A Research Of Banishment System Of Qing Dynasty

Banishment means the dominators send criminals to distant and lonely place as an official punishment. The main function of it is to punish the criminals and maintain the social stabilization and ruling system by sending them away permanently from the areas where they live to places of desolation. To meet the need for the development of Chinese society, Banishment had changed greatly and diversified. Up to the Qing Dynasty, it had development to a complex of penalties including regular exile (liu), penal migration (qianxi), military exile (chongjun) and frontier banishment (faqian or waiqian). The banishment of Qing Dynasty had complex banishment rules, universal banishers and idiographic historical background as well as various types. As one of the most important penalties in the Qing Dynasty, banishment had great influence on Qing's politics and society. This thesis coordinates Qing's banishment from decrees and regulations as well as archives, and tries to achieve a brand new understanding of Qing's banishment. On the basis of the new understanding, it attempts to resume Qing's"Law Empire".The thesis discusses the types, regulations, banishers and choosing banishment places in the term of Qing's banishment system. As for the types of banishment, Qing Dynasty not only succeeded conventional banishment, migration and military exiles, but also created the characteristic frontier banishment (faqian or waiqian). At the same time, to adapted itself to Qing'social development, the court also used accessory punishment and substitute penalty to adjust. On regulations of banishment, many adaptations and expansions were made to complete the system of banishment, adding up to about one forth of all Qing's rules. The banishers in Qing Dynasty are universal, huge amounts of people got banished. The regulations divided banishers into different kinds, according to whether they were Manchu or Han people, male or female, officials or common people, as a result, the banishment of Qing Dynasty was imbued with race and hierarchy. In choosing the banishing destination, Qing Dynasty had gradually formed a set of system with frontier areas coordinating with inland areas. For the inland military exiles, it created table of destinations for exiles (Daolibiao) from the rationality of penalty principle, and made the banishment rigidly in the light of table of destinations for exiles (Daolibiao); as for the frontier banishment, it combined punishing the criminals with the exploitation of frontier areas. The two measures worked together, with one assisting the other. As for the banishment practices, Qing'banishment often changed according to the time and place, and had very high adaptability. The central regulations guided local justice practices and the particular facts of different places also affected the central regulations. Through constantly editing the banishment regulations, Qing Dynasty finally developed into a complete set of regulations including inquisition and adjudgement, the designation of exile place, the dispatchment of banishers, journey and the administration of banishment places. Although certain differences existed between areas for concrete judicial practice, it did not exceed the whole provisions.In the last feudal dynasty of Qing Dynasty, the banishment reached the highest level both in the system and practice. Whereas, the abuses were gradually exposed. By the end of Qing Dynasty, large numbers of serious problems emerged from the banishment, both the changes in China's own situation and western culture shock challenged it, thus the banishment could not meet the need for the development of society any more. During Qing's legal system reforms in the last stage, the banishment was abolished, but it continued to affect Chinese legal system for quite a long time.