Chapter 27 Imperial power gives way to legal power

China is a typical statutory law country. From the six chapters of the first systematic legal code "Fa Jing" formulated by Li Kui at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, all dynasties basically had their own written codes, especially those that inherited the past and opened up the future. "Laws of the Tang Dynasty" has the greatest influence on later generations and is most praised by later generations. In the first year of Wude, Li Yuan abolished the "Daye Law" of Emperor Sui Yang, ordered Pei Ji, Liu Wenjing and others to revise a new law in accordance with the "Kaihuang Law" of Sui Wendi, and officially promulgated it in the seventh year of Wude. "Wu De Law". Although "Wu De Law" has some benefits and losses to "Kai Huang Law", it basically remains the same without much development.Therefore, after Li Shimin ascended the throne, he immediately started to improve the "Wu De Law".He adopted Wei Zheng's suggestion of "specializing in benevolence and righteousness, prudent punishment and compassion" (Volume 5), and further strengthened the legislative principle of "virtue governs punishment and auxiliary" according to the Confucian benevolent government thought. He and others re-amended the law, accumulated ten years of work, and became a code of one generation. In the eleventh year of Zhenguan (AD 637), a strict and complete code-"Zhenguan Law" was officially promulgated.

In the second year of Tang Yonghui (AD 651), Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi ordered his eldest son Wuji to lead, and based on "Zhenguan Law", revised and promulgated "Yonghui Law".Later, in view of the fact that the central and local governments had different understandings of the legal provisions during the trial, Li Zhi ordered a unified and detailed interpretation of the "Yonghui Law" clause by clause.These contents are called "law books", which are attached to the legal texts and promulgated in the fourth year of Yonghui (AD 653). The legal books and legal texts have the same legal effect.This code was called "Yonghui Lu Shu" at that time, and later called "Tang Law Shu Yi", or "Tang Law" for short.

"Yonghui Law Shu" was revised by Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty in accordance with the basic spirit of "Zhenguan Law" under the guidance of Li Shimin's legacy and under the guidance of the legislative principles of Zhenguan.Until Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, people still believed that "Zhenguan Law" and "Yonghui Law Shu" were "parallel until now".It can be seen from this that "Tang Law" was actually finalized in the Zhenguan period and perfected in the Yonghui period. The formulation and promulgation of "Zhenguan Law" and "Yonghui Law Book" is an important milestone in the history of Chinese law. They established the norms of ancient Chinese criminal law and influenced all Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and even in the legal world. It also occupies an important place in the legal system and has become a unique legal system.

Since the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties have all followed the "Tang Law Shuyi" as their standard. Although there are gains and losses, they dare not go beyond its norms.Liu Yun, a legal scholar in the Yuan Dynasty, said: "The so-called twelve chapters were written in the Tang Dynasty, and nineteen people including Changsun Wuji inherited the imperial edict and compiled them into a code of one generation. The precautions are very detailed and the programs are very simple. All in all, it’s Tang Keye. Gai Ji went down from week to week, and the cultural relics and rituals were not prepared in Tang!” ("Tang Laws and Discussions Preface")

Ji Tongjun, a legal scholar in the Qing Dynasty, also said: "The commentators say that "Tang Law Shuyi" is a collection of the culmination of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, and it is the moment of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is true!" Example Lecture Notes Preface") It can be seen that the "Tang Law Shuyi", which was finalized in the Zhenguan period and perfected in the Yonghui period, is indeed the most important written code in history in the eyes of later jurists. In ancient China, the law has always been in an embarrassing position.Because it is not supreme.There is also a supreme authority on its head-the emperor.

In other words, in ancient China, imperial power was definitely higher than legal power.The reason why the law was formulated by the emperor was not to restrain the emperor himself, but to deal with his courtiers and common people more effectively.As the saying goes: "He who lives the law is the ruler; he who abides by the law is the subject; and who follows the law is the people." Han Feizi also said: "If the ruler is incapable, the superior will be concealed, and the ministers will be in chaos if the minister is incapable. These are indispensable, and they are all tools of the emperor!" ("Han Feizi Dingfa")

The commoner emperor Zhu Yuanzhang put it more clearly: "The law-maker is a tool for defending the people and an assistant for governing." ("Ming Taizu Records") All in all, the ancient law was an autocratic tool used by the emperor to rule his subjects.It is in this sense that people say that China has always been a society of "dictatorship and rule of man" rather than a society of "democracy and rule of law". This statement can be said to be true. Therefore, in a society of absolute monarchy, the law is not sacred and inviolable. Instead of restraining the emperor, it is often overridden by the imperial power, and may even be trampled on at any time.

That being the case, how did Tang Taizong Li Shimin do in this regard?As the chief architect of the most outstanding legal code in Chinese history—"Tang Law", how does Li Shimin view the relationship between "imperial power and legal power"? In this regard, Li Shimin said a very representative sentence: "The law is not my law alone, but the law of the world!" (Volume 5) Judging from this sentence alone, Li Shimin's legal concept is obviously completely different from the legalist thought and other emperors since ancient times.He did not regard the law as a tool in the hands of the emperor, but was able to recognize and respect the objectivity and independence of the law.Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang who regards the law as a "tool to defend against the people" and "a technique for assisting governance", Li Shimin's realm is undoubtedly much higher.

However, even if we believe that this sentence is indeed Li Shimin's heartfelt words of "sincerity in the middle and appearance in the outside", we still need to "listen to his words and watch his actions", and further examine his actual actions to see whether his words and deeds are true Consistent, consistent. From the following incident, we should be able to draw a fairer conclusion. In the first month of the first year of Zhenguan, a minister named Dai Zhou openly had a fierce dispute with Li Shimin in the court. The matter itself is not big, but the nature is very serious.Because the focus of the debate is - the emperor's decree or the country's laws, which one is more authoritative?Which one should be used as the basis for judging the case?

To put it bluntly, this is the struggle between imperial power and legal power. The cause of the incident is as follows: in the unification war at the beginning of Li Tang's founding of the country, many generals died in battle and sacrificed their lives for the country. In order to take care of their descendants, the country introduced a policy of favor and shade, so that the descendants of the martyrs can inherit their ancestors Guanjue.As a result, people continued to resort to deception, falsely claiming that they were the descendants of heroes and heroes, so as to deceive the court.In addition, when the Li and Tang courts appointed and promoted officials, they would also give priority to those who had been officials in the Sui Dynasty and had official career qualifications and political experience. Therefore, people often forged their qualifications in an attempt to take a shortcut to increase their ranks. .

These phenomena mentioned above are called "fraudulent capital Yin".It is difficult for the relevant departments to distinguish the authenticity from the false, which is a big headache.In response to these phenomena, Li Shimin specially issued an imperial edict, strictly ordering the counterfeiters to surrender themselves, otherwise they will be sentenced to death immediately upon discovery. After the edict was promulgated, there were still people who were not afraid of death to commit crimes.Later, the relevant departments seized a faker named Liu Xiong, and Li Shimin decided to make an example of him and punish him immediately. After the case was sent to Dali Temple, the person in charge of the judgment was Dai Zhou, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple. Dai Zhou was originally just a doctor in the Ministry of War. Because of his reputation of "loyalty, honesty and integrity", he was promoted by Li Shimin to be the Shaoqing of Dali Temple not long ago, which is equivalent to being suddenly promoted from a small director of the Ministry of National Defense to the vice president of the Supreme Court .The emperor's kindness is so great, it stands to reason that Dai Zhou should know the favor and repay it, and follow Li Shimin's temper in everything, but Dai Zhou, who enforces the law impartially, has severely offended Longlin in Liu Xiong's case. According to the law at that time, this kind of crime could only be sentenced to exile at most, so Dai Zhou made a judgment of "exile according to the law" against Liu Xiong.Although the judgment was made according to the law, it obviously violated Li Shimin's imperial edict. Li Shimin was furious, and said to Dai Zhou: "I issued an edict a long time ago. If you don't surrender, you will die. Now you want to change the sentence according to law. Doesn't this show the world that what I say doesn't count?" Dai Zhou said without changing his face: "If your majesty kills him directly, I have nothing to say; but once your majesty handed over the case to the judicial department, I can't violate the law." Li Shimin said angrily: "In order to let yourself enforce the law impartially, are you willing to let me break the trust of the world?" Dai Zhou said: "Your Majesty's decree is out of momentary joy and anger, but the country's laws are to spread great faith in the world! If Your Majesty takes the law as the criterion, it is not a breach of trust, but it is precisely "to endure small anger and keep great faith." '! If you don't do this, I can only feel sorry for Your Majesty." Li Shimin was silent. He knew that if he insisted on killing Liu Xiong, no one would be able to stop him, because he was the emperor and he had already issued an edict.But the problem is that although doing so is enough to reflect the authority of the emperor, it will undoubtedly greatly damage the authority of the law.And once the credibility of the law is destroyed, the prestige of the court and the prestige of the monarch will be impossible to talk about. Thinking about this, Li Shimin immediately turned his anger into joy, and praised Dai Zhou in front of the officials, saying: "I have lost something in my law, and you can correct it, so why worry about my recovery!" (Volume 5) This is a relatively famous incident during the Zhenguan period, and it is also a typical case in the history of Chinese legal system.Because it highlights the conflict between the imperial power and the legal power, and ends with the compromise of the imperial power, the dignity of the law is finally maintained.In this matter, Li Shimin demonstrated a rare quality of an ancient monarch, that is, respect for the law and respect for the independence of the judiciary.This is really rare in China's thousands of years of rule of man society. After the "Liu Xiong incident", it was said in history: "The front and back of Zhou committed crimes and enforced the law, and his words flowed like a spring; everyone obeyed, and there was no unjust prison in the world." (Volume 192) It should be an indisputable fact that in the Zhenguan era, the administration of officials was clear and the law enforcement was fair, but it would be an exaggeration to say that "there are no unjust prisons in the world".But in any case, when a dynasty has a judge like Dai Zhou who is upright and law-abiding, and an emperor like Li Shimin who is good at compromise and respects the law, we have every reason to believe that—even if the Zhenguan era is not historically The period with the least unjust imprisonment is at least one of the periods with the least unjust imprisonment.