Zhao Ji was the birth mother of Qin Shi Huang, but we all know that Zhao Ji became romantic and debauched, even after Gui became empress dowager, she still did not change her true colors, first entangled with Lü Buwei, and then secretly married Yan Yi, and gave birth to two children for Yan Yi. Later, Yan Yi plotted that "the king is Xue, with the son as the queen", preparing to launch a coup d'état to kill YingZheng and make their children the King of Qin, of course, their rebellion was easily quelled by Qin Shi Huang.
After the counterinsurgency, Yan Yi will undoubtedly die, but how to deal with Zhao Ji? The "Chronicle of History" records that Qin Shi Huang imprisoned Zhao Ji in Yongcheng, and clearly stated that he severed the mother-son relationship with her, and did not kill Zhao Ji. So, why didn't Qin Shi Huang kill Zhao Ji? There is no doubt that Qin Shi Huang is not a murderous person, and the way of filial piety and righteousness of birth and nurturing, the experience of relying on his mother in the Zhao Kingdom at the age of 3-9, etc., make it difficult for Qin Shi Huang to make it difficult for Qin Shi Huang to be hot. But what is less known is that Qin Shi Huang may have a legal basis for not killing Zhao Ji, and the "Song yàn (Trial Decision) Book" in the Zhangjiashan Han Jian has another interpretation.
In 1983, in the Zhangjiashan area of Jiangling, Hubei Province, archaeology excavated a number of early tombs of the Western Han Dynasty, and unearthed a total of eight kinds of documents, including the "Almanac", "Second Year Law", "Book of Sonata", "Book of Pulse", "Book of Arithmetic", "GaiLu", "Citation Book" and "List of Items Recorded with Burials"), involving han Dynasty law, military, calendar, medicine, science and technology, etc., with high academic value.
Among these precious documents, the "Book of Songs" is a compilation of legal cases, including a total of 22 cases, reflecting the Qin and Han adjudication thinking with vivid rule of law cases, of which the 21st case, "Du Hu (hū) Woman and Rape Case", is very similar to Zhao Ji's situation, for details, see below:
The Book of Songs: "Now Du Hu woman Gongfu Gongshi Ding died of illness, the funeral coffin was in the hall, not buried, and Ding Musu was mourned at night, and the coffin was wept around the coffin, and the coffin of A and the man was neutralized and raped." Ming Dan, Su Su a jia official, the official arrested A, suspected A crime. ”
The gist is that Du Huanyi woman A, husband Duke Ding (the lowest title of Qin and Han) Ding died of illness and has not yet been buried, and woman A and her mother-in-law are mourning, crying around the coffin. At night, Woman A and Man C commit adultery in the house behind the coffin. The next day, the mother-in-law su complained to the government, and the official arrested the woman A, but how to convict and sentence became difficult.
If the case is judged in Confucian thought, there is almost no doubt that woman A will die, but the Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty were still considered to be a "rule of law society", and the conviction and sentencing of woman A needed clear legal provisions, and it was not possible to carry out Spring and Autumn prison. But the problem is that women's A and men's C are too anxious, and the people who formulated the legal provisions did not expect this situation, so how to convict female A has become a problem. Du County officials believed that the facts of the case were clear, and intuitively believed that Woman A was guilty, but there were difficulties in conviction and sentencing, so they reported it to the Supreme Court, Ting Wei.
After receiving the case, the Tingwei Government attached great importance to it, "Tingwei Hub, Zheng shi, Jian Hong, Ting Shiwu and other thirty people discussed it", a group of the highest level gathered to discuss, and finally a group of people came to the conclusion that the woman A was guilty.
"Deservedly, the wife honors the husband, the second parent, and the husband dies, not sad, with the man and the adulterous funeral, to the two chapters of the law of filial piety and ao fierceness, although the catcher is in school, A is finished (keeping the body intact) as a scoop." Tell Du on A. ”
The general idea is that the wife respects the husband, when the degree of respect for the parents is inferior, the woman A husband is not sad after the death, but commits adultery with the man C, violating the law of filial piety and the crime of abomination (applicable to the wife disrespectful husband). Although the arrester failed to catch the adulterer in bed, the rape was caught in pairs. Female A shall be sentenced to scoop (no corporal punishment, scoop rice).
The origin of the crime of filial piety of woman A is not directly stipulated in the law, but is derived from "the death of the parents, the unburied, the rape of the bystander, when the filial piety", the explicit punishment for the crime of filial piety is abandonment of the city death penalty, but the situation of the woman A is different, and the death penalty cannot be imposed. Another law stipulates that "death is followed by a man (heir), no man is a parent, no parent is a wife, and no wife is a child", after the death of Gong Shi Ding, the first heir is his son, if he does not have a son, then it is Gong Shi Ding's parents, again it is Gong Shi Ding's wife, and finally the daughter of Gong Shi Ding, on the other hand, saying that woman A is only the third heir, she cannot be harshly asked to respect her husband 100%, so woman A is guilty, but it should be a secondary crime of filial piety, that is, "the second time of filial piety, when the emperor is the city Dan". And because "when the dough, the husband of the duke, the wife of the duke, is finished", the husband of the woman A is a public servant, so she keeps her body intact according to the law, and does not tattoo it on her face - 黥.
The origin of the woman's crime is relatively clear, because the crime of Ao is also applicable to the wife's disrespect for her husband, but the problem is that the husband has died, so this crime is also very reluctant. According to the law, "Ao Hun, finished as Chengdan Scoop, Iron □ its feet, lose Ba County Salt", that is, Chengdan Gang, who does not attach corporal punishment, wears iron shackles on his feet, and works in the salt works of the salt officials of Ba County. Chengdan is a punishment for male prisoners, and Chengdan (Zhimi, Zhimi) is a punishment for women, but the specific punishment content is not static, and will be adjusted as needed, such as Chengdan was originally a city, but here is to work in the salt works.
It should be noted that during the Qin and Han dynasties, the crime of adultery was judged, "the adulterer, the concubine of the subordinate, the adulterer must be the school of the case", that is to say, it is necessary to catch the adulterer and catch the double, catch the adulterer in bed, and the two sides "check" each other's crimes, and then sentence them to "subordinate concubines", instead of casually saying that it is the crime of adultery. Since the woman's husband is dead, this kind of behavior is not a crime of adultery, and naturally should not be sentenced to a subordinate concubine.
From the existing legal provisions, the Tingwei Government tried its best to find the corresponding basis for the judgment of this case. Due to the great changes in ancient and modern society, it is difficult for us to sort out the logic today, but we can see that the judgment at that time was still relatively rigorous, and there were corresponding legal provisions to support it.
However, after some time, a Tingshi named Shen returned from a business trip, and after seeing the verdict in this case, he immediately thought that Tingwei's verdict was inappropriate and raised five questions. As mentioned above, "Ting Wei Hu, Zheng Shi, Jian Hong, Ting Shi Wu" and others discussed that according to the order, "Ting Shi" should be the four leaders of the Ting Wei Mansion, and the positions are not high or low.
First: the father is alive, the son does not give him food for three days, the father dies, and the son does not go to the grave for three days. Ting Wei believed that the former had abandoned the death penalty and the latter was not guilty.
Second: If the father is alive and the son does not listen to the teachings, and the father dies, and the sons do not listen to the teachings, what crime should each be punished? According to the legal principles distilled from the first article, Ting Wei and others believe that "if you do not listen to the teachings of the dead father, you are not guilty."
Third: The husband is alive, the wife lives in and remarries, the husband dies, the wife lives in and remarries, which crime is more serious? Ting Wei believed that the former should be sentenced to Chengdan, and the latter was not guilty.
Fourth: Which sin is the greatest sin of deceiving a living husband or deceiving a dead husband? According to the above legal judgment logic, Ting Wei found the latter innocent.
Fifth: How can a husband who is an official work every day, his wife at home, commit adultery with others during the day, and the magistrate does not arrest her "at school"? Because the rape was caught in bed and the rape was caught in pairs, and when it was not caught on the spot, the court lieutenant was acquitted.
Therefore, Ting Shishen asked back, since "the crime of cheating the father is lighter than the crime of invading the biological father, and the crime of assaulting the husband is heavier than the crime of invading and deceiving the dead husband", and the "arrester Fu case school" next to the coffin of the woman and the man is not caught, then why is it still "alone and finished, is it not also heavy?" "Isn't the crime too serious? This remark made the officials of the Tingwei Mansion helplessly say "sincerely lost", and woman A was indeed innocent.
Zhangjiashan Hanjian is a document from the early Western Han Dynasty, but the "Du Hu Woman and Rape Case" is generally said to have occurred in the Qin Dynasty, and it is estimated that this case is very representative, and it was recorded in the Book of Songs to guide officials in handling cases that were not expressly stipulated by law.
Returning to the opening question, Zhao Ji had an adulterous affair, and judging from the handling of the above case, Zhao Ji cheated on her deceased husband and was not caught raping in bed, and should obviously be acquitted. Of course, Qin Shi Huang did not kill Zhao Ji, and legal issues were certainly not the main cause, but they were not necessarily auxiliary causes. After all, through the "Du Hu Woman and Rape Case" and The Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Qin Jian and so on, the legal awareness of officials at all levels of the Qin Dynasty is still very strong, and each judgment often has its legal basis, rather than a hasty judgment, which is still worth learning.
References: "History", "Sonata", etc
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