of Criminals; (29) Jails, and (30)
Miscellaneous, including Bailment, Finding of Lost Goods, etc.*

This "Code and the Penal Law" accompanying it went into full
operation from the Daiho era and remained in force thereafter,
subject to the revisions above indicated. There is no reason to doubt
that the highly artificial organization of society which such
statutes indicate, existed, in outline at all events, from the reign
of Kotoku, but its plainly legalized reality dates, so far as history
is concerned, from the Daiho era. As for the rules (kyaku) and
regulations (shiki), they were re-drafted: first, in the Konin era
(810-824) by a commission under the direction of the grand
councillor,* Fujiwara Fuyutsugu; next, in the Jokwan era (859-877) by
Fujiwara Ujimune and others, and finally in the Engi era (901-923) by
a committee with Fujiwara Tadahira for president. These three sets of
provisions were spoken of in subsequent ages as the "Rules and
Regulations of the Three Generations" (Sandai-kyaku-shiki). It will
be observed that just as this remarkable body of enactments owed its
inception in Japan to Kamatari, the great founder of the Fujiwara
family, so every subsequent revision was presided over by one of his
descendants. The thirty sections of the code comprise 949 articles,
which are all extant, but of the penal laws in twelve sections there
remain only 322 articles.

*Tarring, in the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan."

It may be broadly stated that the Daika reformation, which formed the
basis of this legislation, was a transition from the Japanese system
of heredity to the Chinese system of morality. The penal law (ritsu),
although its Chinese original has not survived for purposes of
comparison, was undoubtedly copied from the work of the Tang
legislators, the only modification being in degrees of punishment;
but the code, though it, too, was partially exotic in character,
evidently underwent sweeping alterations so as to bring it into
conformity with Japanese customs and traditions. Each of the
revisions recorded above must be assumed to have extended this
adaptation.

The basic principle of the Daiho code was that the people at large,
without regard to rank or pedigree, owed equal duty to the State;
that only those having special claims on public benevolence were
entitled to fixed exemptions, and that not noble birth but
intellectual capacity and attainments constituted a qualification for
off