A Study On The Litigation System Of State And County In The Ming Dynasty

In recent years,academic research on China’s litigation society has become increasingly in-depth.Compared to the thorough discussion of the litigation system in the Qing Dynasty,the situation of litigation in the Ming Dynasty has not received sufficient attention.The Ming Dynasty society was undoubtedly a "litigious and noisy" healthy litigation society,with issues such as excessive litigation and imprisonment becoming increasingly severe.Scholars fiercely criticized the ruthlessness of prison litigation.The desire to understand the issue of "litigation favoritism" in local society during the Ming Dynasty cannot be solely understood from the perspective of moral preaching or from the perspective of literati.Instead,it should return to the litigation itself,revealing the litigation mentality behind public litigation and the actual legal operation under the cover of bureaucratic moral discourse in the process of litigation procedure operation.State and county politics are precisely the connecting point between the government and society.On one end,it is a trend towards political centralization and administrative rationality under imperial power,while on the other end,it is a social pressure that leads to the diversification of local power.Based on the administrative and judicial roles of state and county yamen,clarifying the organizational operation of state and county,analyzing the relationship between state and county litigation and the Ming Dynasty judicial system,and analyzing the relationship between state and county litigation and the local society of the Ming Dynasty,we can restore the state and county litigation procedures of the Ming Dynasty,demonstrate the judicial reality of the Ming Dynasty,and observe the local society.Firstly,an overview of the politics of the states and counties in the Ming Dynasty is provided.Introduce the establishment,personnel arrangement,and administrative operation of states and counties in the Ming Dynasty,discuss the rationality and stability of the division of states and counties,and reveal that one of the key points of state and county administration is the use of criminal names.Secondly,it is to sort out the judicial organization system of the Ming Dynasty’s prefectures and counties.In the Ming Dynasty,the judiciary of prefectures and counties was centered around the officials of prefectures and counties,and their subordinates could also play a significant role in the operation of judicial affairs.The combination of official trials and civil mediation,as well as the cooperation between prefectures and counties and township government organizations,jointly promoted the operation of the judicial machinery of prefectures and counties.Through discussions on the judicial organizational system of states and counties,this study explores the interaction between state and county yamen and local society at the judicial level,showcasing the prominent feature of the Ming Dynasty’s state and county judiciary: the integration of judicial power into administrative power.Once again,we will use laws and regulations,as well as judicial practice,to restore the litigation procedures of Ming Dynasty states and counties,and discuss the litigation laws and regulations together with judicial practice.The "Litigation" law of the Ming Dynasty covered four stages of the entire litigation process: prosecution,trial,judgment,and execution.However,there were often differences between "practice" and "expression",which reflected the process of mutual grinding between law and practice.In addition,by restoring the entire state and county litigation procedures and exploring the activities of each subject in the litigation process around the "litigation court" from different perspectives,we can further demonstrate the form and characteristics of state and county litigation in the Ming Dynasty,with the aim of entering into state and county administration and the daily lives of Ming people from another perspective.Finally,through the construction of the state and county litigation system,the functions of state and county litigation are discussed.State and county litigation is not just an interaction between the government and the litigants,it is itself a part of state and county administration.Throughout the entire Ming Dynasty judicial system,state and county litigation was still a fairly basic part,and various groups behind it were also connected through litigation.In short,the Ming Dynasty was in a period of social transformation,with prefectures and counties being an important junction.The various conflicts,collisions,attempts,compromises,and adjustments contained in it were extremely complex.State and county litigation is one of the important contents of county governance.During the Ming Dynasty,many officials attempted to improve the state and county litigation system,which also played an important role in local governance.Although there were many reasonable factors in the litigation system of the Ming Dynasty’s prefectures and counties,its essence was still a system built on the framework of "rule by man",which determined that it could not fundamentally solve the problem.