Taihō Code

History of Japan
Periods Paleolithic before 14,000 BC Jōmon 14,000 – 300 BC Yayoi 300 BC – 300 AD Kofun 300–538 Asuka 538–710 Nara 710–794 Heian 794–1185 Kamakura 1185–1333 Kenmu Restoration 1333–1336 Muromachi (Ashikaga) Nanboku-chō Sengoku 1336–1573 Azuchi–Momoyama Nanban trade 1573–1603 Edo (Tokugawa) Sakoku Convention of Kanagawa Bakumatsu 1603–1868 Meiji Boshin War Restoration First Sino-Japanese War Boxer Rebellion Russo-Japanese War 1868–1912 Taishō World War I 1912–1926 Shōwa Financial crisis Militarism World War II Occupation Economic miracle Post-occupation Bubble economy 1926–1989 Heisei Lost Decade Great Hanshin earthquake Great East Japan earthquake Imperial transition 1989–2019 (planned) Reiwa 2019 (planned)
Topics Currency Earthquakes Economy Education Empire Historiography Military Naval Post-war
Glossary Timeline

The Taihō Code was a group of laws in Japan. It was the law during the 700s c.e., which was the Nara period in Japan. Here, "code" means "set of rules."

The Taihō Code had two kinds of laws. It had ritsu which were laws about crime and how to arrest people. It had ryō, which were laws about how to run the government. For example, the ryō said which areas were provinces and who would run them and what things the governors were and were not allowed to do.

The lawmakers who wrote the Taihō Code copied things from Chinese laws. This was the Tang Dynasty in China. But the Japanese lawmakers wrote the Taihō Code to give more government jobs to Japanese noblemen. This was different from the Tang Dynasty laws, which said anyone from any family could work for the government if they took and passed the right tests.

Modern scholars do not have a copy of the entire Taihō Code, but they think it is about the same as the later Yōrō Code.

If the Taihō Code and the Yōrō Code count as the same thing, then they lasted from 702 c.e. until the start of the Tokugawa period in 1232 c.e.

Taihō Code Media

• 

  Map of provinces in 701–702