The Origin Of Qin Dynasty's Penal System

As the first empire of Chinese history,Qin Dynasty realized centralization by the system of prefectures and counties and ended the system of enfeoffment before.On the Penal system,Penal system of Qin is the hinge of Acient Chinese penal history.It serve as a link between the pre-Qin period and mediaeval times.Qin's penal systerm obviously originate from pre-Qin period,but the evolution process is not very clear until now.Makeing this evolution process clear is very important for us to understand the social change from Zhou to Qin.This Doctor Thesis will researching on this evolution process.Several kinds of Qin's punishments will be chosen as samples to researching its evolution process from pre-Qin period to Qin Dynasty,and this will help us preferably understand the social change from Zhou Dynasty to Qin Dynasty.The specific structure of thesis is as follows:The first chapter's theme is the SiKou(??).SiKou(??)is a kind of official in pre-Qin period,but in Qin Dynasty,it becomes a kind of name for criminal.The Cause of this great change for SiKou(??)will be the center of this chapter to discuss.The second chapter's theme is the Limb punishment.The Limb punishment is ordinarily use in pre-Qin period and Qin Dynasty.In the pre-Qin period,it is called Yue(?),and in the Qin Dynasty,it is called ZhanZhi(??).The distinctions and connections between Yue(?)and ZhanZhi(??)will be the center of this chapter to discuss.The third chapter 's theme is the Qian(?).Qian(?)is the banish punishment of Qin Dynasty,but in the early age of Qin,Qian(?)is just a kind of policy,not a kind of punishment,and it is different from pre-Qin period's banish punishment.The process of Qian(?)from a policy to a punishment in Qin will be the center of this chapter to discuss.The fourth chapter's theme is the Chi(?),a punishment to beat the body.Before the age of Law and Code,There are maily three kinds of Chi(?).In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty,Chi(?)belongs to one of the legal orders that can called Bo Xing(??),used to punish minor offence.but it was still not the punishment based on the state coercive power.Chi(?)becomes one of the punishments based on the state coercive power was in the age of Law and Code,in this age,Multiple law orders were reorganized to a Single law order.During this process,Chi(?)was developed to“CHI the punishment”,and used to punish the slight crime.The fifth chapter's theme is the connections between the ranking system and the Penal system in Qin Dynasty.the ranking system in Qin is called ErShiDengJue(????).The title can acquired by meritorious military service,and it will give various privileges who owned this titles.Penalty privileges are a part of this privileges.The origin and details of this Penalty privileges will be the center of this chapter to discuss.The sixth chapter is the last chapter.Based on the above chapters,this chapter will discuss the connections between the evolution of Qin Dynasty's Penal system and the social change from Zhou Dynasty to Qin Dynasty,to clear the essential reason of Qin Penal system's formation.