Research On The Rite Crime In Ming Dynasty

The Rite crime is a special kind of criminal type in the feudal nations, which refers to the criminal punishment given to the serious behaviors violating the Rites. With the Ming society as the background for the research, the essay makes an analysis of the features in the area of legislation and judicature of the Rite crime on the basis of deeply reading of laws, decrees, cases of the Ming dynasty, in order to find out the relationship between the Rite Law and Criminal Law, the Rites and the feudal nation.Firstly, it introduces the basic concept of the Rite crime to make clear the scope of this research, which refers to the behaviors violating the Rites, stipulated in the law and receiving criminal punishment. The emergence of the Rite crime was on the premise of the settlement of the state rite system. When the Rites were drafted or approved by state, having changed to be the state's will, they began to get the force, so that behaviors resisting the Rites would be punished. But not all such behaviors are deemed to be crimes, which include only the behaviors bringing out seriously harmful results. So violating the rites and speculated in the law are two factors for the Rite crime in appearance. Then the essay shows the necessity of making punishment to the infringement of Rites according to the function of them, which appears to be the defense for the hierarchy and moral principles, and people's spiritual prop to some extent. Because of the important functions the Rites have for the establishment of the feudal society's order, so the infringement of Rites should be punished.In history, the Rite crime was a type of crimes which developed earlier and had an important position in the ancient criminal law. Disobedience and Disrespect were regarded as the most harmful crimes in the slave society and continued in feudal society. Till Tang, the feudal legal system developed to the summit, Disobedience and Disrespect were set into the Ten Evils, with the Rite crimes set in different chapters of law. The change of legislation structure in Ming makes the rules of Rite independent, which put the infringement of Rites together, providing convenience to our research. The content of Rites expanded in Ming, and the rulers took the construction of the Rite system seriously. The legislation of Rite crime comprised the Law of Ming, the Imperial Mandate, the Criminal Regulations and the Records of Ming. The Law of Ming had systematical stipulations about the Rite crime, divided into two parts named Sacrificing and Ceremonial, with 26 articles. The Imperial Mandate included only part of the crimes stipulated in the Law of Ming, with supplement and revision to it. The Criminal Regulations was issued in the later stage of Ming, concretizing some of the stipulations and made some revision conforming to the period. The ritual department in the Records of Ming made clear the Rites systematically with some punishments to the infringement of rite.In the research of the legislation features of the Rite crime, the essay sets up in two aspects: on one hand, comparing with stipulations in the Law of Tang, talking about the period features in Ming. On the other hand, it makes analysis of the trait of the Rite crime taking the structure of the contemporary criminal theory.In the comparison with Tang, we can see the basic traits of the Rite crime in Ming, appears in three parts. Firstly, the change of the structure of the law in Ming makes the content of the Rite Crime more systematical and centralized. Secondly, more contents were included in the law of Ming, with reference to the Rite of Sacrifices, in the imperial court, in the society, and the Rite of monks. Thirdly, the punishment of Ming was mitigated than the law of Tang, which shows the criminal principal of Ming.The features of the Rite Crime itself can be divided into four parts. The subjects of the Rite crime are mainly government officials. The subjectivity interferes in the conviction and measurement of penalty, in the way that intention or fault determines the conviction of a crime, and the extent of penalty. In the object aspect, behaving or non-behaving are both patterns of conviction, and the state of done are almost behaviors. The objects of the Rite crime are mainly the hierarchy and moral principles, which comply with the concepts of the feudal society.In the measurement of penalty, the punishments are various, including all the five kinds, with applying the atoning penalty extensively. The application of labor penalty complies with the need of the development of society, and the economic punishment is helpful to the increase of the state income. Meanwhile, different kinds of punishment to varied people, such as making the nobles learning the Rites in practice, shows the features of the Rite crime obviously.The essay talks about the state in the administration of justice on the basis of the research into the legislation. With the 38 cases collected in the book, we explore common criminals happened in practice and their results, and try to see the procedure of jurisdiction in Ming. The supervision system flourished in Ming and the behavior of the officials is one of the important contents of supervision. The supervisor should take the responsibility of finding out the infringement of Rites. Because of the special status, the nobles also have powers in the jurisdiction and the results depend on the ruler. In these cases, the proportion of making judgment according to law is very small.Through the research of Rite Crime in Ming, the writer finds out the secured function of national law towards the Rites, which also shows that the Rites itself has the same power as law. And we also see the effect of the Rites have to the formation of the order in the feudal society. Although the strength of punishment for the Rite crime mitigated a lot in Ming, the government also took the Rites seriously, in the way that the number of Rite crimes increased. After all, the Rites are extremely important for defending the social order in the feudal nations at any time.