The criminal code of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907) belongs to the small group of the greatest legal monuments of world civilization. In addition to , that it is the first of the fully extant Chinese legal codes, It was in this document that the basic principles were formulated and detailed in specific laws ,. which then formed the basis of Chinese legislation and became decisive for China up to the 20th century (in an indirect form, they are still manifested today). Since China at that time was the civilizational center of all East and Southeast Asia, the principles of the Tang code had an undoubted and significant impact on the rule of law in all neighboring countries of China. Meanwhile, despite the increase in interest in legal topics in the world of sinology, a coherent and in-depth study of the text of the code in domestic science has not yet been undertaken. And if a narrow legal analysis of its main provisions has already been done to some extent, then no one has yet tried to look at the text culturally, in the civilizational aspect.