Introduction: In the third year of the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1738 AD, a murder occurred in Qi Prefecture (present-day Anguo City, Baoding City, Hebei Province). There are two peculiarities in this case, one is that the murderer and the deceased are father and son and brotherly; second, the main culprit was found not guilty, but the accomplice was tragically delayed.
In the early years of Qianlong, in the countryside of Qizhou, there lived a family of four, the head of the household, Zheng Duzi (the original name of the historical record is Zheng Duzi), Zheng Duzi's eldest son Zheng Cheng'er, the second son Zheng Siyan, and the two's stepmother, Zheng Duzi's continuing wife Wang Shi. Zheng Duzi is more than sixty years old, upright, but also a little grumpy, the second son Zheng Four Eyes filial piety, is a little timid and afraid of things; the eldest son Zheng Cheng'er is very bold, but does not do the right thing, likes to drink and gamble, steal property, often bump into his father and stepmother, is a typical scoundrel.
Zheng Fool is very annoying to his eldest son Zheng Cheng'er, but after all, he is his own flesh and blood, and he has to endure anger. Soon after, Zheng Cheng'er did something that completely ignited Zheng Cheng'er's fiery temper, and Zheng Cheng'er also died. The cause of the incident was still on Zheng Cheng'er, who was shouted out by several fox friends to eat and drink a meal and returned home drunk. At that time, there was only the stepmother Wang Shi in the family, Zheng Duzi and the second son Zheng Siyan working in the field.
Wang Shi saw that Zheng Cheng'er was drunk and walking backwards and backwards, so he came over and pinched his nose to let Zheng Cheng'er quickly go back to the room to drink some water and wake up the wine. Zheng Cheng'er has always disliked the Wang family, he felt that his father hated himself because of the bad words said by his stepmother, he saw the Wang family to persuade himself, immediately angry, and pushed the Wang family to the ground. Wang Shi was pushed coldly, fell painfully, and got up so angry that he went back to his room and cried.
Zheng Cheng'er saw her stepmother fall, smiled and went back to her room to sleep. At noon, Zheng Duzi and Zheng Siyan returned, and Wang Shi cried and said to Zheng Duzi that Zheng Cheng'er was drunk and pushed himself to the ground, too bad words, you have to take care of it! As soon as Zheng Fool heard the thunderous jump, he grabbed a wooden stick in his hand and was going to beat Zheng Cheng'er. Zheng Si saw that his father was going to beat his brother and quickly stopped him, and Zheng Fool turned around and left.
Zheng Fool looked at his tear-stained wife Wang Shi, and his heart hated the eldest son to the extreme, and he felt that this contrarian son must be removed, otherwise he would be designated to be angry with him in the future. So Zheng Fool called his second son, Zheng Siyan, and asked Zheng Siyan to buy some arsenic, saying that he wanted to poison Zheng Cheng'er. Zheng Si's eyes were frightened and stupid, he quickly advised his father not to be impulsive, his brother was just drunk and crazy, accidentally offended his stepmother, and would not poison him.
Before Zheng Siyan finished speaking, Zheng Fool slapped him and scolded: "If you want to buy it, you will buy it, and you also want to kill me?" Zheng Si saw that his father was angry, and his heart was very afraid, so he had to go out to buy arsenic. After the arsenic cream was bought, Zheng Siyan let Zheng Siyan make cakes, and when he was making noodles, Zheng Siyan let Zheng Siyan mix arsenic into the flour, Zheng Siyan did not dare to put it all in, only half of it, he felt that this poison was relatively small, and the poison did not kill his brother.
After the cake was ready, Zheng Duzi personally took a cake to give to his eldest son Zheng Cheng'er to eat. Zheng Cheng'er was still drunk at that time, confused, and saw that his father let him eat cakes, so he ate one. Soon after, the poison attacked, Zheng Cheng'er roared wildly on the bed, and finally bled to death. When Zheng Si saw his brother die, he sat paralyzed on the ground in fear and cried loudly, but Zheng Fool was very calm, and not a single tear fell, perhaps he was completely desperate for his eldest son.
The noise of the Zheng family alarmed the neighbors, and after people learned that Zheng Fool had poisoned his son Zheng Cheng'er, there was a lot of discussion, and some people reported the matter to the officials. The father and son of the Zheng family were arrested into the case, and the two confessed and signed the pledge. Because the local government reported the case to the father who killed his son, which was different from the ordinary case of human death, it was reported to the governor of Zhili, who in turn transferred the case to the Ministry of Punishment.
After carefully studying the file, the officials of the Punishment Department, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Great Qing Laws, ruled: "Zheng Cheng'er pushed down his stepmother after drinking, so that his father Zheng Fool was angry and embarrassed, and he killed the machine. Let the parent Zheng Siyan buy a letter (arsenic cream) to make a cake poison, Zheng Cheng'er eat cake poison and die. ”
The Ministry of Punishment believes that Zheng Fool's order to Zheng Siyan to buy arsenic cream to poison Zheng Cheng'er is the main culprit in this case, and Zheng Siyan is an accomplice, but although Zheng Siyan killed his son, he is excusable, because he "stops trying to eliminate harm, which is inconsistent with the law of innocent killing innocent children and grandchildren, and those who beat and kill their grandparents and parents according to their descendants should not be punished, and they should be spared from punishment." ”
That is to say, the Ministry of Punishment believes that Zheng Cheng'er poisoned the eldest son Zheng Cheng'er because Zheng Cheng'er was not filial to his stepmother, and pushing his stepmother belonged to beating his parents and was disobedient. Therefore, Zheng Cheng'er was killed by himself, and Zheng Cheng'er killed Zheng Cheng'er in order to "eliminate harm", rather than deliberately killing his son to commit crimes, so according to the "Great Qing Laws" in the "Great Qing Law", "children and grandchildren beat their parents, and those who are killed by their parents are exempted from punishment", and they are exempt from the crime of Zheng Cheng'er.
However, as an accomplice, Zheng Siyan was not so lucky, although he was forced by his father to buy poison and killed his brother, but as a younger brother, he killed his own brother, which belonged to the "joint murder period of meritorious pro-chief", the crime was extremely evil, and should be executed. After the Criminal Investigation Department drew up the results, it played the verdict of this case to Qianlong for the final judgment, and Qianlong replied with two words: "According to the discussion!" "It means that according to the meaning of your Punishment Department, Zheng Fool will be acquitted and Zheng Siyan Lingchi will be executed." (End of full text)
References: Compilation of Cases?