King Manglai was born in enyang City, which is now Chiang Sang County, Thailand. King Manglai was the son of the then ruler Lao Meng and the princess Amin Zhuomeiang of Yun Jinghong (now Jinghong City, Yunnan Province). King Manglai succeeded to his father's throne in 126 1. After he succeeded to the throne, he unified the cities in northern Lanna and northern Laos and became the first independent city king. Under the rule of King Munlai, the kingdom expanded rapidly to the south through alliance and annexation of neighboring countries. 1262, the new capital Chiang Rai was established in Jiaohe River Basin. In A.D. 1287, King Manglai concluded a peace agreement with Sukhothai, Wang Lan, Ganxing, and King Kan Moun of Payao to resist the invasion of the Mongolian Empire. In AD 1292, King Manglai defeated Pengying Hotel (now Nanbenfu), and Iba, the last monarch of Pengying Hotel, was forced to flee to Nanbang.
In A.D. 1296, King Manglai once again moved his capital to Chiang Mai, the capital of Lanna Kingdom on the west bank of Pinghe River. A few years later, Bok, the son of Iba, led an army to attack Chiang Mai, but King Manglai and his second son, Crane, also suffered heavy losses. In Khua Mung, a small village near Nanben, the elephant driven by Prince Crane met with the mount of Boek, king of Nanbang. In the encounter, Burke, king of the Southern States, lost his evacuated troops. So Bok was captured and killed in the Kundan Mountains between Nanben and Nanbang. After King Manglai's army occupied Nanbang, King Iba fled again, this time Peng Shiluo.
King Manglai died in Chiang Mai 13 1 1. He died dramatically and was struck by lightning in a market in Chiang Mai. His son Crane succeeded to the throne and became the new monarch of Lana and the king of Caisonghe.
Mandalay Code is named after King Mandalay, a hero in Thai history, and Manu in the ancient Indian Code of Manu. But Manu is only the legendary "ancestor of mankind", and Monlai is a real person.
At that time, the laws and regulations formulated by Manglai Wang also had long-term legal effect in Xishuangbanna. In the "History of A Dai" compiled by later generations in Xishuangbanna, it is said: "Dao Mang was brilliant when he came to adulthood, and his instructions to officials have been passed down to this day." This refers to the Mandalay Code formulated by King Mandalay during his lifetime, which is still followed by people hundreds of years later. It can be seen that its influence is far-reaching.
There are many manuscripts in Xishuangbanna and Menglian, which are 4 1 cm long and 2 1.5 cm wide. The book includes many contents, including 265,438+0 pages. Compared with other kinds of manuscripts, this manuscript has distinctive theme, archaic language, simple words, few examples, obsolete paper and simple handwriting. This is an old notebook with great literature value.
The contents contained in this Menlai Code can be roughly divided into the basic requirements and penalty provisions for judging cases, including some case analysis. Because the Code of Manglai has a high authority in the Dai society, many subsequent codes and regulations are based on the content and style of this code, so a simple introduction and analysis of the content of this code and the social situation it reflects can be regarded as one of the laws and regulations of the Dai people.
The first part of this specification is the basic requirements for judging cases. This part of the weight is not big, belonging to the general nature.
First of all, the code points out that many civil and military officials should know how to correctly judge various cases and abide by twelve legal principles:
1. Listen carefully to others and understand the situation;
2. Don't get angry;
3. Do not take sides;
4. Do not accept bribes;
5. Don't put pressure on the defendant;
6. This case should not be decided at night;
7. You shouldn't judge in a lonely place;
8. There should be no unskilled classics and people who don't understand ancient rules to accompany the case;
9. Don't leave the classic rules;
10. You shouldn't dream and hesitate;
1 1. You shouldn't break it without your own understanding;
12. The decision should not be finalized by urging.
In addition, it also emphasizes that adjudicators should be as fair as scales and scales, and they should not let the winner lose the case and let the loser win the case. It is also specially stipulated that monks who practice in the religious circles are not allowed to participate. Secondly, the general program emphasizes the personal accomplishment of judges: consult smart and wise scholars; We should correctly understand the spirit of local laws and regulations; We should observe others' disguise and perjury; Don't be depressed yourself; Don't say something irrelevant and irrelevant; Don't be rash. Then, judges are required to be good at observing the performance of criminals, such as: talking too much and cajoling; Unstable speech; Heart trembling; A sad face; Show off more words; Panic; My ears are hard. People who show these behaviors may be guilty.
Innocent people have eight manifestations: they don't tremble when they speak; Speak wisely; Majestic; Stronger; No noise, no noise; Clear face; Gas level; Don't swear casually.
The second part of the code is the penalty clause. This part takes up a lot of space. If classified according to the content, there are roughly the following aspects: (1) Handling of deserters or rebels in the war; Methods of rewarding war meritorious personnel; If the loan is not returned, the amount of compensation to be paid; The status of children in different levels of marriage; The compensation and punishment for narrow road yield and collision are stipulated; Punishment for elephant wounding; Punishment for the escape and hiding of slaves; Punishment for theft; The amount of compensation for livestock destroying crops; Punishment for breaking the dam and stealing water; Penalties for releasing water for fishing; Handling methods of accidents (theft, fire, shipwreck, war, etc.). ) carrying things; The scope of people who should not be killed (that is, people who should not be sentenced to death); Disputes that should not be accepted; Disposal of divorced property; Disposal of damaged canals; Disposal of destroying the altar of water god; Treatment of destroying the field ridge; Provisions on the width of lanes for elephants, horses and cows; It is stipulated that the property of the village community shall not be regarded as personal heritage, and so on. Some of them are principled provisions, such as the following provisions on the scope of criminals, which cannot be sentenced to death: in five cases, criminals should not be killed;
1. Monastery monks, doctors, Yin and Yang experts (fortune tellers), local chroniclers, judges and learned scholars;
2. Civil servants and military commanders who have made many contributions or rendered meritorious service over the years;
3. Women and children;
4. Drunk and irrational people;
The king's relatives and their sons and nephews.
The explanation is that Buddhist monks will be exiled after committing crimes, so that they can escape from the local area; Women have committed major crimes and should be subject to other punishments; Children who are not sensible should not be killed; People who are drunk and forget themselves should not be killed; People who have lost their minds should not be killed. The king's relatives and their sons and nephews have committed great crimes and should be punished according to their kinship status. For ordinary people other than these five kinds of people, kill what should be killed. If he redeems the money to an official, he shouldn't take it. Another example is disputes that officials do not have to accept: father-son disputes, husband-wife disputes, brother disputes, master-slave disputes, grandchildren disputes, mentoring disputes, etc. They think these disputes should not be accepted. In addition, adjudicators need to carefully observe and distinguish advantages and disadvantages. Speaking of some people who commit crimes and don't know that they are guilty, some people are responsible.
I don't know its merits. Some people regard other people's sins as their own, some people regard themselves as leaders, and some people regard themselves as leaders. Therefore, the adjudicator must carefully distinguish right from wrong. Among other specific provisions, the handling of fugitives or rebels in the war, the handling of property disputes, the handling of destroying production and the handling of thieves are more prominent. For example, those who fled or rebelled in the war were generally killed; The punishment for destroying producers also includes preventing livestock from destroying crops, but the key point is to maintain water conservancy facilities, and it is strictly forbidden to destroy canals, break dams and steal water to release water.
To catch fish with water, we should protect the altar of water god, because water god protects water conservancy facilities. The provisions on theft are very detailed and the handling is heavy. Generally, stealing things will cost nine times as much, but the regulations are more detailed, such as stealing jewelry from pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks and geese. Dogs are also divided into owners' dogs, ownerless dogs and dogs that run out of the government. Stealing a dog without an owner will be fined twice the price of the dog, stealing a dog with an owner will be fined nine times the price of the dog, stealing a chicken will be fined 330 baht, if it is a chicken with eggs, it will be fined 3000 baht, and if it is a cockfighting, it will be fined 900 taels of silver. It can be seen that the maintenance of private property was a prominent social problem at that time.
Some provisions in the Code are within the scope of morality, such as who will give way when we meet in a narrow road? Its regulations are very interesting. For example, in the village, young people should let the village old, and empty-handed people should let people come. In addition, it seems to be a big cycle for businessmen to let people in yamen, infantry to cavalry, cavalry to elephant soldiers, elephant soldiers to ox cart drivers and drivers to businessmen.