Since ancient times, the law has played a vital role in managing the social order. From the casting of criminal books in the sub-production, the reform of the law in the Shang Dynasty, to the governance of turbulent times by Qin Shi Huang with "heavy canons", the legal system has gradually become the cornerstone of national governance. Once written law is on the stage of history, its role becomes more and more prominent.
The law is no longer a disciplinary rule in the hands of the aristocracy, but has become an open, transparent, and well-known standard. However, the level of ancient culture was not widespread, and some people did not even know enough about writing, so if they were caught in litigation disputes, how could they claim justice?
To be effective, laws need to be written and enforced. If the law is obscure and difficult to understand, and there are many litigation links, then the law will become a dead letter, with no substantive effect, the people will be constrained, and the promotion of the law will be out of reach. Therefore, the profession of "lawyer" came into being at the time of the birth of statutory law.
At that time, they were not "lawyers", but were called "lawyers", "lawyers", "baguettes" or "judges". The ancients originally supported the idea that "if you don't know the punishment, you are unpredictable." The "punishment" here refers to the ancient law, that is, the lack of legal understanding makes the law threatening, and people restrain themselves and dare not break the law at will, so as to reduce crime.
It can be seen that in ancient times, it advocated the avoidance of lawsuits and disputes, emphasized the importance of peace, and called on everyone to exercise self-restraint and avoid passing the buck to each other after committing crimes.
After the law was made public, Shu Xiang sent a letter to condemn him, arguing that the disclosure of the law had led to disputes among the people, and the ruler had lost his authority to make a decision, and people had resorted to the law, and the social order would fall into chaos. However, the law of social development is unstoppable.
After the birth of the criminal sentence, China ushered in its first batch of lawyers. Deng Xi is one of them, who is also a Zheng Guoren and was inspired by Zichan when he was a teenager. Zi Chuan is the grandson of Zheng Mugong, backed by Zheng Jiangong and Zheng Dinggong, he dares to disclose that there is a strong backing behind the law, and the punishment cast in the Ding symbolizes the national decree.
Deng Xi, on the other hand, was more direct, without the strong support of Zi Chan, privately engraved the "Bamboo Punishment", opened legal training courses in remote ravines, recruited students, and taught "how to litigate" and the application of law. After gradually developing and growing, he began to work as a lawyer, advocating civilian politics and teaching civilians to learn Xi litigation.
According to the record of "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period: Leaving the Words": "Those who have lawsuits with the people have an agreement, a big prison clothes, and a small prison shirt." There are too many people to give their garments and learn lawsuits. "Deng Xi's fees are relatively low, a piece of clothing is charged for a large case, a pair of pants is charged for a small case, and the so-called big cases and small cases refer to major and general cases.
In ancient times, when productivity was low, such a ** was quite affordable, so "there are countless people who offer clothes and learn lawsuits". However, Deng Xi is not only fair, but also a knowledgeable and proficient expert in law, which can be described as a modern law professor.
He has been fighting against those in power all his life, so when he learns Xi or accepts cases from Deng Xi, he can hear what others dare not say. It can be seen that the disgust of the rulers and nobles towards Deng Xi can be described as "two can be said and infinite words", that is, Deng Xi is good at justification and has no fixed criteria.
According to the record of "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period: Leaving the Words", a rich man once encountered a flood, his family was washed away, and someone salvaged the body to extort the rich man, and the price was extremely high.
The rich man thought of Deng Xi to open the altar to give a lecture and came to ask for help. Deng Xi said to the rich man: "Don't worry, only you can afford to buy your family's corpses, and the salvage is in urgent need of a deal, and sooner or later they will sell it to you." When the rich man heard this, he realized that he went straight home. Later, the salvage found Deng Xi again, and Deng Xi said: "Don't worry, only you have the body of his family in your hand, and he can only ask you **."
This is the "it off", whether you pay or not, I don't have any principles for people and things. And what the ancients hated most was the lack of stability norms.
In this regard, Xunzi commented on him: "He does not abide by the righteousness of the law and the king, and does not follow the way of etiquette and righteousness; I like to fabricate extreme remarks and play tricks. Although he is good at debating, he is useless, and he has done a lot of things without results, and cannot become the rules and discipline of governing society.
But his justification is justified enough to deceive the ignorant people. He is the kind of person like Hui Shi and Deng Xi. Xunzi's evaluation is objective and to the point, because Deng Xi not only imparted legal knowledge, but also confronted other laws, asserting that what he said was right and that what others were wrong.
Zichan is tolerant and open-minded about legal thinking, and is quite tolerant of him, and always lets him run a township school in Zheng Guo. But this does not mean that others can tolerate him, and after his stepson and You Ji, he became the ruling doctor of Zheng Guo, and immediately targeted Deng Xi after coming to power. However, he was helpless against him, so there was a saying of "killing Deng Xi and using his bamboo punishment", that is, to judge Deng Xi's crime, but he needed to use Deng Xi's own "Bamboo Punishment" as the basis for judgment.
This also proves from another angle that Deng Xi's law is more rigorous and reasonable. The law of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was in the stage of transformation from unwritten law to written law, and the rights and wrongs were debated endlessly and fiercely.
However, with the realization of unification, the law gradually matured, and the legal profession grew day by day, especially during the Qing Dynasty. The earliest lawyers, known as "Mr. Knife and Pen", filed a "Knife and Pen Complaint".
Before paper was not popular, and even after it became popular, paper was quite precious, and even on the part of merchants, bamboo slips were used in pleadings. Therefore, the lawyer engraved the facts and claims of the case on the bamboo slips, hence the name Mr. Daobi.
In ancient times, it was a society governed by the rule of law, and the law was a tool of the ruler, who could witness the confrontation between the plea and the government, which was a profession full of risks. However, in the enlightened Tang Dynasty and the economically developed Song Dynasty, civil law developed rapidly, and people began to pay more attention to economic issues. Mr. Daobi is no longer a simple redress of grievances, a complaint, a risk on his head and a confrontation with the government, but has begun to change to the direction of a "civil and commercial lawyer".
They have benefited greatly from participating in the trial, drafting the Qianzhao (contract), assisting the government or businessmen in sorting out taxes, and resolving contract disputes. As a result, some unscrupulous lawyers have been born in order to achieve their goals, known as "litigation sticks".
During the Qing Dynasty, the legal profession flourished, and although common Qing Dynasty dramas featured the theme of court struggles, there were many movies and TV series about Qing Dynasty lawyers. Stephen Chow starred in "The Judge of the Dead" played the first lawyer of the Qing Dynasty Song Shijie, and he also starred in "Jiupin Sesame Official" Fang Tangjing.
In ancient times, "lawyers" were divided into two categories, on the one hand, they were baguettes, and on the other hand, they were respected by the locals, and they took it as their duty to punish evil and promote good, and to uphold justice.
But whether good or evil, their thinking in legal debate is an important part of promoting the development of China's legal history.