An Analysis Of The Humanitarian Spirit In The Ancient Chinese Death Penalty System

Death penalty is a punishment about personal life,and plays an important role of punishment of crime and maintaining social order in human society.The death penalty system in ancient China has a history of more than two thousand years.Ancient Chinese death penalty system shows the characteristics of ancient law inhere cruel in general besides,it also sends out a valuable brilliance of humanity.Because of accumulation and inheritance of culture,although ancient death penalty system in our country has already withdrawn from the historical stage,the concept of the death penalty formed under the influence of it has a certain impact on the concept of modern Chinese people.Therefore,it's necessary to has an in-depth examination in the ideology and spirits especially positive parts of ancient death penalty system in order to make its positive factors inherited and carried forward in the new historical conditions.This article is divided into four parts to undertake a study on the humanitarian spirit of the death penalty system in ancient China.The first part mainly reveals the relationship between the law and the humanitarian from two aspects of theory and practice through the definition and analysis of the connotation of humanitarian.The second part of the article mainly introduces the specific system and measures which embody the humanitarianism in the Chinese ancient death penalty system.It explains the specific humanitarian measures of death penalty system in order to confirm and to reveal the humanitarian spirit does exist in Chinese ancient death penalty system.The third part analyzes the cultural factors hidden behind the humanitarianism in the ancient death penalty system and points out the sources of the humanitarian spirit of ancient death penalty system in our country including all kinds of ideological and cultural resources such as the cautious punishment of Confucian thought,avenging ideas of Buddhist culture and harmony concepts of the doctrine of the five elements of Yin and Yang and so on.In the last part of the article,it makes a brief evaluation on the humanitarian spirit of Chinese ancient death penalty system by reviewing the history.At the same time,according to the current situation of the death penalty system in our country,it puts forward a part of excellent practical system in ancient for reference in order to promote the development and reformation in the direction of lightening punishment of modern death penalty system in our country.