On The Legal Regulation Of Piracy Cases In Qing Dynasty

The main research object of this paper is the relevant institutional arrangements and practical problems of the Qing government in the administrative and judicial fields.As a ruler of the Empire,the emperor’s pursuit of political stability and social peace is better than that of the previous emperors.The emperor’s will was reflected in the daily administrative and judicial work of the provincial officials,and became the core criterion of their behavior.From the preventive measures of administrative crimes to the establishment of military anti-piracy system,and then to the reporting,investigation,arrest,transfer,trial and execution of piracy cases,all these reflect the urgent mentality of the imperial rulers " First deal with robbery and theft ".In fact,the research of this paper is not only limited to the isolated study of the system and law of the control of pirate,but also attempts to govern these systems and laws under a persistent goal,that is,the rulers hope to eliminate the great harm to the imperial rule through the administrative sense of the anti-piracy system,coupled with strict legislative and judicial ways piracy cases in the Qing Empire.The first chapter of this paper starts from the origin of pirates,according to their behavior characteristics and whether they have political demands,divides them into political "Pirates" and robbery type "Pirates".The emergence of merchant pirates in the Southern Song Dynasty gradually eliminated the boundary between the political pirates and the robbery type pirates,and the piracy became more apolitical,professional and complicated.In the Qing Dynasty,there was huge poverty behind the prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong.In order to make a living,people from all social stratum could go to sea as pirates.These pirates can be divided into amateur pirates and professional pirates.The amateur pirates do not take the sea robbery as their whole work,but only make a profit when the time is right.Their organization is loose and their members change frequently.Professional pirates take piracy cases as their main business.The scale of their organization is much larger than that of amateur pirates,and their internal personnel composition is stable.What’s more striking is that professional pirate organizations have also entered into a contract.By establishing a pirate Council similar to the board of directors of a joint-stock company,the leaders of each organization transfer part of their power to the Council,forming a dual core structure within the pirate organization.Under the guidance of advanced management experience,the professional pirate organization alliance was transformed into a sea giant at the time of Qianlong and Jiaqing.The distribution of piracy cases in Qing Dynasty is not continuous,mainly concentrated in the southeast coastal areas.The content of piracy cases is complex,which can not be summarized by simple robbery at sea.The abuse of the sea theft affected the emperor’s sensitive nerves.The best choice was to kill it in the bud.So the second chapter mainly discusses the system arrangement of the crime prevention of the piracy case in Qing Dynasty.The rulers of Qing Dynasty used the existing Baojia system to " Household registration and population management ",and gave them more control and monitoring functions.For fishermen who make a living by sea,the legislators formulated the system of Aojia.In the system of Aojia,the ship replaced the household in the system of Baojia as the basic unit.In practice,the grass-roots officials put forward many suggestions on the improvement of the system of Baojia and Aojia,which made them more suitable for the need of anti-piracy.Although in Kangxi 23 years,with the recontrol of Taiwan,the emperor abolished the "sea ban order",but in order to prevent the occurrence of piracy cases,the ruler issued "South Ocean ban order" and implemented strict Estuary and island management system.There was a great tension between the strict political punishment of the imperial government and the people’s desire for interests.In order to dispel the people’s desire,make people stay in the traditional way of life.The rulers of Qing Dynasty carried out the rural contract system which was mainly composed of preaching "Shengyuguangxun" in imperial and urban areas,hoping to eliminate the soil of bandits in a moral way.These systems can be referred to as the administrative design of preventing piracy cases.When the time came to be Xianfeng,the Qing government faced with internal and external problems and the decline of the nation.It had to use the folk forces to set up group training and create different purposes,which led to the military system with strong military color and consistent anti-piracy characteristics.In addition to the private soldiers represented by regiment training,the Qing government also ordered imperial Marines,who had been working hard to patrol the ocean in the vast sea for more than 200 years.The military design of preventing piracy cases is more prominent than administrative design,which is more deterrent and tactical.Starting from the third chapter,it goes into the field of judicial disposal of piracy cases.The inescapable reality is that the crime prevention design of the Qing Dynasty’s piracy cases had little effect in the actual operation,which led to the frequent occurrence of piracy cases.In the investigation stage of the case,from the legal point of view,the civil servant is the chief executive of the local administration,and the ocean under the jurisdiction of seaside county is also the place under its jurisdiction.It has an unshirkable judicial responsibility for the piracy cases.However,the civil servants led the the division of inland sea and open sea by means of the Report to the emperor,and completely transferred the judicial responsibility of suppressing and arresting pirates from overseas to the military position of navy.Once something happened in open sea,the civil servants would not be punished.Not only that,the civil servants group also marked all the sea areas that it was difficult to control as open ones,so as to escape the accountability of the higher authorities.Even if there was an accident in open sea,the punishment of the military position was far from strong than civil servants.After determining the jurisdiction of the piracy case,the investigators obtain the pirate information and carry out the arrest work by visiting,investigating,tracking,purchasing lines,undercover and other means.In order to deal with this situation,it is imperative to carry out inter provincial investigation.After the arrest of criminals,in many cases,the military officers choose to transfer the criminals directly to the province chief,not through the trial transfer procedure of grass-roots civil servants.The formation of this situation has something to do with the grading of civil and military officials.In addition,such transfer can also speed up the trial rhythm of major cases to meet the emperor’s expectations.In addition to handing over the pirates,the military officers should also transfer the stolen goods and criminal tools seized in the arrest stage.At the same time,they should also make a preliminary inquiry on the criminals.Otherwise,they may be considered as "incompetent".The fourth chapter mainly deals with the trial stage of the piracy cases,and the execution is the continuation of the trial stage.Different from the regulations on paper,in the judicial practice of piracy cases,some military officers have actually obtained judicial power.In the trial process,the judicial personnel summed up a set of professional trial skills,such as inquiry in time,differential treatment,serial questioning,limited torture,stylized inquiry and so on,to deal with various complex situations.In the Qing Dynasty,local trials were generally transferred from grassroots officials to governors,which experienced four or five levels of trial.However,in the trial of piracy cases,especially those cases with great significance,bad influence and the concern of the emperor,it was difficult for the grass-roots civil servants to obtain the jurisdiction of the cases,but only as " Setter " to transfer the captured pirates to the provincial or directly provincial officials When they are stationed.In the process of execution,the execution of the death penalty for the pirates’ principal criminals is not only untimely,but also often adopts the way of the first justice and respectfully asking for the king’s orders.Moreover,it sometimes conflicts with the existing provisions of the law in the execution place,the choice of the execution personnel and the procedure of the declaration.In contrast,if the criminals who committed other crimes were also sentenced to the punishment of sending,but after certain conditions were met,these criminals were able to return home.The only explanation for this phenomenon is the emperor’s deep hatred of piracy cases.In the last chapter,this paper goes deep into the spirit of the imperial rulers and officials,and shows the basic principles of the Qing Dynasty judicial officers in dealing with the piracy cases through the common laws in the process of governance.The principle of heavier punishment means that it can not only apply more serious charges to pirates,but also impose heavier punishment on some common criminal acts in piracy cases.Through these two principles,judicial officers consciously distinguish crime from non crime,principal offender and accessory offender,and give them different sentencing.As compensation,the principle of conviction on the basis of original circumstances is generally applicable to the criminals who are in a light situation.In addition,out of his own consideration,the emperor also built two seemingly different systems in the judicial practice of the Qing Dynasty’s paricy cases:incomplete connection and temporary exemption from the crime of surrender.In fact,these two systems were expedient measures made by the rulers to solve the problem of piracy,and there was a unified logical correlation between them.The seemingly contradictory decision clearly shows that the rulers of Qing Dynasty held the idea that as long as they can fight against pirates and eliminate ocean piracy,it is legitimate and acceptable to amend some laws and regulations.This principle existed not only in these two systems,but also in every aspects of the Empire’s governance of ocean piracy.