Chapter 53 Section 15 Acton Parenting Method

Akton, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, a Manchu, entered the official career from a Jinshi during the Qianlong period. He once presided over the Ministry of Criminal Affairs and has a lot of research on criminal laws.His son, Agui, also presided over the Criminal Department later, and made great contributions to the criminal law.Agui's success is due to his father's good education. Different from the general scholar-bureaucrat’s way of teaching his son, Acton always taught his son the methods of researching and dealing with problems through daily trivial matters. Through his conversations with his wife, he intentionally asked his son questions, let his son think independently, express opinions, and then give them the best of the situation. Teaching to cultivate his son's practical learning and political ability.

To be an official in ancient times, one must have the ability to handle criminal laws independently.The criminal law has a lot to do with the safety of a person and family in the lighter case, and the order and chaos of a county, a state, or even a country in a more serious case.Acton hoped that his son would grow up to be an official, so he attached great importance to his education. Every day, Acton came home from the Criminal Department and talked with his wife about criminal names and laws.As usual, Agui, his son, listened attentively, occasionally interjecting a sentence or two. Gradually, Agui became very interested in the criminal law.

On the eve of Agui's upcoming official career, Acton wanted to know how well his son understood the criminal law.One day, Acton took advantage of the visit to talk about criminal law matters, and Agui sat by and listened as usual.While talking and talking, Acton stopped talking and looked up thoughtfully.Just when his son felt strange, Acton suddenly turned around and asked Agui: "Once the court uses you as a criminal officer, how should the prison be treated?" Agui was not mentally prepared, and was in front of the guests, so he had no choice but to express that he had not studied criminal law and dared not speak falsely.Acton nodded.Then he said lightly: "I mean what you mean, it doesn't matter if you are wrong."

Seeing her father's insistence on this, Agui took courage and said with a confident look: "If you practice the law, you will be punished for the crime. One part of the crime and one part of the law, ten parts of the crime and ten parts of the law, it doesn't matter how serious it is." After finishing speaking, he proudly said Smile to the guest. "This dog will defeat my family in the future! You should die!" Acton was furious, pointing at his son and yelling. Seeing his father getting angry, Ah Gui was puzzled by Zhang Er's Vajra, and hurriedly ran to the ground and kowtowed, and said in fear and fear: "My son is ignorant, only the adults teach him, don't dare to forget!"

Acton said sternly: "There is no perfect person in the world. There are many crimes, and five or six punishments are unbearable. Can it be exhausted? And one part of the crime can be adequately punished? If one part of the crime is divided into one If the law is divided into ten and ten, then the whole world will not be a big prison? Listen, son, there are always objective reasons or motivations for people to commit crimes, so there are negligent crimes and intentional crimes, ignorant crimes and ignorant crimes. The difference between knowing the law and committing crimes should not only consider these when sentencing, but also consider whether the prisoner pleaded guilty and obeyed the law, and gave the prisoner a chance to reform. People are not sages, and no one can do anything wrong. An official must educate people with the law, and law enforcement must More consideration should be given to using legal means to maintain national stability, otherwise the world will be in chaos if the crime of ruling the people is punished with severe punishment!" Hearing these words, Ah Gui deeply felt that he knew very little about criminal names.Later, he also presided over the work of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. He was very cautious in handling cases. When there were difficult cases, he would always go home and ask his father for advice.

When Agui presided over the Ministry of Punishment, there was a period of rampant social crimes, so the emperor issued an edict to severely punish the serious offenders. As a result, crimes were effectively cracked down and obvious results were achieved.At this time, the Ministry of Punishment's official cleansing departments proposed to revise the "Regulations of the Ministry of Punishment" and include this severe punishment case in the "Regulations" for future follow-up.In this regard, Agui was cautious and ignored it. In order to win Agui's support, all the bureaucrats scrambled to persuade him, and everyone knew that if Acton could support it, the matter would surely come true, so after persuading Agui, he encouraged him to persuade his father.Sure enough, Agui went home and talked about this matter, thinking that including these cases in the "Regulations of the Ministry of Punishment" will help fight crime.Acton kept silent, Agui didn't dare to say more.But a few days later, while my father was happy, he mentioned this matter again.

Seeing that his son was so ignorant, Acton patiently enlightened him and said: "Why don't you know the matter so far! It is a temporary expediency to deal with criminal names more severely these days. Quoting, hurting more people, how can there be any reason to suspend the sentence?" His father's words made Aguimao suddenly enlightened.Back at the Ministry of Criminal Justice, he decisively persuaded and stopped everyone, avoiding a mistake. Acton's method of educating his son with facts and science has indeed cultivated his son's independent thinking ability and political ability.This teaching method is worthy of reference for future generations.