Abstract:  The history of law is also a history of human liberation. Human laws are used not only to organize, administrate and punish, but also to stimulate and incite. Unlike western thinkers, ancient Chinese thinkers have always attached great importance to the law’s motivating and inciting power, which is a major difference between western and China’s ancient legal systems. This difference might be in part responsible for China’s role as a leading economic, cultural and military power in the ancient world. Since the modern times, western countries, especially the United States, have all recognized and been benefiting from the inciting power of such laws as the intellectual property right. Looking into the six issues regarding incentive legal culture and promoting incentive law studies will be a crucial step towards perfecting China's legal system.

Key words: legal system construction,  history of law, legal incentives, incentive law studies, incentive legal culture