Study On "Kill For Defensing" In Qing Dynasty

Killing is thought as the most serious crime since the ancient times. Under theguidance of “Life for a life”, the person who kills others is usually sentenced to death.Defense is one of the human nature. Even the nation bears most of the protectionfunction of society; it cannot be ruled out self-defense because defense by publicpower is not timely sometimes. A combination of “defense” and “kill” always happenin the daily life.“Kill for defensing” means when faced with a risk of life or body,you may kill the other party on account of human nature of defense. The person mayget breaks by law in consideration of legitimacy of defense.Qing dynasty is the main peak in the Chinese traditional authoritarian society.There is no principled regulation of defense, but lists the common specifications ofdefense behavior. There are mainly embodied in four regulations which are “Breakinto the house at night”,“Kill the adulterer”,” Rescue of parents and grandparents”,”Resist arrest of sinners”. The four detailed rules and other relative regulations almostinclude common dangerous situations in life. And Text assembly of criminal cases ofQing Dynasty records a lot of related cases. Those provide rich information of lawand cases about “Kill for defensing”.This article discusses from the four statutes and has four chapters for studyinglaw and relative cases of each condition of “Kill for defensing”. Each condition has its own characteristics.“Break into the house at night” is defensing for the one whobreaks into the house at night without proper reasons. The regulations develop todefense for the thief and have property protection value to some extent.“Kill theadulterer” is defensing against rape. There are regulations of refuse to rape by men butit requires strict evidences and judges carefully in practice.“Rescue of parents andgrandparents” clears about the rights of rescuing parents or grandparents. And the last“Resist arrest of sinners” expands rights from defense for resisting arrest sinners bypolicemen to the defense for behaviors such as arson, extortion by the partiesconcerned. From the four types of defense behavior, we can find protection of rightsand prevention of abuse of rights in the legislations. Also we find strictly abiding bylaw and comprehensive consideration of kinship judicially. In the situations of “Killthe adulterer” and “Rescue of parents and grandparents”, there are restrictions andlimitations on the subject and reflect the maintenance of traditional ethics and order.At the end of Qing dynasty, western legal theory hitted Chinese traditional law.Theory on “Justifiable defense” affects the innovation of regulations of “Kill fordefensing” inevitably in the process of modifying the statutes. There are repeatedchanges of the law and the primary cause is the maintenance of the traditional moralcodes in the debate between traditional moral and modern rule of law. It not onlyreflects the basic function of “Li” in the regulations of “Kill for defensing”, but alsodiscloses difficulty of introduction of “Justifiable defense” without changes ofpolitical environment.