Political Influence In The Ancient Chinese Law Trial

Nine years into Kaibao era, after the founding emperor of the Song dynasty--Zhao Kuangyin’s sudden death, his younger brother Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne, hereafter referred to as Song Taizong, changing the inheritance practice in Chinese history that a son succeeds after his father deceased. After, not only did well on political governance, but also was kind to his brother’s offsprings and sister-in-law. However, in the seventh year after Song Taizong’s succession, namely the seventh year in Rejuvenation era, the historically famous rebellion in Song Dynasty happened, that is the treason of Zhao Tingmei and Lu Duoxun.From a legal standpoint, Zhao Tingmei and Lou Hudson’s case early in Song Dynasty is the typical ten-evil conspiracy case, but the particularity of the characters involved and the complexity of the background of the case make this case different from other treason cases, resulting in the unusual course of trial. The trial course of Zhao Tingmei’s case not only involves legal system like ten-evil conspiracy, report to the throne from officials, The imperial edict Prison, collective decision-making, and officials’demotion, but also linked in countless ways to the political mysteries like "Pledge of the gold bookcase" and "candle shadow axe sound-throne usurpation", making the case more confusing, talk of focus at the time, a puzzle to be figured out for descendants.Because this case involves factors such as throne succession and power struggles, with strong political overtones, it is essentially a political trial under the cover of legal trials.Although Zhao tingmei’s case is a comprehensive case of great significance combined with legal judgment and political trials, yet academics lacks systematic and in-depth study of the case. Researches are mostly about a specific system of the Song Dynasty or historical heritages, only focusing different points, no overall perspectives. The blind spots the academic study is that there’s no systematic research and analysis as to the thorough trial process as a whole and the analysis of political reasons behind the system. This thesis intends to fill out the academic void and hopefully motivate more researches by probing into the case from appearance to essence in terms of external legal processes and internal political reasons and then comes up with my own understanding towards the relation between power and law under the monarchy institution in ancient china.This thesis begins with a summary of the case and the later different views about the cause and effect. Based on the summary of the previous academic achievements on legal system and historical events, the main passage will probe into the case from appearance to essence in terms of external legal processes and internal political reasons. The external legal process will follow the thread of the case’s developing process, from the report of the crime to the register, then the hybrid trial, and finally the sentence by collective reasoning, even including the execution of the case in order to perform a complete trial course. Analysis of the case as a political trial is the innovation of this thesis. The statement will be confirmed by a comprehensive research on historical mysteries like "Pledge of the gold bookcase" and "candle shadow axe sound-throne usurpation" and the reveal of the cause and effect of the foundation of the judicial officers’claim and the different sentences towards the same case.