheds li^it on normative bases that could invoke censorship in implementation of control functions. Will aims to establish that several control institutions at time functioned quite well alongside notion of Constitution as understood today. Bourgon offers a re-examination of many received ideas on China and its supposed ignorance of notion of as advanced by some European and American Sinologists. He focuses on principles of legality and rule of law in context of their importance to question of democracy. Bourgon notes that China adopted the first judicial system in modern sense of term back in third century. He deals with question of whether China was originator of principle of legality of punishment, detailing several elements from history of Chinese law in a comparative perspective, and he forcefully refutes idea that China was unaware of rule of law. He concludes with a call for overcoming several epistemological obstacles, such as concept of oriental despotism, in order to understand law in imperial China.The third section deals with transitions, with four contributions dealing with law at different stages from end of Empire to Republic. Bourgon studies emergence of legal profession in ancien regime between 1740 and 1930, and establishes existence of a veritable epistemic community of jurists toward end of imperial era. The Tongzhi restoration marks a turning point in this community's formation. While in political sphere this period is associated with last stages of Chinese conservatism, Bourgon shows that it was in fact rich in innovations for evolution of Chinese law and legal professions, notably in establishment of magistrates and Westernisation of China's legal system.Zhang Ning examines handling of penalty, banditry, and special practices, focusing on several penal codes from late Qing and Republican periods. She stresses need to understand drawn-out internal turmoil of China's history over last 130 years in order to grasp factors behind death penalty culture associated with China today. …