The invention of law is one of the outstanding manifestations of human wisdom, and its premise is the needs of human social life. Law, whether as a means of ruling, the basis of governing the country, or as people's production norms and living standards, whether to achieve order and justice, or to achieve freedom and efficiency, must be implemented and observed, otherwise it will be meaningless. Implementing and abiding by the law is the basic way and requirement to realize the ideal of rule of law. As Aristotle said, "We should note that although a country has good laws, the rule of law cannot be realized if people can't all abide by them." For citizens, obeying the law is their basic character, which is one of the elements of people not only as "people" but also as "citizens". As early as in its 1979 edition, the authoritative Ci Hai in China explained the word "citizen" in this way: "A citizen refers to a person who has his own nationality and enjoys rights and obligations according to the Constitution or laws." Therefore, people who are called "citizens" must have legal attributes, and the essence of this attribute is that citizens must "obey the law." "Law is the minimum of morality", which is a classic exposition of the relationship between law and morality. In any country and any social form, law and the dominant moral principles are essentially the same, and the legal consciousness and moral concepts of the ruling class are mutually infiltrated. The ruling class usually gives its own morality legal effect and recognizes its own moral standards as legal norms. Therefore, obeying the law becomes the basic moral requirement of citizens, and "citizens" who don't obey the law are not virtuous citizens. However, people's motives for obeying the law are often different. As a social norm system formulated or recognized by the state, an important feature of the law is that if citizens violate their legal obligations and refuse to bear legal responsibilities, then the state will use violent tools such as the army, police, courts and prisons to force citizens to abide by the law and bear responsibilities. However, in modern legal civilization, the mandatory effect of law is only used as a background device and the last line of defense. It requires citizens to obey the law out of their inner choices, not just out of compulsory deterrence and calculation of gains and losses. In this sense, obeying the law should be a voluntary behavior based on civic consciousness, not a servile behavior based on the consciousness of subjects, and not a compulsive behavior that is not afraid of violence; It should be based on citizens' deep understanding and inner recognition of law as a rule of social life, and on citizens' respect for themselves, others, society and the country. Spinoza, a Dutch thinker, once said: "A person can be said to be an upright person, because he knows the real reason and necessity of the law, and voluntarily does not infringe others from a firm will." Therefore, law-abiding consciousness is the psychological proof that citizens have moral consciousness. Law is actually the compass and textbook of human civilized life. It is related to people's daily routine, diet and daily life; It tells people how to be a man, how to live and work. The ancient Roman emperor Justinian pointed out: "The principle of law is to live honestly, not to offend others, and to get what you want." Aristotle also said: "citizens should abide by the rules of life formulated by the city-state, so that everyone's behavior is bound." Law should not be regarded as slavery (as opposed to freedom), but as salvation. " Anyone who has some knowledge and experience of law can admit that law is to show people their proper way of life and existence; Law-abiding citizens are essentially the pursuit and loyalty to honesty, integrity and a better life. "The law must be believed, otherwise it will be useless. It includes not only a person's reason and will, but also his feelings, his intuition and dedication, and his beliefs. " This is a famous saying by Harold Pahlman, an American legal thinker. Pahlman also pointed out that "what can really stop crime is the tradition of obeying the law, which is rooted in a profound and passionate belief that the law is not only a tool of secular policy, but also a part of the ultimate purpose and significance of life." This is indeed a profound insight into the inner life of legal civilization and the inner expectations of modern citizens. Law is by no means a rigid text written by legislators, and obeying the law is not just a contract between citizens and the state. It should be said that the law does reflect the deep desire of human beings for their own happy life, and obeying the law entrusts citizens with their eternal longing for the ideal life state. Abiding by the law not only means fulfilling legal obligations and assuming legal responsibilities, but also means exercising legal rights and making legal requests. In fact, only those who take their rights seriously can be called "citizens", and only those who take their rights seriously can truly understand the value and sacredness of their obligations and consciously abide by the law. To overcome the indifference and numbness of rights, we must first recognize the internal relationship between citizens' law-abiding and civil rights, and establish the consciousness of "fighting for the law." German jurist von Huning said: "To fight for the law is to fight for the rights." He believes that citizens fight for the law not only for their own rights and interests, but also to safeguard the dignity and sanctity of the law. The ultimate goal of citizens fighting for the law is the overall interests of society and the country. Therefore, "fighting for the law is a citizen's obligation to the country and society." Furthermore, we can also say that fighting for rights is also a citizen's obligation to the country and society. While citizens strive for their own rights and interests, they also help to improve the overall rights and safeguard the overall interests of society, and help people to "take their rights seriously" and "take their obligations seriously". Abiding by the law also means the balance between public power and private rights. Equality before the law is the basic requirement of modern rule of law. Therefore, abiding by the law does not mean that only ordinary people must abide by the law, but all citizens must abide by the law-both state officials and ordinary people are the subjects of law-abiding. As the saying goes, "Jun breaks the law and is as guilty as Shu Ren." In the vision of modern rule of law, no privilege or power is recognized, and everyone must obey the law as a whole and safeguard the unity and authority of the law. Moreover, modern legal civilization pays more attention to the possibility and danger of power abuse itself, admits that "power corrupts people, and absolute power absolutely corrupts people", and emphasizes the obligations and responsibilities of state officials who exercise public power. In this way, it is more important for citizens with the status of state officials to abide by the law. State officials should not only abide by the law like ordinary citizens, but also become a model of law-abiding and thus a model of civic morality. Therefore, the modern rule of law requires citizens to abide by the law, which is definitely not a privileged autocratic practice of "not punishing doctors and not being polite to Shu Ren", nor is it simply asking citizens to fulfill their legal obligations and bear legal responsibilities. On the premise that all citizens generally abide by the law, the modern rule of law pays more attention to the supervision and restriction of public power and the protection and relief of private rights. Understanding and grasping the significance of abiding by the law in this way is particularly important for our country with a deep-rooted feudal privilege tradition. On the issue of obeying the law, people will naturally involve how to deal with "evil laws." Aristotle, a great thinker in ancient Greece, pointed out: "The rule of law should have two meanings: the established laws should be universally observed, and the laws that everyone abides by should be well formulated." It can be seen that as a citizen of a society ruled by law, the premise must be that the law is good. In other words, the law itself must be the expression of virtue, not the willfulness of the ruler (in Marxism). For those "bad laws" or "bad laws", a society ruled by law does not require citizens to blindly abide by them, and certainly does not encourage citizens to flatly violate them. It requires citizens to try their best to abolish or improve it through various legal channels. For example, Thoreau in the United States refused to pay taxes because of slavery in the southern United States and the war against Mexico at that time, and Gandhi in India even launched a non-violent and non-cooperative movement against the rule of evil laws. They all put forward the irrationality of the evil law through their own actions and tried to change it. Socrates, another ancient Greek philosopher who can be called the father of Aristotle, provides us with another thought-provoking example of citizens obeying the law. In the spring of 399 BC, Socrates, 70, was accused of blasphemy and bewitch young people. Socrates did not flee abroad like many people, but accepted the trial of this trumped-up crime. In the defense, Socrates was resolute and indomitable, delivered a speech, sternly refuted the charges against him, angered the judge and was finally sentenced to death. When Socrates was in prison, his friend Criton came to rescue him in order to escape abroad, but Socrates, who had been practicing virtue all his life, refused. Socrates refused to flee because citizens were born, raised and taught by the country, and there was a contractual relationship between citizens and the law. Later, after discussing philosophy with his relatives and friends, Socrates drank zhenniao leisurely and died. Socrates practiced the philosopher's virtue for the last time with his awe-inspiring righteousness, and at the same time, his law-abiding choice prompted people to reflect on the evil law. Although Thoreau, Gandhi and Socrates chose different ways to abide by the law, they all judged good laws and evil laws based on citizens' consciousness and character. Paine, an American political thinker, said: "For a bad law, I always advocate (and I personally practice) abiding by it, and at the same time prove its mistakes with all arguments and try to abolish it. This is better than forcibly violating this law. " In modern society, the so-called "good law" is a law that reflects the people's feelings and public opinions and conforms to the people's wishes. This is a law that treats all people equally, limits the abuse of government power and respects due process. In our country, such a good law is a law that can meet the interests, wishes and requirements of the broad masses of people in both entity and procedure, and it is a law that conforms to the conditions, laws and trends of social and historical development. Modern rule of law should be the unity of good law and law-abiding citizens. Although in modern times, morality, etiquette and religion, which are the basic ties to maintain human life and inner beliefs, have gradually declined, citizens' compliance with the law must not only be an expedient measure of mandatory deterrence and interest calculation, otherwise, human legal civilization will inevitably face a crisis. "If you don't understand etiquette, you can't do the law." Human beings should restore the ethical, religious and cultural foundation on which legal civilization depends by observing the law, and constantly strengthen their understanding, recognition, emotion and belief in the law. Law-abiding citizens are moral citizens and qualified citizens. In the process of building a socialist country ruled by law, we have every reason to expect that the law will eventually become the embodiment of virtue, abiding by the law will eventually become the belief of citizens, the country will eventually move towards the road of rule by law, and China will eventually revive the state of etiquette.