The "Qing" In The Judicial Trial In Song Dynasty

In this article, based on using “Qing” different meanings as the breakthroughpoint to inspect the Song dynasty’s judicial trial，and then to analyze the verdictspeech of the book Collection of Pure and Bright Court Verdict Made by FamousOfficials, the author summarizes a direction of the Song dynasty’s judicial trial whichregards “Qing” as the core.In the introduction, the author firstly uses the statistic method to prove that“Qing” and it’s different meanings are very important in the book Collection of Pureand Bright Court Verdict Made by Famous Officials，which indicates that “Qing” isreal presence in the Song dynasty’s judicial trial. Secondly, the author analyzes theevolution process of “Qing” which based on the classical literature in Pre-Qin，including The book of songs、Book of history、The spring and autumn annals、Theanalects of Confucius、XunZi and so on. Thirdly, the author analyzes the “Qing”meanings and characteristics to summarize the evolution of “Qing” meaning into thecharacteristics of multi-layer ambiguity, and studies the “Qing” role in traditionalChinese culture. Finally, author totally illustrates the important concept in this article,specifically the “Xin”、”Xing”、”Qing” and “objective feeling and subjective feeling”.The main body is divided into objective feeling and subjective feeling. Theauthor classifies “Qing” by its different meanings. The objective feeling mainlyreferred to fact, but the subjective feeling includes “QingYuan”、“BenQing”、“ZhenQing”、“YuanQing”、“JinQing”、“QingLi” and so on. He makes a carefulconclusion for verdicts, and bases on this to analyze the process of Song dynasty’sjudicial trial. In the objective feeling parts, author uses the fact as the key word todiscuss the case in the object, and from “evidence” and “introduction” to analyze theverdicts in the book which reflects the song dynasty official obtained evidence indifferent ways, with attitudes toward different types of evidence and ways to identifyauthenticity of evidence. In order to find out the merits, the officers judge theauthenticity of evidence by collecting statements and documentary evidence,verifying each other. They repeatedly verify the details in a case, and they canexcellently combine the evidence and merits to examine the truth in a case. In the second part, the body is divided into three sections as the subject has different roles ina case. In the first section, the author focuses on the subject feeling between theaccuser and the accused in a case which refers to the key word such as “QingYuan”、“BenQing”、“ZhenQing”、“YuanQing” and so on. In this book，the verdicts reflect thenormal procedure which is investigating the details, speculating the involved person’sinside feeling, combining the facts and the feeling。The officers are requested to trytheir best to gain the real inside from the subject and the object. In a case, there aremany specific forms of “Qing”, so the officers need to inquiry by “Qing” and toobserve by “Qing”. In order to acquaint the whole case, the officers try to gather moreevidence, and to tell the true from the false. Investigation of a case does not only referthat the officers need to infer the involved persons’ inside, but also refer that theofficers judge a case by observing the involved person’s behavior, the local cultural.In the second section, the author uses the two key words “JinQing” and“BuYuJinQing”, which seem to be opposite, turn to discuss the officers’ unbiasedattitude in this book，when they are dealing in a case. At this moment, unbiasedattitude is not absolute. The unbiased attitude can imply more rich culturalconnotations in a verdict. In short, the standard of private is very different betweenthe officers and the ordinary people. For the natural feelings, such as happiness, angry,sorrow and delight, when the ordinary people refer to a case with the natural feelings,this kind of feeling will be called selfishness. But, usually, the officers can understandthis kind of selfishness, which is called a human nature. In fact, it can’t be influencedby the natural feeling to the officers in the final verdict. They should use the moralfeeling to make a decision, so this kind of feeling is be abstracted which is selflessbased on compassion. In the third section, the author combines the subjective feelingand the objective feeling. And in this section, the key word is “QingLi”. The authorthinks that “QingLi” is incorporation between human and law. Law must not too strictis a common view in the Confucian traditional culture. It is very important for how touse law and “Zhong”, which need to have compassion and propriety, so it is necessaryto test a law by “QingLi”.“QingLi” contains a plausible and a reasonable element.Ideally, it is certainly to pursuit a reasonable judgment. However in a real case, itcan’t make excessive requests to the ordinary people’ moral. Combining the high standard of moral evaluation with the low standard of legal judgment makes aconsideration by integrating “Qing” with law in a real judgment.In conclusion, the author makes a brief summary which is the officers’ attitude to“Qing” in Song dynasty. In today’s view, the verdict is reasonable for the officersrestrain themselves by law, but still retains sympathy to the ordinary people’spersonal thoughts. It further expresses “Qing” is significance to the Song dynastyjudgment. At the beginning, the officers need to observe the fact in a case, to obtainthe evidence and tell the truth from the false, to presume the involved person’s insideto gain the substance. And then study law to pursuit the reasonable legal provisionswith containing a case. If there are laws to be found, it will be decided according tolaw. According to the common sense, the officers can decide the degree when to use alaw, which will make the perfect combine for “Qing” and “law”. If there aren’t lawsto be found, the officers always focus on the real motives of the involved person.They map their own feeling to the involved persons’ inside, or combine the emotionsof good and evil with the legal of right and wrong. But in the final decision, theofficers still use laws to deal with a case, to guide natural feelings; they shouldn’tmake a decision only by their personal tastes.