A Study On The Great Disrespect Crime In Tang And Song Dynasties

The great disrespect crime appeared no later than the Han Dynasty.“Respect” has always had close relationship with the etiquette.The immorality crime in Han Dynasty has many similar characteristics with the “disrespect crime” and the “great disrespect crime”.It has been explicated in the bamboo scripts of the Eastern Han Dynasty which was unearthed in recent years that: even in the Eastern Han Dynasty,there were already laws to have more detailed and clear regulations to the great disrespect crime.The historical materials of the Period of Wei,Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties also had no lack of records about the great disrespect crime.Since Sui Dynasty,ten evil crimes have formally been established.The great disrespect crime belonged to the ten.It included several accusations.In Tang Dynasty,the detailed behaviors of the great disrespect crime can be divided into three categories: the first category is the behaviors of violating the imperial authority,such as stealing the objects of the god or emperor for the sacrifice,stealing the utensils or taking the food of the emperor,stealing or forging the imperial seal.The second category is offending the imperial authority because of official negligence,for example,the royal medicines were not synthesized as the original prescription;the imperial cuisine was tasted mistakenly;the imperial boat was fabricated not solid enough.The third category is violating the imperial authority because of the improper statements,such as making oblique accusations with serious plots,opposing the system enacted by the imperial authority,neglecting the proper etiquette to the emperor.Making oblique accusations has ambiguous definition,strong subjectivity in defining and the university of the violators as well as the maximum sentence implemented.Tang law has regulated serious penalty means to the seven conditions of the great disrespect crime.In particular,forging the imperial seal and making oblique accusations were imposed the maximum penalty-beheading.In addition,there were also some special regulations on making oblique accusations in Tang law.According to the selected cases involving the great disrespect crime,it has distinctly embodied the absolute status of the emperor in the judicial cases.Most of the cases had some relationships with the crime of making oblique accusations.It reflected the game playing between the monarch and the bureaucrat under the bureaucratic monarchy in a certain degree.Making oblique accusations has become a powerful weapon in the political struggle.The officers falsely accused and charged others mutually,which has also provided strong guarantee for the monarch to control the bureaucracy.In Song Dynasty,the great disrespect crime was amended into the great dishonor crime because of the taboo.Although there is only one different word,the great dishonor crime of Song Dynasty had a far broader scope than the great disrespect crime of Tang Dynasty.As a result,the cases involved in the great dishonor crime in Song Dynasty increased explosively.Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty issued a large amount of imperial edicts and scripts about the great dishonor crime.The cases involved in the great dishonor crime have reached the peak in Song Huizong period.It had close relationship with the imperial scripts and behaviors of Song Huizong.In all the cases involved in the great dishonor crime,making oblique accusations occupied two third.It was because making oblique accusations had distinct properties.Therefore,it has played an irreplaceable values in the party struggling and authority concentrating processes in Song Dynasty.It has reflected that the direct authority had coordinating and contradictory relationships with the conventional authority under the bureaucratic monarchy from one side.Compared with other charges,making oblique accusations had its special properties and functions.Moreover,during the Huizong period between the two Song Dynasties,Song Huizong tried to govern its dynasty by a brand new crime.Violating the imperial script crime only existed for over twenty years in the history,but it has caused significant influences.As a matter of fact,violating the imperial script crime is a transformation of the great disrespect crime.In Song Dynasty,the laws started to be in the form of editing edict gradually.After being approved by the three departments and privy council,the edict was issued to the public.It belonged to the amanuensis system issued by the imperial court while the imperial script belonged to the writing system of the emperor.In Song Huizong Dynasty,it has been evolved into the condition that the edict can be issued and implemented without the approval of the three departments and the privy council.It has opened the authority gap that the monarch was able to issue orders to the outside independently without going through the deliberation of the decision-making organizations of the court.Therefore,the definitions of the imperial script and the court edict have been confused.The imperial script of Song Huizong has reflected a new round of the authority regulation between the monarch and the two houses as well as the various departments of the court in the later Song Dynasty.In order to guarantee the fast and efficient implementation of the imperial script,Song Huizong Dynasty also initially established the crime of violating the imperial script to match with it.The crime of violating the imperial script had detailed regulations to the content and executive time of the imperial script.And then rigorous penalty was also given as the guarantee.In the traditional bureaucracy,the crime of violating the imperial script reflected well the relationship between the direct authority and conventional authority.