Legalist politics in the Qin Dynasty did not begin in the Qin Dynasty, but was partially implemented before the reunification of the Qin Dynasty. The part mentioned here is specifically aimed at criminal law; As for the political pursuit of Legalists, it is comprehensive and universal. After Shang Yang's political reform in Qin Dynasty, the legalist line was fully implemented, and the cruelty of law also appeared in social politics, economy, culture and daily life in an unprecedented way. It can be seen from the documents we have seen today that Qin closely and profoundly combined the implementation of its political line with laws and criminal laws in the national politics, economy, culture and people's social life before and after reunification.
The criminal law of Qin Dynasty is not only famous for its severity, but also has a variety of criminal laws. The main criminal law means of later generations have basically taken shape in the Qin Dynasty. If you make a classification, there are roughly the following categories:
1. In the Qin Dynasty, the leader was fixed in the form of law. The so-called beheading is that the criminal law cuts off a person's head and hangs it on a wooden pole. "Historical Records of Justice" said: "Hang your head on a tree like an owl." "Qin will make up" records: "hanging your head on the head of a wooden stick to show great sin, Qin punishment is also." It can be seen that the punishment of beheading is one of the common criminal laws in Qin State. This kind of criminal law applies not only to the people, but also to the upper-level bureaucrats who resist the monarchy. For example, during the pre-Qin and Warring States periods, Lao Ai Rebellion took place in the State of Qin, and more than 20 people, including Wei Yangong, the Ministry of Internal History, Zuo Yi Gong and Chinese medicine Ling Chi, who participated in this rebellion, were beheaded. (Historical Records of the First Qin Emperor) Wei Yan, Neishi and other officials were all great bureaucrats of Qin State at that time, but they could not escape the punishment of being beheaded after committing crimes. Zhang Fei's Law Table says, "Pointing is evil." In other words, criminal law is only used when the crime is serious.
2. Strangulation. The so-called twist, the motto of Shuo Wen Jie Zi is "twist, twist." The interpretation of the name is: "Hang a rope and slap your neck." Which means hanging the victim by the neck with a rope and strangling him. It is also one of the common criminal laws in the Qin Dynasty. There is a record of "Jing's death" in Yunmeng Qin bamboo slips, and Qin bamboo slips have the same interpretation of "Jing" as "Yu". Until modern times, this criminal law often appeared in the execution of prisoners. The characteristic of strangulation execution is that the criminals to be executed must be criminals with serious crimes and extraordinary grievances.
3. Waist chop. The so-called waist cutting is to cut people in half. "Interpretation of Names" records: "If you cut your head, you will cut your waist." "Historical Records and Biography of Shang Jun" records: "If you don't sue the traitors, cut them." The earliest waist-cutting punishment recorded in the literature in Qin Dynasty originated from Shang Yang's political reform period. Li Si, the prime minister of the Qin Dynasty, died of this punishment when he was in Qin Ershi.
4. implementation. According to Records of the Historian, "Yi Yin Zhai" and "Qi" are the same, but the words used in ancient and modern times are different. Qi means killing its limbs. "In other words, it is sometimes called" Tai ". This kind of criminal law, which is usually called the punishment after Ming and Qing Dynasties, is only that the punishment of Qin Dynasty has not reached the complexity of the punishment after Ming and Qing Dynasties. The punishment in Qin dynasty is an extremely cruel criminal law, which will crush the victims with a sharp knife. Use this punishment to "kill Princess Du Shi". Xu Shen, a philologist in the Han Dynasty, once said, "Gu Zi is dry, so it is called burial. "People who speak ill of themselves will open their mouths. He opened his chest and waist, opened it, and made it dry and unwilling to accept it. " (Shuo Wen Jie Zi) The word "ancient" here refers to the criminal law means of cutting prisoners into ten thousand pieces and searching for the poor.
5. The car cracked. The so-called car crack is a criminal law in which several horses (usually four or five horses) pull a person's limbs or head in their respective directions, resulting in the death of the prisoner. "Explanation Name" explained: "The car is cracked." Those who are scattered are scattered, and those who are scattered are scattered. "It is also the meaning of" dismembering five horses "that later generations said. In the Qin Dynasty, the famous car was cracked, and Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, also executed Jing Ke, an assassin sent by Yan. At the end of Qin Dynasty, Zhao Gao, a notorious official temple, was divided in Xianyang. The above three cases are obvious evidence of car cracks in the criminal law of Qin State or Qin Dynasty.
6. massacre. The so-called slaughter, according to the "Questions and Answers on the Laws of Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips", is: "What about the butcher?" If it is slaughtered, it is also called beheading. "Slaughter is a criminal law that kills his body with a knife until the victim dies. It can be seen that the process of slaughter is also a cruel process. However, in the Qin and Han dynasties, this criminal law was more used for the execution of prisoners after their death, that is, "slaughtering corpses." The punishment of decapitation used by later generations basically belongs to the latter meaning. Therefore, the use of slaughter punishment focuses more on the anger and humiliation of the deceased, as well as the humiliating punishment of the families and relatives related to the deceased. For example, when Qin Shihuang became the first emperor, beheading the soldiers who opposed Qin was also a way to vent their anger and warn the living.
7. Abandon the market. Abandoning the city refers to a criminal law that executes prisoners in downtown areas, that is, places with many people. According to the explanation of the name, it says: "The market will be abandoned when it dies." The city where everyone gathered was abandoned with everyone. Qin Shihuang adopted Lisi's suggestion and issued an edict that "those who bring poems and books abandon the market". In order to achieve the goal of autocracy, Qin Ershi cut off dissidents, and "killed the Twelve Childes of Xianyang City" and "beheaded (Lisi) Xianyang City" (Biography of Historical Records and Lisi). From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, the punishment of abandoning the city basically continued. During this period, only a few dynasties and regimes did not implement this law, and some of them were not recorded in official documents, and the actual situation was probably rarely interrupted. The reason for saying this is that the punishment of abandoning the market can set an example for others, and its deterrent effect is very prominent, not how to kill people.
8. Punishment of targeted killings. The so-called fixed killing refers to a criminal law that throws a living person into deep water and drowns. "Q&A on the Laws of Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips" records: "What is the decision to kill? Destined to kill water in life. " Generally, there are two kinds of people who are bound by this criminal law. One kind is people suffering from leprosy, that is, the so-called furuncle-sinking people in the Qin Dynasty. For example, the entry of "Questions and Answers on Yunmeng Qin Jian Fa" reads: "What can I say about asking Jia?" When you move to where you live, or when you move to where you live, you will be killed. "The second kind is guilty people, as Jane said in the same article," A committed the crime of finishing the city without breaking it ". Together, the two are "guilty will be killed." ("Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips Legal Question and Answer")
9. There are five kinds of criminal laws in Qin Dynasty, namely, Fu, Mo, Mo, Gong and Bi. History of Criminal Law in Hanshu classifies it as "having five punishments". The original text said: "Although there were three chapters in the early Han Dynasty, the fish that escaped the net swallowed the boat, but it was a big breakthrough, and there were still orders to surrender to the three clans. The order said: if the three clans are involved, chop them first, chop their left and right sides, kill them, chop their heads and kill their flesh and blood in the city. " Those who curse first break their tongues, so they are called five punishments. "The author of Hanshu Ban Gu said that this is the ruins of the five punishments of the Qin Dynasty. Many torturers and civilians were hanged in the Qin Dynasty. For example, Qing Bu, a famous soldier in the early Han Dynasty, whose real name was Ying Bu, was called Qing Bu because the torturers were punished and had tattoos. The victims of the other four punishments are also imaginable in the Qin Dynasty. " "Yunmeng Qin Jian Fa Tiao Solution" records the criminal law of "losing face" of handmaiden and concubine, that is, tattooing words on cheeks. In addition, there are many records about "Cheng Dan" in Qin Dynasty. It is said in Historical Records that Qin people "aspire to the Tao", which shows the darkness of the brutal totalitarian rule characterized by the dense and deep criminal law in Qin Dynasty. The specific situation of the "five punishments" is to tattoo words on the denomination; To cut the nose; Cut your toes; The palace is damaged by male and female genitals; For example, "Questions and Answers on the Laws of Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips" records: "The princes really forbid the monarch. If the nobles are above the rank of Lord, they should be redeemed if they are guilty ... If he commits the crime of corruption, he should redeem the palace. "Is an example. The Historical Records of the First Qin Emperor also records the fact that there were "more than 700,000 prisoners in the hidden palace" used to build Epang Palace in the Qin Dynasty. In this way, the people imprisoned in the palace are another example of the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty. It is a general term for all kinds of torture and murder.
10. cooking. The so-called cooking is the criminal law of boiling people to death with cookers like pots and pans today. Ming Shi is interpreted as: "Cooking is like cooking in a wok, but it is also like cooking animals." The History of Criminal Law in Hanshu says that there was a punishment of boiling in the Qin Dynasty, which shows that the punishment of cooking was also one of the criminal laws used to kill people in the Qin Dynasty.
1 1. laparotomy. In other words, it is criminal law to cut open a person's abdominal cavity and pick out the internal organs. There was a penalty of laparotomy in the Qin Dynasty.
12. chisel punishment. The so-called chisel is a criminal law that hits a person's head with a heavy instrument and causes death. According to Records of Criminal Law in Hanshu, the punishment of opening up the atmosphere in Qin Dynasty was chiseled.
13. The punishment of scanning. That is, the man was put in a bag and killed. This happened after Ying Zheng, king of Qin, split Lao Ai and killed two sons of the Queen Mother who had committed adultery with Lao Ai.
14. exile. The criminal law of banishing criminals to the frontier originated earlier. In the era of military democracy when Shun was in power before the Xia Dynasty was established, there was a record that Shun "worked in Youzhou, enjoyed himself in worshipping mountains, escaped from three dangers and died in Yushan". In the literature, flowing, releasing, escaping and drifting all mean exile, and later generations also mean exile, migration and relegation. Many people were sentenced to exile in the Qin Dynasty, and there were some corresponding provisions in the Qin legal provisions. For example, it was recorded in "Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips and Qin Law Miscellaneous Copy": "If the doctor cuts it, he will move it." Those who committed treason and sat in rape without telling them were also sentenced to exile. For example, Lv Buwei, an important official of the State of Qin, was exiled to Sichuan by the King of Qin, and another important official, Lao Ai, was also collectively punished after the Lao Ai incident.
15. Whipping. The so-called flogging is flogging. "Fu" is also called "Tart", and the explanation of Tart in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is: "Drinking in the countryside punishes disrespect and tarts its back." Obviously this means flogging. Flogging was widely used in Qin dynasty, and there are many chapters in Yunmeng Qin bamboo slips that record how to use flogging.
16. The punishment of the three families. Among the criminal laws of the Qin dynasty, the most cruel and extensive criminal law is the three-clan punishment. "Historical Records Qin Benji" records that when Qin Wengong was in power, "he committed crimes in the third day of the law." It is also recorded in the literature that "three ancestors were killed and three families were conquered" when Qin was martial. History of Criminal Law in Han Dynasty holds that the punishment of three clans originated from Shang Yang period in Qin Dynasty, and the so-called "Shang Yang was used by Qin Dynasty, and three foreigners were punished." This kind of criminal law means that if a person commits a crime, it will harm the three families. The so-called "yi San zu" means the extinction of the three ethnic groups.
17. Punishment for sitting together. It refers to a criminal law in which one person illegally implicates the neighborhood. From a formal point of view, it is somewhat similar to the three punishments, but the objects of punishment are different. The left-wing writers emphasize the people in the neighborhood who are not related to the criminals, but they often intersect with the clan system. If relatives are neighbors, they can't live without the Left League. "Biography of Historical Records and Fan Ju" records: "The law of Qin Dynasty, whoever does injustice, each has his own crime." This refers to the administrative personnel's imprisonment, but in fact, the scope of imprisonment in Qin Dynasty is quite broad, and almost all offenders from officials to the people can be punished by imprisonment.
There are many details of Qin criminal law, and only the main points are described in this paper. Even so, it is not difficult to see that the criminal law of the autocratic Qin Dynasty was abused and tyrannized by the people. It can be seen that the short historical fate of the Qin Dynasty has long been doomed.