Civil law works can be roughly divided into three levels: textbooks, monographs and systematic books. Principles of Civil Law (multi-volume edition) is a systematic work. Civil law textbooks aim to clarify the basic principles of civil law, sort out the concept, principle, system and theoretical system of civil law, and lay the foundation for the development of civil law. The civil law textbook is a teaching material for law undergraduates and a ladder for learning civil law, and its importance is self-evident. However, the progress of civil law depends on the special study of civil law and the systematic book of civil law. In the early 1980s, in order to bring order out of chaos, rebuild the legal system and revitalize legal education, the editorial department of legal textbooks of the Ministry of Justice organized the compilation of textbooks for various disciplines of law, among which the civil law textbooks were compiled collectively by civil law teachers in various schools, which once played an extremely important role as civil law textbooks in various schools. Since the mid-1980s, various schools have started to compile their own civil law textbooks, some of which are excellent and have played a certain role in the development of civil law teaching. However, due to the limitations of the current law, there are some shortcomings in the concept, structure and system of civil law. In the mid-1990s, the editorial department of law textbooks organized the compilation of the Ninth Five-Year Plan textbook. In view of the fact that the existing civil law textbooks are only equivalent to an introduction to civil law, which can not enable students to acquire systematic and complete basic knowledge of civil law, referring to the experience of developed countries and regions, civil law textbooks are divided into eight categories: general civil law, property law, general debt law, contract law, tort law, personal rights law, relatives law, inheritance law, plus intellectual property law, company law and inheritance law. It is expected that the adoption of this series of textbooks will make the knowledge of civil law of law undergraduates in China reach the same level as that of developed countries and regions. Since the 1990s, special research on civil law has been paid attention to. The long monographic research papers, master's dissertations and doctoral dissertations on civil law published so far are mostly closely related to major issues in civil law legislation and practice, and extensively refer to the legislative experience and precedents of developed countries and regions, which have theoretical and practical value and make great contributions to the progress of China's civil law. At the level of systematic books, only the Civil Law of China published in the early 1990s (multiple volumes) was completed, and only three volumes were finally published.

Among them, the two volumes of Civil Law Creditor's Rights and Property Inheritance are basically a summary of the research results of China's civil law in the 1980s, reaching a high level, and are regarded as important reference works for civil legislation, practice, teaching and theoretical research. 1994 Editor-in-Chief "Essays on Civil and Commercial Law" and "Special Research Series on Civil and Commercial Law in China". The former specializes in publishing excellent long monographic research papers and master's dissertations, while the latter selects high-level doctoral dissertations and monographic research works. After the monographic study of civil law has gradually prospered and accumulated considerable research achievements, we should sort out the existing achievements in the form of books on civil law system, build a theoretical system of civil law, and make theoretical preparations for the final compilation of our civil code. In view of this, the editor applied for 1996 key research project fund of China Academy of Social Sciences, and organized the writing of Principles of Civil Law (multiple volumes), including General Principles of Civil Law undertaken by the editor, Property Law undertaken by Dr. Chen Huabin, Creditor's Rights Law undertaken by associate researchers Zhang Guangxing, Zou Hailin and Dr. Han Shiyuan, and Relative Law undertaken by researcher Chen Mingxia. Today, I want to state its purpose, not its preface.