The judicial system in the middle and late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period has undergone very great changes compared with the early Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty represented prosperity and openness in Chinese history, but it was also destroyed by long-term wars and chaos in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.
At the time of the handover of the late Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty, the scene of social and economic ruin and the corrupt and divided political parties were used as the background map, and the atmosphere of violence permeated the scene of decay.
Wars are raging, and the main body of the national judicial system has changed from the three-part system in the early Tang Dynasty to the later period into the main prison of the military, and the military is not only the army but also the offensive power.
The situation is chaotic, and the military has the most right to speak, so we see the picture of the dominant legal system for the military, that is, the military prison.
Overview of the main prison of the first and fifth generations of soldiers
The various systems practiced by successive dynasties were based on the emperor's consideration of strengthening his power, and it is precisely because of this that
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of the late Tang Dynasty, the emergence of the phenomenon of military prison was also an inevitable law.
The so-called military main prison refers to the judicial organs under the jurisdiction of the military, that is, the administrative organs, judicial organs and procuratorial organs in the early Tang Dynasty.
The highest organs that were originally divided into three subordinates were unified into military prisons during the Fifth Dynasty of the Tang Dynasty, and it is precisely because of this that the judicial institutions formed behind the military prisons have great power.
The political environment in the middle and late Tang Dynasties had lost its stable political environment, but it was still necessary to have a social order and stabilize people's minds, and among the various social roles, the soldiers who could shake the emperor assumed this role.
In the turbulent social environment, there were frequent wars in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, social order turmoil and the lives of displaced people who did not have a good life.
The contradictions within the upper echelons have also intensified, and the military prison that came out of nowhere is actually a special political phenomenon arising in a special era.
Their role is to forcibly stabilize the social order by countering violence with violence, but they cannot fundamentally resolve the social contradictions at that time, and economic development cannot rely on this strong and barbaric way.
Therefore, it seems that it can play a certain role on the surface, but the way of treating the symptoms but not the root causes cannot save the end of the collapse of the Tang Dynasty.
Changes in the judicial system
Looking at the changes in the judicial system from the early to the middle and late Tang Dynasty, different social backgrounds played a direct role in the changes in the judicial system.
The early Tang Dynasty was prosperous and prosperous, with rulers having a clear distribution and management of the judicial system.
As the highest administrative organ in the country, the Punishment Department is also one of the six ministries of Shangshu Province, and from the perspective of official positions, the Punishment Department Shangshu, which is in charge of the Punishment Department, ranks in zhengsanpin.
Therefore, the Ministry of Punishment has the right to review and correct major cases, and if the Emperor announces it, the Ministry of Punishment may participate in the trial of major cases.
As the highest judicial organ, Dali Temple is responsible for examining and approving all kinds of serious cases, and Yushitai, as the highest supervisory organ and one of the central judicial organs, plays an important role in the picketing of official behavior and the rectification of discipline.
Although such a clear division of labor cannot guarantee 100% case clearance, it can also achieve mutual restraint and mutual cooperation.
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the political economy that supported the entire society was in a state of chaos, and the social order was also broken.
In order to stabilize the chaotic situation as soon as possible, the emperor chose to give the central army many powers, which also prompted it to form a situation of military prison.
Third, the causes of the phenomenon of military prisons
In the context of the chaotic era, the rulers did not think about the root causes, eager to calm the chaos in a short period of time and pin this hope on the central army.
The emperor thus gave it a great deal of power, which extended to the judicial system in which the control of the military judiciary and the domination of the judiciary were taken over by the military.
(1) Social unrest led the emperor to abandon the law of tolerance
The Anshi Rebellion was the beginning of all change, the original people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the rulers advocated the management of society with a broad legal idea.
But in the face of changing circumstances, the idea of rulers tends to strengthen their rule with more severe criminal laws.
The Kaiyuan era of the early Tang Dynasty ceased to exist after the Anshi Rebellion, and on top of the ruins, the people were displaced and mourned.
At that time, the Tang Dynasty could be described as internal and external troubles, internal feudal towns were divided, and eunuchs ruled.
The political situation of civilian officials in power is a crisis of rule in which the whole is still infringed upon by various ethnic minorities.
Against this backdrop, the people's time for recuperation was extremely short, and war became the main theme of this period.
From the Continuation of the Anshi Rebellion to the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, the war completely subverted the impression left by future generations in the early Tang Dynasty.
The rulers of the five dynasties of the middle and late Tang Dynasties also fell into a vicious circle, and thus abandoned the original legal ideas of compassion for the people and opened a new era.
(2) The birth of professional soldiers
In the eighth year of the new century, in order to prevent the Khitan from giving orders to strengthen their armaments, Emperor Xuanzong ordered 20,000 of them to serve as youzhou troops.
These twenty thousand people were specially prepared for war, and the others were not allowed to serve at will, and this was the original professional soldier, too
The subject who will "show his skills" in the judicial system during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
Their appearance replaced the previous military, and subconsciously recognized the military as a kind of profession.
The social component of professional soldiers who can become a certain strong position in the later period is precisely based on the background of the war chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and war is the reason for the existence of professional soldiers.
The power of professional soldiers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was even able to shake the position of the emperor, and there was a precedent of soldier turmoil in the second year of the Zhenyuan Dynasty, but the reason was that the grain transportation did not arrive in time.
Once the emperor could not meet the needs of the army, he would become the target of everyone, not to mention the local feudal towns.
Fourth, the characteristics of the military prison
With this social unrest, the background of the country's political instability continues to be unable to be alleviated, and the various functions of the central government have begun to intersect and confuse.
The functions of the judiciary and the military organs intersect, thus solidifying the judicial functions within the military organs.
In the case of military prisons, the functions of military judicial institutions have been out of scope,
In addition to ordinary cases, from major criminal cases to ordinary civil cases can be governed, it can be said that "military prison" is the general term of the judicial system at that time.
Fifth, the influence of the military prison
(1) The destruction of the judicial system by the military main prison
Compared with the judicial system with a perfect system and a clear division of labor in the early Tang Dynasty, the military main prison in the middle and late Tang Dynasty mixed functions and excessively increased the rights of the subject.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the authority and credibility of the original central judicial organs of the Tang Dynasty declined off a cliff.
The social situation began to change, and the loss of the functions of the three divisions actually meant that the judicial system established in the early Tang Dynasty had disintegrated.
(2) Perform limited functions
The military prison itself does not examine the quality of the leader, and whether it has the quality to complete the three major functions of administration, trial and supervision is completely a question mark.
The results of the trial made by such actors whose own qualities are not perfect cannot play a good role in the stability of social order, and even cause the people to complain.
In particular, most of the soldiers at that time were not familiar with the laws and regulations, and even did not have the basic cultural literacy, so the unjust and wrong cases that arose frequently occurred, and the serious consequences were not solved.
These poor circumstances have led to a decline in the rigor of the judiciary in the perception of the entire social group, exacerbating the confusion of the environment.
(3) The hearts of the people under torture are scattered
Rulers who have lost faith in tolerant criminal law tend to regard torture as the mainstream, a way that has become unable to rally the military in the military.
As a result, the recognition of the people is even lower. Its coercive and cruel nature made rulers regarded as tyrants, and the people lost confidence in the administration of today's rulers.
The repetition of the death penalty originally made in the Tang Dynasty in accordance with the idea of prudent punishment was completely destroyed during the middle and late Tang Dynasty, especially in the territories where local feudal towns were divided.
According to the performance of various regions at that time, the Tang Dynasty's various domains had become independent kingdoms with independent governments, and the separation between the central government and the localities also heralded the end of the Tang Dynasty's destruction.
epilogue
From the phenomenon of military personnel in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, we can see that the rulers at that time relied heavily on military power to maintain their political rule.
It is also because of the excessive dependence of the rulers, the former has been unable to control the latter, in the case of frequent wars, soldiers can affect the throne, can not be described as the act of drinking and quenching thirst.
This phenomenon did deepen the reign of the imperial power, but it also brought more tasks to the emperor.
After further control of the army, the emperor also had to deal with all the tasks of the state judicial department through edicts, and all criminal cases in the later period needed to be decided by the emperor one by one.
From the influence of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms on the later period, we can also see that this defect became the shadow in the hearts of the successive emperors of the Late Northern Song Dynasty.
The military prison that occurred in the middle and late Tang Dynasties inherited the habit of the emperors of the Song Dynasty to absolutely control the military power, and the redundant military and redundant officials of the Northern Song Dynasty had an inseparable relationship with it.
Looking at the changes in the judicial system throughout the Tang Dynasty, the policy of leniency and benevolence and justice implemented by the rulers of the early Tang Dynasty brought about a period of prosperity, taking the Anshi Rebellion as a turning point, and the military prison in the middle and late period actually pursued the attitude of countering violence with violence in the judicial system.
Compared with the people in the later period, the guotai minan in the early period can make posterity feel the roughness behind the military prison.
The functions of the three divisions that had been established for the judicial system were weakened and eventually replaced by military prisons.
From the original clear function, the complete division of labor and cooperative relations to the later period of rampant hegemony also really awakened the importance of checks and balances among the people, and under this political phenomenon, torture was a very cold word in the people's livelihood at that time.
The people lost faith in the law, and it was only a matter of time before the rulers of the middle and late Tang dynasties were overthrown.
A society in which benevolent government wins the hearts of the people, tyranny that destroys the hearts of the people, and the people who do not complain will eventually have to pay the price for their actions.
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"Analysis of the Main Prison of the Five Dynasties of the Middle and Late Tang Dynasties"
"Analysis of the Main Prison of Five Generations of Soldiers"