In feudal society, the laws of the Qing Dynasty should be said to be very sound, and at the same time, the Qing Dynasty punished corruption "without strict law enforcement", and in the Qianlong Dynasty alone, there were more than twenty feudal officials who were executed for corruption and bribery, but they still could not curb the trend of the officials' rule, and the so-called "the more the people are cursed, the more greedy the wind is." Many Qing historians believe that the corruption of officials in the Qing Dynasty is inseparable from the "completion of the stolen goods and reduction of other regulations" formulated by the Qing Dynasty.
(The first corrupt official and lord of the Qing Dynasty)
The Qing Dynasty's "complete stolen goods reduction and other regulations" were widespread and long-term applicable to crimes such as theft and embezzlement, which undoubtedly played an important catalytic role in the increasing corruption of officials in the Qing Dynasty.
Successive legal systems have regarded rewarding honesty and punishing corruption as the basis for governing officials, because whether officials are clear or not has a bearing on the long-term peace and stability of the country. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, when Yan Zi was in harmony, he said: "Those who are honest, the essence of government is also", and Emperor Wen of Han also believed that "honest officials, the appearance of government". Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty also knew that "to rule the world is to punish corruption and reward honesty."
China's feudal dynasty's law to punish corruption has a basic feature, that is, to convict people with stolen goods and strictly punish the law. The Tang Law has "six stolen goods", of which the "three stolen goods" of being perverse by wealth, not bending the law by receiving wealth, and being imprisoned refer to officials, and the most important is to pervert the law, followed by the law, and the one who is imprisoned is second.
Since the Tang and Song dynasties, all those who perverted the law and stolen money have been capital crimes. The Tang Law stipulates: Those who are in charge of the lord's wealth and pervert the law shall be hanged to the fifteenth; For those who do not pervert the law, the maximum penalty is the force of force. Although the Song Dynasty was relatively benevolent, it could reduce the general crimes and was the strictest in dealing with the stolen officials. In the song taizu and taizong dynasties, officials executed more than fifty people for the crime of stolen goods. Wang Anshi once said: "Those who are particularly important in the law of the imperial court today are greedy and greedy."
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's administration of the rule of officials was more strict, "Whoever obeys the order and is greedy, Xu Min goes to Beijing to complain." Whoever has stolen more than sixty taels shall be shown to the public and stripped of his skin and grass. Strict laws and regulations. "When an official is involved in the crime of stolen goods, not only will he be punished himself, but even his descendants will not be allowed to become officials.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the purpose of "governing the country and the people, the first thing is to punish corruption", and the eighty-two pieces of stolen goods were designated as two kinds of punishments: real hanging and imprisonment. However, the illegal appropriation of state property by officials other than the crime of "embezzlement" is defined as the crime of "embezzlement", and the punishment is more lenient than the crime of "embezzlement".
Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty punished officials for the crime of embezzlement and theft more leniently, and gradually extended this "leniency" to the punishment of corruption crimes. In the 27th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the death penalty threshold for the crime of embezzlement was raised to three hundred and two. In the third year of Yongzheng, the threshold for the death penalty was raised to more than 1,000 taels, mostly based on beheading and waiting, and as a "correct example". Therefore, in the Qing Dynasty, "the law is extremely strict, and the example is extremely wide." As a result, there were fewer cases of crimes of aggression and corruption in the Qing Dynasty, and the death penalty was actually applied.
In the fifty-third year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Shangshu Lai Du of the Punishment Department said that the deficit has now accumulated to more than eight million, of which there is no family property that can be repaid, please reduce it by different points, etc., and strictly accept the case of punishment by officials, and after the meeting of the four ministries of officials, households, soldiers, and punishments: All the stolen goods that should be recovered and transferred will be completed within one year, and the cases of capital offenders will be reduced by one degree compared to avoid death; If it is not completed, it will be limited to one more year to pursue compensation, and those who are finished will be exempted from death and reduced, and if they are not completed according to the original planned supervision and pursuit, they will still be limited to another year, and the family of the prisoner will be punished for compensation. If the family property is not available, the insurance is exempted. After the four parts were discussed, they were discussed according to the order and complied with the case.
In the twelfth year of Qianlong, the Punishment Department played: It was found that the Punishment Department stipulated that all embezzlers, thieves, and transfers should be recovered for stolen goods, divided into three years, completed within one year, and the capital crime was reduced by the second degree, and should be fully punished; If it is completed within two years, the capital offense shall be full, and those who are not completed shall be pursued according to the original supervision. It is all completed within three years, how to reduce the place, please Qianlong Holy Judgment. Puzzled, Qianlong ordered, "Investigate who set this case in what year, and during the Yongzheng period, it was determined that it was a criminal of theft, and no one ever corrected the law." He also ordered that the deficit within three years should be completed, and the places where the crimes were to be committed were investigated together. ”
After zhang tingyu and others consulted the case files of the Criminal Investigation Department, a total of forty cases were found, and the results of the handling were generally six kinds: among them, those who died in prison were reduced to exiles within a limited period of time, some were exempted from aid and pardon, some were reduced by grace, some had wives entered the treasury, and some were sent to serve in the military station.
Later, Zhang Tingyu and others repeated: The original intention of the legislation such as the reduction of stolen goods was to give time to the criminals of theft, especially the death row prisoners, so that the deficit could be filled, but because "the regulations were only to be pursued according to the original plan, and the case had never been prepared into the truth, it seemed that the arrears of the items could not be brought to justice, just like the holy oracle, so it was not the intention of punishing greed." To this end, it is suggested that the subsequent deficit offender shall continue to be handled as prescribed except for one year and two years to complete the reduction of the stolen goods, etc., and if within three years there is a person who can complete the deficit, make the ministry have a request for a discount, or reduce the flow according to the example of two years, or according to the original proposed prison, and if the total stolen goods cannot reach half, they should be included in the actual case to show the law of the land. As a result, "when the invaders know that there is a righteous day, those who have already invaded do not dare to regain the heart of survival, that is, those who have not invaded also know what they are afraid of, and the greedy wind may be slightly discouraged." ”
According to this inspection, during the thirteen years of Yongzheng, no official was sentenced to death for trespassing. In particular, Su Keji, the former inspector of Shanxi, who had embezzled more than 4.5 million taels and was finally 400,000 taels without "finishing the stolen goods," was also released by "special orders." This shows that examples such as the reduction of stolen goods were widely used in the Yongzheng Dynasty. Regardless of whether it was legislation or justice, the Yongzheng Dynasty was more lenient in its practice of reducing stolen goods.
In the first year of Yongzheng, it was based on this rule: Those who embezzled money and grain and diverted money and grain and were chased by prisoners such as those who were imprisoned and chased in case of amnesty were still imprisoned and severely pursued, and they could be completed within three years and be exonerated and released. This is far more lenient than the Kangxi fifty-seventh year of "reducing the stolen goods and so on". Therefore, the case of "complete reduction of stolen goods, etc." is also known as the "complete reduction of stolen goods, etc."
The "Great Qing Law And Precedent Genyuan" compiled by the Punishment Department during the Tongzhi period states: "All thefts, transfers, and other stolen goods will be completed within one year, and the cases of capital offenders will be reduced by one degree compared to those who avoid death, and then reduced by one degree; Crimes committed by the military, exiles, and penitents are exonerated. That is to say, the full name of the case of "completed stolen goods reduction, etc." should be "completed reduction of stolen goods, etc." It limits the exoneration of "completion of stolen goods and so on" to a period of three years, and the perpetrator of a capital crime who commits a criminal offense by treason returns all the stolen money within one year, reduces the death penalty to the second degree, and imposes a sentence of imprisonment; Whoever commits a capital offense or less shall be released from prison within one year if he or she commits a crime of theft or less. Whoever commits the capital crime of treason shall return all the stolen funds within two years, reduce the capital crime by one degree, and be sentenced to exile; Whoever commits a capital crime or less shall return all the stolen funds within two years, each of which shall be reduced by one degree. In the third year, there is no specific provision. If the three years are still not finished, the company adopts a vague treatment, and the capital crime is "in prison", and the capital crime is issued below.
In the early years of Yongzheng, the deficit in the national treasury was huge, reaching a huge amount of 20 million. At that time, the deficit in the household department reached 2.59 million taels, the deficit in the Jiangnan region reached 8 million taels, and there were hundreds of officials detained pending trial. Faced with such a huge deficit, Yongzheng ordered: Limit it for one year, so that it will first complete the items of removal, and then complete the items of encroachment. If the number of encroachments is completed within the number of transfers, and the remaining number of intrusions and transfers cannot be fully limited to the number of acts of deception, the Fa-rectification is suspended, and the supervision and pursuit are still restricted.
At the same time, Yongzheng revised the "Household Law" law of "moving the cashier" and formulated the example of "completing the reduction of stolen goods", which was more lenient in content: those who moved more than 20,000 taels, although it was a transfer, were also planned to be beheaded according to the example of embezzlement of money and grain, and were to be imprisoned. Unified for one year, all can be exhausted, and all are exonerated. If it is not finished, it is limited to one year to finish, and the second grade is reduced. If the two-year period is not completed, it will be limited to one year to be completed, and the first grade will be reduced. If the three-year period cannot be completed, except for a certain number, the crime shall be punished according to the number that has not been completed.
The Qing Dynasty's exoneration of the death penalty of treason offenders was based on the special background of compensating for huge deficits. However, at the beginning of the regulation, it was originally an embezzlement of money and grain from the warehouse, and the case should be recovered, and its crime was originally caused by a loss, and it was still lenient to complete the money within the limit. However, because the regulations have the word "waiting for stolen goods", almost all corrupt officials and corrupt officials follow these two words when dealing with them, and they are exempted from the reduction.
This wide application of the provisions of the law is tantamount to condoning the corrupt behavior of officials and has a great impact on the governance of officials. Therefore, in the early years of Qianlong, officials continued to ask for revision or abolition. Because the Kangxi Dynasty set up a leniency clause, it specifically refers to those who embezzle and steal money and grain from warehouses, and those who violate the law and do not pervert the law are not included. Later corrupt officials were involved in the invocation, and the corruption and perversion of the law were reduced and exonerated, which encouraged the corrupt behavior of the officials. Therefore, the crime of embezzlement should stop "reducing the amount of stolen goods, etc."
However, these suggestions were not adopted by Qianlong. Because the punishment department Shangshu Yin Jishanji has been saying that the practice of reducing and reducing stolen goods has been practiced for a long time, it is not appropriate to abolish it once, and it is only appropriate to apply the restrictions on corruption crimes to the reduction of stolen goods. If the corrupt official can be repaid within the time limit, the capital offense will be reduced by one degree, and the following crime will be reduced by one degree. If the limit is not completed, the capital offense shall be pursued according to the original plan, and the following crimes shall be issued according to the original plan, and the stolen property shall be recovered as usual. This proposal was approved after Qianlong discussed it in detail with the university scholars and the ninth secretary. At this point, the exemption from the crime of "completed stolen goods reduction and so on" was revised to read: "Only the reduction of stolen goods is reduced, and the crime is not exempted." "Although some progress has been made compared with before this, the stolen goods can be reduced, and it still opens a convenient door for officials to pervert the law."
Corruption cases in the Qianlong Dynasty were frequent, and they were all dealt with at a reduced level, which led to the spread of the trend of encroachment. In the sixth year of Qianlong, it was stipulated that officials who were greedy for stolen goods could close the case by reducing the amount of money as usual after the stolen goods were completed. Subsequently, officials who have committed crimes of embezzlement and other cases shall also be handled in accordance with this. This provision was also written into Article 37 of the Great Qing Laws.
Qianlong also tended to be lenient in handling cases of local officials' embezzlement, or repeatedly delayed them. In the twelfth year of Qianlong, in the case of Zhang Derong in Zhuozhou Zhizhou, the Criminal Department said that Zhang Derong's case should be beheaded, but the deficit and silver had not yet been pursued, and a suspended execution should be requested. Qianlong ordered that the original indefinite period of supervision and reconnaissance be shortened to a two-year limit, that is, two years. Two years later, Zhang Derong was still unable to make up for the deficit, so he was corrected by Qianlong. Qianlong also issued a special edict for some of them, saying that the original intention of the decay was not to stop the theft, but to punish greed. and said?" The right does not change the law of restriction. If there are many more corrupt people later, they will be dealt with accordingly. ”
Although Zhang Derong's death was a shock to officials, it did not appear the "spinning opportunity" that the Qianlong Emperor expected. The winds of aggression continue to spread. When Qianlong dealt with the case of Yang Hao, the envoy of Hunan Province, and Jiang Bing, the governor of Hunan, in the 22nd year, these two local officials completed their stolen goods within the time limit and proposed to be suspended in the autumn trial. However, Qianlong was still very angry and personally changed Yang Hao to a decisive decision. However, this kind of case was only handled by Qianlong under the anger of the situation at that time, and did not write this method of handling into the law. Therefore, after this case, the Guixi Daoist niu Sichang's embezzlement case was sentenced to be sent to the military station to serve in the military station because of the limit of the stolen goods.
During the Qianlong Dynasty, as many as thirty cases were filed for embezzlement, of which twenty-six were feudal officials who were responsible for the Fa or who ordered them to commit suicide.
Prefectural and county officials, on the other hand, were subject to more justice. In the Gansu case alone, fifty-six prefecture and county officials executed the beheadings. Most of the above crimes of aggression and corruption that have been severely punished are punished only if they cannot complete the "completion of the stolen goods" and cannot "reduce the level." In his later years, Qianlong also had to admit that "over the past few years, he has been lenient, so that among the governors of the provinces, there are only two-thirds of those who clean themselves and love themselves, and those who are not idle are afraid of being different." Blame yourself first. ”
After the death of the Qianlong Emperor, when Jiaqing revised the law on embezzlement, he deleted Qianlong's case of "not allowing the reduction of stolen goods after the end of the invasion and loss", and restored the old practice of "reducing the stolen goods and so on" in the seventh year of Jiaqing, and there was a tendency to expand in actual law enforcement. For example, in the eighteenth year of Jiaqing, Pingtan, fuzhou province, knew that Xu Tao's stolen goods were more than 1,000 taels, and he planned to behead the prisoners according to the law of self-theft. The following year, because Xu Tao finished the stolen goods within one year, he was "reduced by two grades in beheading, one hundred rods, and three years in prison."
Since then, there have been very few people in the Qing Dynasty who have been brought to justice for the crime of embezzlement, and the wind of encroachment and greed is like a horse that has lost its reins, and the officials have ruled the rivers and rivers day by day, and finally the Qing Dynasty has exhausted its strength and is heading for extinction.