Research On The Compassionate Penalty System Of Ming Dynasty

The compassion penalty system is one of the basic legal systems in ancient China.It has a long historical origin and appeared as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty.After the foundation of the Han Dynasty,it has been perfected by the Tang Dynasty.The compassionate penalty system is not a single legal system.It is composed of multiple compassionate penalty policies.Due to the different needs of the times,the intensity and emphasis of implementation in various periods also change with time.The rulers of the Ming Dynasty inherited and developed the compassion penalty system on the basis of the previous generation,and formed their own characteristics.The compassionate penalty system of the Ming Dynasty was mainly based on three aspects: law making,judicial trial,and enforcement.In the formulation of the law,Emperor Ming continued the customs of the Tang and Song laws,and wrote the preferential shirts for special groups such as old and young children,women and other special groups into the "Daming Law",and the policy of compassion and punishment for the retention of relatives and relative crime Also recorded.After that,the emperors of the Ming Dynasty adjusted and improved them according to the needs of the development of the times,but some policies were not implemented for various reasons.In the judicial trial process,the Ming Dynasty has a complete judicial procedure for the trial of cases,and in addition to the conventional judicial procedures,it also has a variety of trial systems,three major trial cases for major cases,and second confessions to prisoners The Jiuqing round trial,the hot trial and the cold trial in order to avoid the drowning of prisoners,the Korean trial to review the death penalty after the frost every year,and the big trial held every five years to clean up the unjust prison.In addition,in order to solve the situation of confinement in local prisons,the Ming Dynasty rulers also sent officials from Dali Temple and the Ministry of Penalty as compassionate messengers to visit the place.After seven years of Chenghua,the dispatch of compassionate officials every five years to examine the case of the prison became a statute.The most typical result of the compassionate penal system in the Ming Dynasty was the trial system.Strict judicial procedures and a perfect form of trial system can guarantee the justice of the prison to the greatest extent and the penalty is proper.The trial system is an important part of the compassionate penalty system of the Ming Dynasty.After the trial of the case is completed,in the course of judicial execution,the rulers of the Ming Dynasty also implemented some compassionate penalty policies in order to reduce the penalty and reduce the death penalty.The first is that the country encounters big celebrations,such as the emperor's ascension,the birth of a prince,etc.,or when a disaster occurs,the emperor will use amnesty to reduce the sentence of prisoners.The second is the implementation of atonement.The atonement law of the Ming Dynasty was more detailed and more lenient than the previous dynasties.Its implementation process was not limited to identity,and was widely applicable to all social strata,and can be redeemed for gait,rod,apprentice,stream,and death.Not only can money be used for atonement,but those with less financial resources can also be atoned by serving labor.In the Ming Dynasty,the country was governed mainly by severe punishments and laws.The implementation of atonement can play an important role in overriding the law.It is one of the important means for the rulers of the Ming Dynasty to punish the penalty.In addition,the rulers of the Ming Dynasty governed the country with filial piety.During the execution of the sentence,they often surrendered the law to promote filial piety for their children's willingness to substitute their own punishments for their own lives.In a word,the compassionate punishment system was an important part of the legal system construction in the Ming Dynasty,and it was a typical application of the theory of "combining mercy with men" on the legal system.The rulers of the Ming Dynasty achieved the effect of enveloping people's hearts and alleviating social conflicts through the compassionate penalty system,but objectively also played a positive role in reducing the prisoners 'punishment,ensuring the safety of prisoners' lives and reducing death penalty.