In recent years，research on dispute settlement in the rural areas has been going on in sociology，anthropology，law，politics and other disciplines，with substantial results.Many scholars have been going to the rural societies to conduct multi-perspective，trans-disciplinary on-site study，and their study has produced ample findings with certain villages as objects for academic research and narratives of said villages as textual expression.Following the approaches and methods of legal anthropology and legal sociology，the present dissertation is a survey and research of the philosophy of dispute of the local Miao villagers and the dispute settlement practices of Longcun–an ordinary village inhabited largely by the minority Miao ethnic group.

Located in centralYunnan province，Longcun is a traditional Miao village with characteristics of the agricultural society.Up to now，it remains a typical acquaintance and kin society.It is，therefore，a traditional notion among the villagers to honor peace and despise dispute.They avoid and repulse disputes and，whenever disputes arise，choose to compromise，to avoid or hold back from them.Even in the case where a neutral third-party settlement is inevitable，intermediation by themselves is preferred.To bring their disputes to judicial offices，courts，police stations or other authorities outside of the village would be the last thing they would do.As a result，Longcun has long been a society free of lawsuits，i.e.the villagers are prone to apply non-suit settlement to the numerous disputes existing in the village in distinctive forms.The present dissertation first studies the concepts，forms，repelling factors of the disputes of the Miao people inhabiting the aforementioned village as well as their forms of behavior and logic of action，then proceeds to reflect on the reasons，significance and future tendencies of the suit-free dispute concepts of the local rural society and the formation of the dispute-settling mechanism.The dissertation comprises the following chapters：

Chapter Ⅰ，“Introduction，”consists of three parts：1） an introduction to the reasons why the current theme was chosen for the dissertation and why the site for the study；2）a summary of the dispute-settlement research and the that of the Miao ethnic group；and 3） a presentation of the research approach，methods and structure of the present dissertation.

Chapter Ⅱ，“Village survey，”prepares the presumptions and context for the argument by describing the environment，history，daily life and social structure of the Miao village.It is composed of three parts，namely 1） a description of the geographical location，village layout and historical evolution of Longcun；2） a description of the economic structure and daily life of the village；and 3） a description of the family structure，kin pedigree and name composition of the village.

Chapter Ⅲ，“Dispute concepts as well as authorities and order of the village，”which is a truthful academic presentation of the suit-free thought of the Miao villagers as well as the authorities and order of the village，is divided into three parts.Firstly，an introduction to and an analysis of the suit-free thought of the villagers.Centuries of life have developed a philosophy among the villagers of Longcun where peaceful settlement is valued，legal complaints despised，fight for interest disliked，unity and mutual help advocated，and external dignity protected.These notions are all the underlying causes for the suit-free state of the village in question.Secondly，a description of different authorities in the village.In Longcun，there exist state authorities such as government，court of law，administration of justice and police station，aboriginal internal authorities such as elders of clans and Christian clergy，as well as secondary internal authorities such as the village committee.The current state of order-maintaining and dispute-settling mechanism is the result of the joint effects of the above mentioned authorities.Thirdly，a description of the current state of order of the village.As there have been no serious criminal activities in the village，there is no so-called gray zone in the village social life，the relationship between the officials and the civilians harmonious，and the village in a fairly ordered state.

Chapter Ⅳ，“Basic forms of disputes，”is divided into four parts.Part 1 is a presentation of the forms and frequency of disputes in Longcun.In terms of number，there are not many disputes every year.Among them，only a few are reported to the village committee and the township administration of justice for public remedy，and even fewer are brought to a court of law for litigation.In terms of types，those within families and between families have so far dominated all types of disputes.In recent years，however，there have been a certain number of disputes involving people out of the village.The next three parts，namely Parts 2 through 4，are devoted to information of the three types of disputes respectively，i.e.：1）disputes within families （disputes involving engagement，divorce，daily family life and other types of family issues）；2） disputes between families （disputes over use of house sites，access to roads in the village，water，agricultural land，domestic animals and fowls grazing on crops，domestic animals biting those of another family，domestic animals and fowls injuring people，domestic animals and fowls missing，travel，and daily trivial matters）；and 3） disputes involving people out of the village （such as disputes over daily transaction，disagreement with outside bosses engaging in projects in the village，disagreement between villagers leaving home to work and their employers，disagreement between villages，and disagreement between the villagers and the officials）.

Chapter Ⅴ，“Repelling factors of disputes，”after analyzing the causes of both the philosophy about disputes and the mechanism to settle them of the Miao villages in Central Yunnan province in the contexts of geography，history，society，culture and other aspects，proceeds to identify the following five repelling factors of the aforementioned philosophy and mechanism：geographical environment，economic development，kin，character of the villagers，and public cultural activities.The author concludes this chapter by providing an in-depth analysis of the significance of these five factors and the inter-relationship among them，devoting each part to one of the five factors.

Chapter Ⅵ，“Christianity and dispute settlement，”contends that Christianity has notable influence on dispute settlement in the Miao villages in Central Yunnan based on an analysis of the relationship between Christianity and dispute settlement.The extrapolation here is that Christianity can likewise be listed among the repelling factors.This chapter is divided into three parts：1）a description of the current existence of Christianity in Longcun and other Miao villages in centralYunnan；2）an analysis of the influence of Christianity on the thought on dispute and behavior mode of the villagers；and 3）a summary of the cases where Christianity uses its authority to settle disputes.

Chapter Ⅶ，“Logic of action of the villagers in settling disputes，”is an attempt to understand the “possibility of the existence of a suit-free village”through exploring into concrete behavior of the villagers from the perspective of “action choice and its logic of the villagers.”Divided into six parts，this chapter first describes the logic of choice of the villagers when settling disputes，then proceeds to respectively describe the behavior mode and logic of action ofthe villagers under five different circumstances，i.e.when they settle disputes by themselves or when the village committee，the township police station，the court of law and the township judicial office interfere to mediate.

Chapter Ⅷ，“Discussion and conclusions，”is a continuation of the previous chapters and is mainly devoted to the discussion of four questions：1）How is the suit-free state in the rural society possible？2） Why there are disputes in the traditional rural acquaintance society？3） What is the significance of the suit-free philosophy in the rural society？and 4） What is the future of the philosophy of dispute and settlement mechanism in the rural society？The contentions of the present author include：Firstly，the suit-free society in the rural areas is the result of joint influences of history，culture，economy and geography of the villages in question.Secondly，disputes are inevitable in both acquaintance and stranger societies because of competition among people and the defects in human nature.Thirdly，the suit-free philosophy and the characteristic dispute-settling mechanism，while set us thinking and can be helpful toChina’s society today increasingly dominated by strangers，can serve us as a good example when constructing a multi-authority dispute-settling mechanism in the rural society.Fourthly，to adapt to the multiple difficulties facing dispute settlement and order reconstruction in rural China，it is time to construct a multi-authority dispute-settling mechanism in the rural society that best suits the new situation in a progressive and active manner.It is important to let the village committee–a pseudo-official organization–and other non-governmental organizations play an important role in settling disputes，push state laws to the rural areas with increasing momentum to enable more villagers to resort to lawsuits when settling disputes，actively continue exploring the effect of non-governmental dispute-settling standards and system，give them more space to play the role，as well as support and guide the development of spontaneous non-governmental democratic dispute-settling mechanism.