First of all, what is family? The concept of clan is the legacy of primitive society, and the disintegration of clan society has promoted the confrontation between blood and geography. In the process of family name division and family relocation, the new political entity with family as the unit still carries out its own independent inheritance system in its territory: whether brothers and sisters inherit or eldest son inherit, whether families inherit separately, the growth of families linked by blood was once closely related to the prosperity of clans, so the concept of clans includes both blood and geography, so it defines a group of people who share the same interests and cultural identity with blood ties in a certain region.
(Emperor)
The following small series introduces you to what is Julian Jiuzu? In ancient times, it was called "clan", which means that a person's capital crime extended to the capital crime of family members. This tyrannical penalty system, which runs counter to the principles of humanity, rationality and kindness, was the root of its enduring in ancient China, which was really a thought-provoking issue in the traditional laws of China.
Those unique systems or phenomena in China's traditional laws all have the theoretical basis in the classical sense and the same principle of the traditional spirit, thus gaining authority and influencing and standardizing the law in the form of cultural functions.
But as far as clan punishment is concerned, it is a rare exception. On the issue of clan punishment, there are obviously opposing views in ancient books. According to historical records, Xia Qi and Shang Tang threatened their subordinates in their instructions before going to war, warning them that if they did not obey orders in the war, they would put the offenders and their sons to death together. This is called the earliest family punishment record in legislation. It is worth noting that it was neither Xia Jie nor Shang Zhouwang who explicitly announced this barbaric punishment, but they were admired by two "holy kings" and imitated by later generations-Xia Qi and Shang Tang. This was really an embarrassing thing for later Confucian scholars, which led them to either completely deny it or jump to conclusions that the words of "holy king" were just "threats" and would not be put into practice (see Notes to Thirteen Classics? ) justice "history > Ying Da book"). As a classic, these bamboo slips in Shangshu provide theoretical ammunition for later rulers to abuse clan punishment. But it is also a Confucian classic, "Mencius? Liang Xia put forward the principle of "sinners will not die", which is also in line with the basic spirit of Confucianism. The famous slogan "Father and son are brothers, but sin is irrelevant" shows the ideological position of the ancient philosopher Wang. As a master of Confucianism, Xun Kuang once denounced clan punishment. Xunzi regards "conviction by race" as "troubled times", which is a bold and sharp theory. Moreover, Xunzi's point of view is not lofty. At the famous Salt and Iron Conference in the Western Han Dynasty, the "Xianwen", representing academic orthodoxy, boldly proposed to oppose clan punishment based on classics.
(Julien Jiuzu)
These arguments represent an extremely common ideological tendency, which is well-founded and well-founded. However, it is puzzling that since Confucian sages and Confucian classics have such clear and strong opposition to clan punishment, why did the ancient laws flaunting the rule of Confucian ethics and propriety keep this extreme punishment unabashedly? I'm afraid the reason should be found from two aspects. First of all, it is determined by the nature of the ancient regime and its usual means of repression. China's traditional authoritarian politics is anti-people in nature. In order to maintain and consolidate tyranny, it does everything it can to treat human life like dirt. Any inhuman killing will not make any tyrant feel guilty for abusing the minister, even if there are bodies everywhere. They can even find a grand excuse for their cruel punishment, that is, the so-called "punishment instead of punishment" theory. Shang Yang, the most famous practitioner of clan criminal law, once said: "If the punishment is heavy, the people dare not try." People are afraid to try, so there is no punishment. "("Shang Jun Shu "? Shang Yang's reputation as a legalist made it difficult for him to be favored by later orthodoxy, but his theory was tacitly accepted by later generations and put into criminal repression. The enduring clan punishment in ancient times is an important manifestation of the tradition of severe punishment in China. Secondly, we should look for it from a cultural perspective. In a word, the cultural tradition of ancient familism and the social form of family standard created the living space of family punishment. The basic social structure of family standard in ancient China decided that the existence of any individual was based on the existence of a family, that is, without family background, the meaning and survival value of individual life would be obliterated. Individual rights and obligations are only appendages under the highest interests of the family, and the enjoyment of rights and the commitment of obligations are based on the interests of the family. Therefore, individual behavior is endowed with the meaning of family. Success or wealth is first of all the glory of the family, and so is the so-called "glorifying ancestors". Decline or crime means family shame, so does the so-called "family misfortune". Under the influence of these concepts, clan punishment has its own foothold, that is, for some major crimes, the whole family has the obligation to share the responsibility with criminals. On the other hand, in the ruler's view, simply punishing individuals who commit some serious crimes is not enough to achieve the purpose of deterrence and prevention, so the family, as the mother of individuals, has correspondingly become the target of killing.
The concept of clan punishment has many interpretations in ancient times, mainly including three clans and nine clans. People of the three clans say "parents, brothers and wives"; People of the three clans say "father clan, mother clan, wife clan". The ancients also had different views on what was right. Now it is generally believed that the former is more accurate. In fact, there is no need to delve into this problem. Because the so-called "three tribes of foreigners" in ancient times itself is a kind of arbitrary abuse of punishment. On the one hand, this randomness is manifested in the object, and it is difficult to have a unified standard for what kind of charges are applicable to family punishment. Rulers are also unwilling to formulate uniform and applicable standards, but discuss things on a whim. As long as the supreme ruler thinks that the crime is heinous and must be set to the death penalty, the crime of killing people may become the object of clan punishment. On the other hand, arbitrariness is manifested in the scope. Punishing felonies by clan punishment is intended to eradicate the root causes and set an example for others. There is no pre-defined scope in law, which can cater to the different choices of rulers for different cases and different groups of people. In this sense, the three families may be "parents, brothers and wives" or "fathers, mothers and wives". We might as well regard the former as a strict sense and the latter as an extended sense. As for "Jiuzu", there are also different opinions, or "from Gaozu to Sun Yuan, there are Jiuzu"; Or "Nine clans, four paternal clans, three maternal clans and two wife clans" (see Shen Jiaben: A Textual Research on Criminal Law in Past Dynasties? Criminal system testing "). In fact, Jiuzu should be a hollow name. In our culture, nine is the highest number. Therefore, the theory of nine clans is not a real realization one by one, but generally includes all clans related to it. In ancient times, the punishment of Jiuzu was often applied to major political crimes. Once the prison is refined, as long as it has something to do with criminals, it will be innocent.
(Nine families with drawings)
What is the specific situation? That is, when a family member commits treason, deceit, rebellion and other heinous crimes, the emperor will impose such severe punishment on the offender to consolidate his political power and kill his relatives to deter others.
At first, it was "killing the three tribes" or "killing the three tribes", but there were different opinions about the three tribes. Some people say that parents, brothers and wives are three families; On the other hand, father, mother and wife are three families; There is also a saying that the father and son Sun San's family.
However, the punishment of the "nine tribes" came from the "three tribes of Iraq" law after the Qin reform. "Zhu Jiuzu" has different opinions, but this punishment is extremely cruel.
A credible statement is that Confucianism in the Han Dynasty said that the father clan is four, the mother clan is three and the wife clan is two, that is, relatives with different surnames. Among them, the fourth paternal family includes convicted families, that is, parents, brothers, sisters and children of criminals, as well as aunts, her sons, nephews and grandchildren. The third mother family is her grandparents, aunt and her son, while the second wife family is her father-in-law and mother-in-law.
(relative)
Another credible statement is that the punished person pushed up four generations to Gaozu and down four generations to Xuansun; Three subordinate brothers, namely grandfather's uncle, great-grandfather, ancestor and father, to great-grandson, great-grandson, grandson and son, and from brothers, cousins and even brothers, are all related.
In ancient times, punishing Jiuzu was a terrible and extremely cruel punishment, so unless this person really touched the emperor's taboo.
That's why the emperor wanted to implicate nine clansmen, because when a condemned man is going to die, many people will be implicated. Cruel, cold and heartless.
(with a long history)