Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 500 On the Legal System

With Wei Zheng's words, Sun Xiangfu was not polite, and said, "I think that laws and regulations should be formulated according to local conditions after the local field investigation. Gradually tightening is not appropriate.

Once they get used to the loose laws, they will no longer be willing to obey the tightened laws. It is best for us to figure out the local folk customs as much as possible, then finalize the entire main frame, and make some minor changes later. . "

Everyone present nodded in agreement with Sun Xiangfu's words. The folk customs of different regions are quite different, which is something they have considered before. One of the food, you enforce the same law, certainly can't do it.

For example, salt, in the Salt Lake area of ​​Tuyuhun, this thing is everywhere, it is worthless at all, it is definitely inappropriate if you use the price in the Central Plains area, and the tax law to control it, and there are other places such as Yunnan, where the whole people are buying wild medicinal materials. You can earn income from things like this, and the number of fields is very small. If you rely on the tax laws of the Central Plains to manage them, it will definitely not work.

There are too many things, etc., the Ministry of Law needs to set up a special department to fight for legislation, to conduct research, to do practical and operational statistics, etc., it is not your Ministry of Law officials, who hold meetings in Chang'an, film Things that can be settled by tapping the table.

After discussing these typical issues with Wei Zheng and many officials from the Ministry of Justice, everyone decided on the spot and had to follow suit. Then, Sun Xiangfu started to talk about the second thing, which is why Sun Xiangfu came to visit Wei Zheng one.

"Wei Gong thinks, what should the law most defend?"

Wei Zheng replied almost without thinking, "Justice! This is a well-known fact."

Sun Xiangfu nodded and said, "Yes, it is justice. Due to some social reasons, we cannot use it to make all social classes fair, but we can use it to protect social justice. Then, in order to make it To be able to maintain social justice for a long time, as an official of the Ministry of Justice, you should maintain its fairness so that it will not be easily destroyed by imperial power, military power, and political power, Duke Wei, do you think so?"

"It's natural. No matter who it is, the old man and the officials of the Ministry of Justice will not agree to anyone who wants to shake the fairness of the law. Even if it is His Majesty, the old man will fight hard."

"What Wei Gong said is good, but I heard that Kong Jijiu and other Confucian disciples are actively promoting the integration of Confucianism and law. Why do these Confucian disciples pay so much attention to this matter? Could it be that they Do you want to influence the laws of our Great Tang?"

"This······"

Wei Zheng is also a master of Confucianism, and it is also the birthplace of Confucianism. The local gentry in Shandong, Kong Yingda made such a big move, naturally he did not hide it from him, and even actively recruited him to join him. However, he opposed Kong Yingda's strong support for Li Tai. Li Chengqian is the eldest son, although his talent and learning are not obvious, but at least there is no big mistake. If some of their interest demands push the two princes to earn the throne, Wei Zheng thinks it is absolutely wrong Not advisable.

In the Xuanwumen incident, too many people have died. He doesn't want this to happen again. Moreover, he knows that the current Tang Dynasty's situation has not come easily. It would be a pity if it was ruined by internal strife. After Sun Xiangfu asked this question, he realized that the group of scholars represented by Kong Yingda actually had other purposes in promoting the integration of Confucianism.

Wei Zheng asked with some doubts, "Does Zhengming think that if the law wants to be fair, it doesn't need to belong to any family?"

"Exactly. The coverage of the law covers almost everyone in society. If it is mastered by a certain group, the consequences will be dire. It is very rare for you, Mr. Wei, to maintain a fair heart. However, your later What about the successors? Will they all maintain a just heart?"

"This······"

Not only Wei Zheng, but also all the officials of the Ministry of Justice sitting here have also entered into contemplation after Sun Xiangfu raised this question. In fact, most of them are of Confucian origin. Under normal circumstances, they will naturally be more biased. As for the preferential treatment of Confucian scholars, it is the same for chief officials, not to mention those who work at the lower levels.

This has led to local Confucian scholars breaking the law, or Confucian scholars arguing with others, and when they go to court, they will be favored to a large extent. If things go on like this, the law may become something dedicated to protecting Confucian scholars. lost its fairness.

It’s not that you haven’t seen this problem, but if you want to correct it, there’s really not much you can do at the moment. Fortunately, when Sun Xiangfu suggested the establishment of the Ministry of Justice, he set up a jury system and invited some people from other social classes. People come to express their opinions on the judgment of the judge, otherwise, it is estimated that its fairness has long been questioned.

After Wei Zheng and the others were speechless for a while, they collectively looked at Sun Xiangfu. It seemed that this was what he was going to talk about today!

"Wei Gong, in the Tang Dynasty, there are no longer only Han people. On the contrary, after the household registers of various places are reported, the combined population of all ethnic minorities and Hu tribes is much larger than the number of Han people. Therefore, The Tang Dynasty in the future will be a very complex multi-ethnic country. In addition, our territory is so large. If we cannot maintain justice in governance, it will easily lead to disintegration. With the wealth of the Han Dynasty and the military strength How strong, after conquering the surrounding barbarians, didn't they gradually get out of control?
What is the cause of this?I think that one of the main reasons is that the law cannot convince the people. The Han law is too harsh on the barbarians, and they will be killed if they move. The barbarians are afraid of the power of the Han, and they cannot live better under the rule of the Han Dynasty It is not true surrender that leads to rebellion.

On the road of conquering the Quartet, my Tang Dynasty has blazed a new path, absorbing, merging, and educating the surrounding ethnic groups by means of tolerance and common development. For example, in the west, my Tang Dynasty hardly paid any actual price. With the help of the power of various countries, the Western Turks were eliminated, and more than a dozen countries including the Western Turks were brought under the rule.

However, these lands and populations are easy to get, but it is difficult to control them for a long time without losing them again.

In addition to letting them gradually improve their quality of life and understand the benefits of being under the rule of my Tang Dynasty, we also need to introduce a fair law in terms of civil politics and politics, so that they can feel that they are just, not oppressive. Leaving aside, in terms of the law, if we want to do this, we need the officials of the Ministry of Justice to look at the law from a higher perspective and formulate a corresponding social order so that all people's production and life can be improved. Assure.

The fairness of the law should be something that everyone must participate in to maintain. It is a crucial thing for national governance and inheritance. Only when it is fair can the order of the country's establishment not collapse. "

The total population of Datang’s current territory has reached more than 3000 million. Among them, the Han people accounted for only about 3000%. The reason why there are more than [-] million people is that after Li Shimin came to power, the economic conditions of the people improved and the speed of reproduction Speeding up, of course, is mainly due to Datang's conquest of neighboring countries.

Among them, Goguryeo and the Western Regions accounted for the majority, with a population of almost 800 million. The rest, such as Turkic, Tuyuhun, Dangxiang ministries, Lingnan Baiyue, Yunnan ministries, Silla Baekje, and those captured from overseas, or The captives ranged from dozens to over a million.

It is a miracle that the population of the Han people is smaller than the population of other ethnic groups in the ruling area. However, even Sun Xiangfu finds it very difficult to maintain this situation. The blame can only be blamed on Datang The speed of expansion is too fast, and in all aspects, it has not been consolidated.

"Zhengming's words are reasonable, but now, most of the people who can learn the law are Confucian scholars. What can you do to let me do this?" Wei Zheng spread his hands.

He is not an unreasonable person, but the actual situation is like this. Kong Yingda just mentioned Confucianism at the literary meeting, and most of the officials of the Ministry of Justice responded, not only because they themselves came from Confucianism, but also because, in In the officialdom, it is good to hold a group to keep warm. Everyone hopes that their team will unite more people and have greater power.

Even though Sun Xiangfu is now explaining the importance of legal fairness here, there are still many people present who think that if we Confucian scholars can't manage the Ministry of Law well, other groups can't manage the Ministry of Law well.

The reason why Wei Zheng didn't object was here. Of course, if Sun Xiangfu had something to say, he wouldn't mind listening to it.

"Wei Gong, I don't mean that Confucian scholars cannot be used to run the Ministry of Law, nor do I mean that Confucianism and Law cannot merge.

Academic matters are, after all, academic matters and have nothing to do with politics.

The convergence of Confucianism and Legalism is the status quo, and no one can change it.

But it is not the state of the future.

Even academically, Confucianism and Legalism are completely merged, but the imperial court should not have school restrictions on the selection of judges, as long as they are second-class citizens, familiar with the law, and passed the imperial court's scientific examination. If you don't have a problem, you can go to the Ministry of Justice to be an official. "

Hearing this, Wei Zheng nodded and said, "Academic matters really shouldn't have anything to do with governing the country. This is the truth, and the old man agrees."

Seeing that Wei Zheng had cleared his mind, Sun Xiangfu said, "In order to ensure the fairness of law enforcement officials, we need to take some measures to prevent the fairness of the law from being undermined."

Guaranteeing fairness is what the Ministry of Justice most needs to do. Hearing Sun Xiangfu's words, Wei Zheng knew that he might have a way, and immediately asked, "How to prevent it?"

"First, all law enforcement officials must take an oath."

"Swear an oath?"

"Yes, I swear, I swear to His Majesty the Emperor, I swear to the people of the whole world, I am willing to use my life to defend the justice of the law, and to treat everyone, rich or poor, high or low, with a fair attitude and punishment."

It is much better for the ancients to keep their promises and promises than some people in modern times who swear in front of others and take bribes later. After hearing Sun Xiangfu’s suggestion, Wei Zheng’s eyes lit up and he thought it was a good idea. He nodded and said, “This is a great strategy. Also, in this way, there is no need to worry, there are too many Confucian scholars in charge of the Ministry of Justice, and they favor Confucian scholars and bully other groups."

'Don't worry? '

Sun Xiangfu smiled in his heart, thinking that Wei Zheng was still too naive, and vowed that if he could restrain a person, let alone a Tang Dynasty, the entire human race would be easy to manage. It was just that Sun Xiangfu had no other choice. What I thought of was trying to prevent Confucian scholars from controlling the entire legal system and abusing their power. Now, only Confucian scholars understand the law. In the future, it may not be so. law?

As far as the one or two hundred simple things in the Tang law are concerned, many people will be able to understand them all in one or two years at the most. By then, you Confucian students may not have passed these students who specialize in law.

(End of this chapter)