Re-recognize and redefine the modern value of rural rules and regulations

The so-called rural rules and regulations, according to the author's understanding, is the rules that must be observed by the rural people. This kind of rule has existed for a long time, and there is a contractual custom of respecting the elderly and being good-neighborly in the village in Zhou Li. Lu's Rural Treaty in the Northern Song Dynasty advocated and put it into practice: moral persuasion, negligence and discipline, the intersection of etiquette and customs, and compassion for adversity. The Ming and Qing dynasties formally implemented "township regulations" and "social conventions" at the local level. In the process of rural social governance, rural rules and regulations maintain the orderly operation of the traditional rural society through the constraints of education, ethics and relevant punishment mechanisms, which lays a foundation for the effective maintenance of the whole social order.

The rapid development of modern society, especially the network society, is affecting and changing people's values. The diversity of values leads to the accelerated disintegration of the traditional social structure, and the rural rules and regulations rooted in the traditional social soil are also declining day by day. For example, some rural rules and regulations cannot keep pace with the times and are regarded as antiques and virtually reduced to "scarecrows"; for example, some areas mechanically apply other rural rules and regulations, which is not in line with the local reality and incur dissatisfaction; in some places, the village rules and regulations are simply understood as "giving priority to punishment", which violates the original intention of formulating rural rules and regulations. Some people even unilaterally believe that the rule of law society only needs the law to be in charge, and the village rules and regulations belong to the old calendar and are not worth abiding by.

Such an awkward situation is worrying. The author thinks that, on the one hand, the original intention of the rural rules and regulations is to advocate "rules" in the countryside, which to a certain extent is to cultivate the "spirit of contract" of the rule of law. Abiding by the rural rules and regulations is an important measure to cultivate the concept of the rule of law at the grass-roots level. Second, under the immature development of the modern society ruled by law, the rural rules and regulations, as a kind of folk norms based on the voluntary consent of the villagers, can crack the "vacuum zone" of the rule of law in the governance of rural society. Third, rural rules and regulations can be used to solve new problems in modern society as established by ordinary people. For example, in some rural communities, the floating population has exceeded the resident population, and the public security situation is becoming more and more complex. People who don't dance in the square can't stand the noise, and those who buy a car often block the doors of other houses. The new problems that emerged in the calm acquaintance society in the past can be solved by the way that the common people "have something to say".

From this point of view, in the current era, we should re-recognize and position the modern value of rural rules and regulations. On the one hand, we should further explore the practical value of rural rules and regulations in contemporary Chinese rural social governance, make them further play the educational role of rural rules and regulations, and guide villagers to abide by the existing rural order. cultivate villagers' consciousness of subject, responsibility and participation; on the other hand, it is necessary to excavate the modern value of traditional rural rules and regulations in urban communities. Through the formulation of new street rules and regulations, the re-integration of activities and exchanges between people, and the strengthening of value identity in the society of strangers, it will help to reshape the sense of belonging of urban residents, especially the migrant population.

Of course, while emphasizing the positive significance of the rural rules and regulations, we should inherit critically. When rebuilding the rural rules and regulations, we should, on the one hand, absorb the excellent and effective regulation rules in the traditional rural rules and regulations. On the other hand, we should cautiously abandon the backward and outdated regulation contents inherent in the rural rules and regulations, absorb the reasonable resources of public practice and folk order, and make it an important basis for supporting the national legal system. Only in this way can we absorb the full positive energy of the rule of law in China from the rural rules and regulations.