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Title:: Local Laws in the Northwest Region in the Period of Six DynastiesViewed from Unearthed Documents

Abstract:: In this paper, we attempt to explore the characteristics of the legal system, household registration law and slavery law of such local regimes as Shanshan, Hexi, and Gaochang in the Northwestern region in the period of the Six Dynasties through examining the newly unearthed documents in combination with other historical texts. We argue that the local governments in this region used to respect the authority of the central Han government. While maintaining their own local features, they kept aligned with the central government in terms of among other things the administrative system, basic mode of social organization, and education and culture policies. Thus, it became a region where the Han culture was best preserved besides the Jiangnan region at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. That’s why Mr. Chen Yinque maintained that the institutional systems in the Sui and Tang dynasties contained some elements from the Hexi region, which exerted a profound influence on the various reforms in the North Wei Dynasty and became one of the key sources of the legal and administrative systems in the Sui and Tang dynasties.