The Emperor Shun Zhishi

Chapter 65 Enactment of Codes
Three years after Shun's regent, the world was in great order, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, all nations were in harmony, and everything in China was renewed.However, among some tribes, violence is often caused by water diversion, logging, and collection.

Before Shun's regency, this kind of matter was generally resolved among the tribes themselves, and the alliance did not interfere with the conflicts between the tribes, which led to frequent small wars among many tribes.After the Shun Regent, this kind of conflict among the tribes is no longer a simple internal matter of the tribes, it is related to the stability of the Huaxia Alliance regime.Therefore, many tribes submitted these disputes to Gaotao for resolution.As the commander of the Huaxia Alliance, Gao Tao has rich experience in adjudicating, but it is inevitable that there will be problems that he cannot solve.For example, the tribesmen of the Jumang clan and the Laotong clan fought violently because they went to collect a mulberry forest together, and the two sides sent people to Gaotao to make a decision.But Gaotao discovered that this mulberry forest was actually in the middle of the two tribes.This caused Gao Tao a headache, because both sides could say that this piece of mulberry forest was planted by their tribe's ancestors and should belong to their tribe, but neither side could stop the other's claim.Among them, the number of mulberry forests in Lao Chong's tribe will be a little more. If Lao Chong is awarded more mulberry trees, Jumang will definitely not agree, and Lao Chong will not agree.Gao Tao had no choice but to ask the two parties to collect separately according to the time.

From Little Xingxing's point of view, this is basically a mess, but there is no way around it.Little Xingxing also realized that Huaxia's biggest problem at this time was that there was no one to follow.Because there is no written law, Si Kou can only rely on personal experience to decide the case, which requires very high personal quality, because the alliance does not have an objective standard telling them what can be done and what cannot be done.

Little Xingxing deeply realizes that what Huaxia needs most is a written law code.But what kind of code should be established?Xiao Xingxing has read some legal books. He believes that in the ancient Chinese judicial system, the criminal law is very developed, but the civil law is very backward, and there is not even a special civil code.The civil code plays a very important role in promoting the development of commerce.Once commerce develops to a certain level, the buds of capitalism will emerge, which can accelerate the development of society.Therefore, Xiao Xingxing believes that China should now establish two codes, one is the Criminal Code and the other is the Civil Code.It is best that these codes have progressive significance, such as the view of natural human rights, so that China can enter the modern society as soon as possible.

With this thought in mind, he came to Emperor Yao's official residence again, and told him about the French Revolution, the Enlightenment Movement, and the separation of powers that he had reinterpreted.Emperor Yao was fascinated by what he heard, but frowned from time to time.The two had differences. The first difference was the separation of powers.

"Why the separation of powers?"

Little Xingxing didn't care if Emperor Yao could understand or not, he had to try anyway.After all, Emperor Yao is a political genius, maybe he can understand the political thought of 4000 years later.

"The judiciary is law enforcement, the legislation is the establishment of laws, and the administration is the management of the country. If these three are unified in one person, no one can supervise the managers."

"Why supervise the managers?"

"Not all the managers' policies are correct. Someone needs to supervise and test them. If all three powers are concentrated in one person, then there will be corruption because there is no supervision."

Emperor Yao nodded his head slowly, but shook his head again, as if he found a serious loophole in this system.

"What do you think is the best way to control the water?"

"Cultivation is the main focus, and obstruction is the supplement."

"That's right, I think so too. But once you follow your political method, this method of water control cannot be implemented at all, because most people will oppose you. They used to only know that water will cover up, and they have never thought of better water control. method, so they opposed it. Separation of powers may make politics clearer, but it will also hinder the implementation of good decisions. Once the separation of powers is written into the code, water control will inevitably fail.”

Emperor Yao's words sounded like enlightenment to Little Xingxing.He once again realized his naivety. The current political dilemma in the United States is precisely the result of the separation of powers by the founding heroes of the United States.It can be seen that the separation of powers is only a political system in a specific historical period, not an ideal political system.

The second difference is the removal of corporal punishment.Xiaoxing believes that corporal punishment is very barbaric. Once corporal punishment is used, the damage to the victim will be permanent. Not only can it not play a normative role, but it will increase the burden on society.

"So in your opinion, how do we regulate the behavior of the ethnic group?"

"Limitation of personal freedom."

"Restrictions on freedom?"

Emperor Yao obviously couldn't understand the words of this future era that Little Xingxing said.

"Freedom is the right to do anything, and the restriction of freedom is the greatest punishment."

"You mean, if some people make mistakes, just restrict their freedom and don't give them other punishments?"

"Yes."

"Then how to distinguish the severity of punishment?"

"Lighter punishments restrict freedom for a shorter period of time, heavy punishments restrict freedom for a longer period of time, and the heaviest punishments can be imprisoned forever without a time limit."

Emperor Yao shook his head repeatedly listening to Little Xingxing's words.

"I know that corporal punishment is indeed a permanent harm to people, and it will bring a great burden to society, but corporal punishment is also better than the criminal law that restricts freedom as you said. Do you know how long ordinary people in China can live now?"

Little Xingxing shook his head, because he hadn't done any research in this area, so he really didn't know.

"Most of them are less than 30 years old. If a person is 16 years old, if he is locked up until he dies, it will be 14 years at most. During these 14 years, he will be given food, clothing, and shelter, and someone will be sent to guard him. Prevent him from escaping. The result of this is that if one person is imprisoned for a lifetime, at least two people must spend their lifetime with him. Moreover, there is food and drink in the wall, and they have to be controlled for a lifetime. This is not to encourage people to commit crimes ?"

Little Xingxing was speechless once again.Although he firmly believes that his legal concept is the most advanced in China at this time, this is a society where the average life expectancy is less than 30 years and most people do not have enough to eat.Serving sentences in prison is actually heaven in their eyes.

After a brief debate with Emperor Yao, Xiao Xingxing once again realized his shallowness. As an intellectual in the future society, Xiao Xingxing was only expressing theory and lacking practical spirit.After some thinking, he thought that although corporal punishment was crude, it was indeed the most suitable for this era.

Finally, after discussing with Emperor Yao, Xiao Xingxing became enlightened, and he decided to promulgate a written criminal code, in which the main punishment method is corporal punishment.However, he previously advocated the establishment of a civil code, but he gave up because the commodity economy in this era was too backward.

Little Xingxing convened Bakai, Bayuan, and important figures from various departments, including Sikou Gaotao, Sikong Gun, Situ Ziqi, Tianchou Houji, Sishi Qin Bukong, and Baigong Xiongtao. After a month of discussion, they decided Initially created the Criminal Code.

After completion, Gao Tao handed over the new law code to Shun for review. The new law code included five codes, five rules, five rites, five teachings, five punishments, five punishments, and five offenses, especially the five punishments (mo, ji, ji, gong, dabi). ) has the function of warning the world, so the new code was named "Five Penal Codes".

Create a code of law so that there are laws to follow, but this is far from enough.Xiao Xingxing believes that some experience gained in the construction of the modern legal system can be used for reference.Gao Tao appreciated this genius concept very much, and believed that in order to build a society ruled by law, in addition to promulgating laws and regulations, one must also have the ability to implement laws and regulations.

To implement the code, first let the ethnic group know the code and know what is right and what is wrong.Therefore, Xiao Xingxing ordered Situ Ziqi to cast a big tripod, engrave the "Five Punishment Laws" on the tripod, and then put it on the roof of Sifang Guan in Pingyang City, so that the people can see the punishment written on the tripod.Then, he sent people to cast more tripods engraved with the "Five Punishment Laws" and sent them to Guirui and other tribes, so that most tribes could learn the contents of the Five Punishment Laws through the Xingding Ding.After such basic publicity, each tribe can initially have laws to follow.

Little Xingxing sent Bakai and Bayuan to learn punishment, and selected some talented children from various tribes to learn punishment from Bakai and Bayuan.After finishing their studies, these children will be sent to their respective tribes and let him become the law enforcement officer of this tribe.Because they understand the law themselves and are law enforcement officers, they are more transparent about the implementation of the five-penalty criminal law.

Even so, it is not enough.Enforcement depends on the effect.This in turn requires the establishment of a strict supervision system to supervise the implementation of punishments by various tribes.Every month, Little Xingxing sends Bakai and Bayuan to various tribes to check the execution of justice and investigate some prison incidents, so as to know whether the justice in the area is fair.During the investigation process of Bakai and Bayuan, they encountered some tribes with relatively powerful families who prevented the implementation of the law. However, Bakai and Bayuan still relied on the authority of Shun to punish the big shots of these tribes and let the dignity of the law To be maintained, so as to achieve the judicial result that violations must be prosecuted.

After unifying the code, another year passed, and Shun found that the crimes within the Huaxia Alliance had been greatly reduced, and some tribes that did not implement the code were also punished as they should.Although there were complaints, no one challenged the authority of this code.This made Xiao Xingxing realize that the implementation of the "Five Penal Codes" has made the tribal leaders within the Huaxia Alliance develop the habit of abiding by the law and maintaining imperial power. Once the habit of respecting power is formed, strengthening the centralized restructuring will also It became possible.

One year after the implementation of the "Five Punishment Laws", Xiao Xingxing came to Emperor Yao's mansion again and explained to him his reform ideas of deepening reforms and limiting the privileges of noble chiefs.

"Now that these nobles have accepted the code, as long as they can still accept it, the resistance to deepening reforms is the least."

Listening to Little Xingxing's words, Emperor Yao smiled and said:

"It seems that you are still too anxious. It is indeed a good thing that the "Five Criminal Codes" can be promulgated smoothly and well implemented, but it is also because this code does not touch their fundamental interests. Although the penal code within the tribe Prison incidents are regulated by codes, but it is still the tribal leaders who enforce the codes. Even the personnel they send to Pingyang to study the codes are mostly children of these leaders, and the power is still in their hands. The reason why the Criminal Code does not conflict. But if you further restrict the privileges of the nobles, I think they will immediately form a group against you. Although you are in control of China, you have no people and do not have the military power to control China. I am alive, and they dare not Zaozi, once I die, they will rise up immediately, even colluding with Sanmiao, Xirong, and Beidi, drive straight in, capture Pingyang, and then capture you, and in the name of eliminating tyrants and Anliang, they will designate you as a tyrant and eventually kill you. So , At that time, let alone strengthening reforms and restricting privileges, we must even appease them and declare to safeguard their privileges."

What Emperor Yao said was very reasonable and in line with the national conditions at the time, but Xiao Xingxing was a modern person with democratic ideas after all, and he hated privilege levels. Restricting privilege levels has always been his first political goal since he participated in the governance of China.Now that the first political goal cannot be achieved, how can we discuss the establishment of a prosperous, democratic, and powerful country later?
"Shouldn't we never change their privileges? In my opinion, past wars and possible future wars are all due to the inability to limit these privilege levels, causing some of them to grow bigger and challenge the power of the center. If the privilege level is not restricted, I worry that in the next few decades, a very ambitious and powerful nobleman will emerge, and a war involving the entire China will break out to overthrow the central government."

Emperor Yao listened to Little Xingxing's words and nodded slowly, as if agreeing with his opinion, but Emperor Yao finally rejected Little Xingxing's suggestion.

"That's right, you look very far. In the whole of China, you can't find any better political talents than you, including me. I just have richer experience in governing. Compared with your genius conception, I Not as good. However, you have a shortcoming, that is, you act too hastily. Everything has to be urgent and slow, and the privilege of the nobles is a stubborn disease, but the biggest threat to us now is not these nobles, but Sanmiao, Xirong, and Beidi. They have been attacking us all the time. It's just that these years, Huaxia and Dongyi have merged into one, and under your regency, their strength has greatly increased, so they dare not use troops against us. Although the three seedlings are strong, they were defeated by us twice. This war is all due to the credit of these nobles. Yes, if their power is not limited, they may threaten the central government in the future, but if their privileges are abolished, I am afraid that they will rebel immediately. At that time, they will fight with Beidi , Sanmiao, and Xirong should cooperate with each other, and the whole of China will be occupied by these barbarians."

Listening to Emperor Yao's words, Little Xingxing admired Emperor Yao's political wisdom even more, and couldn't help praising him inwardly. He was indeed a great leader in the era of the Five Emperors, and even he, an undergraduate, could not surpass him.Facing this ancient emperor, Little Xingxing's attitude became more pious.

"So, dare to ask Dijun, what should we do?"

"Waiting for the opportunity."

Little Xingxing comprehended the echoing voice in the hall.He once again felt Emperor Yao's profundity and his own shallowness.

(End of this chapter)