This is a story that takes place in the fourteenth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1675). In order to compete for the inheritance, the brothers Huang Ren and Huang Yi in Jiading County quarreled for many years and sued the county government, but several rulings were unsuccessful. After Lu Jiashu, the newly appointed commander of Jiading County, took over the case, he did not follow the normal litigation procedures for the trial, but called the two to the front, "not to say how their property is distributed, and who is bent and who is straight, but to make brothers call each other." So, the two of them called out to their brothers, and before they had finished their fifty shouts, they were already in tears. The family affection that was stained with dust because of money and property woke up in mutual calls, and the two voluntarily stopped complaining.
Lu Jiashu wrote the verdict for the case: "Huang Ren and Huang Yi were sentenced to dispute the ancestral inheritance, and the lawsuit has not been resolved for a long time. Fu Peng bird calls chicks, ci bird feeds back, benevolence also. The bees see the flowers and gather the crowd, the deer see the grass and call the group, and the righteousness is also. The geese gather to form a line, and the doves are sincere and different, and the etiquette is also. Ants are blocked and the water is blocked, spiders build webs and eat, and wisdom is also. The rooster does not crow in the morning, the swallow does not come from time to time, and the letter is also ...... The husband is in the same breath and in the same voice, like a brother, but he actually hurts his flesh and blood with his property outside his body, and his foolishness is really unattainable. All the property is managed by the eldest brother, and the younger brother helps him and helps him to be insufficient...... Since then, the old grievances have been eliminated, and the new base has been created together, reluctantly, reluctantly. This is not so much a verdict as a mixture of reason.
Gong Wei, a Kunshan literati who is a generation younger than Lu Jiashu, recounted three stories when Lu Jiashu served as the county magistrate of Jiading in his "Chaolin Writings". One of them mentioned: "Mr. Lu Pinghu first ordered Jiading, and there were big thieves in the city who were in trouble, and even more ordered to be cured, so that he would be imprisoned, and the arrester would hear about it." The public precept and the people are not moved, and the order is self-governing. rode a horse straight into the thief, and the thief was stunned. The public edict said: 'You are all good people, and you are forced to arrest and chase your ears, and if you want to do good with you, you can return to your home and punish you for your crimes. Everyone was weeping and Pu Fu said: "True parents, life and death are only fate!" The public said: 'You have already made a promise. 'They all weep and worship, and the thieves rest. ”
At that time, thieves had become a hidden danger in Jiading's society, and several county orders could not completely solve it, but Lu Jiashu boldly went and reasoned with the thieves face to face: "You were all good citizens, and you were forced to flee everywhere because of the pursuit of the government. I work with you for good, and if you can mend your ways, and go home to your own homes, I will forgive you for your sins. Otherwise, once the officers and men arrive, no one will be able to escape. Subsequently, Lu Jiashu returned to the county office, and the thieves were deeply touched and came to plead guilty. Since then, the public order situation in Jiading has greatly improved.
Lu Jiashu is a believer in the concept of "no lawsuit". "No litigation" is a judicial concept and a Confucian culture. To put it simply, it is to resolve the contradiction in the bud and achieve the goal of ending the matter without litigation. The word "no lawsuit" comes from the Analects of Yan Yuan: "Hearing lawsuits, I, the Jews, will also make no lawsuits." Meaning: "I judge cases no different from others, but my goal is to keep people from litigate." ”
The absence of litigation formed an important concept of legal proceedings in ancient China. While Confucianism vigorously constructs a non-litigation environment, it also constantly promotes public opinion that causes harm to litigation, such as "litigation, the ultimate culprit", "litigation should not be reckless", "litigation cannot be long", etc. In Confucianism, litigation is undoubtedly unlucky and should be done in moderation. Advocating the concept of non-litigation, praising the non-litigation society, and pursuing the harmony and beauty of litigation-free will inevitably bring people the concept of aversion to litigation and cheap litigation, and even professions such as lawyers, which were once disliked by the people of the time, and even difficult to find a living space for a time.
Jiading is a big county, but it is also a "land of right and wrong". Due to the "Jiading Three Massacres" incident in the early Qing Dynasty, the people's livelihood withered and was full of devastation. Lu Jiashu's predecessor, Zhao Xin, the county magistrate, left office because he was greedy for ink during the soup soup for disaster relief, and "the people fought to pick up the rubble and hit it". When Lu Jiashu took office, he walked into the Jiading County Ya under the questioning eyes of people. His style is completely different from Zhao Xin's, simple and thrifty, and does not pay attention to pomp: the clothes are spun and woven by his wife; vegetables and fruits are planted by his family in the open land; and his parents and officials actually "invade the cold in the morning and have no clothes, and the officials eat no meat". However, he was very sympathetic to the feelings of the people and worked hard to educate the people with morality. In the event of a lawsuit, there is no need to arrest people by sending officers, but to know and reason and move with emotion. When it comes to a dispute within the clan, he will ask the patriarch to deal with it first, and if it is a dispute in the township, he will rely on the township sages with high moral standing to deal with it, or let the original defendant and the defendant come to the county office, and he will mediate in person. Obviously, Lu Jiashu's practice of the concept of "no lawsuit" is still worthy of praise and emulation to this day.
Written by: Chen Yi
Editors: Liu Jingxian, Zhu Gaoyi
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