| Guanzhen refers to the references of the standards of officials’ political ethicsand behaviors. The author tried to describe the concept of “the cautious applicationof capital punishment” in the traditional Chinese society, using historical researchmethods and collecting traditional materials from Guanzhen in successive dynasties,in order to progressively define the concept, theoretical foundation, practical form of“the cautious application of capital punishment”; Its relationship with law; and thereason for its high reputation.In the process of exploring the philosophy of “the cautious application ofcapital punishment”, it is necessary to clarify the concept of it, which is the questionof what is “the cautious application of capital punishment”.“The cautiousapplication of capital punishment” is a term developed from the specific historicalcontext. Consequently, it is hard to discuss it with modern concepts. However, on thecontrary, through collection and sorting out of traditional judicial philosophy andpractice, we can locate the inner characteristics and concept of “the cautiousapplication of capital punishment” and find out the value that traditional judgespursued. According to the representative opinions from Guanzhen, the authordefined the concept of “the cautious application of capital punishment” as limitedlyand cautiously using death penalty if there are reasons to forgive, mitigate orintercede the criminal; or if people asked for hundreds or thousands timesfor a lighter sentence sincerely.In order to achieve “the cautious application of capital punishment”, the firstthing is to settle a lawsuit cautiously and slowly. Just as the old saying goes “Thingshappened over and over again”, if we “treat and weigh them easily or rashly”, it isjust like treating people’s lives rashly, let alone the use of criminal law to find out orjudge the truth of cases, which might ignore people’s lives and beagainst thephilosophy of “the cautious application of capital punishment”. Secondly, just as theYong Le Emperor once said,“the responsibility of judge is to value people’s life”, god has the virtue of cherishing life, and law has the intention of “the cautiousapplication of capital punishment”. Officials should have a merciful heart and do notexpect people’s death. They should seek for the reasons to let criminals to beforgiven, to be mitigated, or to be interceded and should use death penalty cautiously.In addition, according to XueZhi Yi Shuo written by Wang huizu, with the duty ofserving people, the officials should do their best. As his philosophy of Guanzhenshowed, officials should do things themselves, and treat things diligently. In otherwords, being qualified officials is not only about dealing with the daily affairs withenough diligence, but also about using the death punishment cautiously, in order totry to find ways, in which criminals can survive, with sincere heart. Lastly, howcould officials accomplish their duties, simultaneously fulfill people’s expectationand use the philosophy of “the cautious application of capital punishment” to punishcriminals, without offending laws of the country and emperors’ command? Thesethings begin by their sincere heart and finish by their sincere heart.Restricted by the philosophy of “the cautious application of capital punishment”,government officials at all levels from the central to local, which not only include thecounty magistrates and the officials in “Sansi”, but also include the warder andcensor,could follow the philosophy of “the cautious application of capitalpunishment”. Once met with the cases related to people life, they could cautiouslyfind way to reduce death. The local officials have the heavy responsibility to be “theparents” of the local people, so they need to find the mercy and mitigation in the caseof using death penalty. Upper officials like the central governors inministry of penalty, need to examine and verify the homicide cases deliberately,using the philosophy of “clarification”,“deliberation”,“mercy” to treat criminals.For everyone in the state institutions who has the opportunity to participate in thelegal cases more or less, they should use the philosophy of “the cautious applicationof capital punishment” to consider the mercy and mitigation in these cases with theirsincere heart.Deeply considering the reason why the philosophy of “the cautious applicationof capital punishment” are praised highly by so many people, we can find out thatmost ancients believed that “if they have more mercy in the process of judging death punishment cases, their descendant will benefit from this”. As a result, consideringthe longevity and prosperity of their descendant, they tended to find ways to save thecriminals’ lives. The “mild penal”, which includes the meaning of “detailed” trail,“kindly” penalty and “using moderate way to remove the bad things” throughjudicial decision, is an expectation for the judicial officials, which wish them to keepin mind that “god has the virtue of cherishing life while government has an intentionof mercy”. Moreover, officials should have “the heart of loving people” and “treatpeople as their descendant”. As a result, they should apply the philosophy of “thecautious application of capital punishment” to deal with the death punishment, inorder to save criminals’ lives and accomplish the objective.When we return to the law itself with legal perspective to analyze thephilosophy of “the cautious application of capital punishment”, it is easy to find outthat law is so meticulous. The connotation of law is so meaningful. Law always has amerciful heart, and does not want people to die. There is vitality in the law. Whenofficials is searching the reasons for the criminals to be forgiven, to be mitigated, orto be interceded, there is a sincere heart behind it in order to pursue the “balancebetween law and humanity” and “integration of emotion and law”. |
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