Author: Shi Yuchun
History is the memory of the past.
History is also a mirror of the future.
In the face of history, we sometimes overlook small details because of big events; but it is in these small details that there is beauty and brilliance.
In the face of history, we sometimes worry about the details and turn a blind eye to the grand background, but it is these grand backgrounds that are the soil for everything to occur and develop.
In this way, it seems that history is difficult to grasp.
In fact, this is not the case.
In the face of history, first of all, we must be comprehensive. To comprehensively understand history, we must pay attention to major events and do not let go of small details; to fully understand history, we must use the grand background as the basis to let the small branches blossom.
In the face of history, secondly, we must be just, fair and just. Treat people and things fairly; evaluate right and wrong fairly; and fairly adhere to consistent standards.
In the face of history, third, we must break superstition, abandon delusion, and not blindly self-confidence. To break down superstitions is to treat all historical figures as human beings, not to treat them as gods, nor to treat them as demons; to abandon delusional belief is to laugh and laugh at entertaining history, and not to believe in the truth; not to be blindly confident is to let go of oneself, to put aside prejudices, prejudices, prejudices, and misconceptions, and to take all kinds of historical materials seriously, and not to be: self-righteous data, all correct; self-righteous data, completely negated.
The reason why we say the above is because the history of entertainment has completely affected our understanding of real history.
In this case, in our cognition:
It seems that the Qing Dynasty had no rules!
It seems that the life and death of the Qing Dynasty is very arbitrary!
It seems, it seems...
Actually, it's not all it seems!
Human life is extremely precious and is the same at all times.
Life is extremely precious. At this point, many times, the Qing Dynasty will not be much worse than any dynasty before and after.
Although, in the power struggle, it is not enough for the ruler to die and the fish to break the net; but most rulers also have a serious side in the face of the people under their rule. Of course, the Qing court was no exception.
Below, we will look at the Qing court's court trial and see what kind of situation the Qing court attached importance to life when handling cases.
This article is from the Qing Dynasty Chen Hengqing's "Notes on the Rare Temple" section of the "Imperial Trial".
In other words, the autumn trial cases that needed to be carried out every year in the Qing Dynasty were all summarized by the Criminal Investigation Department.
The departments under the Ministry of Criminal Justice first collect and summarize the murder cases in each province. The Criminal Investigation Department then conducts preliminary verification and assessment within the Department. The Criminal Investigation Department will solemnly approve these cases that need to be handled in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Great Qing Dynasty.
There are generally four kinds of results approved by the Criminal Investigation Department: first, the facts; second, the suspension of execution; third, it can be dismissed; fourth, it is suspicious; and fifth, it is kept and inherited.
Specifically:
First, the truth.
If the crime is true and the crime is proper, the execution is requested.
2. Suspension of execution.
Although the facts of the case are true, those who are not very harmful can be reduced to three thousand miles of exile, or their sentences may be commuted to the land of smoke and miasma or the extreme border areas to charge the army, or they may be detained and waiting for office.
Third, it can be reserved.
If the facts of the case are true, but there are any discreet or suspicious points, the death penalty may be waived, and the sentence is generally commuted to imprisonment or exile.
Fourth, suspicious.
Where the facts of the case have not yet been fully understood, the original province's retrial will be rejected.
5. Keep and inherit the ancestors.
The facts of the case are true and the charges are appropriate, but there are pro-elderly single Ding circumstances, and it is suitable for the applicant to apply for adoption, and the emperor is requested to rule according to the retention case. (This is also evidence of the existence of the Fa.) Some people say that law is law, but in fact, from ancient times to the present, law is nothing more than human feelings. ）
The Criminal Investigation Department will clearly mark the above approved results one by one on the case files that need to be handled. Subsequently, the case file was sent to the six ministries (the general name of the ministries of the central administrative organs, officials, households, ceremonies, soldiers, criminals, and workers). ), Duchayuan and Daliyuan (Qing Dezong (Ai Xin Jueluo Zaixiang) Guangxu Thirty-second Year (1906 AD), changed Dali Temple to Dali Yuan] review and inspection.
If the results of the cases approved by the Criminal Investigation Department are found to be unreasonable or suspicious, they will immediately request the Criminal Investigation Department to review the approved results of the cases, and let the Criminal Investigation Department review the approved results.
After each yamen has reviewed and inspected the autumn trial cases sent by the Punishment Department, the original volumes of these case files printed by the Punishment Department will be kept by the officials of each Yamen's examination and inspection on their own, and they do not need to be returned to the Punishment Department.
Chen Hengqing, the author of the notes, served for six or seven years before and after the Official Office of the Imperial Counsellors of the JingShi (the author of the notes was called the Imperial Court, or the Imperial Court of the Qing Dynasty), and during his tenure, he often received autumn trial case files from the Punishment Department. Therefore, on Chen Hengqing's bookshelf, the autumn trial case file that had been reviewed and inspected was more than a foot thick.
The time for each province to participate in the autumn trial in Beijing is selected by the Criminal Investigation Department. The arrangement of specific time, or several provinces in the same time period, or a province in a time period. The arrangements for each province to participate in the autumn trial are far and near, of course, the Criminal Investigation Department will also consider the length of the road between each province and the Beijing Division. After the autumn trial time is arranged, the Punishment Department will first make it clear to the inner court, and then it can finalize the official date and conduct the trial.
On the day of the trial, the chief officers of the six ministries, the officials of the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan and the Dali Yuan, would gather in the imperial chamber inside the West Chang'an Gate of the Beijing Division in the early hours of the morning. These officials who participated in the trial of the DPRK were each in one case.
The trial was presided over by the Criminal Investigation Department.
The officials of the Criminal Investigation Department first read out the specific circumstances and antecedents and consequences of the cases in each province, and by noon, the day's office can be completed, and the officials and officials will disperse. This first day is the time to declare the case.
On the second day, the criminals in the Prison of the Punishment Department were passed.
Ordinary criminals are generally dressed in ochre-colored prison clothes. When passing through the church, the relatives and friends of the perpetrator would hang a string of mountain red (that is, the big red hawthorn, which was called pomegranate by the people of Weixian County, Shandong during the Qing Dynasty) around the neck of the offender. The color of the mountain red is bright red, and the shape is round. The reason why relatives and friends hung a string of mountain red on the neck of the criminals was probably to take the meaning of their reunion!
At the time of the passage, several soap servants in the Punishment Department escorted a prisoner into the hall. Outside, the Eight Banner Soldiers had already stood neatly along the street, just in case of an accident.
There is still an order in the handling of the trial criminals. Under normal circumstances, the number of officials is mentioned first. The so-called official offenders are officials who have violated the criminal law. The officers were dressed differently from the average criminal. Officials and criminals wore dark blue coats, official hats, and no top (the top of the Top Hat in the Qing Dynasty was an important symbol of distinguishing the rank of officials. Officials who had become prisoners of the order had no more prestige or momentum, and when the soap officials called their names, they would agree, and if they were to kneel, they would kneel.
The point of mention of this criminal is over, and another criminal is mentioned.
For all those who are approved as suspended executions, the soap officials will shout loudly: "Suspended executions."
For those who are classified as facts, the soap servants will suppress their voices, as if they do not want the criminals to hear them. (Because if it is in fact, it means that the death penalty is determined and executed.) Therefore, this small detail can also be seen in the pity for life. ）
As for the female perpetrators, they were usually brought in by two servants with baskets.
In the process of participating in the court trial, Chen Hengqing, the author of the notes, once met a female criminal, who was called Liu Wangshi. Liu Wang's age, about thirty or forty years old. When Chen Hengqing participated in the imperial trial, Liu Wang's clan passed through the hall every year, and all the years were approved as a suspended execution.
So, what exactly is the plot of Liu Wang's case?
It turned out that Liu Wang's father, Liu Dachong, was a gambling scoundrel. One day, Liu Daqin's wife fell ill, and he took his daughter Liu Wangshi back to her mother's house. That night, Liu Dajun returned home drunk, and when he returned home, he wanted to do something wrong to his daughter. It's really not as good as a beast! In the midst of the pull, Liu Wangshi pushed his father Liu Dachun to the ground. Unfortunately, there was a large cauldron on the ground. After Liu Dajun fell to the ground, his head hit the edge of the pot, and suddenly his brain plasma burst out, and a whimpered. The tenant who lived in the same courtyard as Liu Dashong found out that there was a murder case and reported it.
With regard to Liu Wang's case, the approved judgment of the Criminal Investigation Department was that, because the circumstances were extenuating, it was drafted as a suspended sentence. After the case was submitted to the inner court, the royal approval of the ruler was dealt with in prison every year.
Why is it that it is always imprisoned every year?
The main reason is that this case is about uniforms. The so-called uniform system refers to the system of funeral clothes in which the relatives of the deceased wear different levels of mourning clothes according to the closeness and dignity of their blood relations. The intention here is to point out that the deceased in the murder was closely related to the murderer.
Because it is related to the uniform, it cannot be excused.
At this point, the author of the note, Chen Hengqing, sighed:
Gao Tao broke the prison, his clarity and fairness, but it was just like that!
Therefore, in the laws of the Qing Dynasty, in the autumn trial case file, the case involving the service system was to be separately bound into a book, and it could not be treated in the same way as ordinary cases.
The above are the autumn trial case files that need to be handled in the Beijing Division nationwide directly undertaken by the Criminal Investigation Department.
The case files reported by the provinces, because only the case files, the perpetrators are handled slightly differently at the local level.
When it was time for the provinces to participate in the autumn trial arranged by the Ministry of Punishment, the Metropolitan Procuratorate would submit to the inner court all the case files of the previous province. The ruler (the emperor) would order the university scholars to wear plain clothes (this is also a detail, the emphasis on life, the emperor authorized the processing of the court case file, the need for plain clothes. ), take the Zhu pen and handle it according to the yellow signature of the Punishment Department. Those who have no opinion and fully agree with the results of the Punishment Department (the Punishment Department summarizes the opinions of each ministry) are checked; the rest, then Zhu Zhi "so-and-so is firmly imprisoned" and "so-and-so is exiled.".
After the internal court has finally completed the processing, the outcome of the court trial is finalized.
The case file was pulled out of the inner court by the minister, and went all the way to the lobby of the Punishment Department, and placed the case file on the yellow case in the lobby of the Punishment Department.
The chief of the Punishment Department also performed three kneeling and nine prostrations on the case file that the ruler had finally approved. After the ceremony is done, it is only then that the matter retreats.
After that, the Criminal Investigation Department immediately registered the case file that the ruler had finally approved, and finally sealed it into a document and sent it to the province where the case was located.
When the deadline for the Beijing Division to carry out the autumn trial death penalty, the officials who generally supervise the beheading and imprisonment are ordinary officials of the Punishment Department.
After the execution, colleagues will meet with the prison officer for a drink and dinner.
It is said that on that day, there was an official surnamed Li in the Punishment Department who once applied to the messenger of prison, and his wife was very taboo, and she thought that he was not clean to do this errand, so she would not let him go home. Then, the Lady Li gave the official surnamed Li some money, asked him to sleep outside for the night and go home the next day.
After hearing this, the note-taking author Chen Hengqing laughed and said:
"It seems that the prison sentence is also a cure for women's jealousy." With this, where else do you need any squawk meat? ”
The so-called crane meat, according to the "Ancient and Modern Novels , Emperor Wu of Liang's Cumulative Cultivation of Bliss" Yun:
"The lord of Liang had no choice but to smell the birds as a soup, and drinking it could cure the concubine (that is, jealousy)."
After the fangshi of the note-taking author Chen Hengqing heard about this, he laughed and said:
"The meat is actually useful. In the past, Emperor Wu of Liang's empress was jealous, and Emperor Wu of Liang used the meat of the dragon to make a soup for his empress to eat. After eating, the empress's jealousy was reduced by half, so Emperor Wu of Liang was very eager to distribute the meat soup to his jealous ministers. This is not a fabrication, and this matter is recorded in the "Theory of Stopping Jealousy". Now, in the imperial court, there are quite a few jealous ministers, and they should hurry up and give them a good recipe for using ebony meat. ”
Listening to Chen Hengqing and his fangshi's statement, many people laughed and said:
"You teachers and students are really masters of healing the country!"
Finally, I would like to add the relevant information of the article.
Autumn Trial and Dynasty Trial.
The Autumn Trial was a trial system of the Qing Dynasty, developed from the Ming Dynasty.
After the Ming Dynasty's court trial system was inherited by the Qing Dynasty, there were developments and changes.
The Qing Dynasty developed the court trial into two types, namely the court trial and the autumn trial, but the two trial methods were basically the same, but the objects of the trial were different. The object of the autumn trial is the review of prisoners who have been sentenced to death reported by the provinces, while the trial is the death row inmates detained by the Review and Punishment Department.
The composition of the judges is the same, and they are all the chiefs of the central ministries.
The difference between the court trial and the autumn trial is also in terms of time, and the court trial is later.
Give things in.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, along the Ming system, it was also placed in the matter, and there was no post restriction.
In the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661 AD), Qing Shizu (Ai Xin Jueluo FuLin) set up the capital, left and right to shizhong, manchu and Han members, full members for the zheng si pin, Han members for the zheng qi pin; and also set up han to give the two members of the matter, zheng qi pin.
During the Kangxi Dynasty of Qing Shengzu (Ai XinJue Luo Xuan Ye), the capital was changed to a palm seal to Shi Zhong, and one member of the Manchu and Han dynasties was a member of the ZhengQipin; in the matter, the Manchu and Han members were also the Zhengqipin.
In order to strengthen the imperial power, Emperor Shizong of the Qing Dynasty (Ai Xin Jue Luo Yin Chan) Yongzheng Chu merged the six branches into the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan, and together with the inspector Yushi, he was called "Ke Dao", the same as the speech official, there was a presence in the palace to defame, the official palm copied and issued the inscription, reviewed the chapters, supervised the six ministries, the temples, the government, and the supervision of the official affairs, and his power to refute was not real, and the authority was lighter than that; in the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729 AD), he was promoted to Zheng Wupin.
In the thirty-second year of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1906 AD), the official system was reformed, and the six departments of the province were only set up for twenty people in the affairs, and they were still subordinate to the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan, and they were in charge of the official affairs of the original six departments.
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