In ancient China, the interrogation system, as an important part of the judicial system, played a vital role in ensuring social justice and maintaining social order. Through an in-depth analysis of the Yuan Dynasty miscellaneous drama "Dou E's Injustice", we can find that some of the characteristics of the ancient Chinese interrogation system reflected in the list of high-quality authors can be revealed.
Dou E's Injustice is the representative work of the Yuan Dynasty miscellaneous playwright Guan Hanqing, which tells the story of a deeply wronged woman Dou E, who was framed by the scoundrel Zhang Donkey and beaten by the scoundrel Tao Tao, and was beaten into a trick, became a murderer, and was sentenced to behead to show the public. Before the execution, Dou E, who was full of grief and indignation, made three vows: blood spattered Bai Lian, snow in June, and a three-year drought. Sure enough, Dou E's grievances moved the heavens and the earth, and the three vows were fulfilled one by one. After that, the unjust case was also overturned under the retrial of his father. In the play, we can see several notable features of the interrogation system at that time.
First of all, Dou E's grievances are directly related to the ancient Chinese trial system and torture system.
In ancient times, there were no modern means of investigation and evidence collection, so physical evidence was often not easy to obtain. So the "confession", that is, the oral confession of the suspect, becomes very important.
The core of Dou E's case is who the real culprit who poisoned Zhang Donkey's father. Because there is no direct evidence, the arguments of the two sides become the main basis of the judge, and whoever says it is more convincing will affect the outcome of the case. In judgments where "irrefutable evidence" cannot be obtained, "reasonableness" is the criterion.
Because the deceased was Zhang Donkey's father, and the possibility of the son poisoning his father was very small in ancient times. In Zhang Donkey's defense, he used the logic of ethics and morality to make ordinary people more inclined to sympathize with him and believe him without direct evidence. So this case was not favorable to Dou E from the beginning, and Dou E herself admitted that she made the soup that Zhang Donkey'er's father drank, which further pushed the case to an unfavorable situation.
After Dou E survived the torture to extract a confession, Tao Zhu used the torture results of Granny Cai to test whether Dou E was innocent. In order to save her mother-in-law from the pain of flesh and skin, Dou E retracted her confession in desperation and admitted that she was guilty. The difference between Dou E's behavior before and after is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, and people do not easily believe in the logic of Dou E's rescue, that is, they do not believe that Dou E sacrificed his life to save people who are not related by blood.
Second, the presumption of guilt in the trial system is also worth considering.
Unlike the presumption of innocence in common law laws, traditional Chinese law is based on the presumption of guilt. The so-called presumption of guilt is to first assume that the defendant suspect is guilty, and then try to gather evidence to prove his crime, if the defendant cannot produce strong evidence to prove his innocence, then the law finds him guilty. Therefore, once Zhang Donkey sets a trap and wants to frame Dou E, and Dou E herself cannot come up with evidence to prove her innocence, it is very likely that she will be found guilty by the law.
Similarly, if the accused is unable to adjudicate his innocence, his case cannot be appealed after the first instance. It is precisely because of such legal provisions that the possibility of Dou E using the judicial process to wash away grievances has been completely cut off. Moreover, the "presumption of guilt" puts the defendant in the position of guilt at the beginning, which also leads to the fact that if the confession of the criminal suspect is consistent, the judge has a higher degree of confidence in him; If there are inconsistencies between the confessions, it is easy to be judged as lying. This point is covered in Dou E's confessions before and after.
However, whether the suspect is innocent or has indeed committed a crime, they will tend not to admit guilt. So even if Dou E admitted that she made the soup, she did not admit that she poisoned Zhang's father.
The peach pestle in the story of "Dou E's Injustice" was very hastily tortured, wanting to be beaten into a trick. In fact, this practice is against the laws of the Yuan Dynasty.
According to the records of the Zhiyuan Xinge, three conditions must be met to extract confessions from prisoners by torture. First, it must be a suspect in a felony. Dou E is suspected of committing homicide, which is said to be in line with this article, but the latter two are not. Second, the evidence must be conclusive. In Dou E's case, Tao Zhu was directly sentenced without looking at the evidence, which was completely illegal. Third, the matter of the punishment must be written and signed by the supervisor. Peach pistle didn't do it at all.
The threat of torture to extract a confession from Granny Cai became the direct cause of Dou E's admission to murder, which shows that torture is very likely to cause unjust cases. In addition, it was common in ancient times that ** did not follow the law to enforce it. In other words, there is a big gap between the text of the law and its implementation.
In addition, "Dou E's Injustice" also reflects another important feature of the interrogation system at that time: the existence of judicial corruption. In the play, Dou E's grievances were revealed, largely because her father Dou Tianzhang retried the case when he was serving as a criminal envoy. However, Tao Zhu, the county official who tried the case, was corrupt and unfairly tried and convicted. This episode reflected the existence of judicial corruption at the time. Due to the influence of various factors, some ** may use their authority to conduct unfair trials, leading to the occurrence of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases. Therefore, it is particularly important to supervise and restrain the judiciary.
As a miscellaneous drama that reflects the social life of the Yuan Dynasty, Dou E's Injustice vividly shows the characteristics and drawbacks of the interrogation system at that time. From the perspective of the importance of "evidence" and the role of confession in the interrogation system, Dou E's Injustice embodies some progressive nature of ancient Chinese law; However, judging from the existence of "torture" and judicial corruption, there are still many problems and drawbacks in the interrogation system in ancient China. The existence of these problems not only affects judicial fairness and social stability, but also restricts the development and progress of society. In such a situation, ordinary people often feel that justice cannot be served. Therefore, many literary and artistic works in ancient China like to depict "Qing officials" and "Qingtian masters", hoping that they can uphold justice and uphold justice.
Finally, it should be pointed out that Dou E's father, Dou Tianzhang, is a typical example of this kind of "clean official". It is worth noting that Dou Tianzhang's position is "two Huai to promote punishment and clean government and clean government". His official position is higher than that of Taoqi, which makes it possible for him to overturn Dou E's case. In fact, this reflects a general psychology of the Chinese people. That is to say, my boss's boss is not necessarily the same as my boss, as long as they help me, I can clear my grievances. Such an idea of hoping that the above "Qingtian Lord" will administer justice for himself not only exists in ancient times, but also exists even in contemporary times, which shows that "Dou E's Injustice" still has considerable practical significance until now.