A Study On Legal Issues Related To WuTai Poetry Case

Wu Tai Poetry case, in which Su Shi was convicted, had a long influence in Chinese history. Since the 1990's, the academic circle paid close attention to the case, and there were some influential new research achievements from the aspect of literature and politics. In this paper, the author tries to analyses the case from the legal perspective.In the beginning of the paper, the author reviews the background, reveal, result and subsequent impact of the case. Then, through the legal interpretation method, the author analyses the points of view and reasons of the party of impeachment and the party of defense and finds the difference between the parties. According to both sides' argument, and on the basis of the legal system of Northern Song Dynasty, the author draws her conclusion as to whether the evidence had flaws, whether the verdict and punishment was fair, whether the entity and the trial procedure was in accordance with the law, and then judges the substantive justice of the case. At the same time, combined with the analysis on the illegal plot of the 25 people involved with the case, the author draws an outline of the whole picture of the case, and reviews the case in a broader perspective. Finally, the author puts the case in a grand historical and cultural background, surveys the deep reason of the case from the macroscopic angle, and expresses her comprehensive understanding of the historical and cultural connotation of the case by the methods of combining the theory and the practice and by comparing with different historical periods in ancient China. The internal connection between the Wu Tai Poetry case and the media revolution accompanied by the rise of private-owed printing/publishing industry and the legal issues arisen from it, are two innovative points of this paper.