Research On Judicial Documents Of Baoshan Bamboo Slips

The Bamboo Slips found in the No.2grave in Baoshan, Jinmen, Hubei in1987include judicial documents (hereinafter "Judicial Documents of Baoshan Bamboo Slips" about undetermined cases dealt by zuoyin-zhaotuo(左尹邵(?)),a judger in Chu(楚)in King Huai(怀王)period of Zhanguo(战国),records on sacrificial activities in his lifetime, and records of goods and gifts in his burial. This paper is intended to research the judicial system of Chu in Zhanguo(战国)from the Judicial Documents of Baoshan Bamboo Slips. This paper, as its name indicating, includes a summary of the research findings on the same topic in the past, and the research on the judicial system of Chu(楚)in Zhanguo(战国)。The main contents of this paper consist the form and contents of the law in Chuguo(楚国),the procedure of direct and indirect law suits, the document system in litigation, the procedure of accepting cases, the trial procedure of local government and so on. The structure of this paper is as follows:Chapter I is about the jizhu(集箸)and piyu(疋狱)。The jizhu(集箸)recorded the code and the piyu(疋狱)recorded the cases. The first section talks about the Code of Chu(楚)。It tries to prove that the Code of Chu(楚)is one of the regulations of Chu(楚)by studying the character of Dian(典)in these bamboo slips. It also discusses the source, nature, form, validity of the code of Chu(楚)The second section analyzes the other substantive law and procedural law in the Judicial Documents of Baoshan Bamboo Slips. It first analyzes, from the brief of cases recorded in the piyu(疋狱),the substantive law in Chu(楚),mainly about the forbidden law, including prohibiting yiqieweiqi("以妾为妻"),accommodating wangren ("亡人"),the movement of guanren ("倌人")and also the land system. Secondly, from the operation of the litigation procedure recorded in the Judicial Documents of Bamboo Slips, it concludes the procedure regulations of litigation, including the private prosecution of murder, the joint-proving procedure in the investigation.Chapter II researches on the piyu(疋狱),discussing the meaning and usage of the legal terms in the piyu(疋狱),the document form of piyu(疋狱),the different types of cases in the piyu(疋狱),the identities of the partner in litigation and other issues. It also clarifies the procedure of accepting cases by the zuoyin(左尹),the central judicial authority of Chu(楚)in Zhanguo(战国),on the research of the other related bamboo slips of the Baoshan Bamboo Slips. The first section analyzes the document form of piyu(疋狱),the case types, the origin of the document and the trial level it reflecting, discussing the sorting and filing of the bamboo slips. The second section, focusing on the terms in the documents of piyu(疋狱),discusses the function of the documents of疋狱The most important terms are piyu ("疋狱"),song("讼"),zhizhi("哉之"),weili("为李"),fajie("发(?)"),ji("(?)"),etc.. Because the piyu (疋狱)are format documents and the terms are mainly used in documents, it is necessary to analyze the meaning of these term for a good understanding of piyu(疋狱)The third section, on the basis of the restoration of the documents talked in the above two sections, discusses. the relationship of the documents of piyu(疋狱)and shouji(受(?)),indicating that the documents of piyu(疋狱)are the record of direct law suit accepting by zuoyin(左尹).So these documents begin the litigation. The documents of shouji(受(?))are the instructions in the investigation or summons after accepting a case, so these doucments are in the back of the procedure. At last, in this section, the ways of citizen to bring a law suit in Chu(楚)in Zhanguo(战国)and the soucing of the cases dealt by zuoyin(左尹)are discussed. It also compares the zuoyin(左尹),the centrial judicial authority, with the centrial judicial authority in the period of Qinhan(秦汉),indicatin that the characteristic of the fomer is the large amount of direct law suits, for which the reason is in order to strengthen the centralization of state power, the central government controlled the local judicial power through judging a lot of direct law suits.Chapter III explores the documents of shouji (受(?)),which form is relatively fixed. In this chapter, the term, form, classification, charecteristics, function of shouji(受(?))are studied. The first section discusses the form, attribution and the operation of these documents, mainly by analyzing the document format elements, the member of bamboo slips in the Judicial Documents of Baoshan Bamboo Slips, and the operation process of shouji (受(?))in litigation. The second section analyzes the meaning of, and then the procedural function of the three top important term in the documents of shouji(受(?)),ie. shouji(受(?)),bujiang××yiting/gao(不(?)(将)××以廷/告),shengmenyoubai((?)(阩)门又(有)败).The third section explores the nature and function of shouji (受(?))on the basis of restoring the documents talked in the above sections, leading to the conclusion that the doucments of shouji(受(?))are the records of the doucments issued by zuoyin (左尹)which were used to convey the commands of judicial department during litigation called jie((?)),including the summons, arrest, investigation and other commands. The operation system and the scope of power of zuoyin(左尹),the judicial authority of Chu(楚) at that time, as well as the assist of the other government departments and local administrations in judicial affairs are discussed.Chapter IV discusses the procedure for direct and indirect law suits. The main material are the appeal and related documents of two cases in the Judicial Documents of Baoshan Bamboo Slips, ie. No.15-17bamboo slips in jizhuyan(集箸言),sibai ruo(司败若)Vs. dafu jin(大夫(?)),and No.131-139bamboo slips in anonymity, the murder case of shuqing(舒庆)The first is about the procedure of direct law suit in the case of sibai ruo(司败若)Vs. dafu jin(大夫(?))The appearance of document is noted in this paper, since all documents were considerd a part of the case file. It also discusses the procedural funcion of each document. Then it explains the meaning of the text, especially the meaning of legal terms. At last, it analyzes the issues in the procedure of direct law suits. The second section talks about the procedure of indirect law suits through the murder case of shuqing(舒庆)It explains the meaning of the text by the same manner used in the first case; then analyzes the relevant issues in this procedure, including the trigger, the case brief, the trial process and so on. At the end of this chapter, it comes to the conclusion relating to the direct and indirect law suits in Chu(楚):(ⅰ) zuoyin(左尹),the supreme central judicial authority, was an assistant to the King of Chu(楚)who was the highest judicial authority actually;(ⅱ) The King of Chu(楚)controlled the judicial power by the procedure of direct and indirect law suits.Chapter Ⅴ analyzes the local judicial procedure according to the records of local officials'reports and the appeal documents by citizens in the Judicial Documents of Baoshan Bamboo Slips. The documents studied in this chapter are in the file of anonymity, also the file of Cases in this paper. The first case is the murder case off fuquan(邞(?))recorded in No.120-123bamboo slips. It was a report from the the official at xiacai(下蔡)in Chu(楚)to zuoyin(左尹)about the litigaion of this case. Another case is the murder case of shuqing(舒庆)that we talked in the above chapters. There is an appeal document (No.132-135bamboo slips) for the King of Chu(楚)by shuqing(舒庆)in the case file. In this appeal document, shuqing (舒庆)discribed the details during trial in the local government of yin(阴地)The first secion is the explaination of the text, especially analyzing the murder case of fuquan(邞(?))It also discusses the procedural funcion of the legal terms in these two cases. The second section discusses the operation of procedure in local governments, which divided into two parts, ie.(ⅰ) principle of jurisdiction,(ⅱ) the operation of trial procedure:summons (capture) of parties, investigation, joint-proving and judging.Conclusion is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the origin of the judicial system of Chu(楚)in Zhanguo(战国),which can be sorted into the legace of Zhou(周)The second section compares the judicial system of Chu(楚)with the judicial system of Qin (秦), and analyzed the causes. The third section discusses the impact of judicial system of Chu(楚)to the system of Han(汉)This chpater, through the above analysis, attempts to answer the question of the origin of tradictional Chinese law at the beginning of this paper.