Gao Heng

Gao Heng (; January 1930 – 22 August 2019) was a Chinese legal scholar and historian, known for his research on the Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts and the legal systems of the Qin and Han dynasties. He was a research professor at the Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He was elected an honorary academician of the CASS in 2006.

Biography Gao was born in January 1930 in Guanghua County (now Laohekou), Hubei, Republic of China. After graduating from Provincial Jiangling High School, he entered Wuhan University in 1950 to study law. Upon graduation in 1955, he was selected to study in the Soviet Union and spent a year learning Russian at the Beijing Russian College. He entered the Department of Law of Moscow State University in November 1956, and graduated in February 1961 with an associate doctor degree.

After returning to China in 1961, Gao was assigned to work at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences since May 1977). During the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to perform manual labour at a May Seventh Cadre School in Henan. The finding caused a sensation in academia at the time, and Han dynasty documents such as those found in Juyan.

Gao's research on the legal history of China was highly influential. He co-edited the General History of Chinese Legal System and the General History of Chinese Legal Thoughts, among other major systematic works in the field.