Yunjian Conviction Memorandum And The Late Ming Dynasty Legal Practice

Yunjian Conviction Memorandum is a piece of law document compiled by Mao Yilu, who wrote about his comments on various kinds of trials when he worked as a prosecutor in Songjiang Prefecture reviewing those trials from1604to1609, hence the book falls into the category of Pandu (court documents). Yunjian Conviction Memorandum includes a total of183law cases, which use very similar genres to the original law documents and authentically and substantially depict the judicial procedure, convicting and sentencing ground as well as the author’s achievements in his legal practice. Besides, the book also displays the intricate details of the cases, from which readers can have a glimpse of the crime trend and changing social life of the southern region of the Yangtze River in the Late Ming Dynasty. Therefor the book is of precious historical value in studying the political, legal, social and cultural status of the Late Ming Dynasty. Given the fact that the historian circle has yet done any through monographic study about Mao Yilu and his Yunjian Conviction Memorandum, this thesis aims to explore into the book and the Late Ming Dynasty legal practice.The thesis has three parts and touches upon the following aspects:The first part of the thesis is a textual study about Mao Yilu, the whole course of the book’s making, its circulation, historical value, and Mao Yilu’s achievements in his legal practice such as his judicial philosophy of balancing law, principle and sensibility, his truth-and-evidence-based judicial principles and his effort in pushing ahead the blind trial mechanism.The second part is a comparative study of Yunjian Conviction Memorandum and other legal documents in Ming Dynasty such as the Great Ming Code/Da Ming lu and its accessory law Wenxing Criminal Regulations, which reveals certain nature and improvements of local legal practice in the Late Ming Dynasty.The last part will focus on analyzing the writing of society and social life, displaying social problems, contradictions and conflicts caused by anomie and disorder during the period of social transition. And the thesis will further discuss the crime trend at that time, the policing methods adopted by local administration and its effectiveness.