Tang Dynasty Redeeming System Research

Redeem punishment system emerged in the Pre-Qin Dynasty is becoming muture and perfect through generations' development, and was the model system to future generations, surviving to Qing Dynasty all the time as a system.With a long history, it plays a role that can't be ignored. It can replace the crucial punishment, its long existence proves that not all the ancient punishments are savage, changing the inherent impression on the punishments, correcting people's traditional conception of ancient punishment. The Tang Dynasty's Redeem punishment has visible and various law forms and sophisticated rules, which the former generations can't compare. Through settling the forms and rules, we can conclude that the Tang Dynasty's Redeem punishment is a structured and systematic law system with substantive and procedural rules. It is independent in procedure, though dependent on punishment in substance. The Tang Dynasty' Redeem punishment is divided into two categories:identity redeem punishment and nonidentity redeem punishment. This classification is useful in distinguishing the rational connotation and the shortcomings. Identity redeem punishment is suitable for the noble officers like "Yi,Qing,Jian" and their relatives, namely people owning the social status, but we can't claim that the redeem punishment is a privileged system, for the identity redeem punishment itself has the exceptions and is in the marginal position in the whole prerogative law and it isn't practiced in judicial as well. In brief, the prerogative color of the redeem punishment can't be exaggerated. On the contrary, this is weakened further in case of the existence of nonidentity redeem punishment. The nonidentity redeem punishment includes three sub-types of redeem punishment:old-young-ill redeem punishment, unintentional redeem punishment and suspicious-crime redeem punishment. They are suitable for the ordinary people in a certain condition. Through comparison, the identity redeem punishment and nonidentity redeem punishment differs in the development course, historical role and rules and what's more the impact of the nonidentity redeem punishment exceeds the identity redeem punishment. In a word, with the detailed laws and the rational category the Tang Dynasty's Redeem punishment integrates former dynasties' achievements and influences the later dynasties deeply. Therefore, we should evaluate it objectively and equally. On one hand, it has the unreasonable aspect, namely the prerogative color of the identity redeem punishment, which should be eliminated although being weakened. On the other hand, the nonidentity redeem punishment left has the rational aspect which deserves further researching, and it contains the modern significances like the cautious punishment, concept of sins and quantitative techniques as well.