Chinese Traditional Cautious Punishment And Its Modern Significance

As a social orthodoxy,the Confucian School has commanded Chinese ideological culture for hundreds of years.In terms of politics,the Confucian School seeks "benevolent government",which has become the origination of "cautious punishment" in China.The idea of "cautious punishment" is the most important and most simple judiciary,as well as the thought of governing our country in ancient China,whose emergence and development has condensed shining humanity of feudal dynasties.Besides,this idea pays a lot of attention to the caring for "human beings",which is rather rare in ancient China.The Confucian School incorporates the idea of"the benevolent loves others" into judicial construction,and therefore the "cautious punishment" has also blended into the concept of governing a state in all dynasties along with the development of the Confucian School.Therefore,it has incomparable influence on the following judicial systems,or even the judicial systems of other countries and districts.This paper discusses the background and origin of the "cautious punishment"thoughts,and analyzes the evolution of the "cautious punishment" and its judicial system by taking the "cautious punishment" thoughts of Han and Tang dynasties as an example,and sorts out the cautious sentence and its manifestation of the judicial system,and demonstrates the modern value of "cautious punishment" thought.I expect that it would provide guiding significance for the construction of the rule of law and harmonious society in China.