Under The Influence Of Confucianism, Pardon System In The Tang Dynasty

The emergence of pardon system has a profound historical root. It has a preliminary form inshang and zhou dynasties, and becomes mature gradually and forms a complete legal system intang Dynasty on the basis of its development over various dynasties. The emperors of TangDynasty learn lessons from the previous dynasties; they value the functions of pardon and makegood use of it to preserve their dominance. Pardon is one of the main ways used to givebenefactions to people by the ancient rulers. The function of pardon in maintaining the stabilityof society can not be ignored. When the country suffers from foreign invasion and civil strife,the proclaim of pardon is helpful to quell the war and ease the contradiction; when naturaldisasters happen, the proclaim of pardon is conducive to increase the number of labor force andreduce the burden of working people and then can promote the development of agriculture andsocial economy; and the proclaim of pardon contributes to win intellectuals and consolidate therule of the country. Pardon, of course, is not complete unlimited; the pardon system will makean exclusion when criminals break the law which is harmful to the rulers’ dominance and thesocial ethics, for example, tang dynasty law formulates that “Five Offences and Ten Evils arenot absolved” and “habitual criminals are not forgiven”, which coincide with the purpose ofpardon system of preserving hierarchy and social ethics. With the development and supplementof various dynasties, the pardon system appears fundamental changes in Tang dynasty; its scopeextends from pure law area to social politics area and economic civilization area, not onlyincluding the mitigating and remittal of the punishments to criminals, but also increasing thedischarge of the debts to working people and the rewards to officials and armies. Tang Dynastyoccupies an important position in the development of ancient China history, which is the peakof the ancient level society, and the legal and cultural systems of Tang Dynasty produce aprofound effect for the future generations and other countries, the promulgation of “Don law” isa sign of maturity of the Chinese legal system, and pardon system has an unprecedenteddevelopment in Tang Dynasty which has a relatively complete legal system, but no matter howpardon system of Tang Dynasty develops and improves, it is just a tool for the ruling class tomaintain their dominance.The structure of the thesis is divided into four parts; the first part is an overview of thepardon system, including the meaning of pardon, the examples of the pardon conditions and thedepiction of the pardon evolution, and this part is the initial introduction of pardon system. Thesecond part is the most important part of the thesis, it introduces the characteristics of thepardon system through combining the pardon system of Tang dynasty and the Confucianism,this part explores the reasons why the pardon system of Tang dynasty appears thosecharacteristics mainly form the Confucian classic doctrines including yin and yang theory, punishment understanding theory, Confucian ethic thinking and amnesty and recommendationthinking, and the content of this part is the focus and innovation of the thesis. The third part isthe influence of the pardon system of Tang Dynasty, not only including the influences on othercontemporary East Asian countries. Which are presented through the influences of “Don Law”on other dynasties and countries. The fourth part which is the last part of the thesis is theevaluation of the pardon system of Tang Dynasty, and it is same with the pardon system ofvarious dynasties, not only has the active functions of easing contradiction and promoting socialdevelopment, but also has the negative effects of hindering the development of the rule of lawand impeding eliminating crimes.Pardon system of Tang Dynasty has a great influence on the formulation and modificationof our country’s current Penal Code, the embodiment of punishment understanding anddiscretion, and the provisions that special groups including old men over seventy-five years oldand minors do not apply the death penalty in the Criminal Law Amendment(eight) are in linewith legislative principles of punishment understanding and discretion and pardon provisiondeveloped for special populations in “Don Law”.