Chapter 9 no lawsuit

In rural society, when one mentions "litigator", people will think of evil deeds such as "stowing right and wrong".There is no place for a knife and pen official in this kind of society.But in the city, there is a big character on top of the lawyer, and the cover of the newspaper may be full of the lawyer's title list.Moreover, good companies and individuals will hire lawyers as perennial consultants.From the traditional point of view, the city is really a place of right and wrong, and the well-behaved people cannot live in it. Litigation lawyers are renamed lawyers, with even bigger characters; lawsuits are renamed lawsuits; right and wrong are renamed legal consultants—the change in this set of nouns represents a change in the nature of society, that is, a society ruled by rites becomes a society ruled by law.

In urban society, if a person does not understand the law, it is not a shameful thing to ask others for advice.In fact, it is difficult for ordinary people to know the various laws related to life and occupation when they live in the city and strive for a living.Law becomes expertise.People who do not know the law cannot live outside the law.In a well-ordered urban society, where living outside the law disturbs the common security of the community, such a person cannot but have an advisor.The importance of the status of a lawyer is obtained from this. But to be a person in the ritual order of rural society, if you don't know "ritual", you will become a wild man, without rules, it is simply a moral issue, and you are not a good person.For a parent official in charge of local order, the ideal means to maintain the order of the rule of law is enlightenment, not prison.If you have to go to court, it must be because someone broke the traditional rules.In old novels, our common procedure for hearing lawsuits, also known as breaking prisons, is: the "prisoners" are dragged to the court, each of them is spanked a few times, and then he yells at his injustice.The parental officer used his "phrasal-looking" vision to distinguish that "deer-headed rat-eyed" must not be a good person, severely reprimanded him, and forced a confession. ——This kind of procedure may feel unreasonable from a modern perspective, but in rural society, it is recognized as legitimate.Otherwise, why did such records, such as Baogongan and Shigongan, become the traditional best-selling books?

I have explained the nature of the rule of law and order in the last miscellaneous talk.Here I can use another analogy to illustrate: During our football match, the referee blew his whistle, saying that if the person fouled, that person would have to be punished, and the two sides stopped the ball to argue.The ideal game is one in which the umpires are virtually non-existent (other than as a signaler for a serve or an out-of-bounds call).why?That's because every player participating in the game should be familiar with the rules in advance, and they all agree in advance to play under the rules agreed by both parties. The referee is the authority of the rules.His responsibility is to see that each player's actions do not go beyond the rules.A player with Sportsmanship doesn't sneak a punch at an opposing player behind the referee's back.If such things happen, not only the referee can punish him, but the reputation of the player and even the global team will be affected.A player must be familiar with the rules, and his skills must be able to do what he wants without breaking the rules. He needs long-term training.If there is an intentional foul, it can be said to be poor training and a disgrace to the instructor.

This metaphor can be used to illustrate rural society's views on litigation.The so-called rule of etiquette is the obedience to traditional rules.In all aspects of life, there are certain rules in the relationship between people.Actors are familiar with these rules from childhood and take them for granted without asking why.Long-term education has turned external rules into internal habits.The power to maintain etiquette is not the power outside the body, but the conscience within the body.Therefore, this order focuses on self-cultivation and self-denial.The ideal rule of etiquette is that everyone obeys the rules automatically, without external supervision.But the ideal rule of ritual order is not always available.A person can sneak out of the rules for selfish motives.This kind of person is undoubtedly a scum in this order.It is everyone's responsibility to know propriety, and society assumes that everyone knows propriety, at least society has the responsibility to make everyone know propriety.So "the son does not teach" has become "the fault of the father".This is also the basis for the popular "sitting together" in rural society.When a son does something bad, the father must be punished, and even the teacher cannot absolve himself of the blame.If you teach seriously, your children will not behave badly.Litigation has also become a shameful thing, indicating that education is not enough.

The so-called mediation in rural areas is actually an educational process.I have attended such mediation rallies in the country.It was very natural for the villagers to see me being invited, because I was a teacher in the school, and I was well-versed in reading and I was an authority.Other mediators are the elders of a township.The most interesting thing is that the Baochang never speaks, because he has no social status in the village, he is just an officer.Mediation is a new term, the old term is adjudication.Almost always a very glib country gentleman spoke.His formula always scolds both sides of the mediation. "This is a disgrace to our village! If you don't admit your mistake, go home." Then he taught him a lesson.Sometimes I even pat the table to express my temper.He told them what he thought "should."This period was very effective, and the two sides often "reconciled", and sometimes they had to be punished for a dinner.At that time, I often felt like I was watching the referee blow the whistle and make free throws from the sidelines.

I remember a very interesting case: X was old and smoked opium.For the family's sake, the eldest son objected to his father's hobby, but it was inconvenient to interfere.The second son does not do his job properly, smokes opium secretly, and often encourages his old father to smoke opium, so he can share some of the profits.Once the eldest son saw it and beat his younger brother, who was dependent on his father.The eldest son suddenly became angry and scolded his father.There was a riot at home, and they were dragged to the township office for comment.The squire, as usual, thought it was a scandal for the whole village.Then the entire ethical principle was used. The youngest son is a scum, and he doesn't seem to be a good thing. The worst thing is that he should be driven out of the village.The eldest son scolded his father and should be punished.The old father didn't know how to discipline his son, and even smoked opium, so he was taught a lesson.In this way, everyone admitted the punishment and went home.The squire turned around and complained to me for a while.One generation is not as good as the next generation, it is really a decline in the world.

The Master said: "Listening to the lawsuit, I am like a human being, and I will definitely make no lawsuit."-I realized the air of Confucius when he said this at that time. In modern urban society, individual rights are mentioned, and rights cannot be violated.The state protects these rights, so there are many laws.A judge does not consider moral issues, ethical concepts, he is not educating people.The purpose of punishment is no longer "to warn others", but to protect the rights of individuals and the safety of society.Especially in the scope of civil law, he is not distinguishing right from wrong, but determining rights.In the Anglo-American case-based legal system, much of the time the purpose of litigation is to obtain rules that can be followed later.In a changing society, all the rules have to change, and the environment has changed, and mutual rights have to change accordingly.In fact, the circumstances of no two cases are exactly the same, so how to determine the rights of individuals often becomes a problem, and thus a lawsuit is constituted to obtain a legal precedent that can be followed, the so-called test case.In this case, of course, no moral problems arise.

In modern society, the law is no longer regarded as a fixed rule, and the law must change its content over time.Because of this, it is impossible to expect everyone living in society to be familiar with the laws that keep up with the times, so ignorance of the laws does not make them "scum", and lawyers have become an indispensable profession in modern society. China is in the process of transforming from a rural society, and the original concept of litigation is still very strong among the people, which also prevents the modern judiciary from being fully implemented.The first is that the principles in the current law are imported from the West, which are very different from the old ethical concepts.I have said in previous miscellaneous articles that in the traditional Chinese differential order structure, there is no unified rule that can be applied to all people, but the current law adopts individual egalitarianism.This set has already made ordinary people not understand, and the procedures of the judicial system are so estranged that they don't know how to use it.Ordinary people in the countryside are still afraid of going to court, but the new judicial system has already been implemented in the countryside.Those characters who are incompatible with the local ethics have since found a new kind of protection.They could sue the judiciary against the mediation of the country.Of course, in theory, this is a good phenomenon, because only in this way can we destroy the traditions of the original rural society and enable China to embark on the road of modernization.But in fact, those who go to court in the judicial department are those who are considered "scumbags" in the countryside.Judging according to the current law (and excluding corruption) can often be inconsistent with local traditions.What the country considers to be bad behavior can be legal, so in the eyes of the country people, the Judiciary has become an institution that shields evil.

A county magistrate who was also a sheriff told me about many such instances.There was a man who injured his adulterer because his wife stole a man.In the countryside, this is justifiable, but rape is not a crime, let alone there is no evidence, but assault is a crime.The county magistrate asked me: How did he get the sentence?He understands better that if he is a kind countryman, he knows that he has done something bad and he will never come to the Yamen. These scum with a little knowledge of the law will do evil in the country, and the law will protect him.I also admit that this is a very likely fact.The current judicial system has produced very special side effects in the countryside. It has destroyed the original order of the rule of rites, but it cannot effectively establish the order of the rule of law.The establishment of the rule of law cannot rely solely on the enactment of certain legal provisions and the establishment of certain courts. What is important depends on how the people use these facilities.Furthermore, there must be some reforms in social structure and ideology.If there are no reforms in these aspects, and the laws and courts are only introduced to the countryside, the benefits of the rule of law will not be obtained, but the disadvantages of destroying the order of rites will have occurred first.