Text/Li Law
Editor/Li Law
preface
Zhang Jinfan, an expert on Chinese legal history, once said: "The rule of law was the most glorious period of the Song Dynasty, and some of these systems surpassed the Tang Dynasty, and even the Ming and Qing Dynasties could not achieve them." Xu Daolin, a scholar of Taiwanese law, also once said: "The Song Dynasty was the heyday of the development of traditional Chinese legal system. ”
The glorious achievements of the legal system of the Song Dynasty were mainly manifested in the legislative, judicial, economic, administrative, civil and other aspects, and were actively promoted and innovated in all aspects, and the "Zhulu Supervision Department" was the main force in the construction of the legal system. In the Song Dynasty, the Lifting Department consisted of three parts: the Transportation Department, the Mention of the Penal Prison Department, and the Lifting of Changping Division. In the local area, it is responsible for "handling prison lawsuits, collecting public opinions, recommending good officials, and impeaching adulterers".
Superintendent Zhitong is the highest level of judicial adjudication at the road, state and county level. In his long judicial career, he made great contributions to the legislation, justice, legal publicity and education of the Song Dynasty. Song Ci and other outstanding supervisors formed the earliest forensic appraisal monograph "Collection of Wrongful Cleansing" through summarizing their own and the judicial appraisal work of previous generations.
They were the best group of supervisors in the Song Dynasty, and they were also a group of people who created the glorious achievements of the legal culture of the Song Dynasty. When discussing the supervision system of the Song Dynasty, the predecessors paid little attention to the connection between the supervision system of the Song Dynasty and the legal culture, so I specially put it forward here and hope that you will criticize it more
The contribution of the Song Dynasty Superintendent to the legislative construction of the Song Dynasty
"Fair prison litigation and trial of people's difficulties" was one of the main functions of the Song Dynasty supervisor. In actual work, a large number of supervisors paid attention to collecting and retaining relevant legislative materials, and deeply thought about the legislative issues of the Song Dynasty, and then these people provided many useful suggestions for the legislation of the Song Dynasty.
The warden of the Song Dynasty was responsible for sorting out and recording the emperor's will, for example, on August 12 of the second year of Jingde, the emperor issued a decree: "All states, be ordered by the three divisions to provide a new will." However, due to the old system, there were two books, one for the government to write, one for the legal department, and one for the transfer of the road for review. The same goes for transshipment. ”
In the eleventh year of Shaoxing, the content of the revision in the "Shaoxing Re-Revision Edict Format" was: "The chief book of the supervision commission, the judicial of the prefecture party committee, and the county party committee will each be under the command of the successive demotion, and will be compiled into books according to the edict." Still in the Shaoxing Law, the article should be changed and changed, and it is clearly posted that the command will be changed according to a certain year, month and day, and the chief official will take the right photo again, and it shall not be omitted. "Please refer to the government and do not omit the amendments. This ensured that when the imperial court examined local cases, they were well documented.
Regarding the decrees promulgated by the local imperial court, there are also some regulations, such as Han Sijian, the governor of Changping of Lizhou Road, who shangshu in June of the third year of Xuanhe: "I see that the imperial court issued a decree and a system of renewals from time to time, but in the order of the year and month, the month and day sleep for a long time, and the officials in the government failed to notify, and the adulterers were given priority because of it." Begging for a division shall be incorporated door by door by order to make it easy to see the good intentions of the law."
During the Song Dynasty, when supervisors inspected localities, several diligent officials would collect the laws and provisions of the previous dynasty to provide data support for the formulation of future laws and regulations. For example, Zhang Jie, the former official of Guangnan Dongdao, once said: "Since crossing the river, books have been scattered, and officials and officials have decided on matters and cannot be investigated." When he was in the middle of his life, he often begged everywhere. He also searched everywhere outside the ridge, copied the laws of the ages, compiled the edicts of the dynasties, a total of 1,800 volumes, and attached ten maps, and asked your lords to revise them and send them to the court. This matter received great attention from the imperial court, and then the emperor issued a decree: "Write Zhang Jie's name in a booklet, this matter involves the six major Yamen, and hand it over to each Yamen for review." ”
After the five years of Shaoxing, due to the war, the prefecture and county court had no evidence to repeatedly question, and over time, it ordered all the Yamen; "Within one month, the supervisor will send the strips all the way to the prefectures and counties, compile them into a book, and go to the province of Shangshu." In the Song Dynasty, he played an important role in the codification of the laws of the Song Dynasty.
The contribution of Song Dynasty supervisor officials to the judicial construction of the Song Dynasty
"Prisoning all the way to prison" was an important duty of officials in the Song Dynasty. In general, criminal cases were handled by the Criminal Division, and civil and economic cases were handled by the Transportation Department, while the Changping Division, although it was also responsible for civil and economic cases, paid more attention to the "household property" and "disaster relief" related to its duties.
As a minister during the Ningzong period of the Southern Song Dynasty said: "The imperial court set up special envoys in order for the Ming king to order the Qing officials to govern the country, and each thing has its own responsibilities; Marriage, field property, taxation, imprisonment, Changping, tea and salt, army, and horse bandits are all stable. With the power of one country, and the power of the state, the people can not be divided and end the dispute as soon as possible. ”
In fact, although the inspector also has his own duties, the inspector can also handle civil cases and economic cases, but the order of trial is generally after the receipt of the pleadings by the Forwarding and Lifting Department. For example, under the reign of Renzong Jing, Zhongshu Sou: "At the time of the discussion, if it is said that the state army has not handled it properly, it will be allowed to be handled by the transfer department, and if it is not accepted, it will be allowed to be handled by the public servants, and then it is feared that various officials will want to transfer them, but because of the long distance, it is difficult to deal with them." From then on, if there is no trial by the Imperial History Inspector, or if there is any impropriety, please ask the Imperial History to accept it and report it to the Transit Department so that it will not accept other official duties. ”
In the harsh winter, there was also a system of ordering the imperial history to urge the prefecture and county prisons in batches, such as in May of the second year of Renzong Jingzhi, due to natural disasters: "Transferring the deputy envoys, the courtiers who raised the prison, and the envoys were divided into the prefecture army under their jurisdiction to release the prisons." Three years of Emperor Huizong, "Summer solstice, sneaky, afraid of water overflowing branches." "Gyeonggi and Zhulu Prefecture ordered the transfer, the punishment, and the Changping Division to be inspected separately, urging the end of the ban on criminals. Those who are internally dry and light in matters shall first break off. ”
The system of the Southern Song Dynasty changed, and Changping and the transit envoys did not participate in the trials of Cold and Summer Prefecture. Therefore, the task of raising the envoy was heavy, and in October of the Chunxi year of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, a minister proposed to this issue: "The Fushimi Overseer will send people to escort prisoners every summer, and if there are prisoners missing, it is a good way to ask the supervisor to send someone to escort. So he proposed: "Whoever can make the inspector should not be punished." The imperial court agreed, and in the Song Dynasty it returned to the prefecture-based detention system, which was conducive to the speedy trial of the case.
In the trial activities of the early Song Dynasty, many officials were fair and upright, which played an exemplary role for the trial culture of the early Song Dynasty. For example, in Emperor Gaozong's Chao Zizhi is the governor of Jinghu North Road, "The public press the ministry, stand in front, Yun: long time to suppress the grievances, prefectures and counties ignore the subordinates." As a result, Kaurham, who had not reported for many years, was rehabilitated. There was also Liu Ying as the governor of Hunan during the Jiading period of Emperor Ningzong, and four large farming households were wrongfully killed, "Deng insisted on negotiating with the official government, and the official government intensified the search, and the people were overwhelmed with grief and confessed their innocence." In the prison, the emperor sent a letter to the officials to find out the truth, and the four people got out of the trap and knelt down and shouted: "The one who gave birth to me will be punished!" "There are many similar examples, so I won't list them all here.
Most of the supervisors of the Song Dynasty had worked in prefectures and counties, so they deeply recognized the shortcomings of real life, so they were fair and strict in law, thus making great contributions to the legal culture of the Song Dynasty.
The contribution of the Song Dynasty Superintendent to the publicity and education of the legal system in the Song Dynasty
During the Two Song Dynasty, as a link between the central government and the local prefectures, in addition to transmitting imperial court decrees and publishing case judgments, the inspectorate also popularized the legal system among the people, and had the function of legal education. At the same time, some supervisors also took advantage of their positions to write articles of exhortation, post notices, publish books, and disseminate imperial court decrees to expand the scope of influence of the decrees and enhance the people's awareness of the legal system. The supervision of the Song Dynasty made publicity and education of the law, which was mainly manifested as:
Issuing the will of the government. Every highway in the Song Dynasty was a channel for transmitting news, and orders involving the interests of the people would be required to be posted to inform the people. For example, in September of the second year of Emperor Huizong's reign, an official wrote: "Please write a handbook of bereavements, and ask the inspector to print it at the beginning of the first month to show the people." "And the pardons and pensions of the imperial court are also related to the common people, in order to let the common people know, the imperial court will let the supervision yuan post notices, for example, there is such a record in the "Qingyuan Article Legal Affairs": All those who have pardons and pensions, the people of the supervision yuan will post the notice on the wall of the supervision yuan. As for the rights of prisoners, the imperial court would also make them post announcements.
Officials have repeatedly issued bans prohibiting officials from committing suicide in prison. In order to let the people know, under the rule of Emperor Renzong, there was a prohibition: in the prisons of the prefectures, all sick people were not allowed to kill without cause, and each punishment was often personally verified, and a public notice was posted, and people were allowed to show up.
In this way, the people will know that the government has issued a ban on the mistreatment of prisoners and can also report those who fail in their duties. Emperor Ning also had a will: "Order each of the adults to be sentenced to check whether they are guilty, put up notices, post them on a prefecture-by-prefecture and county basis, and post them at the door of the cell to inform the prisoners." ”
Enable detainees and their families to know clearly whether their actions are illegal or worthy of imprisonment, in accordance with the law. In this way, the implementation of the imperial court's decrees can be truly ensured.
For example, for some violations, the imperial court will ask the inspectors to post them and inform the people to set an example. For example, during the Shaoxing period of Emperor Gaozong, Huxiang, Jiang, and Huai provinces; "Many people abandoned their fields, and since the beginning of the year, they have all thought about resuming their business, and the situation households have encroached on the land boundary and are not allowed to plow it." Therefore, the imperial court had a purpose: "Inspect the rules and regulations, and give the edict, such as those who have been robbed of the land by the upper household, and go to the official to complain." ”
In the 19th year of Shaoxing, there was another will: "Jiangnan east-west, Jinghu north-south, Huainan east-west road pacification, transfer, and punishment department, sit down to see the rules and regulations, and make a list." If a person is usurped by the upper household, he will go to the official to file a complaint. Its Sichuan, Liangzhejiang, Erguang, Fujian, and Jingxi Road are also beggars here. ”
This not only allows the people to understand the laws of the government, but also deters lawbreakers. It can be said that the "proclamation" promulgated by the government is the most commonly used method of declaration, and it has a strong function of legal education.
epilogue
In short, the Song Dynasty's transshipment, sentencing, and Changping road supervision departments, because of their unique status, enabled them to supervise various places while also making great contributions to the legal culture of the Song Dynasty. Whether in legislation, in the judiciary, or in legal propaganda, it shows the important role of supervision officials in "sentencing prisoners and impeaching adultery" during the Song Dynasty.
The participation of inspectors in local judicial work not only enables cases to be tried promptly and fairly, but also plays a positive role in safeguarding the legitimate rights of the people, and also plays a positive role in promoting the revision of laws and the improvement of the legal system. In particular, a group of conscientious supervisors, such as Song Ci and Zheng Xingzi, formulated complete standards for judicial appraisal, formulated "Inspection Grids", "Positive Back Human Figures", etc., and finally formed a number of scientific and highly accurate forensic books such as "Collection of Cleansing of Injustices".
It pushed the legal system of the Song Dynasty to the apex of the legal system in China's feudal era, and had a great impact on future generations, which is worth learning from our people today.
Bibliography:
[1] Zhang Jinfan, "The Evolution of Chinese Legal Civilization"
[2] Xu Daolin, "A Collection of Essays on the History of the Legal System in China"
[3] Xie Shenfu, "Qingyuan Article Legal Class"
[4] Li Tao, "Continuing the Zhi Tong Long Edition"