Decline and Fall of Western Civilization (that’s the name of the blog) on some antecedents of overzealous use of the courts (lower case in original):

it seems we are far from the first society to be so enthralled. china under the 17th c qing dynasty saw the rise of the songshi, the “litigation master”, who was blamed for a massive litigation backlog that overwhelmed the system of adjudication and worked to undermine the classical and confucian principles of harmonious social behavior. (the songshi were ultimately proscribed in the 18th and 19th c.) the elizabethan pettifogger is another derisory example from an age that saw itself awash in trivial litigation.

“Gaius Marius”, who writes the blog, has more on Confucius-influenced attitudes toward litigation as disharmonious and a breach of the social peace; the word songgun apparently translates from the Chinese as “litigation hooligan”. All that plus a kind reference to this site as “invaluable” (Mar. 14).