Today, let's take a look at a juvenile homicide case in the Qing Dynasty.
Similar to the Handan case, the case in the Qing Dynasty was also a case of a minor killing a minor, but the difference is that in the Qing Dynasty, two teenagers, one 10 years old and one 13 years old, worked together to kill a 9-year-old boy.
After the incident, the local yamen at all levels made different judgments on the case, which formed a great controversy, and finally reported it to the imperial court. After reviewing the case file, Emperor Qianlong decided to use beheading.
In fact, in ancient times, juvenile homicide cases were often controversial, although starting from the Tang Dynasty, juveniles over the age of 7 can be sentenced to death for homicide, but the judicial "procedure" is also very complicated, not to say that the death penalty is sentenced, to a large extent depends on the attitude and character of the person who adjudicated the case, after all, in ancient times, the rule of law was not perfect, and the nature of "rule by man" was more prominent. Press the case of the Qing Dynasty not to be listed, first look at a case in the Song Dynasty.
During the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a 9-year-old boy in Ningzhou who caused the death of the other child's child during a fight. First, the magistrate convicted the juvenile of murder to death, which caused controversy. So it was reported to the imperial court as usual. In the end, Song Renzong and Zhao Zhen personally tried the case and exempted the 9-year-old boy from the death penalty.
The reason is that the death caused by the two children fighting each other was not intentional homicide. But Song Renzong made a convincing verdict that allowed the killer's parents to pay high compensation to the victim's family.
As everyone knows, Song Renzong was one of the few emperors in history who had a benevolent and docile personality, but what if he were replaced by an emperor with a fierce personality?
However, it is said that the juvenile homicide case in the Qing Dynasty occurred in March of the 51st year of Qianlong (1786), and the place of the incident was in Qizhou, Huangzhou Prefecture, Hubei Province (now Qizhou Town, Qichun County).
On this day, two teenagers were digging wild vegetables by the river together, the eldest was called Xu Gui'er was 13 years old, and the younger was Cao Shou'er who was only 10 years old. The two of them were digging when they saw a child walking by, holding candy in his hand and eating it as he walked.
Xu Guier and Cao Shou'er saw each other eating candy and drooled, so they stepped forward to ask for candy. The boy knew both of them, and he was not stingy, so he gave each of them a candy. But after Xu Guier and Cao Shou'er finished eating, they felt that it was not enjoyable and wanted it. The child didn't agree: "If you don't give it, you just don't give it!"
So Xu Gui'er said, "Can't I buy it?" But I didn't bring any money today, I'll give you money another day!"
The kid still didn't agree. Xu Gui'er got angry and yelled at the other party: "Do you want to give it?
The child who took the candy was called Li Dasheng, who was younger, only 9 years old, but he was not stunned at all in the face of 13-year-old Xu Guier, he protected his candy, but he didn't give it to the other party. Also, although Li Dasheng is small, his family is relatively wealthy, relatively strong, not small, and has psychological advantages.
This forced Xu Gui'er to be anxious, so he pulled his companion Cao Shou'er over, relying on the large number of people, to grab Li Dasheng's candy.
Hey, do you still want to rob it? Li Dasheng stopped doing it, and hit Xu Gui'er with a fist!
Xu Gui'er dodged Li Dasheng's punch, but Li Dasheng didn't give up, and pushed the other party again, and the thin Xu Gui'er was actually pushed to the ground. Let the child younger than herself turn over, her face is really not good-looking, Xu Guier got up and did things to beat. Cao Shou'er, who was on the side, saw that his buddies had suffered a loss, so he also came to help.
Two eldest children against a child, how can Li Dasheng be an opponent? In a hurry, he picked up a stone and hit Cao Shou'er. The stone was hitting Cao Shou'er's ear, and the blood was flowing. Cao Shou'er burst into tears. Seeing this scene, Xu Guier was also scared, and went straight to the girl.
When Li Dasheng saw this, he became proud and threatened Cao Shou'er: "Who told you to rob me of my candy? I deserve it! Later, I will go home and tell your father, you rob my sugar, see how your father will clean you up!"
Li Dasheng is very smart, he knows that Cao Shou'er has a strict family education, and he is very afraid of his father. Shake this thing out, Cao Shou'er will definitely not be able to eat and walk around.
Sure enough, Cao Shou'er stopped crying, he was really afraid that his father would beat him, so he begged Li Dasheng not to sue. But Li Dasheng didn't let people pay attention: "I'll just say, what's the matter?" and then walked away proudly with candy.
At this time, Xu Guier ran over again. He is old, has a lot of eyes, and has a grudge against Li Dasheng, so he encouraged Cao Shou'er and said: "Li Dasheng's kid is too bad, he will definitely tell your father when he goes back!"
"What then?"
"Just one way!" Xu Gui'er gritted her teeth and said, "If you want to prevent him from sueing, there is only one way: kill this little kid!"
Hearing that he was going to kill someone, Cao Shouer was also scared at first, but he couldn't withstand Xu Guier's instigation, on the one hand, he was really afraid that Li Dasheng would go back to sue, and on the other hand, he also wanted to avenge the other party for breaking his ear, so he agreed.
The two went to chase Li Dasheng. Soon they caught up. Xu Gui'er carried out a sneak attack, and a stone slapped on the back of Li Dasheng's head, and Li Dasheng fell to the ground with a puff. Then he pressed his knee against Li Dasheng's lower back and cut his hands behind his back. Li Dasheng couldn't move for a while.
Xu Gui'er motioned for Cao Shou'er to untie the strip of cloth around Li Dasheng's waist and strangle the other party. Cao Shou'er complied. But after all, he was young, he had no strength, and he was scared in his heart, so he strangled a few times, but it didn't work at all. So Xu Guier didn't stop doing anything, stepped on Li Dasheng's back with her foot, and helped Cao Shouer pull the cloth strip hard. After a while, Li Dasheng was motionless.
Seeing that Li Dasheng was dying, Xu Guier and the two stopped, and then threw Li Dasheng and ran away. But Xu Gui'er thought that if this matter was revealed, it would not be a joke, so she discussed with Cao Shou'er to destroy Li Dasheng's body. Cao Shou'er was afraid, but under Xu Gui'er's threat, the two still returned to the scene of the killing.
So the tragedy of the Handan murder case was staged in advance. The difference is that Xu and Cao did not bury Li Dasheng's body, but ripped off his clothes and dug a pit to bury them, and then smashed Li Dasheng's face with a stone so that he couldn't distinguish his face at all, and then threw the body into the river and drifted down the river......
After dark that day, Li Dasheng had not returned home, and his family was anxious, so his father Li Ronglu went out to look for it. But I searched all night and couldn't find it. The next day, Li's father took relatives and friends out to find his son. It happened that he ran into Xu Gui'er who came out to play, and he knew that his son had also played with Xu Gui'er, so he asked him if he had seen Li Dasheng yesterday?
After all, she is a child, and Xu Guier is also a thief, and her answers are hesitant, dark and uncertain. So Li Ronglu became suspicious, coaxed and frightened, and asked Xu Guier to tell the "truth": Li Dasheng was killed.
Xu Gui'er said yes, but he played a trick and put all the blame on Cao Shou'er, saying that he just saw the killing.
Li Ronglu was very angry, and immediately went to find Li Jiafu, the local protector, and then sent Cao Shou'er to the government.
In the official mansion, Cao Shou'er quickly confessed, and he was quite righteous, and did not confess to Xu Gui'er, saying that he killed Li Dasheng alone, and explained the location where Li Dasheng's clothes were buried and the matter of throwing his body.
The official mission began to act, but Li Dasheng's body had already been washed away by the river, and it took seven days to find the unrecognizable and swollen body more than 20 miles downstream.
The autopsy of Li Dasheng was conducted by Hong Fu, a coroner in Qizhou, and it was found that the deceased had blows to the back of his head and left ear, two wounds on his throat, and a red blood addiction with a circumference of five inches and two minutes and a width of two minutes from the left side to the back of his neck. Because the body had festered after being soaked in water for several days, and the other scars were no longer distinguishable, the cause of Li Dasheng's death was rather vague, and it was difficult to determine whether he was beaten to death or strangled to death.
But it doesn't matter anymore, since Cao Shou'er confessed, let's be convicted. But soon things changed. After all, Cao Shou'er was too young, and he showed some flaws during the trial, such as how could he bring down Li Dasheng, who was much bigger than him? Who helped him? When he learned that it was Xu Gui'er who put all the responsibility for the murder on him at the first time, he felt aggrieved, so he changed his mind and said another version, saying that all this was Xu Gui'er's idea, and it was all Xu Gui'er's hand.
Immediately, the government arrested Xu Gui'er, and after some interrogation, Xu Gui'er also recruited: it was he and Cao Shou'er who conspired to murder Li Dasheng.
So the case was revealed. But how to convict, the government is in a dilemma. According to the "Qing Dynasty Statutes", the crime of killing children under the age of 10 is increased by one degree, and the punishment should be heavier. But the murderer is also a child, especially Cao Shou'er is just 10 years old, which is a bit difficult to do, and if it is not handled well, it will cause public anger.
Because there is also a provision in the "Great Qing Dynasty Regulations" that those who are over 80 years old and under 10 years old and who commit homicide should be deceased, and the decision shall be taken from the upper court. That is to say, those who commit homicide under the age of 10 should report to the imperial court, and the emperor himself will decide.
The problem is that Cao Shou'er is just 10 years old, if it is nine years old, then it will be reported directly, whether it is dead or alive, the emperor has the final say, but he is only 10 years old, so it is a little troublesome, you can not report it to the court, but you must bear all the consequences. There is another key point, who is the main culprit and who is the accomplice between Cao Shou'er and Xu Gui'er? The two bite each other, which is not accurate.
Because the corpse was so badly ulcerated, it was impossible to tell whether Li Dasheng was stoned to death by Xu Gui'er first, or whether he was not stoned to death, and then strangled to death by Cao Shou'er? If the former was the case, Xu Gui'er was guilty of capital crimes, and the young Cao Shou'er was an accomplice and could be spared death; but if the latter was the case, and Cao Shou'er strangled Li Dasheng first, then he would be held responsible.
It was difficult for the Qizhou Yamen to handle, so he reported the case to the superior supervisor Huangzhou Yamen.
According to the case file, the Huangzhou government found the two murderers almost equally responsible, Cao Shou'er was after all the direct perpetrator of the murder and sentenced him to be sentenced to death, and Xu Gui'er, the main plotter, was sentenced to death by hanging. Whether it is beheaded or hanged, it is carried out immediately. But after all, the stakes are very high, so it is still reported to the higher-level Hubei governor Yamen.
At that time, Li Shou, the governor of Hubei, was a very rational person, this person was erudite and talented, able to write poetry and literature, and had many contacts with the famous ministers of the dynasty Ji Xiaolan and Liu Yong, and had a good relationship. After reading the case file, after careful study, he believed that Cao Shou'er could not have the intention of killing at such a young age, and should be an accomplice. Therefore, he wrote in the dossier: I am afraid that a ten-year-old child is afraid of urgency, and he is suddenly incapable of making such a vicious thought.
In order to be safe, or out of pity for the child, Li Shou decided to report the case to the Criminal Department, hoping that the Criminal Department could give Cao Shou'er a lighter punishment.
After receiving the case file, the Criminal Department also felt that the case was more serious or more difficult to handle, so it returned the case to the governor of Hubei and asked Hubei to try it again, and it must be tried clearly before sentencing. The ball was kicked back.
But as time came and went, the case was delayed for a while. The following year, Hubei Governor Li Shou was promoted to the capital to serve as the imperial history of the left capital, slapped his ass and left, and the case was handed over to Jiang Sheng, the newly appointed governor of Hubei.
Jiang Sheng is not a foolish official, and he personally interrogated the case. In the end, it was determined that 13-year-old Xu Guier was the mastermind and the main murderer, but Cao Shouer was also involved, and had unshirkable responsibility for Li Dasheng's death, and also participated in the act of destroying the corpse and destroying the traces, the crime is unforgivable.
At the same time, Jiang Sheng is really not a good stubble, he thinks that the coroner Hong Fu in Qizhou can't even find out the cause of death of the deceased, he is too incompetent, and he should be punished with a cane and dismissed from public office!
This is simply a top-level punishment, which caused a lot of controversy for a while. In particular, his staff all believe that the current emperor (Emperor Qianlong) rules the world with leniency and benevolence, and Cao Shou'er and Xu Gui'er are both children, so they should be treated leniently, give them a chance to reform themselves, and sentence them to a prison sentence (equivalent to a suspended death).
They also mentioned the child homicide case that Song Renzong once tried during the Song Dynasty, and he dealt with Yunyun leniently at that time. You must know that as a prosperous monarch, Emperor Qianlong has always regarded himself very highly, but he has always been more convinced of Song Renzong. He once said that there are three emperors in the world, who he sincerely admires, one is his grandfather Kangxi Xuanye, the other is Tang Taizong Li Shimin, and the other is Song Renzong Zhao Zhen.
However, no matter what others said, Jiang Sheng, who had a stubborn personality, insisted on his opinion, and not killing was not enough to make the people angry! So he submitted the file of the review case to the Criminal Department again in accordance with his own verdict.
The criminal department discussed the case again, and there was a dispute over whether the young Cao Shouer should be killed. In the end, the Criminal Department sentenced Xu Guier to be executed, and Cao Shouer was hanged and imprisoned. and overturned the Hubei governor's sentence on the coroner Hong Fu, holding that Hong Fu was not responsible in this case.
After all, the case was serious, and in the end, the Criminal Department reported the case to Emperor Qianlong for personal adjudication on December 11, the 52nd year of Qianlong (1787).
That night, after Emperor Qianlong saw the case file, he couldn't help but be furious: What a bold man, a little hairy child dared to commit murder like this, and when he grew up, he would still have it? If he didn't kill him, why would the people be angry? If he didn't kill him, why would he be angry? If he didn't kill him, why would he be angry?
"Kill it!"
This shout was earth-shattering and startled the eunuch on duty: Mom, which corrupt official is going to lose his head?
The next day, Emperor Qianlong personally approved the final verdict: Xu Gui'er was immediately beheaded, and Cao Shou'er was hanged according to the plan, imprisoned, and executed after the autumn. Yu Yiyi. Chin this!
In the end, Emperor Qianlong still sentenced the two teenagers to death, but he relented and only sentenced the main culprit Xu Gui'er to be executed, while Cao Shou'er was "suspended from death", that is, he was hanged again in the autumn of the following year, and died a few months later. But it's all capital punishment.
It seems that although Emperor Qianlong was considered to be more benevolent and had always advocated in law the principle of "pardoning the young" in the "Laws of the Great Qing Dynasty", he was still uncompromising on punishing evil.
Now the murder case of the three juveniles in Handan has not yet been concluded, in fact, we can refer to the murder case in the Qing Dynasty. It can be said that today's Handan murder case is more serious than that of the Qing Dynasty, because Xu Gui'er and Cao Shou'er asked Li Dasheng for candy to eat, but the other party refused to give it, and the two sides only had murderous intent in the dispute, which is a "murder of passion"; according to the surging news and other media reports, the Handan murder case was not a murder of passion, they had repeatedly asked the victim for money, and before the killing, they had dug a pit in advance, and they were suspected of premeditated murder, so the nature was even more serious.
(Text/The Woman Who Told History, Mi Xue)