Characteristics of severe punishment doctrine

China's ancient heavy punishment doctrine, like other countries' heavy punishment doctrine, is characterized by heavy punishment and heavy punishment for minor crimes. However, the severe punishment doctrine of any country can not be separated from the historical and cultural background at that time, and so did the severe punishment doctrine of ancient China, which has a distinct cultural brand.

(1) misdemeanor and heavy penalty. The doctrine of severe punishment emphasizes that "misdemeanor should be severely punished, divorced from the law, punished by punishment, and killed by killing". Its reasons are: "The way to establish a monarch is wider than winning the law; In order to win the law, don't rush to rape, and the root cause of rape is deeper than severe punishment. " ("Shang Jun Shukaisai") "Forbidden punishment, so Wei Xin. I am afraid that punishment must not be relaxed. " In ancient society, the monarch or emperor had supreme power. Even those who "go against the times" should be "killed without forgiveness", that is, those whose talents and behaviors are out of date should be beheaded. The principle of law enforcement class is to severely punish misdemeanors. For the ruled, even if they are innocent, they can use punishment. For those "thieves" who threaten the ruling class, it is even more "hell to pay".

(2) Severe punishment. Severe punishment, punishing intimidation, severe punishment and misdemeanor, and breaking the law are complementary and consistent. Since the rulers believe that "punishment is replaced by punishment", the use of punishment is bound to be harsh and cruel. It is under the guidance of this thought that torture and corporal punishment became the prominent features of China's ancient penal system. Not only has flogging become a means and method of torture in history, but since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, flogging has become a supplementary punishment to other punishments, which often cripples and even kills prisoners. Since the Northern Qi Dynasty, many dynasties have stipulated that in addition to life imprisonment and corporal punishment, they should also be sentenced to exile and drifting, humiliation or imprisonment and flogging. It is worth pointing out that the cruelty of severe punishment in ancient times is also manifested in the cruelty of execution methods. As far as the death penalty is concerned, there are many ways and means of execution in ancient times, such as "clan, slaughter, slaughter, abandoning the market, beheading, killing, strangling, beheading, cooking in an iron pot, burying alive, cutting off the waist, splitting the car, slaughtering the corpse, filing the ashes, killing in the middle of the year, and culling". There are even so-called "five punishments", that is, first, beheading, beheading his own flesh and blood in the city; He who slanders and curses will break his tongue.

(3) There are various punishments. There are many kinds of ancient punishments in China, which actually come from the ideas of "light punishment for crimes" and "light punishment for heavy punishment". There were five kinds of punishments in Xia Dynasty: Mo, Mo, Mo, Gong and Da Bi. There were other kinds of punishments in the Western Zhou Dynasty, such as "borrowing soil, making fine stones, redemption and exile". In the Qin Dynasty, the penalty system was further improved, and life penalty, physical penalty, imprisonment penalty, exile penalty, property penalty and status penalty were clearly distinguished. However, for the purpose of severe punishment, life punishment and corporal punishment have been further refined, with various names. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the penalty system was legally divided into five types: slap, stick, apprentice, exile and death penalty, which were used by later generations. In the Song Dynasty, the "year-old penalty" appeared, and it was not abolished until the late Qing Dynasty. In addition, other tortures, such as "killing with one stick, five punishments, foreign punishments, torture and nailing the pot", appeared in the Song Dynasty, which played a bad role in promoting the resurrection of illegal death penalty in later generations.

(4) the initial intention of the crime. Han Fei advocates that power must be concentrated in the hands of the monarch, who mainly "makes good use of power", has all the power and can even do whatever he wants. Everything he says and does is the so-called "golden rule", which cannot be changed, including the original theory of a legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime. From the Han Dynasty, Confucianism and Legalism merged, and Spring and Autumn Annals appeared, in which Confucian classics were legalized. "The rule of the Spring and Autumn Annals was convicted. Those who are good and break the law are exempted, and those who are evil and obey the law are punished. " (On Salt and Iron, Punishment and Morality) The prison sentence in Chunqiu is actually a theory of motivation. Judging whether an act is guilty or not is the motive of the actor, not the effect of the act. In this way, prison officials can use motivated "good" or "evil" as the basis for conviction and impose heavy penalties at will, which can not only excuse the rulers, but also hurt innocent people at will. Therefore, the confluence of Confucianism and law is also the confluence of prison punishment and severe punishment in Spring and Autumn Annals to a certain extent, so the theory of original sin is actually a feature of severe punishment.

(5) If you can't be polite to Shu Ren, you can't punish doctors. When making policies, the ruling group should first consider safeguarding its privileged interests. The ruling class in ancient China society fully considered the privileges of this group when executing heavy punishments. "The punishment can't go to the doctor, and the ceremony can't go down to Shu Ren" is an obvious example. "No doctor can be punished, no Shu Ren can be treated with courtesy" is an important legal principle in ancient China law, which emphasizes the inequality between ordinary people and aristocratic bureaucrats and the legal privileges of bureaucrats and nobles. "Courtesy is not as good as Shu Ren" does not mean that courtesy is not binding on Shu Ren. The ceremony emphasizes hierarchical differences. The emperor has the gift of the emperor, and the princes have the gift of the princes, which is insurmountable. Any behavior that goes beyond etiquette will be punished. "Not being punished as a doctor" does not mean that aristocratic crimes go unpunished. In real life, bureaucrats and nobles are also punished for committing serious crimes, but aristocratic bureaucrats enjoy privileges in applying penalties, such as corporal punishment of doctors and ordering couples not to bow to prison proceedings. This principle shows that class inequality and the implementation of severe punishment are not equal. This is also a remarkable feature of China's ancient severe punishment doctrine.