Privilege law of Ming dynasty

In the feudal society of China, apart from political and economic privileges, officials and nobles can also enjoy many legal privileges, mainly including the following aspects: eight proposals, requests, reduction, redemption, official duties and so on.

Eight opinions mean that after eight kinds of people commit crimes, they are not directly tried by judicial organs, but discussed by ministers, and the emperor decides how to punish them. Under normal circumstances, you can get a reduction or exemption. Please be less than the privilege of eight opinions. According to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, there are three kinds of people who can enjoy this privilege, one is the first-line relatives of the wife and grandfather of the Crown Prince, the other is the paternal relatives and grandchildren of those who enjoy the privilege of eight opinions, and the third is officials and nobles with more than five grades.

The scope of invitation applies to two kinds of people, one is an official with six products and seven products, and the other is the immediate family members, brothers and sisters and wives of people with "invitation" privileges. Redemption applies to three kinds of people, one is the person who has the above three privileges, the other is the officials of Bapin and Jiupin, and the third is the immediate family members and wives of Liu Pin and Qipin officials. In addition, the concubines of officials with more than five grades also enjoy this privilege. Redeem with different amounts of copper.

Officially, it is also called dang. It means that official crimes can be compensated by official wealth, mainly as behavior and vagrancy. In general, five or more products can be regarded as two years, and nine or more products can be regarded as one year.

form of law

There were many legal forms in ancient China. Unlike modern laws, there were only a few laws, regulations and rules. The ancient legal forms can be summarized as: punishment, law, law, decree, code, form, form, imperial edict, patent, division, ratio and example. In a dynasty, several legal forms are often used at the same time, forming the legal system of that dynasty. Different legal forms have different scope of use and different levels of effectiveness.

punish

It was used in Xia, Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Period. Its meaning is the same as that of law, basically referring to criminal law, not punishment. Later punishment is called law or law, and after the Warring States period it refers to corporal punishment or punishment.

law

This is a common legal form before Shang Yang's political reform. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, all countries used law as their name when they reformed their laws, such as the Classic of Law and the Lock-up Law of Jin State. After Shang Yang changed Fa to Fa, Fa was only used in a broad sense.

law

This is a common legal form in ancient China after Shang Yang's political reform, and it is widely used, such as Tian Fa in Qin Dynasty, Nine Chapters Fa in Han Dynasty, Wei Jin Fa, Beiqi Fa, Sui Fa, Tang Fa, Daming Fa and Qing Fa after Wei and Jin Dynasties.

manufacture

An order issued by a ruler on a specific issue. It is an auxiliary law of law. There were special codes in Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as Huang Kailing and Guan Zhenling.

Academic standard work

The Six Codes of the Tang Dynasty, which first appeared in the Tang Dynasty, is the first administrative code in the history of China. Later Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties all had such codes.

style

This is a special law on the specific behavior of officials, with a wide range. Shi still has a certain position in the Tang Dynasty and is an important part of the legal system of the Tang Dynasty. However, in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, its status declined a lot and it no longer played a major role.

style

Power grid is also an administrative regulation. As an independent legal form, Ge first appeared in Linzhi Pavilion in the Eastern Wei Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the content of the cause of action was classified into codes and other forms of laws and regulations, and it was no longer independent.

The branch of academic or vocational research.

The legal form from the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties means "breaking", so breaking a crime according to law is called "breaking a crime". After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the status of troublesome cases was important, and it was replaced by troublesome cases.

compare

Comparative law is a legal form from the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it is also a trial principle. If there is no explicit provision in the law, similar laws can be used to convict, which is called comparative law. Because of this analogy, judicial corruption occurs from time to time. After the Han Dynasty, Bi no longer existed, and its content was absorbed into other legal forms. But analogies have existed since ancient times.

example

Like analogy, example is also a principle of judging crime, and it is also a legal form in Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties. But with a different name, Qin called it "acting in court", that is, the court set an example. The Han Dynasty is called "Story", which is based on the existing story in Spring and Autumn Annals. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the parallel of precedent and law became increasingly important, and in the Qing dynasty, its effectiveness even surpassed that of law.

imperial edict

It is an order issued by the ancient emperor, and it is also an important legal form, also called imperial edict. Imperial edicts often have the highest legal effect. Laws can be recognized and promulgated, and laws can be changed or abolished.

In addition to the above legal forms, there are orders, letters, orders, regulations and procedures. It is worth noting that China was an autocratic and centralized society in ancient times, and the emperor's power was supreme. Therefore, he can issue new orders in the form of imperial edicts, decrees and letters patent, and destroy existing laws at will. This constitutes one of the most important characteristics of ancient Chinese law: the law comes from the monarch.

Five kinds of service crimes

Five clothes refer to five kinds of mourning clothes. In the ancient society of China, mourning was used to express the kinship and the relationship of honor and inferiority between relatives. The original text of the crime of five-service system is "quasi-five-service system crime", which is based on the kinship and seniority expressed by the five-service system.

The specific principle is: the closer the service system, that is, the closer the blood relationship, the heavier the punishment for humble offenders and the lighter the punishment for those who respect them. If the service system is farther, it means that the blood relationship is farther. In this case, the lighter the punishment for the humble, the heavier the punishment for the humble.

The simplest example is the crime between father and son. For example, if the father beats and scolds his son, the son has no right to sue, that is, the father is exempted. If a son scolds his father, he will be put to death. Therefore, the essence of the five-service crime is to maintain the family hierarchy.

The crime of "serving five servings" is regarded as the principle of conviction and sentencing for the first time in the Jin Law. Since then, the hierarchical system of legal relatives has been established.

Five clothes specifically refer to decline (with slap, Cui, meaning mourning), Dagong (waiting for work, meaning rough work), (fine work) and hemp. Shear fading is made of very thick raw hemp, which has no seams, like an axe, hence the name. Wearing this mourning for three years is used by ministers, sons, wives and concubines to mourn the monarch, father and husband. Cui Zi is made of raw hemp with seams. Great works and small works are made of cooked linen, but the workmanship is different. Hemp is made from refined flax. The mourning time decreases in turn, including one year, September, May and March.

From myself, from my father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-grandfather, down to my son, grandson, great-grandson, great-grandson, and relatives of the above relatives, they are obedient and called in-laws. A mother's first line is called foreign relatives. She has only one life, including her grandparents, uncles, aunts, uncles and cousins. Others have no foreign relatives. At the same time, the term "relatives" refers to paternal relatives, big family relatives refer to grandfather relatives, small family relatives refer to great-grandfather relatives, kenaf relatives refer to great-grandfather paternal relatives, and maternal relatives are all included in kenaf relatives.

The law of the Tang Dynasty inherited the tradition of extorting confessions by torture, developed it, and clearly and concretely wrote it into the law. Five-service crime embodies the principle of "respect for relatives" required by ethics. The more you kiss, the more you love and respect, and you will be severely punished if you violate it. At the same time, the closer you are to the property, the more you should take care of it. Therefore, a son stealing money from his parents is not stealing, but reprimanding at most.

Compared with the modern law that everyone is equal, there are many differences between the five-service system and the crime. In ancient society, whether an act is guilty or not, or the severity of crime and punishment, often depends on whether there is kinship between the parties and the distance between them. The same is fighting, hitting ordinary people, the crime is relatively minor, and hitting one's elders and relatives, such as relatives who have made great contributions or more, especially serious, one of the ten evils, is punishable by death. The legal hierarchy of ancient society has been embodied in the crime of five servitude system.

Six rites

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the conditions for the establishment of marriage, that is, six rites, were formulated in the Duke of Zhou. The content of six rites includes six aspects, which are actually six procedures for the establishment of marriage:

The first is to receive a bride price, that is, the man gives the bride a bride price to propose marriage.

The second is to ask the name, that is, the man's matchmaker asks the woman's name and date of birth, and then divines good or bad luck in the ancestral hall. Only when the result is good can we proceed to the next step, and the intense one will stop here.

The third is Najib, who decided to get married after divination.

Fourth, the man sent someone to send the bride price to the woman's house.

Fifth, invitation, that is, asking the woman to set a wedding date.

Sixth, kiss and greet. On the wedding day, the man must meet the woman in person, and then the man will go back first and meet him outside the door.

Every procedure, the man should send a wild goose, because the wild goose is a migratory bird, so it is punctual and trustworthy, the wild goose is faithful, and the widowed one is single. It turns out that officials send lambs, doctors send geese and scholars send pheasants. Later, they were all unified into geese. If you want to send more goods, you can send more when you receive them. Other procedures to send geese are only symbolic.

The marriage procedure of Six Rites is very complicated, ordinary people have no time and financial resources to bear, and only officials and nobles strictly abide by it. However, folklore also uses this as a reference to merge some procedures, for example, the first and second can be completed at one time, and the third and fourth can also be merged. The folk wedding customs can still see the influence of the Six Rites in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Autumn execution, autumn execution

In ancient times, the execution of death penalty was usually in autumn and winter, which was related to the ancient concept of natural theocracy, that is, obedience to God's will. Spring and summer are the seasons when everything grows, and autumn and winter are the seasons when trees wither, symbolizing cold. People's behavior, including political activities, must conform to the weather, or they will be punished by the gods. The emperor is the son of heaven, and he must obey God's will and act according to heaven. The same is true of the execution of prisoners.

The practice of execution in autumn and winter began in the Western Zhou Dynasty and became a system in the Han Dynasty. Except for major crimes such as treason, they can be executed immediately. Generally speaking, prisoners on death row cannot be executed after the first frost in autumn and before the winter solstice.

In ancient times, the death penalty was taboo. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the first month, May and September were designated as the slaughter month, and the 10th day of each month was the no-killing day (the first day, the eighth day, the 14th day, the 15th day, the 18th day, the 23rd day, the 24th day, the 28th day and the 29th day). Even if you commit a felony, you won't be executed these days. The Ming dynasty also stipulated that the execution was forbidden for ten days of fasting, otherwise it would be forty. It is also prohibited for the state to carry out large-scale sacrificial activities. The specific execution time is specified between 1 5 pm. Out of date will have to wait until the next day.

death sentence

There were many kinds of death penalty in ancient China. The death penalty not only deprives criminals of their lives, but also contains the meaning of humiliation and revenge. Some are very cruel torture. Its types are: year-end, beheading, hanging, giving death, abandoning the market, cracking, pickling, slaughtering, barbecue, cooking, burning and beheading. Some are statutory punishments, such as beheading, abandoning the city, one-year death, strangulation, etc., and some are temporary or used torture.

Execute by dismembering the body

This kind of punishment began in the five dynasties in troubled times. Song Renzong began to use the death penalty, mainly to execute those felons as a punishment. Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing all had this kind of statutory punishment. The execution method is very cruel. First, cut the meat from non-vital parts until the prisoner dies slowly. It's called 1000 yuan among the people.

be beheaded

Also known as beheading, but the execution methods before and after the Northern and Southern Dynasties were different. Before the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the waist was often cut, then the head was usually cut, and in severe cases, the waist was also cut.

twist

In ancient times, people were strangled or hanged with silks and ropes. Known as strangulation, it became a kind of death penalty after Zhou and Qin appeared. Because hanging can preserve the body, after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it is a death penalty second only to beheading.

Give death

This is the way to execute nobles and officials, which was finalized in the Tang Dynasty. Generally, officials above grade five commit capital crimes in this way. Specific methods include suicide, hanging and taking poison.

Execute someone in a busy street and expose his body to the public (ancient China)

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, he was killed with a blade, and after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, he was executed by hanging, but the place was in a crowded downtown, and the body was exposed for three days to show that it was abandoned by everyone. This is a shameful death penalty.

Tear a man with five chariots

A divided car is a kind of dismemberment.

Dried meat

Breast milk is dried meat after killing.

kill

Slaughter is public humiliation before execution (see "Kill and Slay").

Hot bronze column torture

Artillery plaid is a cannon brand. Bronzes are ignited and heated at the bottom, which makes people walk barefoot on them and make people fall into the fire and burn to death.

Dismember a corpse (an ancient death penalty)

Scab is a split limb, which makes it dry. Some people explain that scab is a car crack. Cooking is commonly known as cooking. Burning means burning alive, sometimes called lighting a lamp.

Show the head of a beheaded person

Beheading means beheading people, and then hanging their heads on wooden poles for public display, which plays a threatening role. It was abolished in the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, and it was still used for bandits in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Lingchi punishment

Lingchi is also called Lingchi, which is called "Thousand Pieces" by the people. The original intention of Lingchi is that the slope of the mountain gradually decreases. When it is used as the name of the death penalty, it means that when a person is executed, the bodies are cut off one by one, so that the victims die slowly and painfully.

Lingchi punishment first appeared in the Five Dynasties, and was officially named Liao Dynasty punishment. Since then, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have stipulated it as a statutory punishment, which is the most cruel death penalty.

This criminal law is mainly used to punish some of the ten evils, such as rebellion and rebellion. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, if parents or in-laws, sons killed their fathers and wives killed their husbands, it was also a felony against ethics and morality, and they were sentenced to death. But later, in order to suppress the peasants' resistance, those who failed to pay taxes on time were also punished by late death, which was particularly prominent during the Ming Taizu period.

Ling Chi's punishment is cruel. Generally speaking, it means to cut off pieces of human flesh. There are also differences in execution methods in past dynasties. Usually cut eight knives, first beheaded, then cut hands and feet, then cut the chest and abdomen, and finally beheaded. But it's actually more than eight knives. There were 24 knives, 36 knives, 72 knives and 120 knives in the Qing Dynasty. Twenty-four knives are: one or two knives to cut eyebrows, three or four knives to cut shoulders, five or six knives to cut chest, seven or eight knives to cut elbows, ninety knives to cut the part between elbows and shoulders, eleven or two knives to cut leg meat, thirteen or four knives to cut leg belly, fifteen knives to stab the heart, sixteen knives to cut head and seventeen or eight knives to cut hands.

In actual implementation, most of them were Liu Jin, an evil eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, who was chopped for three days * * * 4,700 knives. By the Guangxu period of 1905, the punishment of year in year was abolished.

Litigation system

According to the ancient litigation system, litigation must be appealed step by step (that is, "sue"), and generally it is not allowed to go beyond the appeal level. Offenders will be punished by 40, and closing will also be punished by 40. However, if the major grievances are suppressed and cannot be appealed, they can directly appeal to the emperor, but they often run the risk of violating the emperor's etiquette responsibility (Staff 60).

In order to prevent surly people from falsely accusing others, the facts should be stated in the complaint, and you are not allowed to say anything you are not sure about, or you will be fined 50. At the same time, falsely accuse others of what charges to bear. If you write an anonymous letter saying goodbye, you will be exiled for two thousand miles.

The right to appeal in ancient society was greatly restricted. Except for rebellion, rebellion and rebellion, all previous dynasties stipulated that children and grandchildren should not sue their parents and grandparents, and handmaiden should not sue their masters and their relatives. If you violate it, you will be hanged. However, if anyone commits the above three felonies, then anyone must report to the government. It can be seen that the law of feudal society takes the maintenance of imperial power as the first purpose.

For civil litigation, it is generally necessary to mediate according to ethics at the grassroots level. If mediation fails, you can complain to the government. If you go to the government without mediation, you will be punished and considered unruly.

Ten evils

Ten evils, formerly known as "Ten Articles of Felony", were established in the Northern Qi Law during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. They classified acts that seriously endangered national interests and ethics into ten articles and put them in the first article of the code to show that they were the key targets of suppression. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was defined as "ten evils": rebellion, rebellion, evil rebellion, immorality, disrespect, unfilial, disharmony, injustice and civil strife.

Plot against the country

Trying to endanger the emperor's regime, that is, to seize the throne. Ancient Chinese is a "dangerous country", and the country is commonly known as the country and the monarch.

Seek great transgressions.

Conspiracy against the emperor's palace, ancestral temple and mausoleum.

project a revolt

Namely, premeditated treason and investment in hostile regimes.

Evil rebellion

Beating and killing parents and grandparents, killing uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters, grandparents, husbands, grandparents and parents.

definitely not

Kill three people in a family who didn't commit a capital crime and dismember the body.

Disrespect for the emperor

Seven kinds of crimes against the dignity of the emperor, such as stealing goods, used, spare and used goods from the emperor's ancestral temple; The doctor did not fill the prescription of the emperor; Royal ships are not well built; Slander the emperor; An envoy against the emperor, etc.

Violate filial piety

Inform on, curse parents, grandparents, run away from home while alive, fail to support in time, lie about the death of parents, grandparents, etc.

Get along badly with ...

Murder relatives, beating, reporting husbands and beating other relatives in Five Blessingg.

Contrary to correct behavior

When her husband died, she concealed the funeral, took off her mourning clothes and put on festive clothes without authorization, and remarried without authorization.

civil strife

Refers to incest within the family.

Those who commit heinous crimes are generally not pardoned, that is, as the saying goes, "heinous crimes", but they are not absolute. Some charges are that they will die in case of national Amnesty, but only change the execution method, while others are exempt from the death penalty but will be exiled. When aristocratic officials commit ten evils, they lose the privilege of discussing, inviting and reducing. Although there is an amnesty, we must remove the official from his post.

Divorce mode

The "Seven Fruits" defined in the Western Zhou Dynasty developed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and gradually matured. There are two ways of divorce, divorce and divorce.

Divorce can be divided into two types: becoming a wife and divorce. Being a wife is commonly known as divorcing a wife and abandoning her wife, which is collectively called divorce. It is up to the man to marry, and the in-laws can also propose seven marriages without going through the government. Chu Yuan was originally a ritual system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it was only in the Tang Dynasty that it was made a legal provision.

Divorce means that both parties agree to divorce, but both parties have to make a written "divorce certificate", that is, "divorce certificate" or "divorce certificate", and the woman can remarry only with these written documents.

Divorce is a compulsory divorce decided by the government, which is caused by two reasons. One is illegal marriage, and the other is courageous.

The Tang Dynasty stipulated seven cases of "marriage in violation of the law": no marriage with the same surname; Relatives are not married (within five clothes); There is no good or bad marriage; Don't marry a woman who runs away from home; Don't marry a subordinate's daughter; Don't hide things about marriage (identity, age, health status); No intimidation or forced marriage.

Righteousness means that one party has beaten, raped and killed the relatives of the other party, which proves that the morality between the two families has been cut off and the government has decided to divorce.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were no strict restrictions on women's remarriage. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were strict restrictions on divorce, especially widows' remarriage, such as prohibiting them from taking any property from their husbands' homes.