Identification And Punishment Of Adultery In Ancient China

"Sexual crime" is one of the most traditional crimes in China,also known as "adultery" in ancient times,which refers to the immorality of sexual desire in order to satisfy sexual desire,and is an illegal act of satisfying selfish desire.Committing adultery will not only cause great harm to the physical and mental health of the other party,but also seriously damage social ethics and morality,and even affect social stability and violate the order of feudal rule.Therefore,the etiquette system gradually began to appear on the historical stage,and the etiquette culture was conceived in ancient times,formed in the Xia Shang and Zhou Dynasty,and gradually matured in the Western Zhou Dynasty.The Zhou metric system of ritual music has created a specific and operable etiquette system,and the marriage relationship is also included in the scope of etiquette,so as to achieve a subtle impact on people’s behavior and habits,and the destruction of marriage relationship will be regarded as adultery.According to the nature of its behavior,rape is mainly divided into three forms:rape,rape,and "adultery",rape and adultery mainly refer to the sexual behavior between men and women outside the marriage relationship,and although the "adultery" is quite different from the form of rape and rape,it has the same nature as the crime of rape,and both challenge and damage the legal marriage relationship.As early as the early Qin and Western Han dynasties,the crime of rape has been preliminarily divided into two types: rape and rape,and the corresponding punishment is also quite different,according to the early Han decree unearthed by Zhangjiashan Hanjian: among them,rape should be corrupted as a palace subordinate courtier,and the rape should be subordinate to the concubine,if the woman is a wife,the punishment is heavier,for the city danjiao;In the Tang Dynasty,with the improvement and development of the law,the crime of adultery was also more complicated,and the Tang Law divided the crime of rape into three forms according to its different modes of behavior: rape,rape and "adultery",of which the behavior of "adultery" included three types of forms: "illegal marriage,marriage in violation of the law,and maintenance of illegal de facto marriage";In the Qing Dynasty,on the basis of inheriting the Great Ming Law,the "Great Qing Regulations" collected the experience of the legislation and judicial practice of the crime of adultery throughout the dynasties,and continuously developed and improved,in which the "Great Qing Regulations" clearly stipulated the six types of sexual crimes: rape,adultery,adultery,rape,sodomy,and official prostitution.Committing adultery is not only an illegal act committed to satisfy personal desires,but also a true reflection of the social customs and social governance level of a certain dynasty or even a certain region.The provisions of the state’s criminal law are an important prerequisite for maintaining social rule,and the accurate determination of rape cases by judicial officials in judicial practice is even more related to social stability and long-term peace and order.Therefore,the accurate determination of rape cases not only tests the level of judicial officials’ judgment,but also is an important means for rulers to maintain social ethics and punish crimes.Successive dynasties have promulgated criminal laws and detailed provisions on rape cases,but the cases in judicial practice vary widely.The adaptation and application of criminal law in specific cases can not only fully demonstrate the breadth and depth of the Chinese legal system,but also embody the wisdom of the Chinese nation.The rape cases included in the "Prison Turtle Supplement" range from the Spring and Autumn Warring States to the Song,Yuan,Ming,and Qing dynasties,which not only span a large period of time,but also are greatly affected by regional cultural differences and personal cultivation of officials,so the adjudication results are more representative.Through the analysis of the specific rape cases in the " Zhe Yu Gui Jian Bu",combined with the provisions of the criminal laws at that time,the original appearance of the case was restored,and the identification standards and punishment of rape cases in ancient China were excavated.With the development of the times and the progress of society,although the traditional criminal law has not met the development needs of modern society,its experience in adjudicating cases and the concept of legislation are still of great benefit to the construction of today’s socialist rule of law.