| In the history of Chinese Legal system, Tang had direct impact on the development of China's feudal legal system because it is connecting link between the preceding and the following dynasties. The more mature Justice System made the static legal system running and developing in the historical process. The paper would restore the trial functions of Tang Dalisi basing the most typical and complete official system of Tang Dynasty, relying on existing data, on combination of history and logic is the method of this article, is the framework, as a first micro-macro order, by logical reasoning.Chapter one gives answer about what is Dalisi which is "law-Secretary". Starting from the origin of Dalisi, this part traces Dalisi initially being Qiuguan in Western Zhou Dynasty, then being Tingwei in Qin-Han Dynasties, finally evolving into Dalisi in Qi Dynasty, which was followed by Sui-Tang Dynasties.Officials in Dalisi were also a kind of judges in ancient China. Dalisi in Tang Dynasty who tried criminal cases and delt with concrete realities was central judiciary. As one of the nine central departments, Dalisi existed in the whole ancient times, so we should pay enough attention to it.Chapter two focuses on the status and staff of Dalisi in Tang Dynasty from macroscopic to microscopic, which studies its status and staff composition. This part elaborates the department from angles of the Central Bureaucracy, staffing, quality of personnel, functions to. In fact, there were stringent regulations involving functions, staffing and duties of Dalisi. Then, standards of a good "judge" were trying and ruling justly and properly. Which needed honest, fair character and mastery of law and reason. Division of functions and powers of central departments were clear and every department should keep its province and exercise powers within the framework of the law. Meanwhile, each department should prevent exceeding its powers, otherwise, it would be punished. Dalisi mainly had four powers including jurisdiction, supervision of execution, participation in legislation. From Dali Pingshi to DaliQing, trial functions were the core function of Dalisi.Chapter three, which is the core of the paper, studies judicial functions of Dalisi in detail from the scope of accepting cases, requirements of the trials, trying legal effects.As we know, the scope of accepting cases was quite extensive, mainly were:criminal cases involving central government officials, cases above imprisonment involving people living in capital, disputed local capital cases deliveried by Xingbu, three joint departments trial cases, Zhaoyu, and so on. Tang ruler not only attached importance to legislation, but also more to the enforcement of law, demanding "judges" enforce the law impartially, trying cases according to law. Therefore, when the Dalisi officials tried cases, firstly, they must follow statutes system which was the first principles; secondly, they should obey the trying terms in order to enhance efficiency, and needed to evade some special days to prevent bad luck; thirdly, collective discussion and adding all the officials' signature to a document were needed when coming across doutable cases; besides above, judges should follow the torture regulations when torture ocurred. In the Tang Dynasty, Not all the rulings became effective immediately, but they should be verified by reporting to the leadership and waiting to report to leadership as if rulings were perfectly logical and reasonable, for example, the rulings of imprisonment involving officials working in Capital must be verified by Xingbu, rulings of Banishment must verified by Xingbu and be approved by emperor, death sentence should be verified by Xingbu, Zhongshu Sheng and Menxia Sheng and be approved by emperor. So we call Dalisi in Tang Dynasty as the highest judicial organ without the highest judicial power.Chapter four analyzes institutional factors affecting the operation of Dalisi under the macro contexts. In fact, Dalisi was not an independent judicial organ, it couldn't be affected by other institutions and informal institutions. The former factors are Xingbu, Yushitai, imperial power and other central department affecting Dalisi's operation. Xingbu affected it through judicial review power, Yushitai influenced by supervisory power, and the three joint department coordinated with each other in Sansi. Then, as the highest ruler, emperor held all the highest power including legislative power, jurisdiction, and enforcement power, all of which made emperor had absolute power affecting Dalisi. In a word, officals in other central government department all could affect Dalisi.Chapter five briefly illustrates how functions of the Dalisi operated in practice. When various affecting factors occurred, accomplishments of "judge" seemed matter much. The provisions of the Tang Dynasty Bureaucracy system was relatively stable and sound, but because of different conditions, influence of imperial power and powerful ministers, institutions would change even mutate in practice. Various power could affect trying directly, also could use multiple means to intervene try indirectly. Under these circumstances, accomplishments of "judge" would become more important.Under the control of imperial power, encircled in the system of government, mixing with other powers,Dalisi, the nation's" highest judicial organ" , stood on its judicial power, balanced normal and unnormal powers coming from other government sectors, being in the hope for devotion to its duty, tried its best to hold its position, which demonstrated the merits of chinese ancient legal system. |
