Abstract: Mao Zedong's thoughts on military laws, an important part of Mao Zedong ideology, are reflected in his elaborations on military organization system,military discipline regulations,the principle of combat,and humanism in the trial of war criminals. The core of Mao Zedong's thoughts on military law is the Party's absolute leadership over the army. In order to implement this ideology, Mao Zedong put great importance to the political work of the army and regarded it as the "threshold of the army". Mao Zedong also emphasized the centralization of military command. His contributions to the military administrative law and military criminal law is the establishment and implementation of "three main rules of discipline and eight points for attention". Mao Zedong advocated that merits should not offset demerits to those who had military merits in history. Mao Zedong's main ideology on the law of war is the principle of self-defence and the principle of humanist treatment of prisoners of war. He also discriminated prisoners in war from war criminals and advocated severe punishment of war criminals. Mao Zedong's thoughts on military laws has deeply influenced the construction of military legal system in China and enriched the international military law.

Key words: Mao Zedong, military law, military organization, political work, three main rules of discipline and eight points for attention, war criminals