Study Of Confession Evidence In The Tang Dynasty

Law scholars often criticize that the evidence system in ancient China is not perfect and even cruel, so the practical justice in ancient china is subjective and arbitrary. In particular, they accused that the evidence system in ancient china is "any case must be have confession to judge" which pays extreme attention on confession is the chief reason. From a historical point of view, regardless of current or ancient times, confession as one of evidence might have been playing an important role in practical justice. It is necessary to study systematically the ancient China's confession and other evidence in order to see the rules of evidence in ancient China and the true essence of the administration of justice.In this paper, I will select confession in the Tang Dynasty as the center of study, through the study the forms of confession in the Tang Dynasty, the types of confession, the functions of confession, the obtain matters of confession and the application of confession in law, especially through specific cases to demonstrate confession and related evidence how to apply in judicial practice, so as to see the whole system of evidence in the Tang Dynasty. From the rules of confession and related evidence we can see the characteristics of evidence system in the Tang Dynasty: Pay attention to evidence, especially to confession as the center position, restrictions on extortion of confession by torture; Under the rule of the presumption of "being guilty", suspected crimes punish lightly or redeem finance for change punishment; under the guidance of judges by the quasi-principle "free evaluation of evidence" to prove; to safeguard the order by rule of etiquette. From the rules of confession and related evidence performance in the administration of justice, to study the judicial tradition in the Tang Dynasty: From the justice ideal, comply with the principle of "basic on human sentiment and ethics to judge equitably"; From the justice operation system, the first established "deference-argue" system and "judicial review of death penalty " system; From the principles of justice, pay attention to evidence, pursuit the fact and according to the principle of crime and penalty defined by law; From the effect of justice, the administration of justice controlled by the absolute monarchy regime.Analyzing in this article, it is not difficult to conclude that the evidence system of the Tang Dynasty is simple and rough on the one hand, but on the other hand it pays attention to evidence and pursuits the fact, and it is not simply to consider that the administration of justice is judged only by confession. We also should see that it is necessary and reasonable to emphasis on confession under the ancient evidence system in the historical perspective. At the same time, the evidence system of Tang Dynasty show the spirit of the judicial tradition such as the principle of benevolence and loyalty, the discreet penalty and be compassionate for people, value life and so on ,which is also necessary to affirm and learn now.