A Study On The Litigation Of Rich Civilians In Southern Song Dynasty

Ming Gong Shu Pan Qing Ming Ji is a precious historical material reflecting the civil litigation and judicial process in the Southern Song Dynasty.It is of great significance to understand the folk life in the Song Dynasty,especially in the Southern Song Dynasty.In Song Dynasty,with the development of commodity economy,the new social class named"Fumin"(means Rich Civilian)began to grow and played an important role in all aspects of society.Ming Gong Shu Pan Qing Ming Ji recorded many cases of these Rich Civilians.Through sorting out and analyzing these cases,we can see another aspect of the life of"Rich Civilian”as an individual or as a whole class.Firstly,from the content point of view,it contains the following three aspects for rich people were involved in litigation:taxation litigation,family disputes and neighborhood disputes.Among them,the disputes between the neighbors occupy an absolute proportion of the Rich Civilians,litigations,whose contents are closely related to the struggle for wealth and other social contradictions arising therefrom.In addition,the image of the Rich Civilian in the suit of embezzlement is not totally negative,but also has a good side.However,as a whole,the Rich Civilian in the suit are still far more negative than positive image.Secondly,due to the limited time and energy,local officials are very pragmatic,not confined to legal provisions,but seek the best solution to settle the dispute by combining human feelings and legal will.Therefore,their judicial emphases are different in different types of cases.Under heavy taxes and heavy duty,out of sympathy for the people's livelihood,they rarely punish the Rich Civilians who bear state taxes and evade duty.On the contrary,they severely punish those who use public office for personal gain.Due to the great development of commodity economy,the traditional concept of righteousness and benefit advocated by Confucianism has changed.Within families with rich wealth,family members often argue with the government for inheritance and distribution of property.Local officials who undertake the duty of education mostly focus on reconciliation,while injustices are punished.Among the largest number of neighborhood lawsuits,local officials always give scholars judicial preferences.In addition to registered students,ordinary scholars were given preferential treatment too.For the arrogant Rich Civilians in the dispute between the neighbors,the punishments are more vigorous,especially for the severe punishments of claws and teeth.However,in the treatments of arrogant Rich Civilians,the local officials also give them preferential treatment and mitigate the punishment because of their ancestors'virtuous names.Generally speaking,the lawsuits caused by taxation and corvee are the friction between the Rich Civilian and the national system.The system adjustment and innovation carried out by the Song Dynasty is to safeguard the rule.In the frequent system adjustment,the rich class is often the loser of the actual interests.The internal disputes of the rich families reflect the essence of the dispersal and expansion of the Rich Civilian,accompanied by wealth differentiation and family differentiation.In addition,through the content of rich people's lawsuits,we can see that arrogant Rich Civilians' possession of wealth is illegal and violent,among which the direct victims are other Rich Civilians who own wealth.The sharp contradiction in rural society actually exists in the arrogant Rich Civilians and ordinary Rich Civilians.In this period,the complex network of relations in rural society was built with wealth as the center,which has something to do with the later gentry society but also has obvious differences.