What are the ancient laws?

From the perspective of world history, the development and evolution of China's traditional culture has its obvious characteristics, which is that the development process of China's traditional civilization has never been interrupted. Since ancient times, "Punishment and Morality" have been regarded as two sets of good strategies for governing the country and keeping the country safe, so the ancient legal system with criminal law and punishment as the core will inevitably become an important part of China's traditional culture. With the progress of society and the evolution of civilization, law has gradually changed from a primitive and simple habit to a rigorous and philosophical model. The legal changes in China's history essentially represent and reflect the Chinese nation's thinking on fundamental issues such as society, life and interpersonal relationship, and concentrate and highlight the basic values of the Chinese nation. Therefore, as an important part of the ancient legal system, the development and change of punishment is essentially the condensation of the development and progress of the whole China society. The reasons for the development and change of the penalty system are multi-level, different times have different characteristics, and different authorities have different measures at the same time. However, the general development trend is from primitive barbarism and backwardness to civilization and cautious punishment. The development and change of ancient punishment in China. During the reign of Shun Yu in primitive society, many habits of punishment were confirmed. Shangshu Shun Dian contains: "Like being punished by Canon, five penalties are lost. Whip is the official punishment, jump is the teaching punishment, and gold is the redemption punishment. If disasters are forgiven, thieves will be punished. Qin zai! Qin zai! Only punishment is merciful. " At that time, the punishment habit was to punish bribery (Mexican) and looting (unconscious) together, which reflected that the society at that time had attached importance to the rectification and management of administrative personnel and severely punished dereliction of duty and corruption. Shangshu The criminal law at the end of primitive society was explained in Lv Xing: "The Miao people used the spirit, but the punishment was made, and they were pregnant with the punishment of king abuse", and "he began to commit adultery because of" embarrassment, embarrassment ". According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. "Criminal Law Annals" said: "(Yu) committed corporal punishment with virtue. "In the Xia Dynasty, the five major punishment systems of Mo, Mo, Gong and Da Bi were gradually established. [Article source Chunqiu Chinese website 1V2f8d] [The criminal law of Shang Dynasty was harsh. Pan Geng stipulated that "if I am unlucky, the more disrespectful I will be, and I will be raped and ruined". In addition to beheading, there are other means of execution and killing, such as chopping, embalming, burning, cutting my heart and picking. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the imprisonment penalty, detention penalty and other systems were formed in the name of borrowing soil system and military system, as well as the redemption penalty and exile system as a supplement to the five punishments. This period is the mature stage of slavery punishment. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the five punishments were still the main punishments, and the cruelty did not change. When Shang Yang was executed, he used the punishment of car splitting. This period is the transition stage from slavery punishment to feudal punishment. [Article Source: Spring and Autumn Chinese Network N8wEks] There have been new changes in the punishment of the State of Qin, mainly including eight categories: punishment, rod, apprentice, exile, flesh, death, humiliation, economy and punishment. Among them, the first five categories are equivalent to modern principal punishment, and the last three categories are equivalent to modern supplementary punishment. Qin law has not yet formed a complete system and has obvious transitional characteristics. The punishment was reformed in Han Dynasty. In the thirteenth year of Emperor Wendi, corporal punishment was abolished and the penalty system was reformed. Specifically: whoever is finished will be finished as a city; When it is awkward, the pliers are Cheng Danchun; When you become a monk, you will be 300; If the left toe is cut off, it will cost 500 yuan, and if the right toe is cut off, it will be discarded. This changed the original "five punishments" system. But there are also problems: 1, cutting off the right toe and abandoning the city, expanding the scope of death penalty; Second, whipping instead of whipping and cutting off the toes of the left foot led to "more deaths" among prisoners. Later, Emperor Han Jing issued another imperial edict, reducing the number of imperial edicts twice. For the first time, the imperial edict was reduced from 500 to 300 and from 300 to 200. The second time it was reduced from 300 to 200, and then from 200 to 100. After the reform, in addition to the death penalty, there are flogging, but the castration remains unchanged. At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ming Di mentioned cutting off the right toe in his imperial edict, indicating that this punishment was used to replace the abandonment of the city, and it was the lighter one when Emperor Wen came back. At this point, the palace appeared in the Han Dynasty and the right toe was cut off. Regarding imprisonment, the Qin system was adopted in the early Han Dynasty. But there is a clear saying in the Han Dynasty. For example, Cheng Danzhu was sentenced to five years in prison; After completing the city, he was sentenced to four years old; Ghost wages are white, three years old; Scooter and Zuo Rukou were both sentenced to two years old, while both men and women were sentenced to one year to three months. In addition, there was another kind of "lonely mountain" in the Han Dynasty, which was only used for female prisoners, so it was also called "lonely mountain as a female disciple". [article source: spring and autumn Chinese network bvHK6F] in addition, the Han dynasty also followed the fines and border migration penalties of the Qin dynasty and before. In addition, there is prison punishment, which is a policy of the Han Dynasty prohibiting official history from forming small groups and prohibiting officials and their relatives from entering for life. During the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the penalty system changed greatly compared with the previous dynasties, and the overall change of penalty showed the characteristics of gradual leniency. The penalty method of "peeling and amputation" gradually decreased and transitioned to the new feudal five-penalty system. Mainly reflected in: 1, abolishing the castration system. In the 13th year of Datong (AD 547), castration was forbidden in the Northern Dynasties and the Western Wei Dynasty: "Those who should be castrated from now on will not be punished without official. "In the fifth year of Tiantong (AD 569), the Northern Qi Dynasty also decreed the abolition of castration:" Those who should be subjected to castration are generally exempted from being officials. "2, the provisions of the whip and rod punishment. This kind of punishment originated from the Northern Wei Dynasty and was used in the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties. 3. It is stipulated that exile is a commutation of death penalty. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, popularity was regarded as a lenient measure of death penalty. For example, in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, exile was classified as five classes, with each class being 500 Li, and the capital city being 2,500 Li and 4,500 Li, plus flogging. 4. The range of sitting on the edge has changed, mainly reflected in the change of women sitting on the edge. The general trend is to narrow the scope, but it has expanded in judicial practice. Throughout the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the scope of sitting on the side was also repeated. " "Liang Law" is a precedent for exempting women from the death penalty. Huang Kai Law of Sui Dynasty deleted many severe punishments. Abolish many cruel life imprisonment, and make the death penalty legal as strangulation and beheading. Exile and flogging have been revised. Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty clearly stated: "Strangulation and beheading are extraordinary, and they are extremely good at eliminating evil. "Abolished all the flogging of beheading and peeling, and established the feudal five-punishment system. [Article source Chunqiu Chinese network CB7Nao] [The punishment in the Tang Dynasty was lighter than that in the previous generation, and the death penalty and exile penalty were greatly reduced. There are only two kinds of death penalty: strangulation; Imprisonment is only one to three years; The number of poles is also greatly reduced. More importantly, the applicable penalty is lighter; The law of the Tang Dynasty was regarded as a model in the punishment of "balance between ancient and modern" in ancient China. The Song Dynasty created some new penalty systems. 1, stabbing. Song Taizu has set up the method of stabbing and matching for the crime of leniency and miscellaneous loans, which is a substitute for the death penalty. But later it became one of the commonly used punishments. 2. Ling Chi was punished. In the Song Dynasty, the extrajudicial punishment of the Five Dynasties was regarded as the statutory punishment, which was originally applied to the crime of witchcraft killing and offering sacrifices to ghosts in Jinghu. But then the scope of application became wider and wider. 3. Folding rod method. Song Taizu invented the method of folding sticks instead of severe punishment. However, due to the shortcomings, that is, "it is a lifelong shame for a good citizen to occasionally take risks and cause injuries to his limbs;" Stupid people, although they are hurt for a while, have no shame at all. " Therefore, in Hui Zong, the number of broken bars for crimes with no more than one act has been adjusted again to reduce the harm to petty criminals. In the early Yuan Dynasty, it was customary law. Genghis Khan was punished by beheading, exile, beating stripes, etc., and then gradually transitioned to the five-punishment system of the Han Dynasty, which was finally implemented. However, his death sentence was not hanged, and the death penalty was statutory. [Article source Spring and Autumn Chinese Network erCpHq] The Yuan Dynasty still retained many customary laws, including many corporal punishments. Generally speaking, the crime of theft, in addition to breaking the original sin, "stabbed his left arm for the first time, stabbed his right arm for the second time, and stabbed his neck for the third time." "Only Mongolians are exempt from this punishment." A robber must stab a neck when he commits a crime for the first time. "In order to safeguard the privileges of monks, Yuan Law stipulates that' those who beat Xifan monks cut off their hands and those who scold Xifan monks cut off their tongues'. There was a police interrogation system in Yuan Dynasty. After serving the sentence, the robbers paid the "police tracker" of their origin. Set up a red mud wall at the door of the house with the name written on it. The reason for the crime is supervised by the neighbors and the government every six months. Disqualification for not committing a crime for five years, and life detention for committing a crime again. The punishment in Ming and Qing Dynasties had new development and changes, which showed that the punishment was more cruel and the corporal punishment was revived in large numbers. The changes of punishment in Ming and Qing dynasties are as follows: [article source: Chunqiu Chinese website 9longfa]1,death penalty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the punishment of decapitation was restored in law, and its scope was gradually expanded. In addition, there were some more cruel execution methods in Ming and Qing dynasties, such as "stripping grass", "destroying ten families" and slaughtering corpses. The Qing dynasty also had a unique system against the death penalty, that is, the system of beheading and awaiting trial. 2, banish the army. " "Demoting the army" came into being in the Ming Dynasty, but it was not based on the crime of demoting the army. In the Qing Dynasty, exile was regarded as an aggravated punishment for the crime of exile, and exile was the main punishment. Moreover, the number of exiled articles has also increased compared with that of the Ming Dynasty. 3. Send punishment, which is heavier than banishment. Only officers and men were allowed in the Ming Dynasty, and they were never allowed to return to their original places. In the Qing dynasty, all officials who committed crimes above were included and could be released. [Article from the Spring and Autumn Chinese Network AVFRHI] 4. Cangue was the first humiliating punishment in Ming Dynasty. It also became deadly torture in the Ming dynasty. In the Qing dynasty, this law was used for some moral and immoral crimes. There was also a court aide system in the Ming Dynasty. Refers to the extrajudicial punishment of directly flogging ministers who do not obey the imperial edict in front of the temple.