On The Inquisition By Torture In Ancient China

The inquisition by torture originated from the ancient ordeal and came with the Western Zhou Dynasty, spanning more than two thousand years, maturing from the Tang Dynasty and declining since the Ming and Qing Dynasty. The inquisition by torture is one of the means for evidence gathering and also an important part of the judicial procedure. Throughout the ancient Chinese legislation, the Tang Code is a master of the inquisition by torture, on which most legislation of later dynasties on inquisition by torture was based. Although the legislation on the inquisition by torture in ancient China have made basic provisions on the inquired, inquisition methods, the use of torture instruments and the liabilities to be borne from the inquisition in violation of the law, the inquisition in violation of the law and out of the law failed to be eliminated in the judicial practice due to the reasons that the criminal procedures in ancient China adopted the decision principle of "presumption of guilt" and the evidence rule of "confession first", and there was no t effective means to protect human rights. Furthermore, China's rulers in all the dynasties attached great importance to the prison administration for the purpose of protection of the stability of their rule and under such circumstance the inquisition by torture would inevitably become a necessary means to hear the case. It was for such reasons that the inquisition by torture ran through the whole feudal societies in ancient China, which caused numerous unjust cases while guaranteed the smooth development of the criminal procedures to a certain degree. Without the internal and external pressures at the late Qing Dynasty, the legal inquisition by torture would have continued.