Two ways to protect property rights in ancient times

In the novel "Water Margin", there is a story about the powerful family forcibly occupying the house: during the reign of Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Yin Tianci, the wife and uncle of Gao Lian, the governor of Gaotang Prefecture, fell in love with the back garden of the local big family Chai Huangcheng, so he took twenty or thirty treacherous and bad thugs to Chai's house, and asked Chai Huangcheng to move out within three days, and let the Chai house out, otherwise, take it to the government for questioning. Chai Huangcheng theorized with him, but was "pushed, robbed and beaten" by a group of thugs, so "he was bedridden, he didn't eat and drink, and his medicine was ineffective, and he could see that the sky was far away and the ground was near." The old man Chai had no heirs under his knees, so he had to ask someone to go to Chaijiazhuang in Cangzhou and call his nephew to discuss countermeasures. His nephew is the "little whirlwind" Chai Jin. It happened that the "Black Whirlwind" Li Kui was idle in Chaijiazhuang at that time, so he also went to Gaotang Prefecture with Chai Jin.

When he arrived at Chai Huangcheng's house, on how to deal with Yin Tianci's bullying and forcibly occupying people's houses, the "Little Whirlwind" and the "Black Whirlwind" had a difference of opinion-

Chai Jin, who was born in the aristocracy, advocated a judicial solution: "Put the clear regulations and fight a lawsuit with him." "Even if Gaotang Prefecture and Yin Tianci can't theorize, you can still sue Jingshi, what kind of official is Zhizhou Gaolian?"

Li Kui, a reckless man in the rivers and lakes, did not believe that the "regulations" of the Song Dynasty could uphold justice, and proposed to use his "axe" to seek justice: "Regulations, regulations, if they are still followed, the world will not be chaotic! If that guy still goes to sue, he and the bird official will be cut down!"

Just as they were arguing whether the "Regulations" would work or the "Axe" would work, Chai Huangcheng died of his injuries and died. At this time, Yin Tianci brought twenty or thirty idlers, rode high-headed horses, and came to the door to carry out "demolition": "I only limit you to three days, and then you will leave the house! If you don't move outside for three days, you will be in a flail first, and you will eat me with a hundred sticks first!" Li Kui, who was hiding behind the crack in the door and looking out, saw Yin Tianci beckoning to beat people left and right, and couldn't help but "pull open the door, roar, grab to the side of the horse, and pull Yin Tianci off the horse early", and beat him to death with five old punches.

This civil conflict caused by the encroachment of property rights has since deteriorated and escalated in an all-round way, and has become a life lawsuit. Li Kui, who had killed people, fled back to Liangshan overnight, while Chai Jin was captured and taken to the yamen, where he was beaten until "the skin was open and the blood was bursting out", and then he was put in prison to suffer and await the verdict. In the end, it was the heroes of Liangshan who sent troops to break through Gaotang Prefecture and rescued the Chai Daguan who had been tortured to death.

The author of "Water Margin" deduces the plot in this way, and it is easy to give readers the impression that the judicial system of the Song Dynasty has completely collapsed, not only can not administer justice, but also has become a tool to help the abuse. Therefore, the judicial approach advocated by Chai Jin cannot be successful, and in the end, it will have to rely on violence outside the system to solve the problem.

However, fiction is, after all, fiction, not history. The judicial system of the Song Dynasty was so unbearable as it was told in "Water Margin" that it was impossible for this dynasty to last for more than 300 years, and there was no large-scale civil uprising for more than 300 years. The largest rebellion in the early Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Xiaobo, did not spread out of Sichuan; the largest rebellion in Fangla, the late Northern Song Dynasty, only occupied six prefectures (there were more than 300 prefecture-level administrative regions in the Northern Song Dynasty); the largest rebellion in the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhong Xiang and Yang Qi, was only limited to the area around Dongting Lake; as for the other popular uprisings, they can be said to be petty fights and spinning and extinguishing, and the "Liangshan Juyi" rendered in "Water Margin" is just a small group of popular uprisings. The Song dynasty was also the only orthodox dynasty in history that did not die in civil strife – both Song dynasties died in egregious geopolitical and military defeats. Rather than dying in civil strife, Shu can show that the internal system of the Song Dynasty has been able to maintain normal operation and has not collapsed.

The judicial system is the most important mechanism for maintaining the proper functioning of society. So could the judicial system of the Song Dynasty be able to protect the legitimate property rights of its subjects? In other words, when the legitimate property rights of the subjects of the Song Dynasty were infringed upon, could the judicial system provide effective remedies? Judging from the legal provisions, of course, the Song people did not indicate in their legislation that "private property rights are sacred and inviolable," but the Zhao and Song dynasties established the country, that is, they advertised that "no annexation is suppressed" and "no establishment of the land system," politically they gave up their interference in land property rights, and legally strictly forbade officials and private individuals to encroach on the people's private property. Therefore, there is no doubt that the private property rights of the Song people are protected by law.

But what about the actual effect? We can only judge by examples. During the reign of Song Zhenzong, there was also a case of local tyrants forcibly occupying private houses in Jingshi. At that time, there was a bully named Cui Bai, "who is a scoundrel in the capital, who is a scoundrel, who is small and takes money to get rich." Cui Bai took a fancy to his neighbor Liang Wenwei's house and asked Liang Wenwei to sell it to him - it seems that he didn't dare to rob it like the novel character Yin Tianci, but just wanted to buy it by force. But Liang Wenwei insisted on not selling, so he was often "insulted" by Cui Bai - it seems that Cui Bai did not dare to beat people like Yin Tianci.

Later, Liang Wenwei unfortunately died, leaving his widow Zhang and two minor sons, orphans and widows, dependent on each other. Cui Bai, the big villain, found that this was a godsend opportunity to take down the Liang house, so he instructed his subordinates to harass the Liang family: "Send people to throw stones and stones day and night to appall", and asked people to throw stones and tiles at the Liang family day and night. The Zhang family was so annoyed that there was no man to rely on at home, so they had to move and sell Liang Zhaidian to Cui Bai.

Zhang's asking price of 1.3 million yuan, or 1,300 yuan, is equivalent to 7.8 million yuan today in terms of purchasing power for rice. But Cui Bai bullied others, and only paid 900,000 yuan (900 yuan) to forcibly buy the house. After the Zhang family sold the house, they may not be convinced, and they went to Kaifeng Mansion to sue Cui Baiqiang for buying a house. Cui Bai "then increased the money by 300,000 yuan" and agreed to compensate Zhang's 300,000 yuan, that is, 300 yuan.

But Cui Bai couldn't swallow this breath afterwards - he was the only one who took advantage of others, and no one else could take food from him, and sued Zhang's Mansion in Kaifeng, saying that Zhang's increased money without authorization after the transaction was completed. He also instructed his servants to testify, and also bribed the judges of Kaifeng Prefecture. In addition, Yan Yungong (equivalent to the acting vice president of the Supreme Court) is also Cui Bai's old friend, and Yan Yungong asked Han Yun, the judge of Kaifeng Prefecture, to help. So after this lawsuit was fought, Zhang's lost and was sentenced to "vain increase the house class", "cane", and was beaten to the board.

Cui Bai did not get any actual benefits from this lawsuit? It seems that no, on the contrary, he still has to pay a sum of money to bribe the judge. The reason why he wants to accuse the Zhang family is that it should be to let out a bad breath, extinguish the prestige of the other party, and at the same time show his own power, and see who else dares to oppose him in the future.

After winning the lawsuit, Cui Bai was smug and boasted about his prestige everywhere in the market: "The Shaoqing of Dali Temple is my buddy, and the judge of Kaifeng Mansion is my friend, don't you want to sue me? The Imperial City Division of the Song Dynasty was a quasi-judicial body, responsible for spying on the lawlessness of the subjects of the capital, and also held a part of the judicial power, but the objects of interrogation were limited to royal personnel and spies, and its function was a bit like that of the Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty, but it was far less powerful than the Jinyiwei. The information that the Imperial City Division General heard was reported to the Emperor. Song Zhenzong immediately ordered the Imperial Historical Observatory to file a case to investigate Cui Bai.

The special court formed by the Imperial Historical Observatory quickly "questioned the truth" and sentenced Yan Yungong and Han Yun involved in the case to "remove their names" (dismiss them from public office); Cui Bai "broke the rod and was assigned to Yazhou Prison City to serve" (after the rod was sentenced, he was assigned to serve in Yazhou Prison City); and Cui Bai's son was also sentenced to "break the rod and match the Jiangzhou Prison City" because of his many evil deeds.

From this case, we can find that the Song Dynasty society did have the matter of forcibly occupying private houses, but disputes were generally resolved through litigation, whether it was the Zhang family who was bullied, or Cui Bai, who wanted to bully people, they all went to the court to sue, rather than resorting to violence. Of course, there can be corruption in the courts, such as judges being bribed by the rich and powerful, but there are mechanisms for self-correction throughout the judicial system.

There may also be officials who will say that Cui Bai is just a bully in the market, a local tyrant, and there is no one in the court; Yin Tianci is the wife and uncle of Gao Lian in Zhizhou, and Gao Lian is the uncle and brother of Gao Yu, the imperial lieutenant, and his power is far from being comparable to Cui Bai, a bully in the market, so the law can punish Cui Bai, but it may not be able to deal with Yin Tianci. So let's take a look at another case that is not far from the "Water Margin Era"-

During the reign of Song Zhezong, the Empress Dowager Xiang's maiden family, Xiang, wanted to build a Ciyun Temple on his ancestral tomb. At that time, it happened to be the traitor Cai Jing in "Water Margin" as the head of the household department, and he wanted to tie up the emperor, so he circled a large piece of land to dedicate to Xiang's family, and ordered the "neighboring Tianlu" to be demolished as soon as possible, so that Xiang's family could build a Buddhist temple. The demolished people were not satisfied and went to Kaifeng Mansion to sue Cai Jing. Kaifeng Prefecture Judge Fan Zhengping (Fan Zhongyan's grandson) made a judgment: "All the expansion is the people's industry, and it cannot be taken away." This means that the fields that are included in the scope of demolition and relocation are all residents' property, and their property rights should be protected by law and cannot be encroached upon.

However, the relocated households were still dissatisfied with Fan Zhengping's verdict, and "appealed again" and sued the Dengwen Drum Academy. The Dengwen Drum Court was a direct court of appeal in the Song Dynasty, mainly accepting lawsuits from "civil lawsuits". The establishment of direct appeal courts allows civilians to seek justice through the judicial system when they are denied relief in ordinary courts. So how did the Dengwen Drum Court judge this demolition case?—— not only upheld the property rights of the demolished households, but also punished Cai Jing, who violated the property rights of civilians, "Jing sat on a fine of 20 catties".

(Excerpt from "Life in the Song Dynasty" by Wu Hook/Author, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House/Publishing)