A Study Based On Taiwan Homicide Cases In The Qing Dynasty

The operation of the judicial system in the Qing Dynasty produced a large number of documents and files,from which 970 homicide cases in Taiwan were sorted out.Through it,we can got a general understanding of the type,time distribution and geographical distribution of Taiwan homicide cases in the Qing Dynasty.In short,the types of homicides in Taiwan were mainly robber homicides,deaths due to love affairs,and shengfan(literally,raw aborigines)homicides.They mainly occurred between the generation of Qianlong and Daoguang,mainly in Jiayi County,Danshui County,and Zhanghua County.It’s closely related to Taiwan’s social structure,population structure,regional development,and the Qing Dynasty governance.In the early Qing Dynasty,Taiwan was still in an immigrant society,the gender ratio of the population was imbalanced,there were a large number of unemployed single men in the society,the whole social structure was unstable,and various contradictions broke out constantly,and homicides were frequent,especially the deaths due to love affairs and robbery murders.After the generation of Xianfeng,Taiwan entered the stage of a settled society,various contradictions and conflicts were weakened,the society as a whole became stable,and the number of homicides decreased accordingly.The shengfan homicides cases were closely related to the development of aboriginal boundary.Homicide cases occurred frequently in areas with a long history of development,because the Han people entered the area early,the population was large,and the Qing government ruled early.Homicide cases occurred frequently and must be dealt with.In judicial procedures,the Qing government had adopted many special measures in response to Taiwan’s situation,such as the expansion of Taiwan General and Taiwan circuit’s judicial powers,the extensive use of Gongqing wangming xianxing zhengfa(request imperial order respectfully for executing the criminals in advance),commander of the Fujian Navy and Fujian Army Commander were able to participate in the judicial trial,the deadlines of settling a lawsuit and the expulsion to the place of origin.It’s just that in specific practice,these measures are restricted by various factors,such as the lazy government and inaction of officials,the different demands of the people,financial support,the complexity of local affairs,and the flaws in system design.Their effectiveness was greatly reduced and some homicide trial procedures were gradually undermined.Historical changes shaped Taiwan’s homicide cases,and the details of the homicide cases also reflected the historical picture.Starting from the confession data of the homicide case,it’s possible to explore the family and marriage life of the people at the bottom of Taiwan in the early Qing Dynasty.On the whole,compared with other parts of the country,the biggest difference between the family structure in Taiwan was that the proportion of single-person households was extremely high,and the family size was much smaller than the national average at that time.In terms of age at first marriage for men and women,the average age of first marriage for both men and women in Taiwan the gap was too large,and the average age of men at first marriage was also much higher than the national average.In terms of male-female interactions,Taiwan people at the bottom had relatively casual interactions between men and women,and women were not completely confined to feudal ethics.