A Study On The Judicial Disposal Of Adultery By The Army Of Wei-so In The Ming Dynasty

Adultery as a criminal name first appeared in Law of Daming,but the punishment for adultery already existed in Daming Decree and Da Gao.Later,annunciations of Hongwu also contained more provisions to punish adultery.Daming Law promulgated in Hongwu’s 30 th year established a relatively complete system of laws and regulations,which recorded the detailed punishment regulations for adultery,including seduction,rape,and even whoring.Due to the nature of the officers and soldiers,criminals of Wei-so have special provisions such as eight discussions and exemption from servitude and exile.In the Ming Dynasty,soldiers were all over the place and adultery was not able to be totally prohibited.Due to the law of redemption,criminals of Wei-so were often able to avoid punishment.In order to prevent the spread of adultery,the rulers of the dynasty successively promulgated cases of depravity,cases of whoring,and regulations on drinking with prostitutes.With time going on,the original regulations have become increasingly unable to adapt to new situations,such as inappropriate punishments;the scope of application of the regulations was unclear;innocent officers were framed and dismissed,while criminal officers delayed their stay in the capital and attempted to be reinstated.Therefore,during the Chenghong period,the Ming government continued to issue new regulations to supplement and adjust the ambiguous content of the original regulations,but as a result,the regulations were complicated and inconvenient to implement.So the Ming government sorted out many regulations for adultery and compiled them into Punishment Regulations and Da Ming Huidian,reflecting the dynamics and flexibility of the laws of the Ming Dynasty.However,the penalties imposed by these regulations tend to be lighter,What’s more,it was difficult to obtain evidence for criminal acts and there was the principle of not prosecuting irrelevant matters in the Ming Dynasty,which greatly increased the cost of litigation.As a result,they inevitably failed to prevent the expansion of the depravity of the army,laying an incentive for the corruption of military discipline and the disintegration of Wei-so.