The Crime Of Theft In The Qin And Han Dynasties And Its Comparative Study

For the behavior of infringing on property,China has relevant provisions in the ancient law of the three dynasties;During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period,"theft" was widely used to express criminal acts,but it included not only violations of property,but also non violations of property;In the Qin and Han Dynasties,"theft" was used specifically to refer to a certain kind of crime of infringing on property.For the development of theft in the Qin and Han Dynasties,the traditional view is that the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system.However,a large number of legal provisions and legal cases in the unearthed bamboo slips of the Qin and Han Dynasties show that the development of theft in the Qin and Han Dynasties has different characteristics under the background of different politics,economy and culture.Based on this background,this paper systematically arranges and analyzes the bamboo slips of the Qin and Han Dynasties unearthed in recent years,uses the research methods of double evidence method and comparative analysis method,and refers to historical documents and scholars’ works to study the definition,constituent elements and penalty rules of the crime of theft in the Qin and Han Dynasties.On this basis,this paper makes a comparative study of the theft system in the Qin and Han Dynasties,and then reveals the changes of the theft system in the Qin and Han Dynasties,so as to seek the overall picture of the development of theft in the Qin and Han Dynasties.In the Qin Dynasty,the connotation of theft was not clear.Theft refers to a series of criminal acts with infringement of property as the core and infringement of property as the connection point,including theft,fraud,official bribery and so on.The criminal subjects of theft in Qin Dynasty are diverse,including not only the general public and officials,but also the people who have committed crimes and are serving sentences.In the subjective aspect of crime,the rulers of the Qin Dynasty distinguished between criminal intent and criminal negligence,initially recognized the harmfulness of intentional crime,and increased the punishment of intentional crime.The criminal object of theft in Qin Dynasty not only involves the criminal act of infringing on a single object,such as the criminal act of infringing only on property;It also involves the violation of complex objects,such as the criminal act of violating both property and person.Because the connotation of theft in the Qin Dynasty is not clear,it takes property as the connection point to include a series of criminal acts under the crime of theft,which makes the criminal acts of theft in the Qin Dynasty have the characteristics of diversity,including theft,fraud,occupation,concealing land,fraud and so on.In the punishment of the crime of theft,the Qin Dynasty began to convict and sentence the offenders based on the value of stolen goods.When it comes to the serious crime of group theft,the punishment was increased.In addition,the Qin Dynasty also established a series of reward and punishment mechanisms to combat theft.In short,the Qin Dynasty has initially established a legal regulation system of theft.In the Han Dynasty,the meaning of theft was basically the same as that in the Qin Dynasty,but the criminal act of theft was determined through the chapter of the law of theft.In terms of the subject of crime,the Han Dynasty further standardized the crime of theft committed by those who had committed a crime and were serving a sentence.In the Qin Dynasty,the situation that those who had committed a crime and were serving a sentence made atonement with six money per working day and escaped with the crime of theft no longer exists.The subject of crime only includes ordinary people and officials.In the subjective aspect of crime,the Han Dynasty no longer stipulated criminal negligence and tended to crack down on intentional crime.In terms of the object of crime,the rulers of the Han Dynasty have fully realized that the crime of theft will not only infringe on property and person,but also may infringe on the state’s management order and the state’s political order,and increased the fight against group theft.The behavior mode of theft in the Han Dynasty has been stipulated in detail through the theft law.In addition,on the basis of inheriting the reward and punishment mechanism of the Qin Dynasty,the Han Dynasty strengthened the fight against theft.Compared with the Qin Dynasty,the legal structure of theft in the Han Dynasty was more perfect,and the rules of conviction and sentencing were more reasonable.Through the comparative study of the theft system in the Qin and Han Dynasties,we can find that although the theft system in the Han Dynasty was developed on the basis of the theft system in the Qin Dynasty,they still have the characteristics of institutional differences and functional similarities.In the process of the development from the theft system in the Qin Dynasty to the theft system in the Han Dynasty,due to the change of legal thought,the legal thought also showed the characteristics of introducing rites into the law,This is determined by politics,ideology and culture.The traditional view in history holds that the legal net of the Qin Dynasty is as numerous as autumn tea and as dense as curd.In fact,the legal system of the Han Dynasty is more stringent than that of the Han Dynasty.