At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after the death of the Han Ling Emperor, the palace coup led to the disintegration of the already dangerous dynasty. China's history has entered a state of warlord chaos for more than half a century. It was not until December of the second year of Xianxi (January 266) that Sima Yan "accepted" the Wei emperor Cao Xiangchan Rang, changed the name of the country to Jin, changed the name of the country to Yuan Taishi, and later Sun Wu declared himself a vassal to the State of Jin, and history entered a new period of great unification. Although the lifespan of the Western Jin Dynasty was short, Sima Yan, the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty, was rich and ambitious, and had considerable achievements during his reign, especially in the reform and reform of the system. Today, I would like to talk about one of the most important reform achievements of Emperor Wu of Jin: the promulgation of the Tai Shi Law.
The Tai Shi Lu began to be edited in the first year of Xianxi (264) and took a total of two and a half years to complete. The nominal host of the shu law was Jia Chong, and fourteen famous scholars, including Yang Hu and Du Pre, participated in the formulation of the work. Completed at the same time as the new law, there are also annotations made by Zhang Fei and Du Pre for the Tai Shi Law. The total number of laws consists of "twenty, six hundred and twenty, twenty-seven thousand six hundred and fifty-seven words", plus forty full texts, "2,926 articles of the Law, 126,300 words, sixty volumes, and thirty volumes of stories" (Book of Jin, Criminal Law).
Although the number of articles in the law is greatly increased than that of the old law, its entries are more than two thousand less than the old law, overcoming the drawbacks of the old law and having the advantage of being simple and easy to implement. In addition, the content of the Tai Shi Law is somewhat relaxed compared to the previous law. It "reduces the number of punishments, beheadings, clan curses, and obedience to sit-downs", thus reducing a lot of torture, and the sentences for women are also intended to be lenient. These changes in the TaiShi Law enabled them to play a role in alleviating class contradictions and contradictions within the ruling class in their implementation, and were conducive to consolidating Sima Shi's country.
In addition, the Tai Shi Law is far more perfect and accurate than the old law of han and Wei. For the first time, it formally distinguishes the "order" as a rule and regulation from the "law" of the penal code, notes the boundary between crime and illegal acts, and emphasizes the system of commutation of sentence, aggravation of repeat offenders and simultaneous punishment of several crimes.
Sima Yan attached great importance to the promulgation of the Tai Shi Law. He ordered Shangshu Lang Pei Kai to recite it, and personally came to the palace to explain to his subordinates, and accepted the suggestions of Lu Jue, Zhongshu Lang Zhang Hua, and others, and he also copied out the entries of the new law on capital crimes separately, and Zhang Hung in various pavilions and passed them on to the common people to attract the attention of the people.
In the same month that the new law was promulgated, Sima Yan ordered Du to draft a plan for the dethronement of officials. Du Pre therefore suggested that officials in charge of examinations be set up in various departments, and that the subjects of examination be evaluated year by year, and then promoted or demoted according to their merits during their six-year term of office. Du Xian particularly stressed that we should not be overly tolerant of incompetent people. Although the examination method he formulated was very reasonable, it was a pity that Sima Yan still rejected it. This was because the Western Jin Dynasty was a joint dictatorship of the Sima clan and other warrior clans, and Sima Yan's solid position required the support of other magnate groups. In order to secure the throne, Sima Yan could not help but take care of the interests of the meritorious nobles and the warriors. Therefore, as long as he did not directly threaten his rule, Sima Yan always adopted an attitude of indulgence and protection for the merits of the powerful.
It can also be seen from this that although the Tai Shi Law has many advantages, due to the limitations of the times, the role played by this new law is also limited. In general, the "Tai Shi Law" is an important legal code in ancient China, which has a great influence on future generations, and the laws of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and even the Sui and Tang Dynasties have all been branded with it. Due to the large-scale transformation and sorting out of the old laws of the Han and Wei Dynasties, the "Tai Shi Law" made the laws at that time more simple and complete, so it had a certain advanced nature and became a powerful tool for consolidating the rule of the landlord class in the Western Jin Dynasty.