Jurisprudent Analysis On Shen Jiaben's Death Penalty Reform

The death penalty is a reflection of the judicial standard of a country,as the first jurist who have the courage to make tremendous reform to feudal penalty system in ancient China,it is necessary to conduct further studies on Shen Jiaben's death penalty reform,the author selected jurisprudent analysis as a starting point to study Shen Jiaben's death penalty reform,to help improve the theoretical level of the study of Shen Jiaben's death penalty reform,also providing reference and theoretical basis for our country's death penalty reform nowadays.Shen Jiaben lives in the late fragile Qing Dynasty,he acceptted traditional education ever since him was a child,which lead him formed a habit to tested whatever he have learned.when he grow up a little,he also have contacts with those enlightened officials of Qing Dynasty under the influence of his uncle Shen Guifen,which can be considered as the first stage of his contact with western culture;The combinition of domestic troubles and invasions from foreign countries and his personal experience in war made him completely aware that western coutries is rather strong due to nothing but their legal system,which can be concluded as he tatolly accepted western cultures.Shen Jiaben's death penalty reform are the best historical basis that can be the most direct reflection of Shen Jiaben's ideology.Shen Jiaben strongly advocated the reform of torture due to the Western influence,in the first,he started it by reforming the category of death penalty,methods of execution and other aspects,transforming heavy penalties to lighter ones,and contributed to the press of<Qing dynasty current criminal law>.Subsequently,he carry on his reform by focusing on that two aspects,limited the execution of death penalty by only one method,proposed the abolition of the death penalty on compromise,and mainly working out the<Qing Dynasty new criminal law>,which has largely deviated from the traditional feudal penalty,And which is precisely fit with the modern western criminal law thoughts.It can be said to be the best proof that Shen Jiaben has embraced western culture as he has reformed almost all aspects of death penalty system,according to the heavy to light principle.Due to the combinative influence of western and traditional culture,Shen Jiaben formed his view on the essence of human beings;view of life and death and essence of penalty,which deeply influenced his death penalty reform.Our traditional view of the essence of human beings believes that "min" is more important than every single person,so people do not deserved any kind of rights but for every kinds of obligations,while the western assert that human beings itself are most important than anything else,we can seek for our own happiness if we are abide by the idea of logos,Shen Jiaben was deeply effected by those ideas mentioned above,which contributed to the the formation of his humanitarian punishment idea.On the concept of life and death,the traditional Chinese Confucianism,Buddhism,Taoism culture,promotes to manage secular life by the moral norms,persuading people to persue better life for the next time by doing good,which giving death more additional values by such conceptions like"jileyongsheng"(which means eternal life after death);While people in modern western regard life as much more improtan than death,they think people live their life just for pursuing earthly happiness,death itself does not have too much additional meanings.was deeply influenced by it,which contributed to his ideas of limited death penalty.On the concept of penalty essence,the traditional chinese take punishment as a maintenance tools for divine retribution and ethical order,so punishment is extremely cruel in ancient china;And the classical criminology represented by the Beccaria which rising in the modern western think that the nature of punishment is nothing but retribution and intimidation.Shen Jiaben basically accepted the latter one,which combined with his view on the essence of human beings and life and death,promoting the formation of Shen Jiaben's eclectic theory on the abolishment of the death penalty.