Study Of Ancient Chinese Judicial Seasonal System

The judicial season system of executing penalty in autumn and winter is anespecial system in ancient times in China. Such system experienced long processfrom sprouting, forming, perfecting, continuing, and disappearing. The judicialseason system could exist in ancient times in China for thousands of years becausethat it took roots into the real soil of China. The writer chose this subject; just wantto research deeply into such system, through arranging the system of blood vessels,in order to unearth its deep connotation and historical role.There are more than 30,000 words in this article which is divided into fourparts:Part one: the theory source of the judicial season system. The judicial seasonsystem was the result of the mixture of many thoughts. The thought of negativeand positive has divided the things into two kinds of negative and positive, moralis positive, penalty is negative. Spring is wood moral, summer is fire moral, thetime between summer and autumn is soil moral, autumn is gold moral, winter iswater moral, which meant people should do different things in different seasons, inorder to obey the moral of each season. In addition, there is statement and thought,relating to that executing penalty should obey the death atmosphere in autumn andwinter, in classical books such as＜Four writing of Huang emperor＞,＜Guanzi＞,＜Liji. yueling＞. In last stage in Hangout period, the culture exchange made suchthoughts fusing gradually, absorbing and developing between each other,afterward, through the clarity of Dongzhongshu, the judicial season systemproduced at last.Part two: the developing process of the judicial season system. The writerdivided the process into four periods: spmuting., period, forming period, perfectingperiod and continuing period. Previous Qin was the sprouting period of the judicialseason system. In ancient times, people could not explain nature phenomenon andthought Heaven is mysterious and dignified, so the thought of "Heaven fate" and"Heaven penalty", which meant human affairs relying to the Heaven, produced.Such thought strengthened the nature power as the direct surface phenomenon, meant human affairs could not obey ldnds of nature phenomenon, otherwise,people should be punished by the Heaven. The statement of"illing with sun" wasput forward because the thought of "Heaven penalty" further judiciallysystematize. The judicial offices who master executing penalty were named"autunm officers" which appeared sucksystem had affected the name system ofstate offices, and showed that the assign of "autumn officers" corresponded to thedeath atmosphere in autumn. Because there were not exact proof to prove thejudicial season system was produced in previous Qin, so the writer took theprevious Qin as the sprouting period for the present. Two Hart period is theforming period. On the one hand, with the status of the Confucianists rising, thestatement of judicial season which appeared "Heaven and people as one entity"and benevolent role had systemized at last, and rose to the state's laws. The periodbetween Wei and Tang is the perfecting period. The date regulation relating toforbidding penalty became more detailed, and the relationship between light crimeand season became farther and farther. In addition, in Tang dynasty, there wereregulations about liability when judicial officers executed penalty obeying theseason, etc. The period between five period and Qing is the continuing period.Such system had greatly effected to the Hui try system in Ming and Qing dynasty.Until the last stage in Qing, it disappeared with the feudal system over.Part three: thinldng of the judicial season system. When we viewed suchsystem from the economic foundation angle, such system is the refraction of theagriculture society structure. Executing penalty in autumn and winter appeared thenature law of producing in spring, growing in summer, harvesting in autumn andstoring in winter, and offered enough labor power. When we viewed such systemfrom the philosophy angle, such system was effected by the thought of "Heavenand people as one entity". The ancients thought that Heaven is a harmoniouscomplete entity, and executing penalty obeyed the nature order. When we viewedsuch system from the political angle, such system safeguarded the feudalgoverning order, and appeared the image of benevolent rule of the govemors.Part four: The writer's opinion about the judicial season system. Such systemrelated to nature and laws. So, was such system the incarnating of the nature laws?Were there nature laws in China? The writer thought there were not nature laws in China familiar to in the West. The judicial season system was only the tendency ofnaturism, and the crystal of the traditional laws culture thought in China. Suchsystem had played important role in the history of China, especially in the criminaldeveloping history.