The main legislative activities of the legal system in Han Dynasty

In 206 BC, Liu Bang invaded Xianyang and announced the abolition of Qin's harsh laws and the people's "three chapters of the Covenant", saying that "the murderer dies, the wounded thief, and make amends." I learned how to get rid of Qin. "This is the beginning of legislation in the Western Han Dynasty.

After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, in the face of the new situation, Liu Bang felt that "three chapters of the contract were not enough to resist traitors", so he ordered Prime Minister Xiao He to formulate the Chinese law with reference to the Qin law. Xiao He added three chapters, namely, household law, prosperity law and ladder law, to the Six Laws of Qin Dynasty, which is called Nine Chapters Law. Nine Chapters Law is an important code in Han Dynasty, and it is the core and main part of the whole Han law.

In order to safeguard the emperor's dignity and supplement the nine laws and regulations, Liu Bang also ordered Shu to formulate eighteen special laws on courtiers, namely "Bian". In addition, Han Xin formulated the "Military Law" and Zhang Cang formulated the "Articles of Association". The legislation in the early Han Dynasty did not change much until Emperor Wu ascended the throne, and the law remained relatively stable. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, because the rulers implemented the policy of "ruling by doing nothing", the law was relatively simple. It is also relatively stable, and the law has not changed much from Liu Bang to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, successive years of foreign wars intensified social contradictions and class contradictions. In order to strengthen judicial repression, large-scale laws have been amended. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered Zhang Tang to enact Article 27 of the Law on Palace Crossing, which is a special law on palace guards. Zhao Yu was also ordered to draft six Chao Law, which is a special law on He Chao system. These two laws and regulations, together with the Nine Laws and Lv Zhang, make up 60 articles, which are collectively referred to as Han Laws by later generations.

In order to strengthen the suppression of peasant uprisings, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also formulated Shen Ming Law and Popular Diet Law. In order to weaken and attack the power of vassals, the left official law and supplementary law were enacted, and the condescension law was also enacted to strengthen the control of thoughts and speeches. At this point, the content of the Han law has greatly increased, the system is complex, and the punishment is quite severe.

From the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the demise of the Western Han Dynasty, the laws of the Western Han Dynasty remained basically unchanged. Later, due to "legal troubles", people couldn't read it all. Yuan Di, Emperor Cheng and other dynasties have simplified laws, but only slightly abridged them, and there is no big change. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang established a new dynasty, reformed the system from ancient times to the present, and completely abolished the laws of the Western Han Dynasty, but did not change the situation of legal troubles.

After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu abolished the laws of Wang Mang's regime and restored the old laws of the Western Han Dynasty. The so-called "the secret of Wang Mang, regardless of the law of the Han Dynasty". At the same time, in order to alleviate social contradictions, many decrees and letters on the release of slaves were promulgated. However, due to the complexity and harshness of the old laws in the Western Han Dynasty, the emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty constantly added new laws and regulations. Therefore, the laws of the Eastern Han Dynasty are still endless and complicated. At Chong's suggestion, Zhang prepared to make major changes to the law, but was immediately dismissed, which failed to be implemented.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo rebelled and destroyed the old law. In the sixth year of Jian 'an, Ying Shao made a great arrangement and revision of Chinese law. But the specific content cannot be investigated.

From the legislative activities of the Han Dynasty, it can be seen that in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang abolished the harsh laws of the Qin Dynasty, and the laws showed a trend from complicated to simple, from heavy to light. The development trend was changed by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Later, although there was a call to simplify the law, it was basically not realized. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the law showed a development trend from troublesome to light. This development is the essence of law itself, but it is also directly influenced by the situation of class struggle and the change of legislative thought.