Great Han Empire

Chapter 1012 Chapter [-]
Kylin Hall.

Shangshu ordered Tian Chou and Shi Chenwei, the chief minister of Da Sima, to introduce the three adults into Shangshutai.

"Where's Da Sima?" Grand Tutor Yang Biao felt a little uneasy when he saw that Xu Rong didn't come out to greet him in person.At this time, Xu Rong's attitude is very important. If he also completely falls on Li Wei's side, there will be no room for maneuver in the matter.

"Da Sima hasn't slept for three days and three nights. He is too tired..." Chen Wei bowed and explained, "When we were discussing with us just now, he fell asleep unknowingly. If the three adults don't mind, let him Go to sleep for a while."

Before Chen Wei finished speaking, he heard a sound from the study not far away, and then heard Shangshu Zhao Xing's panicked cry, "Da Sima... Da Sima, what's wrong with you?"

Tian Chou and the others were terrified and rushed into the study.The study room is full of memorials and papers, and there is almost nowhere to go.Xu Rong was standing up unsteadily with the support of Zhao Xing, Sima Lang, Wang Ling and others. When he saw Yang Biao, Xun You and Chen Qun, he smiled awkwardly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... just now Hearing the three adults talking, they were about to go out to meet them, but who knew that their hands and feet were numb, and they fell down. I'm rude, I'm rude..."

"You should pay attention to rest and don't work so hard. If you fall down, who else can we count on?" Seeing that Xu Rong was fine, Yang Biao sighed in relief and said with a pun.

Xu Rong smiled noncommittally, and stretched out his hand to ask the three of them to sit down, "I invite you to come here, because I want to discuss the revision of the Criminal Law."

"Revise the "Criminal Law"?" Yang Biao, Xun You and Chen Qun looked at each other and immediately understood Xu Rong's meaning.It seems that Xu Rong is still on the side of Li Wei, and is going to forcibly implement reforms in the name of cleaning up the administration of officials. As for the revision of the "Criminal Law", it is just a gesture of compromise made by the court, and it cannot improve the current situation of the powerful families. difficulties faced.

=

After the founding of this dynasty, because the three chapters of the contract were too sparse and too wide to effectively punish illegal crimes, Prime Minister Xiao He re-edited the law and formulated the "Nine Chapters Law". "Nine Chapters Law" inherited the Qin system, and added three chapters on households, Xing, and stables on the basis of the "six laws" (thief, thief, prisoner, arrest, miscellaneous, and tools) derived from Li Kui's "Fa Jing". "Nine Chapters Law" is the law with the criminal law as the main body, and it is the core of the Han law.

Later, Taichang Qing Shu Suntong formulated eighteen chapters of "Pong Zhang Law" aimed at maintaining the emperor's dignity and authority with reference to the etiquette of ancient times and the Qin Dynasty.During the reign of Emperor Xiaowu, Zhang Tang, a doctor of imperial history, formulated the "Laws of Yue Gong" concerning court security, and Zhao Yu, a doctor of Taizhong, formulated the "Laws of Chaohui" concerning court congratulations, also known as "Laws of Right Views at Chaohui".In addition, there are "Dayue Law", "Ancestral Order", "Sacrifice Order" and other laws and regulations.

These four laws have a total of sixty chapters, which are the so-called laws of the Han Dynasty.

What Prime Minister Li Wei wanted to revise was the "Nine Chapters Law", which mainly included penalties, ten felony articles, and payment of crimes (a way for those who violated the criminal law to pay a certain amount of money or grain to obtain exemption from punishment.)
The laws of this dynasty inherited the Qin Dynasty, and the penalties were almost the same as those of the Great Qin Dynasty, including death penalty, imprisonment and humiliation.

The death penalty is very cruel, including killing, dismemberment (destroyed corpses), beheading in half, owl heads, abandoning the city, and the three tribes of Yi (father, mother, wife) and so on.In the 13th year of the Yuan Dynasty (167 BC) of Emperor Xiaowen of this dynasty, Tiying wrote a letter to save his father. Emperor Xiaowen took this as an opportunity to amend the criminal law.At that time, the prime minister Zhang Cang, the censor doctor Feng Jing and other ministers jointly agreed on a revision plan, changing the corporal punishment to beating the board.Those who were originally sentenced to have their feet chopped off were given five hundred boards instead, and those who were originally sentenced to have their noses cut off were given three hundred boards instead.Soon, Emperor Xiaowen officially ordered the abolition of corporal punishment, and then abolished the punishment of sitting together (sitting together means being implicated in crimes together).

The abolition of corporal punishment seems to be a good thing, but in practice there are many disadvantages in its implementation.Some prisoners died immediately after being hit with [-] or [-] boards. In this way, the punishment was increased invisibly.Later, in the reign of Emperor Xiaojing, the penalty for beating the board was reduced, and the disadvantages were slightly alleviated.

The ten felonies are treason, great treason, treason, surrender, evil rebellion, immorality, disrespect, unfilial piety, unrighteousness, and civil strife.
The money-paying and guilty system began in the early years of this dynasty. The court sold the right to immunity and then obtained fiscal revenue. In a sense, this was a special means for the court to amass wealth.

In the past 400 years of this dynasty, wars and chaos in the two northwestern borders continued, and a large number of troops had to be used, the Great Wall and frontier fortresses had to be built, and military expenditures were extremely huge.In order to increase taxation, the imperial court tried every means and implemented various measures, and the atonement income was a way to increase taxation, which accounted for a large part of taxation income.In the first year of Emperor Xiaohui (194 B.C.), the court decreed that if people were guilty, they could be exempted from death if they redeemed 97 yuan. If the redemption money is 50, the death rate can be reduced by one level.After Emperor Guangwu was rejuvenated, the court's wealth was once tense, and the scope of atonement was greatly expanded.In the second year of Jianwu Zhongyuan (AD 57), the imperial court decreed that all crimes ranging from the death penalty to the lightest can be exempted from punishment.

Paying money to atone for sins is to accumulate wealth for the court, and it can exempt the rich from punishment, but it is unfair to the poor.Sima Qian, a well-known Confucian in this dynasty, was tortured because he had no money to atone for his sins. Therefore, it is essentially a bad government to pay for atonement.

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This time Li Wei revised the criminal law very vigorously.

He first simplified the legal provisions, and changed the legal provisions in the legal scriptures to criminal names, and placed them at the head of the law. Then he added laws and regulations after the criminal names, enriched the content of the general rules of criminal names, and reorganized the criminal laws. and expansion.The new criminal law not only fully embodies the principle of lenient punishment and prohibition of commutation, but also maintains the imperial power and ministerial power to a large extent, and protects the policies of the new policy, especially paying special attention to the land annexation and taxation system.

The new penal law set the punishments into five grades, namely flogging, staff, imprisonment, exile, and death, and reduced the severity of crimes. It completely abolished felony sitting together and corporal punishments such as tattooing, cutting, and beheading of left and right toes.In the past, Emperor Xiaowen abolished continuous sitting and corporal punishment, only for criminals other than the ten felonies.This time Li Hong changed it to the end and completely abolished it.

The ten articles of felony are changed to treason, treason, conspiracy, treason, immorality, disrespect, disfilial piety, disharmony, injustice, and civil strife. Compared with the past, the definitions are somewhat different, but these are the differences in definitions , allowing many people to escape the punishment of Unforgiven Killing.

The money-paying atonement system was abolished when the court first restructured, because it had too many disadvantages and did not conform to the principle of "heavy codes should be used in troubled times". Now Li Wei has restored it, and the scope of atonement is very large. From the lightest "stick ten" to the death penalty, money can be paid for atonement.This not only increased the tax revenue of the imperial court, but also eased the contradictions between various classes and forces. At the same time, it also conformed to the national policy of "cultivating with the people", which was very beneficial to the stability of the country in the short term.

In addition, Li Wei also added an "official system" on the basis of the "system of paying for sins", allowing officials to use official titles to offset crimes and punishments. However, Li Wei felt that it was not enough. He created an "Eight Discussion System", which stipulates that there are eight types of crimes committed by the Han Dynasty, which must be handed over to the emperor for personal judgment or punishment according to the law, but those who have committed ten serious crimes are not subject to the Eight Discussions and Redemption.

The system of "official role" and "Eight Discussions" is extremely beneficial to powerful families and bureaucratic scholars. Of course, it is also beneficial to the civil and military officials of the northern Xinjiang lineage.Obviously, Li Wei is reserving a way out for himself.

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The purpose of Li Wei's revision of "Nine Chapters Law" is self-evident, which is to compromise with the rich and powerful.

Huang Yi's case involves a lot of people. If the investigation continues, it may turn into "rebellion and treason". head.Under the current circumstances, the rich and powerful must compromise and make concessions, but the problem is that they must be given an acceptable bottom line for concessions, and this bottom line is to keep their heads and wealth.

According to the new criminal law, all criminals cannot constitute "felonies", including the main criminals Huang Yi and Qu Zhong. They can all pay for atonement and become "officials". For example, Master Yang Biao, who was implicated, can continue to serve as Taifu as long as the eldest princess and the emperor don't pursue it.

Yang Biao, Xun You and Chen Qun breathed a sigh of relief after carefully reading Li Wei's revised draft of the "Criminal Law".Fortunately, fortunately, the aggressive Prime Minister finally showed mercy, and did not swing the butcher knife to kill him to the end like last time.

"How is it?" Xu Rong asked slowly, "Do you have any opinions, my lords?"

"Your Excellency, the prime minister, is a man of the heavens. We are beyond our reach, and we can't come up with any better suggestions." Yang Biao said with a smile, "I would like to ask Da Sima, when will the court clean up the administration of officials this time?"

Xu Rong smiled, took out a volume of documents from behind, and put it in front of Yang Biao, "The Prime Minister intends to make amendments to the Ninth Rank Official Law. This is his memorandum, please take a look."

The three of them were stunned, looking at the bamboo slips on the case table, they didn't speak for a long time.Li Wei What does this mean?He is not going to implement the policy of "cultivating fields and guarding borders"?

"The selection method of the nine-rank Zhongzheng system comes from the inspection system. Although the disadvantages of the inspection and selection system have been greatly improved, but after a long time of implementation, the disadvantages similar to the inspection system will still appear, and it cannot be fundamentally guaranteed. The imperial court needs talents, so..." Xu Rong looked at the three of them and said calmly, "The Prime Minister intends to use the test selection as the main selection system of this dynasty, and the nine-rank Zhongzheng system as an auxiliary selection system. "

The test selection system in this dynasty has always been an auxiliary selection system. Now Li Wei suddenly wants to change it to the main selection system. What is the mystery?
Yang Biao and the others didn't grasp the key point for a while, and they were concentrating on each other.

"The New Classics combines the strengths of both modern and ancient literature and classics. Its advantages are obvious. As an official school, its position is unshakable." Xu Rong said slowly, "So, is the modern and ancient literature and classics declining and disappearing? What? Of course it is impossible, this is the consensus of Confucian scholars of the two schools of ancient and modern literature and classics.”

"The emergence of the New Classics has benefited from the more than 200-year-long debate between modern and ancient Chinese classics. From the perspective of past history, there have been four massive debates between the two schools of modern and ancient Chinese classics, and each debate has promoted Confucian classics. development, and the last debate was between Master He Xiu, a scholarly scholar, and Master Zheng Xuan, a famous scholar, which directly led to the emergence of the New Classics and began to spread widely." Xu Rong stroked his long beard and smiled slightly, "The study of classics In order to develop, there must be debates, and only with debates can schools make progress. For example, this year's Chang'an Confucian Confucianism Controversy prompted the New Classics School to begin to focus on classics and eliminate prophecies in the commentaries of various scriptures. The debate absorbed many advantages of the New Classics, and began to focus on classics. The Jinwen School of Classics learned from the pain, and famous Confucian scholars from all over the world gathered in Dongguan, Lantai and other places in Luoyang to dig out the commentaries on various classics that have been stored for hundreds of years. Discussing and studying day and night, I heard that recently it has been decided to emphasize righteousness and simplification."

"What does this mean?" Xu Rong paused and continued, "It means that whether it is the New Classics or the Modern and Ancient Classics, they will depend on each other, integrate with each other, and make progress with each other. No one will admit defeat, and no one will disappear. .”

"Nowadays, the official school is the new classics, and the private school is the modern and ancient classics. Both the official school and the private school are developing. There will be more and more Confucian scholars in the Han Dynasty. Then, the problem comes..."

Yang Biao, Xun You and Chen Qun already understood the function of the test system.They nodded repeatedly, expressing deep sympathy for Xu Rong's words.

"According to the nine-rank Zhongzheng system, it is obvious that Confucian scholars who study official studies are the main candidates for the imperial court." Xu Rong said, "Judging from the selection history of this dynasty for hundreds of years, if Confucian scholars want to become officials, they must study modern literature. Confucian classics. In the past, Confucian scholars who studied ancient Chinese classics often studied the classics of two schools in order to become officials. This shows that this selection system has drawbacks, and there are serious drawbacks. If this continues, how many Confucian scholars will still study modern and ancient Chinese Two schools of classics? This selection system is not only not conducive to the development of ancient and modern classics, but also the development of new classics, and it also limits the selection of talents by the imperial court, which is also very detrimental to the long-term stability of the country."

"How to solve this disadvantage?" Xu Rong patted the volume on the table, "From the current point of view, it is to adopt the selection system through examination."

"The ultimate goal of Confucian scholars studying Confucian classics is to become an official, to use what they have learned, to show their ambitions, and to be able to govern the country and the world. If the imperial court selects talents, it is mainly to pass test scriptures and test scriptures, then for Confucian scholars Not only do they have more ways to become officials, but more importantly, they can freely choose a school of scriptures. They can study the scriptures of that school they like most, and they can devote all their talents and energy to it. Promote the development of various schools of classics. With the development of various schools of classics, the debate will become more intense, and the more intense the debate, the faster the development of classics will be."

"In the long run, this selection system will not only help the progress of Confucianism, but also contribute to the stability and revitalization of the country."

"In the short term, this selection system can help the imperial court to select more outstanding talents in the shortest possible time and solve the court's talent crisis. At the same time, it can also solve the problem of the future of the Confucian scholars of the ancient and modern schools of literature and classics, and dispel their concerns and concerns. , give full play to their potential, and contribute their intelligence and wisdom to the two schools of modern and ancient literature and classics and the great cause of ZTE.”

"Therefore, I personally think that if the imperial court adopts the selection system based on trial scriptures, it will be beneficial to both the ruling and opposition parties, and the imperial court and all forces can benefit from it." Woolen cloth?"

Yang Biao and others had no choice.

Since the New Classics became an official school, the chances of Confucian scholars from the two schools of modern and ancient literature and classics becoming officials have become increasingly slim.Confucian scholars had no choice but to reluctantly give up their study of Confucian classics and embrace the new Confucian classics in order to become officials and work.If this situation remains unimproved, it will not be long before the two schools of modern and ancient literature and classics will wither and become history.

Now if the aristocratic families want to keep their status, they must first keep the ancient and modern classics, and then ensure that the disciples who study the two schools of classics can get the opportunity to become officials, and they have the same opportunity to become officials as the Confucian scholars of the New Classics school.To achieve these two goals, the Ninth Rank Official Personnel Law is really not enough.If the study of modern and ancient Chinese classics withers, and the disciples and disciples all run away, where will the teachers go to select talents?You can't recommend the disciples of the New Confucianism to become officials, right?

=

"Your Excellency has a long-term vision, and all he considers is the grand plan of bringing peace and stability to the country. What can we say?" Xun You said with a bit of sarcasm, a bit of helplessness, and a bit of bitterness.

"What we didn't expect, the Prime Minister has thought of it. If we can't solve it, the Prime Minister has solved it. We really don't have any objections." Chen Qun cupped his hands and said, "Then, what changes have you made to the Prime Minister's policy of guarding the fields and defending the border? "

The eldest princess is gone, Huang Yi's case is getting more and more involved, Li Wei now has the advantage, but he is uncharacteristically, making continuous changes to the criminal law and selection system in favor of the rich and powerful, why?Obviously not to please the rich and powerful, but to force them to accept harsher conditions.

"It's not called the policy of garrisoning the fields and defending the borders now." Xu Rong pushed the documents piled up on the side of the table to Chen Qun. It's a thousand miles away."

=

That night, Taifu's mansion was brightly lit, and there was a constant flow of cars and horses.

Aristocratic families, great Confucian scholars, and rich merchants in Chang'an City flocked to discuss the latest restructuring strategy launched by Prime Minister Li Wei.

Whether it is long-term benefits or short-term benefits, the latest policy of restructuring is very beneficial to the powerful families, because the selection system of test scriptures has finally ensured the status of ancient and modern classics.As long as the modern and ancient literature and classics can continue to develop, the status of the powerful families can continue to be stable, and then their power can be passed down from generation to generation, and other related interests can also be consolidated and increased.

The only thing that made everyone feel very dissatisfied was that Li Wei took the opportunity to "slay" them severely.

Yang Biao, Yuan Yao and other ministers made some persuasion.

It is time to look back at the past.More than ten years ago, when Dong Zhuo brought chaos to the country, everyone was like grass and ants, not only lost their wealth, but also their lives were at stake. Now that they can live like this, they should be content and should pay back to the court.If you still can't figure it out, then go back and look back 20 years ago, when Li Hong was fighting corruption in Xiliang, he killed thousands of people at Zixiu Mountain camp at one time.Later, when he suppressed corruption in Hedong and Jinyang, which time didn't he kill blood like a river?Fortunately the general was not in Chang'an this time, otherwise based on Huang Yi's case, the general would have cut off at least [-] heads, not to mention property, and even the corpses would have to be fed to dogs.

"This matter must not be delayed. If it is delayed again and again, until His Highness invites the general back, then everyone will be finished."

No one spoke anymore.

=

On October [-], Grand Sima Xu Rong convened the Prime Minister to discuss state affairs. The five Prime Ministers in Beijing unanimously agreed with the Prime Minister's memorial, and all three reform strategies were passed.

On October 21, Grand Sima Xu Rong convened more than 20 ministers and ministers to discuss the matter, and three reform strategies were successfully passed.

On October 22, Grand Sima Xu Rong convened a meeting with the ministers of culture and military affairs in Beijing in the front hall of Weiyang Palace, and all three reform policies were passed within half a day.

On October 23, Prime Minister Li Wei, Taiwei Zhang Yan, Yushi Dafu Xun You, Ting Weiqing Chen Qun, Shaofu Xu Jing, and Shang Shu ordered Tian Chou to rush to Jinyang day and night.

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On the third day of November, six ministers rushed to Jinyang Palace, met with the eldest princess and presented a memorial.

Prior to this, Babaili Kuaiqi had sent the memorials of Da Sima Xu Rong and Taifu Yang Biao to Jinyang. The princess already knew Li Wei's solution to the crisis, but she was very angry.In order to achieve his goal, Li Wei even used Su's greed and murder as a threat to force all the ministers in the court to amend the criminal law.

The criminal law is the foundation of the country. Although the court has established the law with courtesy, the punishment is too light, which is definitely not conducive to the stability of the country.The criminal law of the Han Dynasty has been in use for more than 100 years since Emperor Xiaowen, Emperor Xiaowu, and Emperor Guangwu revised it many times. A major modification, even a subversive modification.

This incident once again proves that once the imperial power declines and the prime minister's power expands, the harm to the country will be too great.

This time, in order to solve the financial crisis of the imperial court, Li Wei used his power to successfully achieve his goal, so what about next time?What will he do next time?Will he target himself, the little emperor who has not yet taken power?
On the fifth day of November, the eldest princess issued an edict, agreed with the ministers' proposals, and issued an edict to implement the new system.

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The following words are not included in the word count.

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The allusion of Tiying saving his father:
In the 13th year of Emperor Xiaowen of the Han Dynasty, Qi Taicang ordered Chunyu Yi to be guilty and sentenced to death.Chunyuyi once worshiped Gongsun Guang and Gongcheng Yangqing as his teachers, learned superb medical skills, was the founder of medical records, and wrote the first medical records in the history of our country "Medical Records".Because of his upright personality, when Chunyu Yi was practicing medicine, he offended a powerful person and was framed as a result.At this time, Chunyu Gong regretted that there were only five daughters in his family, and he could not help at this critical juncture, so he said some frustrated words: "It is not beneficial to have children but not to have boys." Go to Chang'an.

Chunyuyi was going to be sentenced to corporal punishment according to the law, Tiying was sad and sad, and prayed to the emperor to reduce his father's punishment.So, she wrote to Emperor Wen, "I would like to be an official servant to redeem my father's punishment."

Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty was very moved when he saw it, and he felt pity for her filial piety. He said to the ministers: "If you commit a crime, you should be punished. There is nothing to say, but if you are punished, you should let him be a talent again. Now punish A prisoner, tattooing his face or mutilating his limbs, how can such a punishment persuade people to be good? You can discuss a way to replace corporal punishment!" After the ministers discussed it, they immediately worked out a way to change the corporal punishment to beating boards up.

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Eight Discussion System.

The eight-discussion system appeared in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and lasted until the Qing Dynasty.The eight discussions include discussing relatives, discussing old friends, discussing talents, discussing capabilities, discussing meritorious service, discussing nobles, discussing staff, and discussing guests.

"Kin" refers to a certain range of relatives of the royal family; "Gu" refers to some of the emperor's past; Those who attend political affairs are the assistant of the emperor and the teacher of human relations; "gong" refers to those who have "great meritorious service"; "Great industrious"; "Bin" refers to "the person who inherits the ancestors and becomes the state guest", that is, the royal family of the former dynasty.These eight kinds of people have committed capital crimes, and the government cannot directly convict and sentence them. Instead, they must report their crimes and special identities to the imperial court, and the responsible officials will collectively review them, put forward their opinions, and report them to the emperor for adjudication.For crimes below the level of crime, the crime shall be reduced by one class, but if the ten heinous crimes are committed, the above provisions shall not apply.

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(End of this chapter)