Study Of Law And Lv Of Qin

During the last years, the ongoing process of publishing several collections of bamboo and wooden strips that could be dated to the Qin and Han dynasties took place. These collections became the main source for an entire research area. Since2012, I had the honor to participate, under the supervision of Prof. Chen Songchang,in the editing process of the Qin legal bamboo and wooden strips collected by the Yuelu Academy. During this period, I became more and more aware of certain problems I want to discuss.This paper studies the fouth volumes of Yuelu Qin bamboo slips,including Wang lv,Tian lv, Jin bu lv, Yao lv, Wei Zu lv and Zhi Li lv, explaining the rules of the law difficult words, related terms, and relates to the Qin, ownership, horse administration,system of bamboo slips, taxes and corvee system, instrument system slightly inquiry.Secondly, studies the general law of Qin Dynasty, including law and order generation and compilation, laws, orders of the spread, law and order effect, law and order make the similarities and differences and so on. In addition, the revision of the Qin Dynasty law and the similarities and differences between the Qin and Han Dynasties are also explored. At last, it summariz the advantages and disadvantages of Qin law.The Statutes on Absconding(Wang lv亡律)in the Qin bamboo and wooden strips collected in the Yuelu Academy were mostly aimed at penal laborer,it showed that penal laborers absconded ubiquitously at that time.Besides,the rulers of Qin dynasty paid much attention on preventing penal laborers absconding.The Qin Statues gave the same punishment on different kinds or levels of absconding,while the Statutes and Ordinances of the Second year(Ernian lv ling二年律令)in early Western Han dynasty didn’t punish the same.It could be seen as a symbol of legal improvement.The Ming zhe命者were those penal laborers who has already been declared guilty.The banishment(Ming wang命亡)should be understood as the exile(Wang ming亡命),means the absconders who has been declared guilty.The Jiao zhong manyi徼中蛮夷refered to the district of minority regime ruled by Qin.It had the similar propertiy with the Statutes concerning the Dependent States(Shu bang属邦)in Shuihudi Qin bamboo strips and has the opposite meaning with the Jiao wai manyi徼外蛮夷.The counties and marches(Zhong xian dao中县道)was the centralgoverning area of Qin,including the parts of Nei shi内史commandery and Long xi陇西commandery.The Qin government took a series of measures in order to avoiding absconding,including giving economic punishment to absconders,cracking down the persons who harbor the criminals,prohibiting marriage with absconders and hiring the absconders,etc.The strip No.0994 and the strip No.1400 of the Statutes on Agriculture(Tian lv田律)in the Qin bamboo and wooden strips collected in the Yuelu Academy are similar with each other on content but different on handwritings.They belong to one volume.It is probably because of the reason that mistakes happened when the bamboo strips were jointed.One of the Statutes on Agriculture(Tian lv田律)in the Qin bamboo and wooden strips collected in the Yuelu Academy even edited in the Statutes on the Forwarding of Documents(Xingshu lv行书律)of the Statutes and Ordinances of the Second year(Er nian lv ling二年律令)in early Western Han dynasty.This might be caused by the adjustment of the Statues in Han dynasty.Different government offices may take charge of cross over affairs,and different apartment may cooperate affairs as well.Therefore,the Statues with same content could be edited into different chapters.The system of granting land from the state(Shou tian zhi授田制)was took effect in Qin dynasty.However,underclasses(Jian min贱民)were not allowed to be granted land while the state controlled plenty of lands.While the common people(Qian shou黔首)were especially keen to reclaim their own land,it may be the result that the first emperor of Qin rechecked the amount of lands.Concerning the land tax in the Qin dynasty,for each qing顷a payment of 150 dan石(=a unit of grain)in grain,3 dan石hay(Chu刍)and 2 dan石stalks of cereal crops(Gao稿)was mandatory.The appearance of Nei shi pang jin bu ling内史旁金布令has wiped off the doubts from scholars that the Statutes on Currency(Jin bu ling金布令)ever existed in Qin dynasty.The bamboo strips were weaved together firstly,the different scribes wrote and copied the content in turns afterwards.As a result,the Statutes on Currency(Jin bu ling金布令)were jointed in different two parts within a bamboo strips volume.The household taxes in Qin dynasty were delivered every fifth and tenth month per year.The content of levy includes the noble metal(Jin金)、cloth(Bu布)as well as the material objects like stalks of cereal crops(Chu刍).The material objects were delivered based on the grain production from each area.In addition,the amount of cash should be equal when it was exchanged from material objects.The household taxes in Qin dynasty cover the people under meritorious rank of theGrandee of the Third Order(Da shu zhang大庶长).Concerning the important goods,for example the horses,even belong to personal properties,they must be marked with signs.To pay deposits(Zhi质)was a kind of procedures which must be carried out during the block trades.Both sides pay 22 cashes(Qian�'�)to the governmental post at the market(Shi ting市亭).The officials in the governmental post at the market(Shi ting市亭)made deposit(Zhi质)documents with buyers and sellers.The deposit cash(Zhi qian质�'�)was collected by the government based on the times or amount of trades.The penal laborers(Xing tu刑�')and the handymen(Za yi杂役)of General Offices(Du guan都官)might have to serve corvée(Fu yao yi服徭役).All being appointed for tasks(Zhu chu you wei诸除有为)includes those common people(Qian shou黔首)serving in the government institute such as messengers(Zou走)、cooks(Yang养)、servants(Pu仆)、guard of storehouses(Shou fu守府)as well as kinds of craftsman.Ba geng八更might indicate those people who must go to serve corvée(Fu yao yi服徭役)for 8 times but he only did once.The government of Qin dynasty defined whether the corveéservices(Yi shi役事)should be recorded based on the stakes between the corveéservices(Yi shi役事)and the person who serves the corveé.According to Qin Statues,the loafing youths(Ao tong敖童)were those evidently young men of service age who had not done the registration yet;the servants and adherents(Si shu私属)were the male slaves released by their master.The records of corvée(Yao ji徭计)were the important part of accounting,and were also the guarantees for raising and assign the corvée(Yao yi徭役).Besides,the people in Qin state could prevent corvée(Yao yi徭役)by many ways.The Statutes on the Commandant of the troops(Wei zu lv尉�'律)were the collections of statues concerning the county officials(Xian wei县尉).The county officials(Xian wei县尉)played important roles in the basic administrations.The procedures of selecting the village chief(Dian典)and the elders(Lao老)were made in details in Qin statutes,which has been proved by Liye bamboo and wooden strips of Qin dynasty.The absconding record(Ben shu奔书)was a kind of document recording the absconding from the common people(Qian shou黔首),which was also a official certificate for declaring absconders guilty and depriving their meritorious rank.The prison(Yu狱)was one of the place for storing documents.During the Qin dynasty,there were requirements on the native places,properties and statuses when a official were appointed.The officials of higher seniority(Zhang li长吏)of the counties and the responsible official(Zhu guan li主管吏)of theapartments must be the person in the other counties(Ta xian它县)or in the other commanderies(Ta jun ren它郡人)but definitely not underclasses(Jian min贱民)and poor people(贫民).People could be recommended to be officials,but the guarantors had to take a high risk."Rank"is not specific to an official,but the salary in the stone more than three hundred stone officials referred to as following."Da fu zi"(大夫子),"Jun zi zi"(君子子)refers to both the doctor and the inheritance of Title Fu Ji’no gentleman."Zou ma"(走马)in before the Qin unified as title and Official name.The Qin Dynasty"Zhong wei"(中尉)responsible for the appointment of officials and the Han Dynasty,the capital charge of law and order,is not the same thing.The so-called"Zhuang"(壮)mean after the registration of accounts of Qin and Han dynasties.The development of the Qin statutes was effected by means of two ways:The first one was the imperial edicts,and the other one transformed out of the ordinances.Most of the Qin statutes were generated by the second way.By comparing the copies from successive dynasties and different origins,I am able to take a look at the general situation of official practical manuscript compilations.The ordinances developed from multi-ways:the imperial edicts from the Emperor always could be put in to the ordinances directly;a liegeman asked the Emperor for an ordinance to react to a situation that suddenly had changed;even the Emperor could make a new ordinance in the heat of the moment.The ordinances were made to supplement partial of the statutes indeed.The statutes were mostly system of existing laws(Cun shi zhi存事制)while the ordinances were also declarations of accusation(Ding zui ming定罪名).The main difference of the two was that the efficacies of the statutes were normally longer than the ordinances.Both had the same function in the judicial practice without relative superiority or inferiority.The practical statutes and ordinances spread through the delivery of post stations,copies of officials,proclamations and oral reading.The statutes and ordinances were treated as funeral goods,copied before the funeral by others on behalf of the decedent or by decedent himself.In addition,they were important references for dealing with the daily administrative affairs.By verifying the administrative manuscripts of Qin statutes and ordinances from Liye bamboo and wooden strips of Qin dynasty,we could know that the primary officials in Qin dynasty executed the statutes and ordinances in daily administrative affairs very well.To use the statutes and ordinances while dealing with the cases(Yi lv ling cong shi以律令从事)is not a meaningless phrase,but definitely means that officials must be absolutely obedient to the statutesand ordinances as well as perform their official duties according to law as industrious.In addition,violations of the law must be investigated and dealt with.The efficacies of statutes and ordinances received the utmost obviousness.With the changes of social circumstance,the statutes were revised and adjusted continually as well.Some of them with practical applicability were used for a long period.The strips of the Statutes in Qin and Han times can be,to a certain extent,compared with each other and are complementary to each other.Therefore,it has great benefits to reconstruct original legal manuscripts as well as interpret the statues’text.According to the words and habits in the historical records“The Han inherited the Qin system”(Han cheng qin zhi汉承秦制).This point was mostly shown from the perspective of legal system.There is no doubt that Xiao He萧何made the Han Statutes based on the Qin Statutes.However,the condition of the state at the beginning of the Western Han differed from the Qin dynasty.A change in the rational concepts of the rulers about how to administer the state took place.It shows,based on the statutes’strips,that the Han Statutes were in many aspects not as strict as the Qin statutes,but more reasonable on certain rules,because the Han statutes developed out of the Qin statutes,therefore,it was easier for them to be advanced.