Research On Torture System Of The Song Dynasty

The system of torture has existed in the history of our country for more than twothousand years, appeared in the Western zhou dynasty originally and grew into a set of systemin the Tang dynasty. On the basis of inheriting the former system, the Song dynasty furtherdeveloped the system of torture,resulted in more perfect,and less the phenomenon of illegaltorture. This paper mainly studies the torture system of Song dynasty, after a briefintroduction of the previous development of torture, mainly discusses the content of torturesystem and torture implementation, further analyses its characteristics and causes on this basis.By this, readers can have a more comprehensive understanding of the torture system of Songdynasty. Besides, a reference to today’s judicial practice is expected. This paper is divided intothree parts:The first part briefly expounds the evolution of torture before the Song dynasty.According to "Yueling" book of Rites, torture has existed in Western zhou dynasty. Torturewas legal in Qin dynasty,but was not be advocated. The Han dynasty set torture ways,procedures, and so on. In the Wei Jin southern and northern dynasties, the torture was morestandard, with more detailed regulaions on torture conditions, quantity, object and tools, andtorture methods of "ce fa""ce li" were invented. In the Sui dynasty, the methods of "ce fa""celi" were abolished and torture was strictly limited, but cases of illegal torture were common.When it developed to the Tang dynasty, it grew into a more complete system with elaboraterules on torture implementation and the legal responsibilities for illegal torture.The second part discusses the the contents and implementations of Song’s torture system.From the aspect of contents, the torture system of Song is elaborately expounded includingthe torture conditions, object, procedure, tools, location, times, number, interval time and thelegal responsibilities for illegal torture. As for the implementation, although the torture systemwas very perfect, illegal tortures were often seen. Some judicial officials tortured illegalwhich resulting in a lot of errors. But over all, Song’s illegal torture were rarely.The third part mainly discusses the characteristics and causes of the torture system ofSong dynasty. Its characteristics can be summarized as stricter torture system and less illegaltorture. The reasons are as follows: firstly, The Song dynasty rulers attached great importanceto the construction of legal system, which made the torture system more perfect; secondly, the judicial officials had better legal cultivation, resulting in the accordance with the law whentorturing; thirdly, developed evidence system reduced the dependence on confession; fourthly,disperse judicial capacity made balance between the judicial apparatus, which made thejudicial officials dare not to implement illegal torture. Over all, its strict torture of system andless illegal torture should be praised.