What are the ancient laws?

From the perspective of world history, the development and evolution of traditional Chinese culture has its own distinctive features, which lies in the fact that the development process of traditional Chinese civilization has been continued without interruption. From ancient times to the present day, "punishment and virtue" are regarded as two sets of good policies for ruling the country and securing the state, so the ancient legal system centered on criminal law and punishment has inevitably become an important component of traditional Chinese culture. Social progress, the evolution of civilization, the law also from the primitive simple custom, gradually to the structure of rigorous, philosophical mode of transition, the history of China's legal changes, on behalf of the essence and reflect the Chinese people on society, life and the relationship between people's fundamental questions of thinking, focused, highlighting the basic values of the Chinese people. Therefore, as an important part of the ancient legal system, the development and change of the penalty system is in essence a condensation of the development and progress of the whole Chinese society. The reasons for the development and change of the penal system are multi-layered, with different characteristics in different times, and different initiatives taken by different people in power at the same time. However, the general development trend is from the primitive barbarism, backwardness and brutality to civilization and prudent punishment. The development and change of punishment in ancient China. During the reign of Shun Yu in primitive society, many customs concerning punishment were confirmed. The Shangshu. The Shun Code contains the following: "The elephant was used to administer punishment, and the five punishments were excused. The whip was used as an official punishment, the punt was used as a teaching punishment, and the gold was used as a ransom punishment. Cataract of the cataract wanton amnesty, father of the end of the thieves penalty. Chin-jae! Chin Jie! But the punishment of compassion." At that time, the custom of punishment, will be coveted stolen goods (ink) behavior and looting (fainting) murder behavior side by side, together with the punishment, reflecting the society at that time has paid attention to the administrators of the remediation and management, severe sanctions for malfeasance, embezzlement behavior. The Shangshu. Lv Penalty" on the primitive society at the end of the punishment made this description: "Miao Min Fu with the spirit, the system to the penalty, Huai made the king abuse of the penalty said law", "I started the obscene for the wakes, cutting off the ears, silence, tattooing". Also according to the Houhan Book. Criminal Law Zhi" said: "(Yu) since the decline of virtue and system of meat punishment". In the Xia Dynasty, the five punishments system of ink, wakes, amputation of limbs, palaces, and big paves was gradually established. The criminal law of the Shang Dynasty was harsh. Pan Geng stipulated that "if there are unlucky and unlucky, if there are disrespectful, and if there are malefactors, I will wipe out the wakes and exterminate them without leaving any children". In addition to beheading, the death penalty also includes mincing, braising, burning, disemboweling, routing, picking and other means of killing. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were the penalties of imprisonment, detention and other penalties in the name of the Huan Tu system and Jia Shi system, as well as the ransom penalty and exile penalty as a supplement to the five penalties, which was the mature stage of the slavery system of penalties in this period. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, the five punishments were still the main punishments, and the cruelty did not change. When Shang Yang was executed, he was punished with the punishment of car-cracking, and this period was the transition from the slavery punishment to the feudal punishment. The Qin punishment had a new change, there were mainly eight categories of flogging, caning, imprisonment, banishment, meat, death, humiliation, economy and guilt. Among them, the first five categories are equivalent to the modern main punishment, the last three categories are equivalent to the modern additional punishment. Qin law had not yet formed a complete system and was characterized by a clear transition. The Han Dynasty reformed the penalties. In the thirteenth year of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, he issued an imperial edict to abolish the punishment of corporal punishment and proceeded to reform the penal system. Specifically: all when finished, finished for the city Danchun; when tattooed, scalping pliers for the city Danchun; when the wakes, flogging 300; when the left toe of the chopper, flogging 500, when the right toe of the chopper, abandoned the city. This changed the original "five punishments" system. But there are problems: 1, chopping off the right toe, replaced by abandoning the market, expanding the scope of the death penalty; secondly, flogging instead of wakes, chopping off the left toe, the results of the victims of the "rate of more deaths". After, Han Jingdi and twice to reduce the number of flogging, the first is flogging 500 reduced to 300, flogging 300 reduced to 200. The second is flogging 300 reduced to 200, flogging 200 reduced to 100. After the reform, in addition to the death penalty, there are flogging, while the palace punishment has not been changed. To the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Ming Emperor's edict and mentioned the beheading of the right toe, indicating that this penalty instead of abandonment of the market, the Wen Emperor from light into a heavy one and back, so far, the two Han Dynasty corporal punishment of the Palace and beheading of the right toe. About the prison sentence, the beginning of the Han Dynasty followed the Qin system. But the Han Dynasty already had a clear sentence. Such as scalping city Dan pounding, five years old; finished city Dan pounding, four years old; ghost pay white charm, three years old; Sikou and as Sikou, are two years old, male punishment for work and female resumption of work, are one year to three years old sentence. In addition, there was another "Gu Shan" in Han Dynasty, which was only used for female offenders, so it was also called "female Gu Shan". In addition, the two Han Dynasty also used the punishment of fine and border migration which were used in the Qin Dynasty and before. In addition, there was the penalty of confinement, which was a life-long policy of banning officials and their relatives from serving as officials in order to prohibit the official history from forming parties. The penalty system in the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, and the North and South Dynasties period changed a lot compared with that in the previous dynasties, and the general change of the penalties was characterized by the gradual relaxation of the penalties. "Cutting the skin, mutilation" means of punishment gradually decreased, to the new feudal system of the transition of the five penalties. Mainly reflected in: 1, the abolition of the palace punishment system. Western Wei in the Northern Dynasties in the 13th year of Datong (547 AD) issued an imperial edict prohibiting the palace punishment: "Since now should be the palace punishment, straight no official, do not torture." Northern Qi in the days of five years (AD 569) also ordered the abolition of the Palace punishment: "should be the Palace punishment of the general exemption for the mouth of the Government". 2, the provisions of the punishment of flogging and caning. This penalty originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and for the Northern Qi Dynasty and Northern Zhou Dynasty. 3, the provision of the popular death penalty as a reduction of the death penalty. North and South Dynasties period, the popular as a measure of clemency of the death penalty. Such as the Northern Zhou, the provisions of the exile sentence for five, each equal to 500 miles for the difference, according to the capital city of 2,500 miles for the first class, to 4,500 miles for the limit, with additional flogging. 4, the edge of the scope of changes, the changes are mainly reflected in the edge of the changes in the women's sitting, the general trend is to narrow the scope, but the judicial practice is to have more expanded. Throughout the North and South Dynasties, the scope of the edge of sitting has also been repeated. The Liang Law set the precedent of exempting women from the death penalty. Sui "Kaihuang law" to delete many harsh penalties. Abolition of many cruel life sentence, the death penalty into strangulation, beheading two kinds of legal. The sentence of exile and flogging were modified. Sui Wendi clearly stated: "hanged to death, beheading is a different shape, to eliminate the body of evil, in this has been extreme", all "head of chariots" and "mutilated skin and body" of the flogging were abolished, established the The five punishments of feudalism were established. In the Tang Dynasty, the punishment was lighter than that of the previous generations, and the death penalty and exile punishment were greatly reduced. There were only two kinds of death penalty: hanging and beheading; imprisonment was only one to three years; and the number of flogging was also greatly reduced. More importantly, the application of penalties to the degree of light; Tang law is considered to be China's ancient society "to get the ancient and modern level" of the penalty in the model. Song created a number of new penalty system. 1, stabbing punishment. Song tai zu for leniency miscellaneous criminal death and set up prick with the law, prick face, with stream and canes spine, is to be exempted from the death of people a substitute for punishment. But later became one of the commonly used punishment. 2, lynching. In the Song Dynasty, the five generations of extrajudicial punishment as a legal penalty, initially applied to the Jinghu land so-called demonic killings of ghosts of the crime. But later on, the scope of application is more and more extensive. 3, folded cane law. Song tai zu created the law of folding the cane, as a substitute for heavy punishment. But because of the shortcomings, that is, "the good people occasionally against the risk of injury to the limbs, for a lifetime of humiliation; fools, although a moment of pain, but no shame." Therefore, in Huizong, and the number of crimes below the folding of the cane weight adjustment, to reduce the harm of light offenders. Yuan law at first for customary law, Genghis Khan when there are decapitation, exile, blame strips and other penalties, and then gradually to the Han Dynasty, the transition to the system of five penalties, and finally implemented. However, there was no hanging in the death penalty, and lynching was the legal death penalty. The Yuan Dynasty still retained many customary laws, including corporal punishment. When a person commits theft, in addition to breaking the crime, "the first offender will be stabbed on the left arm, the second offender will be stabbed on the right arm, and the third offender will be stabbed on the neck." "Robbers first offense is required to stab the neck", only the Mongols may not be subject to this punishment. In order to maintain the privileges of the monks, the Yuan law stipulates that "beat the western monks to cut off their hands, cursing the broken tongue". Yuan has a system of warning signs of people. Robbers and thieves in the completion of the sentence, to pay the origin of the "police trace people". At the head of his home to set up a red clay powder wall, on the open name, guilty of things by the neighbors to supervise their behavior, and every six months with the government to accept the inspector. Five years of non-offenders in addition to the registration, recidivism for life detention. The Ming and Qing dynasties have new development changes in punishment, which is characterized by more cruel punishment, and a large number of resurrection of corporal punishment. The changes of the punishment in Ming and Qing Dynasty are: 〖Source: Spring and Autumn Chinese 9LOnFa〗 1, death penalty. The Ming and Qing dynasties resumed the punishment of lording it over the people in law, and the scope was gradually enlarged. In addition, there are some more cruel ways to execute the death penalty in Ming and Qing dynasties, such as "skinning the grass", "exterminating ten clans", killing corpses and so on. The Qing Dynasty also had a unique system for the death penalty, that is, beheading and imprisonment system. 2, military punishment. The "charging army" was created in the Ming Dynasty, but it was not charged as a crime. The Qing Dynasty's charging army as an aggravation of the crime of exile, and charging army as the original crime. Moreover, the number of entries of the military confiscation also increased compared with the Ming Dynasty. 3. Sentenced to deportation, which was a heavier punishment than military confinement. In the Ming Dynasty, it was limited to officers and soldiers, and they were never allowed to go back to their place of origin. In Qing Dynasty, it included civil and military officials who had committed more than one criminal offense, and they could be released. The yoke was the first punishment of shame in Ming Dynasty. It also became a kind of fatal torture in Ming Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, this method was used for some ethical and moral crimes. The Ming dynasty also has the court staff system. Refers to the extrajudicial punishment in front of the court of the temple to disobey the imperial order of the minister directly to the cane.