Pharaoh
Pharaoh
In all dynasties, the exiles included not only peddlers and pawns, ordinary people, but also literati and scholars, dignitaries, relatives of the emperor and even emperors.
These exiled elites have driven the development of history, created unique and distinctive regional cultures, and written epics and countless moving legends.
Exile, as a felony of the first degree, was an important part of the ancient Chinese criminal law system. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties established the five punishments of flogging, cane, imprisonment, exile, and death, different names have been added in successive dynasties to enrich the content of exile punishment in the national penal system, such as: Song Dynasty assassination, Yuan Dynasty Liuyuan, Ming Dynasty Chongjun, etc.
In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to the inheritance of the former Ming penal system, the punishment of dispatch was created, and finally "a system of exile was formed, with the third-rate as the main punishment, and the migration, conscription, and dispatch as the intercalary punishment."
1. The origin of the punishment of exile
In the ancient Chinese legal system, the five punishments of reply, rod, imprisonment, exile and death were the main punishments, and the other punishments were called intercalary punishments.
Since the five-punishment system has been used since the formation of the Sui and Tang dynasties until the end of the Qing Dynasty, there has not been much change, so the adjustment of punishments in the past dynasties has mostly focused on intercalary punishment.
Successive rulers have created new forms of punishment in response to the social conditions they faced, and the changes in the punishment of exile were particularly pronounced. Exile is the main punishment of exile, and the new types of other punishments of exile are called intercalary punishments.
In the Qing Dynasty, the punishment of exile was inherited from all generations, and in addition to the main punishment of exile, the punishment of intercalary punishment not only inherited the traditional punishments such as migration and confiscation of the army, but also created something on its own, inventing a more severe punishment of exile - dispatch.
At the same time, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty also combined with the experience of previous dynasties in view of their own characteristics, and cooperated with various supplementary and alternative punishments in the process of execution of exile punishments, so that the exile system of the Qing Dynasty presented a complex and changeable color.
2. The formation and evolution of the regional circle structure of exile before the Ming Dynasty
The choice of the early place of exile also implied a sense of geographical circles. As recorded in the "Shangshu Yu Gong", the desolate costumes: "Five hundred li to serve: three hundred li Yi, two hundred li Cai; Five hundred li barren service: three hundred li barbarian, two hundred li stream.
The so-called "to", the Han Kong Anguo believes that it is the meaning of constraint, "to bind culture and education"; The so-called "Yi", the Han man Ma Rong said: "Yi, Yi also." Qing Wang Xianqianyun: "Xu Jinzhi, who said that his customs are changeable"; The so-called "Cai" and "Liu", Song people Cai Shenyun: "Cai, put also. ”
Again: "Stream, the place of exile for sinners. Cai and Liu, both punish sinners, and the severity of the crime, so don't go far or near. From this point of view, the outermost layer of the five-service system, the "wasteland", is the ideal place for the exile of sinners, with the desire to change customs and redodoxification.
To serve 200 miles of "Cai" and 200 miles of wasteland to "stream" is also a reflection of the severity of the crime and the distance of other regions.
From this point of view, the political and geographical pattern of the "five-service system" is not simply a "circle" structure of political differentiation, nor is it just a "hierarchical circle" with diminishing power from the center to the periphery, but also contains the characteristics of the geographical circle of the ancient Chinese exile system.
The geographical circle characteristics of exile in ancient China were gradually strengthened with the continuous enrichment and improvement of exile punishment. "Shangshu Shundian" contains: "There are houses in the five streams, and there are three houses in the five houses", Kong Anguo Zhuyun: "If you can't bear to increase the punishment, you will be exiled, if you are the four murderers."
The five punishments and the like, each with its own dwelling. The difference between the five dwellings, the dwellings of the third class, the four descendants of the great sin, the second Kyushu is outside, and the second is thousands of miles away. Kong Anguo divided the place of exile into three classes: first, the place of the four descendants, which should refer to the place where Dongyi, Nanman, Beirong, and Xidi lived; the second is outside Kyushu; The third is thousands of miles away.
The so-called four descendants, beyond Kyushu, thousands of miles away, where is the center of the place? Referring to what the four descendants said, it can be inferred that the exile of sinners was centered on Wang Ji, so that it can be related to the "five-service system" at that time.
Before the Northern Zhou Dynasty, although there were a large number of records of exile sentences, there was no specific institutional design in terms of the level of crime and the distance of migration.
In the third year of Baoding in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (563), exile was divided into five classes:
Those who go to Huangji for 2,500 miles will be whipped 100 and flogged 60. If you want to serve, you will go to Huangji for 3,000 miles, and you will be whipped 100 and flogged 70 times. Those who go to Huangji for 3,500 miles will be whipped 100 and flogged 80. Liuzhen uniform, go to Huangji for 4,000 miles, whip 100, flog 90. Liubo suit, go to Huangji 4,500 li, whip 100, flog 100.
From the perspective of the penal system of exile punishment in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the rulers of the Northern Zhou Dynasty centered on Huangji, and according to the severity of the person's crimes, and matched the number of miles of the people, they prescribed five exile areas, namely, guard clothes, important clothes, desert clothes, town clothes, and fan clothes, so as to show the difference in severity.
If we look at it as a "circle", it can be seen as a system of exile with "one center, five circles".
In the first year of the opening of the Sui Dynasty (581), a new law was redefined, the level of exile was reduced from five to three classes, and the scheme of distinguishing crimes by distance and proximity of the Tao was retained, and the distance between exiles was changed to 1,000 li, 1,500 li, and 2,000 li.
In the Tang Dynasty, the law was changed to 2,000 li, 2,500 li, and 3,000 li. After that, after the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the punishment of exile in the third class, 2,000 li, 2,500 li, and 3,000 li did not change much, but only different forms of punishment were attached to each class.
In other words, since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the geographical circle structure of "one center and three circles" has been fixed and has become the main feature of exile.
By the Northern Song Dynasty, the types of intercalary punishments separated from exile were constantly enriched, and the punishment of "stabbing and matching" was derived from exile, which also led to the further evolution of the characteristics of the geographical circle of exile.
In the first year of Yuanfu (1098), nine exile circles were formed with Honju as the center and stabbed from the inside to the outside: Honju, Linzhou, 500 li, Qianli, 2,000 li, 3,000 li, Quang Nam Prefecture Army, Yuanwei Prefecture Army, and Salmon Island.
By the time of Song Xiaozong, it was further increased to 12 geographical circles, including Benzhou City, Benzhou Prison City, Neighboring Prefecture, 500 Li, Qianli, 1,500 Li, 2,000 Li, 2,500 Li, 3,000 Li, Guangnan Prefecture Army, Yuanwei Prefecture Army, and Overseas Prefecture Army, and it was divided into 14 categories in terms of crimes.
The geographical circle of exile in the Northern Song Dynasty was composed of the "mathematical area" near and far in the Daoli and the designated area with harsh water and soil, which had both flexibility and operability, greatly enriched the regional circle structure of exile punishment before the Sui and Tang dynasties, and also laid the foundation for the Ming and Qing dynasties.
3. The territorial circle structure of the Ming Dynasty's army replenishment
In the Ming Dynasty, from the initial dispatch of the border to the vicinity of 1,500 li, 2,500 li, 3,000 li, and 4,000 li to the extreme edge in the last years of Chongzhen, the army was filled with both rank and mileage, which was mainly due to the establishment and continuous improvement of the system of fixed guards for military prisoners.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was the founding period of the army refilling, and only according to the actual needs of the generals and prisoners were sent to the border to be planted or garrisoned, so the implementation was a simple border guard distribution.
In the sixth year of Hongwu (1373), the formulation of the "Da Ming Law" made the confiscation army have two circles: "nearby" and "remote", among which the part of "Famous Cases: Remote and Remote Confiscation of the Army" emphasized the principle of "from the appropriate arrangement", forming a starting point based on the place of origin, and the distribution of guards to the health stations under the jurisdiction of the specified provinces.
With the addition of the regulations on military recharge, a new principle of security is gradually taking shape. In the fourth year of Chenghua (1468), Zhao Yijuan, the envoy of Jiangxi, said: "The wealthy people of Jiangxi are mostly fighting for land and property, gathering people to kill each other, and killing people", begging to be banned from the list, and asking "those who commit capital crimes and sit in the apprenticeship will be sent to the army from a thousand miles away, and the following cane crimes will be issued as usual".
In June of the sixth year of Hongzhi (1493), it was decreed: "In the future, in the event of Deng Tingzan and others and the Ministry of Punishment making various plans to spare the death of prisoners who should be filled with soldiers, each according to the north and south places, the lack of military guards 1,000 miles away, and the descendants will always be in the army." ”
The above two documents show that the two regulations of the fourth year of Chenghua (1468) and the sixth year of Hongzhi (1493) are unique in that their fixed guards are centered on the criminal's place of origin or former residence, and radiate to the periphery in units of thousands of miles. ”
The author agrees with this point of view, although the crimes are unclear and lack of hierarchy, but it also shows that from Chenghua to the early years of Hongzhi, the characteristics of the circle have been reflected in the new principle of fixed guards in the Ming Dynasty.
In the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), the system of charging the army was changed. The main purpose of this change is to change the original principle of "the south will send the north, and the north will send the south" to the principle of "being far away from the border" to the south and the north to the north.
The maximum distance and time limit for the sinners to be confiscated into the army are also stipulated, "far from 3,000 miles, and the journey is not more than one or two months", and it is also stated in the regulations that "the extreme edge" is the heaviest punishment among the conscription of the army, which matches the farthest mileage, that is, the extreme side is 3,000 li.
It can be seen that in the principle of fixed defense in the early years of Jiajing, the severity of the crime of the criminals who were confiscated corresponded to the mileage of the conscription, and the circle design of the crime matching the mileage of the confiscated army officially appeared.
According to the History of the Ming Dynasty, in the 11th year of Chongzhen (1638), "the dispatch of the Ministry of Soldiers was to be near 1,000 li, 2,500 li to be the frontier, 3,000 li to be remote, and the extreme edge and smoke miasma were 4,000 li away."
This is the most perfect principle of the establishment and dispatch of guards since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the inheritance of the principle of "the distance and proximity of the land according to the severity of the crime." In addition, from the fourth class of the confiscated army during the Hongzhi and Jiajing periods, it was increased to the fifth class of the vicinity, border guard, remote, extreme edge, and smoke miasma, and the extreme side and smoke miasma were the heaviest punishments in the army.
Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the rulers not only made the military confiscation system more customized, but also made the Ming Dynasty's military confiscation system more three-dimensional and complex, giving the military confiscation regional circle structure a richer connotation.
4. The promotion of exile to the development of history and culture
The contribution of ancient exiles to the penal colony is the greatest promotion of historical and cultural development, and the early penal colony is undoubtedly not a remote and barbaric place, a bitter cold place with difficult conditions and a backward economy.
While a large number of exiles were forced to leave their homeland to get there, they also brought the Central Plains culture, artistic skills, and philosophical ideas to the penal colony at that time, combined with the local culture and regional customs, and promoted a unique historical and cultural development, the most typical of which is the Lingnan culture.
When Li Deyu, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, was exiled to Hainan Island, he couldn't help but sigh in the face of the vast sea: "If you go for a thousand miles, you won't return a thousand." ”
During the Tang and Song dynasties, hundreds of frustrated politicians, eunuchs and celebrities were exiled to Hainan Island.
The prince of the Tang Dynasty washed horses and served Liu Nayan, the Song poetry monk Huihong, the Northern Song Dynasty Prime Minister Lu Duoxun and Ding Wei, the Southern Song Dynasty served as the right secretary of the imperial history (prime minister) and Zhao Ding, who participated in the governor's affairs, Li Guang who served as the governor of the Southern Song Dynasty and the bachelor of senior administration, Hu Quan, who served as the secretary and young eunuch and living lang in the Southern Song Dynasty, and Cao Yong, the deputy envoy of the two Zhejiang provinces of the Southern Song Dynasty.
They have left their footprints here and created a splendid civilization in this wild land.
People who have traveled to Hainan know the famous Wugong Temple and Su Dongpo statue in Hainan, the cliff wall carvings, poems and tablets everywhere in Hainan, and the unique architectural style, all reflect the characteristics of the historical and cultural development of this land.
So much so that in the Five Princes Ancestral Hall in Haikou Fucheng, there is such a couplet: "The kings of the Tang and Song dynasties are not widows, and the people of Qiongya have a strange fate." Today, Lingnan culture has become an important organic part of the long and splendid Chinese culture, and is a wonderful branch in the hundred gardens of the motherland's culture.
Similar to the Lingnan culture, the exile promoted the development of many regional cultures in the mainland, such as the Bashu culture, the Kwantung culture, the Jingchu culture, the Hetao culture, the Yili culture, the Ningguta exile culture in Heilongjiang Province and the Fangling exile culture in Hubei.
5. The exiles spread knowledge, education, and science
The Western Regions was an important place of exile during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the exiles, especially the exiled officials, played an important role in promoting the development of Xinjiang, Gansu and other places during this period.
The first thing that should be mentioned is Ji Xiaolan, who was dismissed from his post and exiled to Urumqi for two years, during which he inspected the history and current situation of Xinjiang, focused on chanting Xinjiang Tuntian, and sorted out 160 miscellaneous poems in six parts, including regional customs, classics, folk customs, products, tours, and miracles, and named them "Urumqi Miscellaneous Poems", which became a historical picture scroll showing the social conditions and customs of Urumqi at that time.
When Lin Zexu went to Xinjiang, he brought the "Sanzhou Compendium", and also "took a cart to write twenty", there are many historical records of this kind, when Qiqihar and Aihui Shangyuan Festival were popular Yangge temple fairs, and now the lantern riddles, lantern boats, lion dances, acting, storytelling and other customs that prevail in the Shangyuan Festival in Urumqi are the result of the influence of the Liuren.
Heilongjiang Ningguta was also a barbaric and desperate place of economic and cultural backwardness, and Yang Yue, a streamer of the Qing Dynasty, exiled Ningguta to "carry thousands of books on oxen carts when leaving the customs", and brought the "Historical Records", "Five Classics", "Book of Han", etc., so that the aborigines here began to contact the Central Plains culture.
Hao Yu, who was also exiled to Tieling in the Qing Dynasty, and Chen Menglei, a famous scholar who was exiled to Shenyang, both "lectured and taught apprentices, talked about etiquette and music, read poetry and books, gradually opened up culture, and learned from scholars".
When Liu Zongyuan degraded the history of Liuzhou, he promoted culture and education, released slaves and maids, repaired the city, planted trees, changed customs and advocated science, and was praised by people so far. Su Dongpo's educational and cultural enlightenment in Hainan has even surpassed Confucius's influence.
In the second year after his death, Hainan produced the first person Jiang Tangzuo, and later there were famous figures such as Qiu Jun and Hai Rui, all of which were related to the rise of knowledge dissemination and cultural education of the Liuren.
In terms of personal literary attainments, many excellent poems are also inspired in the process of exile, and finally stand out in the precipitation of history; Qu Yuan was depressed during his exile and began to create, "Nine Songs", "Lisao", "Tianwen" and so on were all created during this period, full of patriotism and nostalgia for his hometown.
Li Bai's works during his exile should be regarded as a climax and change in the style of his works, and the eternal swan songs "Early White Emperor City" and "Liuyelang Gift Xin Judge" are all created during this period.
In terms of scholarship and religion, literature and art, education, books, language, customs, etc., they disseminated the advanced Central Plains culture at that time, sowed the seeds of enlightenment for the development of local culture and education, and had a far-reaching impact.
epilogue
As an important part of the criminal law system in ancient China, exile has attracted a long period of attention from the academic community, but previous studies have not revealed the geographical circle structure of exile in ancient China.
In the early days, China left many historical records of the exile of sinners in desolate places, which shows that there was a sense of geographical circle in the selection of penal colonies, and reflected the dual meaning of "punishing evil" and "educating the marginal descendants".
The regional circle characteristics of the ancient Chinese exile system were gradually strengthened with the continuous enrichment of exile, and by the Qing Dynasty, a regional circle structure of "multiple centers, four entity circles, and one special circle" was formed.
It can be said that this regional circle structure is in the same vein as the ideal circle structure of the "five service system" in ancient China, and is similar in terms of institutional practice.
However, history is created by the people, and in the long history and culture of thousands of years, there are not only literati and writers recorded in these historical materials, but also countless nameless exiles who are on the border of the mainland and in the places of exile.
Or participate in the construction of the local economy, spread knowledge and culture, or defend the homeland, garrison the border passes, there are records of the exiles in the Western Regions to resist foreign invasion, in the East China Sea to fight against the Japanese invaders, these exiles in the history of the mainland wrote a rich and colorful chapter.