情理的涵义并不能简单地理解为人情和天理。“情”具有四个义项,分别是感情、性情、人情世故以及案情;“理”就是广义上的事理,除了事物之理外,还包括人伦之理。义项合并之后,“情理”的涵义应为案情和事理,同时包含事实和法律两个维度。对情理这两个维度的混淆,以及忽视事实维度对法律裁判的根本性影响,是导致否定中国古代法确定性的重要原因。 The meaning of reason can not simply be understood as human and natural reason. “Love ” has four senses, namely, feelings, temperament, human circumstances and the merits of the case; “Reason ” is a broad sense of the things, in addition to things reason, but also the principle of human relations. After the merger, the meaning of “emotion ” should be the case and the affair, and contain both the fact and the law. The confusion of the two dimensions of empathy and the fundamental influence of the de facto dimension on legal adjudication are the important reasons leading to the negation of the certainty of the ancient Chinese law.