A General Analysis Of The Punishment Of The Economic Crimes Of Officials In Song Dyansty

In Chinese history, Song Dynasty is famous for its economic boom and cultural prosperity. Behind the glitter, however, the problem of the economic crimes of officials is very serious. On the one hand, according to the governments'actual treatment to the economic crimes of officials, the number of the crimes is very large, such as using government funds to bribe, reaping profits by running business illegally and taking bribes. The punishment of the officials involved was changing from the previous to the later period of Song Dynasty, and the officials involved ranged from civil officials to military officers as well as from central to local bureaucracy. On the other hand, through the analysis of the edicts from the Emperors Biographies of the Song-Shi and other laws related to the punishment, together with the comparison of the practical punishment being carried out and that written in edicts and laws, the author finds that there were such problems as ineffective supervision, and discontinuous implementation and resolution, which led to a tough situation of the economic crimes committed by officials in Song Dynasty. Besides, though the combination of the cases with the political background, some political reasons can be found hiding in the economic crimes and the consequent punishment. In this paper, the study will be based on the condition that the economic crimes and the punishment are set in the historical backdrop of Song Dynasty, using the relevant materials in the Emperors Biographies of the Song-Shi as the entry point while taking other correlative documents into consideration.