On The Ancient Chinese Elderly Crime Of Forgiveness System

As for the punishment of breaking the national law, sympathizing the aged andchildren and forgiving the disabled and women was a notable characteristic in ancientChina, which played an important influence on the decisions made by rulers of pastdynasties. The forgiveness system of the elderly crime in particular adoptedregulations to reduce or waive penalties from criminal provisions to sentence, and thissystem was accepted as an important legislative content by later dynasties. TheEighth Amendment to Criminal Law passed on February25th,2011added theforgiveness system of the elderly crime, which was an inheritance of this legislationthought. Therefore, the study of the forgiveness system of the elderly crime becamethe focus of scholars once again. Many works of academic circles discussed elderlycrime from the aspect of criminal law and sociology. But this thesis tries to study theforgiveness system of the elderly crime in Tang dynasty from the aspect of legalhistory on the basis of the senior scholar’s studies, explore enlightenment this systemmade to modern legislation, so as to perfect the forgiveness system of the elderlycrime and provide a realistic reference to the dispute of the appropriate time when theold people should get retired.