In the eighth year of Emperor Ming's reign, Yu Qingzhong,the son of Yu Qingzhong, the commander of Yanping Wei in Fujian Province, killed his brother Yu Jue (which was a crime of disobedience among the most heinous crimes) in order to compete for the position of hereditary commander of the Yu family, and was sentenced to death according to the Ming Law.
When Yu Xuan was escorted to the execution site, Yu Xuan cried out in public that he had been wronged, and the executioner had to suspend the execution and send Yu Xuan back to the Judicial Division for a new trial. Yu Xuan called the murderer someone else, and it was found to be a false accusation. Again escorting him to the execution ground, Yu Xuan once again cried out for injustice, calling the murderer someone else, and the executioner had to remand him back for retrial.
In this way, Yu Xuan went to the Dharma Field five times and cried out five times! For a while, there was a lot of discussion among the people, and they felt that the officials of the Law Department were taking people's lives.
Note: The Ming Dynasty law stipulates that if a criminal is sentenced to death and cries out injustice, he needs to be retried. "Prisoners rebel, family members claim wrongs, even if they push the shovel, the results are in vain, and the original questions are corrected with the original questions and the original trial officials" -- "The Canon of the Great Ming Society." The purpose is to prevent unjust, false and wrongly decided cases from causing innocent deaths.
So what is the truth of this case?
The Yu family was awarded the hereditary official position of commander of Yanping Wei in Fujian (this is the highest grade among the hereditary official positions) because of the merits of their ancestors, and as long as the Yu family did not commit crimes and was demoted by the imperial court, the position of the commander would always be their family. The only problem for Yu Jia is that there is only one location.
Yu Qingzhong had five sons, his wife had two sons, Yu Jue and Yu Xuan, and the concubine had three sons. Although there are many sons, who will inherit the hereditary official position is not used to bother with Qingzhong at all, in fact, he does not count, because the provisions of the "Great Ming Law" are clear:
All civil and military officials shall join forces with yin to serve in the ministry, and order the eldest son of the concubine to attack the yin. If the eldest descendant of the concubine has a cause, the second descendant of the concubine inherits the shadow. If there is no second-born descendant, Fang Xushu's eldest son will inherit the shadow. If there are no eldest descendants, Xu Ling's brothers and nephews should inherit the yin together. If the descendants and nephews of the sons and nephews are not in order, those who cross the shadow will have a hundred rods and three years.
Therefore, Yu Qingzhong's eldest son, Yu Pei, was booked at the moment of birth. Yu Qingzhong himself also began to dot up and down after Yu Pei became an adult, preparing to let Yu Pei inherit the official position.
Explanation: Although the Ming Dynasty officials were theoretically born as officials, it is still more troublesome to really want to obtain official positions. Taking military positions as an example, it is necessary for the inheritor to report to the military department after becoming an adult, and the military department can verify that it is correct before taking office. In other words, there is still a set of review processes that need to be done up and down to smoothly take office. For example, Li Chengliang hereditary commanded the affairs, but he did not have the money to go to the military headquarters to report (need to bribe officials), and if it were not for the Liaodong Governor Wei Xue zeng who had spared him to fund him, he might have been unknown.
Scene of a military attaché inheriting an official position
The Wei commander was a high-ranking military position that could command more than 5,000 soldiers and more than 20,000 troops (auxiliaries), and his power was quite large, so Yu Xuan's younger brother Yu Xuan also wanted to inherit this official position. But for Yu Xuan, this difficulty is too great.
Because the inheritance of the Shiguan "Great Ming Law" has clear provisions, his father Yu Qingzhong said that it does not count. The only chance was for his brother to have an "accident." Either he voluntarily relinquished his official position, or he was disqualified from hereditary qualifications by the imperial court for crimes.
But neither of these was very likely for Yu Jue, so Yu Xuan thought of a third solution.
It just so happened that the Jinfeng Mountain in the Yanping area was in trouble with tigers, and Yu Xuan and his brothers proposed to go up the mountain to fight the tiger together. After the five brothers arrived at Jinfeng Mountain, Yu Xuan took advantage of the fact that the three younger brothers were physically weak and fell behind, stabbed Yu Jue with a knife at a cliff, and pushed him down the cliff. Then Yu Xuan and his three younger brothers lied that the eldest brother had fallen off a cliff by himself.
The eldest son died tragically, and Yu Qingzhong, while suffering grief, had to start Zhang Luo's succession to command the post of envoy. However, soon after, Yu Qingzhong received bad news, and someone went to Yanping Province to accuse Yu Xuan of murdering his brother Yu Jue.
On that day, a pair of Orion brothers happened to see the whole process of Yu Xuan's murder of his brother in the distance. At first, they did not want to go and report it, but only told the mayor of the same village. Fearing responsibility (the Ming Dynasty stipulates that murder is not prosecuted, and if it is found, it will be a hundred rods), li chang will take the two brothers to Yanping Province to make a first complaint.
Pushing people off a cliff or falling off a cliff, it was difficult to tell things clearly based on human testimony alone, but Yu Xuan stabbed his brother in the process of murder, which became the key evidence. After the coffin was opened, although the body had decayed, the knife wounds were still there. At this time, Yu Xuan still wanted to deny it, but his third brother Yu Xuan, because he was walking fast, also saw the process of Yu Xuan pushing his brother to fall off a cliff, and also stood up to testify against him.
Under the evidence and the testimony of many people, Yu Xuan finally confessed to his crime. The prefect of Yanping was sentenced to Xuan Lingchi according to the "Great Ming Law": "Those who kill their brothers and sisters be executed by Ling Chi". It was also reported to the Punishment Department and the Dali Temple for review, and after Ming Yingzong was executed, he was ready to carry out the death penalty in Yanping.
Yu Qingzhong and his wife Li Shi's beloved son are reluctant to believe the facts, and when Li Visits prison, Yu Xuan tells her that the key witness to her conviction is her brother Yu Xuan. And Yu Yan's purpose was obvious, that is, he hoped that the two brothers would die, and then he himself could inherit the official position.
Li Shi originally resented the concubine for competing with him for favors, and thought that if his two sons died, Shuzi inherited the official position, and his position in the family would plummet in the future. Therefore, after some discussion, the two men came up with the strange case of "five people on the execution ground to cry out injustice".
The first time Yu Xuan cried out in court, claiming that his brother was stabbed by his younger brother Yu Xuan, he stepped forward to help him, but the brother stood unsteadily and fell off the cliff, and said that he could find Yu Xuan's knife to check the knife wound as evidence.
However, Yu Xuan's sabre did not match Yu Jue's knife wound, and searching through Yu's home could not find a knife that matched the knife wound (the knife was hidden by Yu Xuan). And the other two younger brothers also proved that Yu Yan had never left their sight. Therefore, the prison officer and the push officer determined that Yu Xuan's cry of injustice was a false accusation.
Yu Xuan went to the court for the second time and cried out for injustice, changing his name to say that his brother was injured by the organ set up by the hunter brother, and he went to help himself, and his brother stood unsteadily and fell off the cliff.
First of all, Yu Xuan said that he could not tell where his brother was in the organ, and secondly, there was no mechanism on the walking route that Xuan said, and the nearby organ had a sign to warn pedestrians, and it was not triggered. Therefore, the government decided that Yu Xuan was afraid of death and planted the booty.
Li Shi saw that his son had not been able to get rid of the crime twice, so he ran back to his mother's house to find his brother to help. Yu Xuan's uncle came up with an idea – to find someone to "fight the fierce". The top culprit was to spend money to find someone to replace the capital crime, which was not unusual in fujian at that time. Soon they found the right person, Li Tao.
Yu Xuan cried out for justice for the third time, claiming that his family had found the real culprit on their own.
This time it was tried by Li Bing, the official of Yanping. Li Tao claimed that he and Yu Pei had an old grudge, and when they saw their brother enter the mountain to hunt tigers, he took another road to rush to them, and when Yu Pei came, he deliberately lured him to the cliff to take revenge.
Li Tao also indicated the location where the murder weapon was hidden (the houguan government recovered and confirmed that it was a murder knife). Although Li Tao said that it was not leaky, Li Bing felt suspicious. He asked Li Tao some common sense questions about Jinfengshan that were not related to the case, such as what specialties there were, how many roads were in and out, whether there were any people living near the scene of the incident, and what trees were grown... Li Tao had never been to Jinfeng Mountain, so naturally he couldn't answer.
Li Bing then visited Li Tao's house, and after interrogating his family, he learned that Yu Xuan's mother had spent money to find someone to fight the crime. So Yu Xuan was sent to the Dharma Field for the fourth time. Unexpectedly, this time, Yu Xuanfa once again cried out for injustice, claiming that the presiding judge Li Bing was instructed by others to deliberately frame himself.
It turned out that Yu Xuan's father, Yu Qingzhong, had bought the inspector Yushi and impeached Li Bing. It is said that he accepted bribes from the father of the real murderer Li Tao (Li Wang) and deliberately framed Yu Xuan.
As soon as he investigated, he found that Li Wang's family was surrounded by disciples, and where could he get the money to bribe the officials? Moreover, Li Wang also showed the life and death documents signed by the top murderer, and the top murderer can be said to be conclusive evidence.
However, after careful investigation of Hou Xuan, it was found that the case was very deep, Yu Xuan's father Yu Qingzhong found many high-ranking officials of the imperial court to talk about the case, and Yu Xuan's mother's family (Yu Xuan's mother Li Shi was the Lady of the Commandments) also had a lot of energy to find the Fujian envoys and take care of the case according to the requirements of the envoys.
Therefore, Hou Xuan played a careful eye, only talking about Yu Xuan's crime, and deliberately did not mention the matter of his mother finding someone to commit a crime, and let it go. Under the hint of Hou Xuan, some big people behind the scenes also shut up and stopped interceding. Originally, when the case came to this point, Yu Xuan and his mother should have confessed their lives.
But Li Shi, who loves his son' heart, would rather destroy himself than save his son's life. In a hurry, she found a lawyer named Feng Qixuan to find a way.
Ming lawyers were similar to today's lawyers, generally proficient in the law and familiar with the procedures and loopholes of the court trial. Therefore, the case passes through their hands, and the direction of the trial will often change greatly. In the face of Li's pleading, Feng Qixuan came up with a way to make her blush.
After Yu Xuan was escorted to the execution ground for the fifth time, he also cried out on the spot for the fifth time.
This time, it was still tried by the deputy envoy waiting for the trial. Yu Xuan did not directly tell the grievances as in the past, but instead asked to be left and right according to the deputy envoy, saying that the grievances could only be spoken and listened to by him. This case has already made a lot of noise, how dare Hou Xuan play the conspiracy of the chamber of secrets and give people a handle? Only the removal of the military service was agreed, but local officials such as the county and the prefect must be present.
Yu Xuan could only open his mouth to explain the original reason, and as a result, he stunned everyone in the hall.
Yu Xuan claims that his mother Li Shi had previously hooked up with a villain named Zhang Long, and his brother Yu Jue discovered his mother's adultery. In order to save his mother's honor, Yu Pei was reluctant to publicize the matter, and prepared to kill Zhang Long alone after tricking him out. However, Yu Pei was not Zhang Long's opponent, but was murdered by Zhang Long.
He found his brother's body, but because of his mother's honor, he did not dare to tell the truth, so he was identified as the murderer.
At this point, zhang long should be rumored to be interrogated, right? This is where the lawyer is clever, this Zhang Long was recently beheaded and abandoned for hooking up with his husband who had a wife and murdered his husband.
Hou Xuan had to summon the only witness, Yu Xuan's mother, Li Shi. Unexpectedly, Li Shitang admitted that he was lured and coerced into adultery by Zhang Long, and did not dare to testify against him for killing his son under his threat (to threaten his full door). Now that Zhang Long is dead, the threat has been removed, and she can't care less about her honor in order to save her son.
In our current words, Li's words could not be false anymore, and Hou Xuan did not believe them at all.
First of all, if in order to save his son, why did he not say anything about the injustice several times before, but falsely accused others? Secondly, Zhang Long was a rogue, why did he coerce the imperial court's commandments and wei commanders' wives? If he really had this ability, would he have been captured and beheaded so easily?
But there was no practical evidence to refute these lies for a while. Moreover, this case has already made a lot of noise, and there is a lot of discussion among the people. Now it involves the Imperial Court's Lady of commandments, and it involves the filial piety that the Imperial Court has always advocated. Hou Xuan did not want to decide on his own, and he reported to the Punishment Department and kicked the ball out. The Punishment Department was also unwilling to take the idea, so it reported the collated file to Emperor Ming Yingzong and asked the imperial court to send Yushi to Fujian for a secret review.
After Yingzong read the inscription, he was greatly dissatisfied and directly approved:
This crime not only killed his brother, but also slandered his mother, and did not filial piety to his brother, and he was even worse! It is to be condemned, and not to be investigated again.
Records of Emperor Ming Yingzong
Yingzong should have seen Yu Xuan's trick, although after shouting injustice, he verified that the crime was correct and asked for a first class, but he was already late in punishing Ling, let alone adding one class, adding ten classes does not matter. Shouting injustice does not say whether you can turn over, at least you can live for a while.
In addition, his mother also participated in this case without a lower limit, and if the trial continued, no matter how Li Shi was dealt with, it would damage the image of the imperial court and impact on social ethics. Therefore, at this point, it is the best choice for Yu Xuan to frame his mother to close the case.
Yu Xuan was escorted to the execution ground for the sixth time, because the emperor directly ordered the referee, so it was meaningless for him not to shout injustice this time, and he was finally executed by Ling Chi.
The strangeness of this case does not lie in the method of the criminal or the scope of the case implications, but in the fact that the criminal can actually go to the execution ground five times to cry out for his life, and even make people think that if Ming Yingzong did not have a holy judgment, he would still shout the sixth and seventh times...
Although the laws of the Ming Dynasty were not very fair, they did give great consideration to the rights of civilians and criminals. But the equality of the law depends not only on the provisions, but also on the implementation.
The key to Yu Xuan's ability to cry out five times to save his life is the activities and operations of his parents in the back. Relevant officials have also taken the article "crying out for wrongdoing as a retrial" and solemnly taking it seriously. Otherwise, shut your mouth in advance, pretend not to hear, or rebuke it: "Cunning people, will you allow you to fake your life"... What about prisoners?
Just as the imperial court allowed civilians to sue officials, but almost no one dared to sue. After going to court first, civilians are very likely to be executed (the Great Ming Law allows executions during interrogation, and those who cross the level must first use torture), and if the officials and officials exchange each other, it is not unusual to take the opportunity to directly beat people to death in the church. And once you don't win, the crime of falsely accusing the imperial court officials is that you don't have to run, as long as you are buckled this hat, the cane punishment of one hundred is the least, do you still have to live?