A Research On The Old Man Lawsuit System In The Grass-roots Society Of Ming Dynasty

Early Ming rulers to overthrow the Mongols in the alien rule, begin to rebuild the Han State. In order to effectively control the more frequent complaint issue, reduce the bureaucracy to deal with cases of stress, the Ming rulers, first through the development of "big Sacrificial" and other national statutory iaw to regulate, and even issued the "Great Patent," the use of strict laws and harsh punishment, extrajudicial torture and other means to fight, but the problem does not solve the more complaints, but increased. Early implementation of the Nestor of the Ming government system based on the long-existing grass-roots community dispute resolution mechanism, that is, non-government forces from the village society in the tradition of grass roots by addressing a simple dispute, the Hongwu 20 years, "go further in the elderly manage their private life words of First Instance of the village. "This is the complaint handling system in the beginning of the elderly, Hongwu 30 year-tsu also used" Christian proclamation "to be particularly strong form of stress.In short, in the elderly and the system of handling complaints is to provide for the Government to give the township the community of elderly people with high moral standing dispute the power of hearing simple, old people without trial for more appeal, will be punished. "Christians annunciation" details the selection of the elderly, qualifications, terms of responsibility, accept the scope of the trial proceedings, judgments and so the effectiveness and power constraints.V. Government to establish clear management system for the elderly original intention was to Yamen in the counties themselves, the village community of elderly people with high moral standing around the public hearing the dispute between the relatively simple to establish an official outside of the judicial process more stringent case proceedings, this will stop a lot of social affairs in the counties, the more complaints solve the problem.But the village community is not a vacuum, the elderly beginning to face the common people not only as a bridge between the public and the official with the intermediary, the resulting "democratic consent power." On the other hand, the state of this "consent power of democracy" is not unconditional, on the contrary, "the perverse and violent non-democratic powers" above it on all the time, this is a normal local power structure of society. The elderly can not override all moral authority, with semi-official power of color in a start made with the same old trial, before the grain comes into effect in the elderly has become more grand long position, has usurped the throne, took part last primary dispute settlement terms of reference of the case. Moreover, the elderly have to bear the official request from Taxes and other tasks, although the Government has given a more prominent the moral power of the elderly, but did not realize at the same time matching the power of protection. Compared with government officials, they only have obligations and responsibilities, not rights and possible promotion of career, and Nestor of the system than under the old, they have lost the former kind of distinguished political status, and reduced levels of government labor, Cheng Wei bureaucratic tool, just like before the official "only subordinate Wu Bo," "Listen to serve government, but do not extravagant." On the other hand, supervision and monitoring use their power to influence officials of the performance, impact of official promotion, a "right of Yuji", and then, and officials "mouse, a cat, dog rape with the pit." Elderly people with official connivance, can seek personal gain. or even harm the township. This time, the declining quality of elderly individuals are inevitable. In such a power structure, a little sense of shame has bothered to place the elderly, and some very low moral quality of elderly people will take the opportunity to occupy the position. Moral prestige of the elderly based management system then appeal to the collapse and collapse.Handling complaints from the old system to observe the practical level, we basically can not find that based on "Christian proclamation," the true content of the legal significance of the trial. As early as the beginning of the Hongwu established the system of late, had "no wish to pursue, a result of breakdowns," Xuande years, the system has been basically abolished, as the "old system", people go directly to the counties Yamen complain. At least in the Chenghua period, counties Yamen personally hear civil disputes has become a liberal officials. Some historical data reflect the mid-Ming, the elderly only in the County of Sichuan in the assignment of inspection under the commitment to exploration, investigation and other ancillary work is very limited. Even so, there are officials in the fairness of the elderly, questioned the need for, and recommended criminal yamen asked for a paper check volumes may be, the public that white persons, service management to attend to personally ask, not allowed to frequently security survey commissioned for the elderly.Therefore, we can determine the initial, early Ming dynasty, established by the old management system for real implementation of the appeal time is very short, probably for the Hongwu dynasty to the early years of this limited Xuande 30 years, the specific results are not very optimistic. The late Ming Dynasty, the elderly though still exist, although its role has been rather limited.Handling complaints system in the collapse of the elderly after the collapse of traditional society to a new dispute resolution mechanism in the form of continued existence. Grain length, where the power of Class A semi-official role in the beginning and the elderly have similar functions. The late Ming Dynasty, the rapid development of clans, clan leader, the patriarch, some are made so gradually in the management within the clan, and even judicial power. In addition, the local gentry, various social organizations, clubs, guilds and so on grassroots social disputes in the settlement to play a different role.