A mainstream view held by the legal circle is that there was no executive lawsuit in ancient times. However, if we take the case of “civic accusations against officials” as the primary feature of executive lawsuit, the abovementioned perception doesn’t agree with historical facts. The ancient law not only allowed a citizen to launch a lawsuit against an official but provided varieties of accesses. Based on Confucian peopleoriented thought, this legal system paved the way for people’s rehabilitation and could prevent officials from abusing power so as to maintain the stability of feudal rule. However, objectively, the system did good to people’s interests. Anyway it differs from modern executive lawsuit in many ways.

law in ancient China; executive lawsuit; civic accusations against officials; direct lawsuit; levelskipping lawsuit; supervision