1 brief introduction of litigation system
In principle, in case of any injustice, such as human life, theft, family marriage, farmland, etc. Outside the law, the people of the Ming Dynasty had the right to sue, commonly known as complaining.
1. 1 litigant qualification
Complaints must be filed in person, which refers to healthy men under the age of 80 and over the age of 10, that is, people who can bear legal responsibilities. The rest of the elderly, women and children must be filed by the families of healthy men. If it is of great importance, such as rebellion, human life is a matter of concern, robbers have great responsibilities, or the elderly say unfilial to their children, regardless of the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, they will be encouraged to report officials. A woman's husband died, no children, no one can sue, so I was allowed to complain. In addition, children are not allowed to sue their elders, while children and grandchildren sue their grandparents, parents, wives and handmaids, which are all included in the Daming Law. Even if the allegations are true, they will be subject to certain criminal sanctions.
1.2 book format
Complaints generally require written statements, and the yamen is represented by books. If it is oral, the book representative can write a statement on the spot. But most of the format papers are still written by specialized litigation lawyers. The reason is that the Ming people clearly said: "If Wang has grievances and refuses to apply for the legacy, he can achieve it with words. No rhetoric. So every time the government orders the ban on heartlessness, he has to choose a representative to express his feelings. However, the quality of its writing is not literary and can not be ignored. The people are litigants who have to seek. "
In order to facilitate the trial and prevent false accusations, the government has many regulations on the form of indictment. The form paper first requires a standard format, and the name, address and reasons of the complainant must be stated clearly, and the content should be simple and clear. Some officials even stipulate that the content should not exceed three lines, and each line should not exceed 50 words. After the mid-Ming dynasty, forms formulated by local governments gradually appeared, and people only needed to fill in the relevant contents to complain.
1.3 False accusation is strictly prohibited.
Ming law severely punishes false accusations. A person who is falsely accused shall be convicted according to the second or third degree of the crime of false accusation. If the falsely accused person commits a capital crime, the falsely accused person will rest easy; Undetermined, hundred sticks, three thousand Li, three years' service. "All the losses of the falsely accused shall be compensated by the falsely accused. If the falsely accused person commits the crime of hard labor, one of his accompanying relatives dies, the falsely accused person will be hanged and half of his property will be paid to the falsely accused person. Conviction is obviously more important than Tang law. In judicial practice, there are also years when false accusers are sentenced to death.
1.4 Presentation and reception of written litigation
The Daming Law stipulates that all military and civilian lawsuits must be filed from the bottom up. In principle, the complaints of civilian households should be submitted to the grass-roots government offices, and the complaints of military personnel should be submitted to hundreds of households first, and the preliminary examination should be carried out. According to the division of labor between the procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security, the governor, the governor and the General Political Department in Gyeonggi area can do it, but if it is a general criminal case, it is still required to be assigned to the relevant grassroots government for pre-trial. Of course, according to specific crimes and different regions, the government also has special regulations on accepting plea bargaining. For example, if the crime is serious enough to rebel, soldiers and civilians from all over the country can report it directly to Beijing, or they can report it to officers who are guarding the military and political affairs of one side, such as joining the army and garrison. In order to defend the border, "the lawsuit of big and small characters, the soldiers who disturb the border flag, etc." Is directly questioned by the inspector; Because Linqing is located in a strategic location, eunuchs guarding Linqing can also answer the questions and then distribute them to relevant government offices for questioning, and so on.
Prosecution is strictly prohibited, and general cases of private prosecution must be prosecuted step by step. In addition to the leapfrog appeal stipulated by law, those who do not appeal through their own litigation commit the crime of "leapfrog litigation" The main punishment for the crime of "litigation" is to complain in Beijing. As for the complaints encountered by the two departments of the House and Senate during inspections, or directly complaining to the government or departments, it seems that this is not a punishment, and it is generally only a matter of returning to the grassroots government. For officials who should not accept complaints, they are charged with "accepting instead of accepting", which is to prevent abuse of power and litigation, hinder them from performing their duties and put an end to judicial fraud.
1.5 perfection of jurisdiction system
On the basis of the laws of Tang and Song Dynasties, the Ming Dynasty further improved the jurisdiction system: the original defendant was in a unified place and was under the jurisdiction of both parties; If the plaintiff and the defendant are not in the same place, "the plaintiff is the defendant" shall be under the jurisdiction of the defendant's location; If several people commit crimes and are not in one place, "light prisoners are heavy prisoners" and "fewer prisoners are many prisoners"; If a case involves two places, it shall be under the jurisdiction of the place where it was accepted first, and the place where it was accepted later shall hand over the case to the judicial organ of the place where it was accepted first within three days.
1.6 limitation of action
In the litigation of the Ming Dynasty, except for criminal cases such as human life and theft, the prosecution of civil cases such as family marriage and farmland is time-limited. Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, the time of accepting civil litigation in the Ming Dynasty was more dispersed and even, and it was basically "published" once a month. It seems that there are still differences on the specific date of publication. Generally speaking, the third, sixth and ninth days of each month, that is, the third, sixth, ninth, thirteenth, sixteenth, nineteenth, twenty-third, twenty-sixth and twenty-ninth days, are the most common announcement dates.
1.7 litigation trial
Officials received the complaint on the day of "announcement". First of all, examine whether the defense meets the requirements and whether there are obvious false accusations. Or love at first sight in class and so on. On the basis of government regulations, many officials combined with their own and their predecessors' experience to sum up some basis for investigation: (1) told many people that it was not allowed; (2) It is not allowed to tell women; (3) Don't tell the squire; (4) Long-term prosecution is not allowed; (5) The name and place of origin of Li Jia in the form are wrong; (6) Names of persons without written descriptions in the form are not allowed. If the words are not standardized, they will be reprimanded and driven out of the yamen; Or write the reasons why it is not allowed on its paper to reassure it. If the complaint is approved, it should be announced in court and inform the plaintiff that they will appear in court tomorrow. In principle, the government should set up a book for all complaints and register them clearly.
For those who refuse to accept the complaint that should be accepted, the Ming law has specially set up a clause that "the complaint will not be accepted", and officials will be punished to varying degrees according to the severity of the complaint. If you don't accept the accusation of treason, you need 100 to act for 3 years; If the consequences are serious enough to gather people to make trouble, attack the city and plunder the land, the relevant officials will be beheaded. Governor Hai Rui issued a similar marriage ban in due course. He explained the importance of accepting the lawsuit from the standpoint of the people. "Every family's marriage, although it is a small section, should also be treated as a division, food and clothing, and so on. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
1.8 litigation costs
If the petition is approved by the government, the plaintiff must pay a certain legal fee to the government. Someone once criticized the officials of the Ming Dynasty: "I only know that approval is the medium of withdrawing money, but I only avoid it more accurately." Legal fees are generally divided into eight points and two points for public use. "The number of officials is the solution of Shen Da, and the number of public officials must be clear."
1.9 the auxiliary role of the elderly in the administration of justice
In the Ming Dynasty, with the development of society and the increase of population, the proportion of officials and people became more and more disparity. In order to reduce the litigation pressure of local governments, the state advocates restraining the people with courtesy, and at the same time requires the people to be enlightened by defense in order to resolve the litigation. The main means is to take township organizations as an extension of government functions, encourage and even
It is stipulated that they become the auxiliary force of the government in the judiciary.
"Township" refers to village organizations below the county level. In the Ming dynasty, there was a Li family system in the village, a leader in the village and a leader in the village. Since the Hongwu period, the village has generally elected the elderly and respected people, and established township posts for the elderly. During the Hongwu period, the old people in the village were concerned about justice "marriage, farmland, fighting, competition, fire, theft, money and debt, gambling, etc." If people directly sued officials without the help of the old people in the village, they would be punished by leapfrog prosecution, and the officials who received the lawsuit would also be punished. For human life, rape, theft, fraud and heavy things can be prosecuted. Zhu Yuanzhang also had many regulations on the specific affairs of the elderly and their role in the village, such as education. Generally speaking, in this period, Li Jia, an old man, realized his judicial function with the support of powerful imperial power. He had the nature of a judicial institution below the county level and could try independently. Its trial is only supervised by the imperial power itself, and the local government not only has little supervision and control over the elderly, but also the elderly have the characteristics of supervising the local government for the emperor.
However, this trial mode lacks a long-term and extensive foundation in theory and practice. After Hongwu, Li Jia's judicial function gradually changed from independent trial to judicial assistance of local government, with the highest purpose of "benefiting politics". These auxiliary judicial functions include: mediating litigation, reporting local criminal cases to the government in time, and the government testifies and "investigates" when investigating cases. In particular, testimony and investigation are very important, and the government has many restrictions and norms on the behavior of Li Jia's elderly. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, some local officials tried to find the basis from the list of the Ming Dynasty's recall of Taizu, hoping to give full play to the judicial role of Li Jia. However, their claim is that after the official unified receipt, they will stamp some form of misdemeanor documents so that "the elderly can be dealt with within a certain limit", and then take the original state and the original defendant to the official cancellation. Although the old man Li Jia has the opportunity to stand trial, it is obviously only a judicial aid of the local government, which is different from the old man Li Jia in the early Ming Dynasty.
After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the rural contracted Jiabao became popular in many places. "The rural contract was originally designed to convince the people, and Garbo was originally designed to protect the people." Rural conventions are binding on the members of the Covenant, which actually solve some minor crimes such as family marriage and farmland; If a felony is found, it must be reported to the official and tried by the official government. It is not only a "hometown contract, but also a teacher of good people."
"Family" refers to the family. Since the Song Dynasty, families characterized by sharing and living for generations have gradually developed. By the Ming dynasty, the scale had been considerable. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Fujian's household registration often became synonymous with family organizations, and even every Jia took a surname as a unit. For its own development, the family has its own rules, and these rules have the same effect on family members as the rural conventions have on the members of the Covenant. Minor crimes such as family marriage and farmland can be solved within the family, and serious crimes can only be tried by the government. In order to achieve the purpose of simple litigation, if clan members sue officials for trivial matters, the patriarch cannot mediate properly, and the government will even punish the patriarch.
2 conclusion
Confucian spirit runs through the procedural law of Ming Dynasty, which is the product of the combination of law and ceremony. The process of Confucianism in Ming Dynasty was not only completed long ago, but also supplemented in the practice of past dynasties after Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the spirit of distinguishing between nobility and inferiority and attaching importance to filial piety in the procedural law of Ming Dynasty is more prominent than that in previous dynasties. Although there are some reasonable factors in the litigation system of Ming Dynasty, the actual effect is not obvious.
For example, in the Ming Dynasty, cross-litigation was forbidden, and it was required to solve one-word lawsuits at the grassroots level as much as possible. This method not only cuts off the way of cross litigation, but also prevents the abuse and flooding of cross litigation; Because the activities of the official and the parties are similar, it is easier to grasp the situation and try and mediate correctly, and it also reduces the loss of spending money and delaying work for litigants who travel long distances to complain; It is also conducive to the integrity of the judicial system and enables higher-level government departments to concentrate on solving major cases. These are all reasonable. Of course, the guiding ideology of severely punishing false accusations in the Ming Dynasty was only to stabilize the ruling order, and this provision that all the responsibilities were attributed to the false accusers and the relevant departments did not pursue them also reflected the revenge psychology of feudal criminal law. Although there were various restrictions on litigation in the Ming Dynasty, if the complaint was about rebellion and rebellion, all the restrictions could be exceeded. We just want to convey this news to the court in the fastest way. Torture by secret service "factories" and "guards" intervening in the administration of justice, "court aides" and "prison summons" fully embodies the fundamental principle that imperial power is above all else, and the law is only a tool to consolidate the monarchy. Ming law has deepened the cultural sauce jar of our country for thousands of years.