li) . . . law (guofa) mattered little" (Civil Justice 12). Basic Concepts said "government by law should always be kept secondary to government by moral precept and example" (18).
Macauley said under Confucian ideology litigation was regarded as "fundamentally immoral" and that "imperial power, invested in local officials, was to be unchallenged," thus making the presence of lawyers unnecessary and even subversive (10). Macauley said "resort to the courts was a sign of failure of, . . . social morality, and certainly of management of interpersonal relations" (128).
As Chinese society and economy became more complex during the Song dynasty (960-1272) , a legal profession of sorts, consisting of litigation tricksters often called "pettifoggers" or songgun and litigation masters songshi, emerged to help ordinary people design and file law suits. Macauley said that "writers of official and gazateer sources associated litigation mastery with all of the iniquitous depravities of the late imperial city" 12). Macauley observed
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