Taiho Code

The Taiho Code, or Code of Taiho, was an administrative reorganization enacted in 703 in Japan at the end of the Asuka period, one of the Ritsuryo codes of the era. It was compiled at the direction of Prince Osakabe, Fujiwara no Fuhito and Awata no Mahito at the request of Emperor Monmu, and, like other developments in Japan at the time, was largely an adaptation of the governmental system of China's Tang dynasty, said to be based on the Yonghui Code implemented in China in 651. The Taiho Code was one of the first developments to include Confucianism as a significant element of Japanese ethics and government, though it departed from the Tang model by basing government positions and class status on birth rather than merit, and by rejecting the Chinese Mandate of Heaven in favor of the emperor's power coming from his imperial descent; it was revised during the Nara period, with major work on the resulting Yoro Code completed in 718.