What are the major legislation of the Ming Dynasty?

Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was a monarch who attached great importance to legislation, he summarized the historical experience of the previous dynasty, in line with the principle of "the law is simple and easy to understand" to formulate the decree as early as in the winter of Wuyuan year October after the pacification of Wuchang, that is, the basic laws and regulations, which is the beginning of the Ming Dynasty legislation. Laws according to the Tang law to take the compilation, according to the "yuan canonical chapter" style according to the order of the six parts of the compilation, for the future of the "Daming law" laid the foundation. Thereafter, after the Hongwu six years, Hongwu twenty-two re-revision, and constantly improve, basically completed the "Daming law" style. To Hongwu thirty years, finalize the compilation of the "Daming Laws", and promulgated the whole country.

"Daming Law" *** thirty volumes of four hundred and sixty articles, the structure of the system and the Tang law is slightly different, that is, the Tang law of the twelve articles into seven, with the name of the law at the beginning of the title. Specific titles are: the name of the law, officials, household law, etiquette, military law, criminal law, labor law. In addition to the five penalties, the number of prisoners was increased, and the number of death sentences was increased by lynching. In addition to the ten evils and the eight proposals, there were six types of corruption and stolen goods: theft by guards, theft by commoners, theft, perverting the law, not perverting the law, and sitting on stolen goods.

From the content of the chapter of the Ming law, which was born from the Tang law, but different from the Tang law, summed up the Tang and Song dynasty, especially in the early Ming Dynasty thirty years of feudal rule and judicial suppression experience, increased and enriched to strengthen the centralized authoritarian system of centralized power, some people say, "the spirit of the Ming law" is strict than the Song dynasty, the provisions of the Tang simple.

(2) "Ming Letters Patent"

Ming early, the Great Ancestor in the formulation of the Law of Daming at the same time, but also in Hongwu eighteen years to twenty years between the collection of cases, the successive compilation of four "Letters Patent". Zhu Yuanzhang compiled the Letters Patent, mainly for the purpose of legal propaganda, with specific cases of severe punishment for crimes committed by officials and citizens, to establish the standard of good and evil, good and bad luck, so that people "tend to good luck and avoid bad luck" to prevent and reduce crime, so as to achieve the purpose of consolidating feudal rule. Judging from its contents, it is basically a compilation of cases in which crimes committed by officials and citizens were punished with severe penalties, and a considerable part of them were punishments for corrupt officials. From these cases, we can see the characteristics of the "Ming Da Zhao": First, the law to the emperor's will, extrajudicial punishment, misdemeanors and heavy sentences. Due to the high degree of development of the monarchical authoritarian system in the Ming Dynasty, the personal will of the emperor exceeded the law. During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, he changed the law at his will, and sentenced people to penalties entirely based on their personal preferences. The four Letters Patent listed in many cases, with the Ming law to measure, the vast majority of them are belong to the misdemeanor sentence, there are some is not guilty of wrongful conviction, and worse, there are some behavior does not constitute a crime, just because it does not fit Zhu Yuanzhang's mind or was considered to violate his authority, was also sentenced to a heavy sentence. This shows that the content of the Letters Patent is more severe than the Ming law; Secondly, the Letters Patent focus on the fight against corrupt officials and powerful, and a considerable part of its content is to punish corrupt officials and powerful cases of evil. Such as "Letters Patent Continuation" *** eighty-seven, belonging to these two types of cases have about seventy. The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang cracked down on corrupt officials and the powerful, inherent in its role in improving the rule of officials, easing class conflicts and alleviating the burden on the people. But fundamentally, it was also to maintain the long-term rule of the landlord class.

Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the four Letters Patent compiled by himself, and went so far as to use legal means to enforce them among the people. Requirements for each household a book, order schools at all levels to teach the Letters Patent, the imperial examinations to test the content of the Letters Patent, a time the world read the Letters Patent into the wind. So the development and publicity of the Great Hao, to ensure the implementation of feudal law, does play a role. But after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang, the four Letters Patent was gradually forgotten by his subjects, which shows that the regime alone by the coercive force and the implementation of the "imperial sacred book", will eventually be abandoned by the people.

(3) Ming example

The example of the Ming Dynasty is the case or example as the basis of judgment. In addition to using the Ming Law and the Letters Patent as the basis for judging cases, the Ming Dynasty still adopted the tradition of deciding cases by examples since the Tang and Song dynasties. The purpose of the case by example is to prevent "law outside the legacy of treachery", and thus the role of the example is to make up for the shortcomings of the law, "the law of the law of the world, the example of the will of the moment," which is the basic difference between the law and the example.

Because of the example is the emperor of a specific case of how the verdict of the imperial decree, and thus over the years the accumulation of cases will continue to increase, and gradually evolved from a specific case to become a common regulation. To filial piety emperor hongzhi thirteen years, only ask the sentence of the ordinance can be practiced for a long time, there are two hundred and ninety-seven articles. Wanli years editing Jiajing thirty-four years after the imperial decree and the clan military regulations, the arrest and theft of the bargraph, shipping bill with the criminal name related to the law for the text, the example for the notes, *** three hundred and eighty-two articles. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number of cases is almost equal to the law, the result is that "people do not rely on the law, presumptuous law to raise the outline, not enough to do all the pseudo changes, the reason for the law from the law, due to the case of the case of the case, the case of the case of the case of more disputes and more harm than infinity". For the law, it is "long time to follow, regarded as a text".

The prevalence of cases, for the feudal legal system, caused great damage. Example instead of law or example of the results of the law, so that treacherous officials for the city, arbitrary access to human crime. This is also an important reason for the proliferation of wrongful imprisonment in the Ming Dynasty.

(4) "Daming Huidian"

The main legislation of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the "Daming Laws" and the "Ming Letters Patent", also modeled on the "Tang Six Canons" of the style of the compilation of the "Daming Huidian". Daming Huidian" in the Ming Yingzong Zhengtong years began to compile, to the filial piety emperor Hongzhi fifteen years into the book. The completion of the compilation of the Daxing Huidian was an important achievement in the administrative legislation of the Ming Dynasty.

After the abolition of the Zhongshu Province in the thirteenth year of the Ming Dynasty, the administrative system underwent significant changes. In order to adjust the increasingly complicated administrative relations, the rulers paid attention to confirming the new system in the form of laws. Before the Ming Yingzong, had promulgated the "meritorious ministers death penalty reduction of salary regulations", "the king's house prohibited six", "Zongfan military and political regulations" and other administrative laws and regulations. The Ming Dynasty Canon was modeled after the Tang Dynasty Canon, with the six official systems as the outline, according to the order of the six departments of the Zongrenfu, the Duchaoyuan, the six departments, the temples, the government, the supervisors, and the departments, describing the authority of the administrative organs and cases, and it was the administrative code that stipulated the rules for the activities of the state organs. The Ming Dynasty to the "Canon" for the administrative legislation of the General Assembly, supplemented by a single example, the formation of a sizeable administrative law system.