Don't fight the law because the law will win. But, well, we do like to watch interesting criminals—your Walter Whites and your Dexter Morgans—get away with flouting the law. Our character today is 法 (fǎ), or law. Every aspect of our life is governed by it; you have 婚姻法 (hūnyīnfǎ, marriage law), 劳动法 (láodòngfǎ, labor law), 刑法 (xíngfǎ, criminal law), and so on ad infinitum. While today law is based on a strict, codified system, our ancestors put their trust in supernatural powers to determine right from wrong.
Philosopher Micius recorded a case in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BCE – 476 BCE) in the state of Qi that stumped its lord. Two court officials were involved in a lawsuit for three years, yielding no clear results. The lord was on the verge of killing them both just to get a moment's peace, but with his last shred of patience, he decided to let the gods decide. The two officials were asked to state their case at a shrine and slaughter a goat as a sacrifice; the first official stated his case undisturbed, but the second wasn't so lucky. Before finishing his statement, the dead goat jumped to its feet and charged at the official, breaking his leg. The god of the shrine then apparently descended from the heavens and executed the liar.
Actually, magical goats make cameo appearances in plenty of stories of judgment. It was said that Gao Yao (皋陶), the semi- mythical creator of the judicial system in ancient China, had a goat with a single horn on its head that helped him judge difficult cases. The one-horned goat would gore the guilty party. The magical beast was called zhi (廌) or xiezhi (獬豸), constituting the base for our character 法.
The early form of 法 was 灋. On the left, the water radical "氵" symbolized the idea that law should be balanced, much like the surface of a lake. The top right radical was zhi, our one-horned goat judge, and on the bottom right was the radical 去 (qù, leave), implying that the guilty party should be driven away. Together, they formed the concept of law in ancient times. Though rich in symbolism, the character 灋 wasn't exactly easy to write; as such, its simplified form 法 was more popular and later became the standard. The mythical zhi also transformed over time, later depicted as an awesome beast with an ox's body covered with black fur. The image was commonly used on judges' uniforms and for courthouse decorations.
The 法 character constituted a wide range of words, such as 法律 (fǎlǜ, law, legislation), 法院 (fǎyuàn, court) and 法官 (fǎguǎn, judge). Legal is 合法 (héfǎ), literally "in accordance with the law", and illegal is 非法 (fēifǎ), "disagree with the law". People who cross the line are called 不法分子 (bùfǎ fènzǐ), or "lawless person". We can also use the phrase 违法乱纪 (wéifǎ luànjì) to describe them, which means "to commit malfeasance". Along the same lines, 目无法纪 (mù wú fǎjì) means to "defy law and discipline". Corrupt officials are described as 贪赃枉法 (tānzāng wǎngfǎ) which means "perverting justice for bribery".
