In October of the first year of Wu (1367), Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, instructed Li Shanchang, the prime minister of Zuo, and Liu Ji, the middle of the imperial history, to discuss the formulation of the law. After thorough discussions, in December of the same year, 430 articles of the Decree were compiled, including 285 articles of the law and 145 articles of the decree. In order to ensure the implementation of the Decree, the Direct Interpretation of the Decree was issued to explain its meaning. In November of the sixth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang once again deployed Liu Weiqian, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and others, to carefully revise the Daming Law on the basis of the "Law Order".
In February of the following year, the revision was completed and promulgated nationwide. The structure of the chapters of the code is modeled on the "Tang Law", which is divided into 12 articles, including "Guarding and Prohibiting", "Fighting Lawsuits", "Fraud", "Miscellaneous Laws", "Arrest", "Breaking Prison", and "Famous Cases". It consists of thirty volumes and contains six hundred and six statutes. Twenty-two years later, the code was revised to a great extent, placing the "Famous Laws and Regulations" at the beginning of the chapter, and according to the six duties, it was divided into six laws: officials, households, rites, soldiers, criminals, and workers, with a total of 30 volumes and 460 articles. So far, the form of China's traditional legal system has undergone significant changes. In May of the thirtieth year, it was re-enacted, and at the same time provided for the repeal of all other prohibitions and prohibitions, and the use of this code as the basis for judicial adjudication.
In view of the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang explicitly forbade the successor to the throne to "tamper with the established law", after the re-promulgation of the "Da Ming Law", the Zhong Ming generation did not revise it again. If necessary, the law was aided by the issuance of edicts or ordinances. In the thirteenth year of Hongzhi (1500), 279 articles of the "Punishment Regulations" were enacted. In the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing (1550), it was rebuilt and 376 articles were added; In the thirteenth year of Wanli (1585), it was rebuilt again, and 382 articles were added. From then on, laws and ordinances went hand in hand.
The "Famous Laws" volume, containing 47 articles, is the outline of the whole law. The abbreviation of the name of the criminal law and the law clarifies the basic principles of conviction and sentencing for different levels and types of criminal acts. Among them, the chapter "Five Punishments" stipulates that the punishment is divided into five types, namely, flogging, rod, imprisonment, exile, and death; In the specific provisions of the "Six Laws", there are also punishments such as Ling Chi's execution, remote army refill, migration, and tattooing; As for the "Ten Evils" clause, it lists 10 so-called serious crimes of "common amnesty", such as rebellion, great rebellion, rebellion, rebellion, unrighteousness, great disrespect, unfilial piety, disharmony, injustice, and civil strife.
The "Eight Discussions" system clarifies the legal preferential status of the imperial family, noble relatives and gentry, including the discussion of relatives (relatives of the emperor and the country), the discussion of merits, the discussion of merit, the discussion of merit, the discussion of ability, the discussion of diligence, the discussion of nobles (the first rank of the knight and the third rank of civil and military officials, and the second rank or more of the loose officials) and the guest of the council (those who inherit the ancestors and become state guests). According to this system, when these eight groups of people commit crimes, the judicial department is not allowed to interrogate them without authorization, and must report the actual situation in a sealed manner and the emperor himself will adjudicate it. However, compared with the previous generation, the preferential policies of the Chinese martial arts ** of "Ming Law" have been reduced.
There are a total of 33 articles in the "Law of Officials", which are divided into two volumes, "Duty System" and "Formula", and the core content is to standardize the professional behavior and duty compliance of civil and military personnel. Among them, such as "the minister monopolizes the power and responsibility of selection", "civil officials confer the title of duke and marquis", "collude with party henchmen to disrupt the government and government", "make friends with close servants", "change the law without authorization" and other death penalty clauses, which are unique to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, revealing the historical characteristics of the monarch and the increasing centralization of power at that time.
The Household Law is divided into seven volumes, including "Household Service", "Farm House", "Marriage", "Warehouse", "Course", "Money and Debt", and "Market", with a total of 95 articles. This law deals with the legislation of population, household registration, clan, land, taxation, forced labor, marriage, money law, treasury, salt law, tea law, alum law, commercial tax, foreign trade, lending, market and other social and economic and personal relations and marriage civil contents. Among them, the three special chapters of "Course", "Money and Debt", and "Market" significantly increased the adjustment of economic relations, reflecting the further development of the feudal economy and commodity-money relations in the Ming Dynasty.
In terms of the land system, the servitude system, the personal dependency relationship and the patriarchal relationship, each era has its own characteristics. Although there are no restrictions on the amount of private land ownership, the practice of "defrauding the fields and grain" is strictly prohibited; Land sales are permitted, but it is stipulated that the sale of land and houses must go through tax deeds and transfer procedures, and land mergers other than abnormal land sales are prohibited. Compared with the Tang Law, the Ming Law has increased the punishment for money and food, but the punishment for "missing the household registration", "breaking the law by the merchant and sister-in-law", "different nationality and different wealth", "marrying at the funeral", "marrying the good and the low" and other behaviors is relatively light. In addition, it was stipulated that the common people were not allowed to keep slaves, and the landlord was not allowed to use the tenants to carry the sedan chair at will, and the tenants only had to give the landlord the gift of "being a little and a long" (i.e., being a brother).
The Ritual Law is divided into two volumes, "Sacrifice" and "Ritual", with a total of 26 articles. This law stipulates the legal requirements for the worship of heaven and earth, temples, shrines, mountains and rivers, as well as various rituals between kings and ministers, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives. Among them, in addition to the acts that directly infringe on the imperial power, such as "staying in trouble to see the court", "blocking the written statement", and "falsely descending to evil gods to confuse the public", the punishment for other behaviors such as "bad manners and abolishing festivals" (some of which belong to the "ten evils") is relatively light. For example, "Hopewell Imperial Medicine mistakenly does not follow its own prescription", "Cooking Imperial Diet Violates Food Prohibition Rules", "Imperial Luck Boat Mistakenly Doesn't Be Strong", etc., although they fall within the scope of the "Ten Evils", they are only judged to be the crime of rods. "Hearing the death of one's parents and husband and not mourning" is also one of the "ten evils", but it is only a crime in vain.
The Law of War is divided into five volumes, "Gongwei", "Military Administration", "Guanjin", "Stable Pasture" and "Post Station", with a total of 75 articles. For military violations, the punishment is more severe. In addition to the addition of laws such as "crimes committed by military officers" and "exemption from criminal exile for crimes committed by officers and soldiers" in the "Law of Famous Cases", a special chapter has been established to make special provisions.
The Criminal Law is divided into 11 volumes, including "Thieves", "Human Life", "Fighting", "Scolding", "Litigation", "Accepting Stolen Goods", "Fraud", "Committing Adultery", "Miscellaneous Criminals", "Arresting and Killing", and "Breaking Prison", with a total of 171 articles. The full text stipulates the principles of criminalization and sentencing of criminal offenses, as well as litigation, pursuit, and trial, and is the core part.
In the criminal law, the punishment for crimes such as "rebellion", "great rebellion", "creating evil books and fallacies", "robbing", "officials receiving stolen goods", and "fornicating adultery" are quite severe. For example, with regard to the crime of "conspiracy against the Great Rebellion", the law of the Tang Dynasty stipulated that the offender himself should be beheaded, and his descendants over the age of 16 should be hangedThe law of the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the offender himself should be "put to death", and grandfathers, fathers and sons, grandchildren, brothers, and cohabitants, regardless of whether they had different surnames or were sons of uncles and brothers, were to be beheaded, and those over the age of 16 were not exempt from death. In addition, in the crime of "robbery", the offender who obtains the property, regardless of whether the principal offender is an accomplice, is beheaded. The starting point for the death penalty for the crime of "receiving stolen goods from officials" was lower in the Ming Dynasty than in the Tang Dynasty, and the move was aimed at increasing the punishment for crimes that directly infringed on feudal rule. At the same time, the punishment for crimes that indirectly endanger the famous feudal religion, such as "children and grandchildren violating the fatwa," "children and grandparents denounce their grandparents," "adultery," and hired workers beating, insulting, raping, and denunciating the head of the family, are relatively light.
The "Work Law" is divided into two volumes, "Construction" and "River Defense", with a total of 13 articles, mainly involving laws and regulations on engineering construction, government manufacturing, river defense, roads, bridges, etc. It is worth noting that Gonglu is unique and has a special article, which is unique to the Ming Dynasty.
In addition, there are also mourning clothes and five punishments. The Five Punishments, as the name suggests, are to punish criminals to five different punishments, including caning, caning, shackling, hanging, and hanging. These punishments are not only strong in their punitive nature, but also have a strong warning effect. When a criminal is punished by one of the five punishments, his pain and humiliation will undoubtedly bring great shock to others, so as to achieve the purpose of crime prevention.
The mourning suit is a special punishment that is mainly used to punish those who have committed serious crimes. When criminals are sentenced to mourning clothes, they are required to wear funeral costumes, with filial piety on their heads and linen on their bodies to show their respect for the deceased. This punishment is not only punitive in nature, but also has a strong humiliating component. The fact that criminals are treated in public in this way will undoubtedly be devastating to their psyche.
As a representative code in the later period of China's feudal society, the Daming Law has unique characteristics of the times and highlights significant characteristics. Although it is based on the Tang Law, it has been significantly expanded in form and content. In terms of structure, it is more reasonable; The text is more concise and clear. In terms of content, legislation in the economic, military, administrative, and litigation fields is more substantial. In terms of conviction and sentencing, the principle of "the world is light and the world is heavy" and "the light is the lesser and the heavier is the heavier". For matters involving ceremonies, customs and education, the conviction is relatively light; For theft, money, food, and other things, the conviction is relatively heavy. The structure of the law and the principles of sentencing had a great impact on the Great Qing Law.
Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to the formulation of laws. "Da Ming Law" is the crystallization of his experience in spending nearly 20 years of painstaking efforts to deliberate and prevent small hidden dangers. He regarded it as a key magic weapon to maintain the long-term stability of the Zhu Ming Dynasty. In order to ensure that the "Da Ming Law" is implemented at all levels of society, Zhu Yuanzhang collected cases of "crimes" by officials and citizens to interpret the law. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu, the "Great Message" was promulgated; In the following year, the "Continuation of the Great Message" and the "Three Parts" were promulgated; In the twenty-first year, he promulgated the "Great Decree of Military Ministers" and ordered the officials and soldiers and civilians of the whole country to read and study. Its intention was to make the masses of the people submit to feudal rule through the education and propaganda of the law.
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