As the closest traditional dynasty to the qing dynasty, many major events have been passed down through multiple channels of official or folk, and there are naturally some bizarre events, such as the top ten strange cases of the Qing Dynasty, which are often used as the prototype of drama. And when we see these strange cases, we may wonder - what was the judicial process in the Qing Dynasty, and why are there so many strange cases? Today, let's start with one of the ten strange cases, the Macheng Tu family wife murder case, to get a glimpse of the real Qing Dynasty judicial process.
I. Tu Yang's disappearance and Yang Wurong's allegations
The case occurred in Macheng County, Hubei Province in the eighth year of Yongzheng (1730), Tu Rusong and his wife were newly married for more than a year, and in the first month, tu Yang's wife Tu Yang returned to the province and was not sent back to Tu Rusong's family by her brother Yang Wurong until the twenty-fourth day. That night, Tu Rusong said that his wife was missing, called neighbors to look around, and also went to Yang Wurong's house to inquire, but still did not find the whereabouts of his wife, and had no choice but to report to the officials for a reward to find out. However, Tu Yang's brother Yang Wurong accused Tu Rusong of murdering his sister, and the case began.
Second, the investigation reached an impasse, and the two Zhixian counties were involved
At that time, The macheng county order named Yang Sipu took over the case, but an unsuccessful investigation did not find Tu Yang's body, coupled with Tu Rusong's mother's frequent appeals, Tu Rusong was eventually released, and the case has not progressed. At that time, the judicial procedure was based on efficiency considerations, requiring officials to complete the case within a certain period of time, otherwise they would accept punishment, so Yang Sipu was removed from his post because of this case.
He was replaced by a trial of Zhixian Tang Ying. After performing his duties, Tang Yingqiu believed that yang Tongfan, a student, instigated Yang Wurong to make false accusations, so he offered a high-priced reward to find Tu Yang's family, and things also progressed. Some people reported that a stray dog had planed out a corpse on the Zhaojiahe beach, but due to weather reasons, Tang Yingqiu did not arrive at the scene at the first time. When he arrived at the scene, what he saw was different from what the discoverer reported. At this time, Yang Wurong took the opportunity to borrow the corpse to be charged, believing that it was Tu Yang's corpse, but according to the examination of the servants at that time, the body had hair braids and should be a male corpse, so Tang Ying asked for advice to drop blood and recognize relatives.
Because Yang Wurong did not accept Tang's request for an examination, the superior Huangzhoufu proposed to The Imperial Household that another member of the committee conduct a bone-dropping method examination in the "Record of Washed Grievances", but this was rejected by the inspector, but instead two Zhixian Gao renjie and Li Zuofu were assigned to determine the gender of the corpse, and the gender of the corpse was determined to be female, and it was immediately believed that Tu Rusong had killed his wife and buried the body. Jiang Jianian, the nurse of the Huangzhou Government, believed that the case was too suspicious, rejected the details four times, and personally examined the body, but concluded that it was the result of a male corpse, and the case has been disputed.
Wash the injustices
Because the facts of the case have been disputed endlessly and without a result, Gao Renjie and Li Zuofu were also assigned by their superiors to continue to take charge of the case instead of Chang Yuxiong and Wang She. But unfortunately, the two not only failed to make any breakthrough, but because of negligence, the body was washed away by the flood, only eight bones remained, the case lost physical evidence here, the dispute between the parties led to the case could not be concluded, Tang Yingqiu was also personally demoted and dismissed by the Yongzheng Emperor, and the two Zhixian who replaced the autopsy could only return to the palace in a gray and slippery way.
III. The Verdict of Unjust Cases and the Emergence of the Truth
The new chiefs, Zou Yunhuan and Huang Yizhong, took over the thorny case. At this time, because Tang Yingqiu, Xiong Yuchang, and Wang She, who had been arguing, had already been dismissed or returned to their original posts, and could not influence the verdict of this case, the controversial issues were naturally no longer a problem, so the new responsible persons Zou and Huang directly made a proposed judgment to determine that Tu Rusong had killed his wife and buried the body, and finally played the emperor, and the Yongzheng Emperor immediately issued a royal decree to be tang Yingqiu and Tu Rusongqiu to behead, and the lives of the two were in danger.
Yongzheng
Fortunately, at that time, the new county of Macheng County made Chen Dingxin arrive at his post, and when he could not ask for rain, he overheard someone saying that it was caused by a grievance in the county, so he sent someone to visit secretly, and as a result, he found Tu Yang's family in Yang Wurong's home, which restored the truth of the matter:
On the day of the incident, Tu Yang and Tu Rusong quarreled, and after the quarrel, they went to find Feng Da, who had an adulterous affair with her, while Yang Wurong mistakenly believed that she had been killed, so he went to accuse Tu Rusong. However, just after Yang Wurong accused Tu Rusong of killing his wife, his sister Yang Shi actually returned home. At that time, there was a severe punishment for false accusations, and in order to escape punishment, Yang Wurong sent his sister to the home of his cousin Yang Tongfan to hide, and did not take her home until he heard that the case was over.
But the truth was not revealed so quickly, and because the previous trial and transfer process of the case had been through his hands, he covered up the truth in every way and clashed with Wu Yingdi, the governor of Hubei, until Qianlong ordered the two of them to return to Beijing and assigned Shi Yizhi to deal with the case, and the truth was truly revealed to the world, which was the beginning and end of the Macheng Tu family wife murder case of the Ten Strange Cases of the Qing Dynasty.
Qing Dynasty patrol image
IV. Reasons for the Formation of Unjust Cases
From the beginning and end of unjust cases, we can glimpse a glimpse of the judicial system of the Qing Dynasty: a case not only needs to be tried by local county orders, but also needs to be handed over to the government, the chancellor, the inspector, the governor and even the emperor for trial and transfer. This requires an in-depth analysis of the judicial system.
The Qing Dynasty had strict procedural requirements for the trial and transfer of homicide cases, which were divided into generalization, general details and proposed judgments. Tongbing is a report submitted to the superior after the case investigation, but it is relatively simple, the details are an advanced version of Tongbing, which is more detailed than Tongbing, and the final proposed judgment includes the beginning and end of the case and the judgment.
The details do not seem to be conspicuous here, but it often determines the direction of the case, according to Yartu's "For the Ultimatum Detailed Theft case to avoid unjust Connivance", the state and county officials "stick to the previous report, forced confessions, the trial of the trial believes that the confession is consistent with the case, naturally the true feelings are true", which shows the importance of the details to the direction of the case.
In the general details of Gao Renjie and Li Zuo's room, the two fabricated the fact that Tu Rusong and Tu Yang were fighting, saying that the two fought because Tu Yang did not respect his mother, and Tu Rusong accidentally hit Yang's pregnant belly with a spinning wheel, causing his death.
Spinning wheels
What's even more outrageous is that the two even added to the process of Tu Rusong's burial, saying that he hired someone to help carry the body and bury it. Ironically, one of the people they mentioned in the general details who helped bury the body was old and blind, and the other was still a cripple, and they were all far away from the Tu family. When faced with doubts, it can only give such an unconvincing explanation as "when he lifts the body, his eyes are still clear, and his steps are sufficient".
However, the two also have clever points, in the proposed judgment, they pointed out that a "witness" Zhao Dang'er bumped into Tu Rusong carrying a corpse, extorted, and after failing to succeed, reported it to Yang Wurong's cousin Yang Tongfan, so that Yang Wurong learned, but later Zhao Dang'er changed his mouth because Tu Rusong gave money. In this way, Zhao Dang'er became a "witness" who could not break through.
Later, Zou Yunhuan and Huang Yizhong, because of the reasons for the previous people's general judgment, were naturally prone to preconceptions that Tu Rusong's killing of his wife was a fact, and also "consciously" optimized the unreasonableness in the previous people's general judgment, rewriting the general judgment to make it easier to be convinced, and the superior naturally found nothing wrong in the face of the carefully modified documents.
But there are still doubts about the matter, that is, why gao Renjie and Li Zuofu were rejected four times in detail, but still did not change the judgment but tried to improve it as much as possible? Is there any unquestionable evidence for them? Those of us who know the truth of the matter naturally know that this is impossible, in fact, the reason lies in the Judicial Responsibility System of the Qing Dynasty.
Great Qing Laws
The judicial responsibility system of the Qing Dynasty had very severe punishments for misjudgments, including a "crime of entering or leaving a person in a lawsuit", which means that the guilty person is sentenced to innocence or a felony is sentenced to a misdemeanor, and the other way around. Moreover, according to the intentional or unintentional determination of the wrongful judge, it is divided into four grades: therefore the crime of giving out, the crime of losing out of a person, therefore entering a person's crime, and the crime of losing a person. It was for this reason that Tang was sentenced to death. According to this decree, Gao and Li should be punished with the crime of negligence, and they need to be demoted to a third degree, which is a direct dismissal for them, and they will naturally do everything in their power to keep the official position that is not easy to get. Another puzzling aspect of the case – the fact that superiors have been assigning officials to investigate the case rather than personally investigate the case – is precisely for this reason that they do not want to bear the responsibility for misjudgment.
In addition, there is one of the most incomprehensible places in the case, that is, the governor of Huguang, Chen maizhu, still tried his best to cover up after knowing the truth, and was unwilling to admit the facts. Obviously, he was not related to the false accuser Yang Wurong and the trial judge, so why did he speak for them? In fact, he was speaking for himself, which was due to the principle of "sitting in the same position" in the Qing Dynasty's judiciary. For misjudgments, in addition to the judicial officers who need to bear responsibility, other officials involved in the trial of the case also need to be punished accordingly: with the official as the head, the chief official, the second official, and the chief official reducing the punishment by one in turn, which is the principle of "sitting in the same position" in the Qing judicial system. In order not to be punished, there is only conscience.
Wen Shijun said
With the existence of the above two systems, once there is a misjudgment, most of the officials involved in the trial are inclined to protect themselves and make mistakes, so unjust cases such as the Macheng Tu's wife murder case will naturally emerge in an endless stream. The unjust case of the Macheng Tu family's wife murder case is only a case of overturned cases in similar unjust cases, and such unjust cases in the Qing Dynasty must have been far more than imagined.
bibliography
Shi Zhiqiang, "Why Unjust Cases Arise: Judicial Archives and Trial and Transfer System in the Qing Dynasty", Qing History Research, No. 1, 2021.
Wang Hui, "On the Judicial Responsibility System of Judicial Officials in the Qing Dynasty", Master's Thesis of Shandong University, 2007.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Lingfeng)
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