The Foundation Of Rentao-oriented Criminal Punishment

Humanism is a thing from the West. Originally, it means nothing important to us Chinese people. However, We can't deny the fact that humanism has a considerably wide and profound influence on the adjustment of penalty systems ,the establishment of absolution systems ,the abolishment of capital punishment ,the treatment of prisoners and the protection of releasees from prison ,giving a boost to the reformation of criminal law almost around the world. With the development of globalization, humanism has become a dimension through which to measure whether a nation is civilized or progressive. All of a sudden, humanism has become a new religion ,just as human rights are deified.In recent years, more and more Chinese scholars have heatedly begun hugging and applauding humanism with no doubt and suggesting that China's criminal justice system be reformed ,directed by humanism, who advocate humanism of criminal punishment. Few of them seriously reflect on humanism, although many advocators of reformation base their arguments on humanism .None of them has systematically explained why criminal punishment should be humane. This phenomenon shows Humanism of penalty hasn't been yet proven in philosophy of Criminal Law.In view of this fact , I devote myself to arguing the foundation of Rentao-oriented criminal punishment in this article. First of all, I try my best to define the concept of Rentao-oriented criminal punishment .In this section, I not only point out whatever humanism is as it is ,but also criticize and reflect on it. By analyzing the intrinsic shortcomings of humanism, I critically abandon humanism in the context of the West. Instead, I use Rentao with traditional Chinese cultural meaning in place of humanism. Rentao originates from the Chinese Character, Tao .The original meaning of"Tao"is a path or way on which people walk. But Lao Tzu ,father of Taoism, sublimated and extended the meaning, making it an ontological category of philosophy. In Lao Tzu's philosophy, Tao means the Initial foundation of everything in the world, which creates all the existences including man. Tao means the same as Rentao in some sense, because it is Tao that gives birth and life to everything. It means charity and love. Naturally, since Tao is the foundation of humans,it can also be used as the foundation of criminal law. Therefore, I employ the Chinese Tao to make a definition of the foundation of the orientation of Rentao. Thereafter ,I examine all kinds of theories on the foundation of criminal law. based on metaphysical humanism and put forward the key thesis of this article ,on the basis of analyzing the defects of these theories. That is, only Rentao is the foundation of criminal law. In other words, any penalty that doesn't conform to Rentao will lose its justification. Finally ,I make great efforts to argue why criminal punishment should be of Rentao by proving the relativity of free will, the suspiciousness of norms, the limits of justice and purposiveness of life. As a matter of fact, I put forward and argue a kind of new theory on the foundation of criminal punishment. Therein, I would rather call the new theory Rentaoism. On the contrary, I prefer to calling previous theories on the basis of penalty humanism.The previous theories on the foundation of penalty is based on humanism, while humanism is in essence metaphysical ,which is inclined to separate the world of experience from the world of reason ,exaggerating force of reason and free will, regarding man as master of the universe. The metaphysical nature of humanism impedes people from realizing human nature completely and rightly, which resulting in the impossibility of understanding crime or criminals rightly and truly, treating offenders or prisoners justly and humanely. Proponents of social contract theory , retributivism, utilitarianism, and theories of integration have in common ignoring the ultimate order of punishment. The existence of man and purpose of existence has been forgotten.The ultimate purpose of man is happiness. This determines the ultimate purpose of penalty is nothing but promoting happiness or achieving the goal of Rentao. And Rentao means charity, love, justice, harmony, and unity. Therefore, only when Rentao is seen as the foundation of criminal punishment, can criminals be treated justly and humanely, can man be true man.