After leaving the School of Physics, Chen Mu began to patrol around again.
He is the palace chief, responsible for the academic style of the palace, and is also a part-time doctor. On weekdays, he actually teaches at the Political Academy and the Military Academy, focusing on local governance and military strategy, and training local officials and assistants for Qingzhou.
In the Han Dynasty, officials were not divided into families. Officials were officials and officials were officials. After graduating from the political academy, they had to take the exam to become an official, which is equivalent to the civil servants of later generations. Then they accumulated administrative experience and were promoted to become chief officials. This will be the case in the future.
This will be the norm for becoming an official under Liu Bei's rule.
However, after teaching intermittently for several years, this year, Chen Mu was preparing to go north to the front line again and began to target Yuan Shao, so he resigned from the doctoral teaching position in the two colleges last month and no longer taught students.
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As a result, work became much more leisurely. Government affairs were handled by Jushou Xunyu, and Chen Mu had more time to spend with his family. He could occasionally take time to visit around and see the development of Linzi.
When I came to the Academy today, besides seeing Ma Jun's train experiment, I also had other things to do.
Coming out of the School of Physics, across the road is the palace complex of the Law School. Compared to the School of Physics, which covers an area of dozens of acres, the Law School is much shabby. There are only three palaces in the teaching building, which can accommodate two to three thousand students at a time.
However, there are very few students actually studying the law, less than 500 in total. Among the major colleges, they are only slightly more numerous than Earth College and Tian College, and they belong to a minority of colleges.
The current dean of the law school is Wu Gong. During the Han Dynasty, laws were mostly formulated by aristocratic families. For example, the laws of the Western Han Dynasty were first formulated by Xiao He, and then by Zhang Tang and Yu Dingguo, becoming the two most famous legal families in the Western Han Dynasty.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, they became Chen, Guo and Wu.
Chen refers to Chen Chong, Guo refers to Guo Gong, and Wu refers to Wu Xiong. These three families are all famous. Among them, the Guo family of Yingchuan is the most famous, which is the family of Guo Jia. It has produced seven court officers, followed by the Wu family.
, there were three who were called the Three Generations of Tingwei, and finally there were two Tingwei from the Chen family.
Wu Gong helped Chen Mu escape from Luoyang. After the chaos in the world, his family moved to Qingzhou. In addition to serving as the dean of the law school, he also serves as the general dean of the Qingzhou Court. Although he cannot compare with Tingwei, he is only downgraded by one degree.
Just level.
Since local governors had great power in this era, county magistrates and county guards had great power at that time. If a county magistrate or county guard disliked someone, they would fabricate charges at will and sentence the person to death.
Therefore, in order to weaken the power of local governors, Chen Mu learned from the experience of later generations and implemented the public prosecutor and judicial system in Qingzhou, and established new functional institutions such as courts and inspection offices at the three levels of prefectures, counties, and counties.
For example, if someone commits a crime in a certain county, the local county lieutenant will be responsible for arresting it. Then the local prosecutor's office will check it. After confirming that it is correct, it will be submitted to the local court for trial. The court will deal with it according to the punishment formulated by Wu Gong, so that it is legal.
There is a good situation in which the law must be followed.
And for ordinary misdemeanors, it is easy to say that the local public prosecutors can handle it. If it is a felony, it needs to be handed over to the state court for review. If the person in charge of the state court feels that there are doubts and problems in the case, it will have to be sent back for retrial or re-examined.
Although this is limited by the technology of solving crimes, it still cannot completely prevent the occurrence of unjust, false and wrongful convictions. However, it can prevent county magistrates from killing civilians at will without taking responsibility.
It sounds very sad, because in later generations, with the popularization of cameras and the improvement of crime-solving technology, there are very few unjust, false and wrong cases. However, Qingzhou only stops at preventing officials from killing people at will, and cannot guarantee 100% case detection.
Completely put an end to the occurrence of unjust, false and wrongful convictions.
But what needs to be considered is that this was the Han Dynasty. In ancient times, the fate of the people was really not a fate, and was no different from the weeds on the roadside. Officials who wanted to bully the people were just a matter of giving an order.
The most typical example is Zang Ba's father Zang Jie. Zang Jie was the official in charge of the prison. The local eunuch wanted to kill the prisoners privately and ordered him to put those prisoners to death. Zang Jie was unwilling to obey, so the eunuch arrested him and prepared to kill him.
Zang Ba then robbed the prison car, killed the prefect, and ran to Mount Tai to become a bandit.
Therefore, the legal system at that time was very chaotic. From the emperor to local officials, people did not act according to the law and killed people at will. The so-called law became a piece of paper trampled by the princes and nobles, and was not effectively implemented.
But now that Qingzhou has separated the public, prosecutor and legal system, the county magistrates and governors can no longer control the life and death of the people at will. Even in order to implement the public prosecutor and judicial system, Liu Bei once caught a thief who stole in the palace. He did not deal with it privately, but handed it over.
It was given to the Linzi government, who then submitted it to the court for sentencing.
In the past, let alone high-ranking officials like Liu Bei, even ordinary powerful men would kill the thief and no one would gossip about it. But now, even Liu Bei is acting in accordance with the law, which shows its effectiveness. Everyone in Qingzhou is awe-inspiring and fearful of the law.
It has become common practice, and all officials no longer dare to act recklessly.
Looking at it this way, it is actually quite remarkable to prevent officials from killing innocent people indiscriminately. As for the 100% detection rate, we still have to make scientific progress and wait for the popularization of technologies such as cameras and fingerprint DNA.
Chen Mu entered the law school. Wu Gong was not here today. The state court often had cases for him to handle, so now Wu Gong was not teaching students most of the time. Instead, he stayed in the state court to handle cases from all over the state.
Official documents.
The scenery in the courtyard is pleasant. After passing through the arch of the front hall, you can see a middle-aged man lecturing a class of more than 40 students on the lawn outside a palace not far away.
Law is a constantly improving course, so class is not a step-by-step lecture, but requires everyone to discuss it together.
"During the reign of Emperor Wen, someone was caught stealing a jade ring enshrined in front of the Gaozu Temple. Emperor Wen was very angry when he heard that the Gaozu Temple had been stolen, and ordered Zhang Shizhi to punish him severely. Zhang Shizhi sentenced the man to death in accordance with the law. However, Emperor Wen asked Zhang Shizhi
He was sentenced to the crime of genocide. Let’s talk about whether this case should follow Zhang Shizhi’s judgment or Emperor Wen’s judgment.”
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The middle-aged man asked questions in a seductive way.
This is a real case recorded in history books. As a law student, we need to establish a balance between law and imperial power.
"Zhang Shizhi's verdict!"
Almost all students answered without hesitation.
Zhang Shizhi was a great jurist of the former Han Dynasty. Nowadays, many legal families in the Han Dynasty will refer to the laws he formulated when formulating laws. He has a very high status in law. As law students, they naturally follow Zhang Shizhi.
"good."
The middle-aged man loudly said: "Stealing the items enshrined in front of the temple of the late emperor is consistent with the crime of stealing the emperor's royal items. This is something written in the law, and it must naturally be implemented according to the law. You cannot be sentenced to genocide just because Emperor Wen ordered it.
, Zhang Shizhi followed it, and this is also the ultimate pursuit of those of us who study the Dharma."
"I think neither Zhang Shizhi's judgment nor Emperor Wen's judgment is valid."
Just then, there was an inappropriate sound.
Everyone looked around and saw a young man coming slowly not far away. The teachers and students all stood up quickly and saluted him: "Palace Chief!"
"Um."
Chen Mu smiled: "Zhongyuan teaches law very well."
The middle-aged man's name was Ying Shao. He came from Zhongyuan and was originally the governor of Taishan County. Historically, he ran away to Yuan Shao because of Cao Song's affairs. He died of illness in Yuan Shao this year.
But now, because Cao Song has never left Qingzhou, nothing will happen to him. He got sick last year and came to Qingzhou for treatment. After feeling the difference here, he decided to resign and came to Qingzhou Law School to work as a doctor and became a law scholar.
teacher.
Although Ying Shao was a prefect before, he has always studied law. In his "Han Guan Yi", he has many insights on the law, including the example he just gave, which was also written in "Han Guan Yi"
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"The palace chief just said that Zhang Shizhi's and Emperor Wen's judgments are not valid. Why?"
Ying Shao ignored Chen Mu's compliment and asked instead.
Chen Mu pondered: "Everyone, do you think a human life is more important, or a jade ring?"
"Of course it's human life."
Someone immediately said: "Human life is a living thing, and jade rings are dead things. How can they be compared?"
"But that is Gaozu's jade ring, it is a royal object."
Someone else objected.
"Royal objects are also dead objects. I thought the laws enacted by Duke Zhang were still too strict."
"But if it is not strict, there will always be unruly people who break the law. The law should be used to deter young people and not let them have any wrong ideas."
"But the crime is too serious. Just stealing two taels of gold and then abandoning the market can be described as harsh government."
"Are you questioning the laws established by Duke Zhang?"
"But the law is something that is constantly changing. If it remains unchanged, how can it adapt to the current situation?"
The students actually started to quarrel.
Seeing this situation, Ying Shao was slightly embarrassed and coughed several times before stopping the situation.
After all, law is not a rigid subject and needs to be applied flexibly, so quarrels in class are common.
But if you act like this in front of Chen Mu, it will appear that the classroom discipline is in a mess. He is in charge of the style of study. If he is punished for this, Ying Shao will be embarrassed.
However, Chen Mu didn't care. He just looked at the student who questioned Zhang Shizhi with a smile and asked, "What's your name?"
The man was only sixteen or seventeen years old. Seeing Chen Mu asking, he quickly stood up and said, "Student Guo Xing."
"oh?"
Chen Mu said with great interest: "Mr. Gongfang, are you?"
"Great uncle of the clan."
"Where are Guo Jia and Guo Tu?"
"The picture shows the clan uncle, Jia is the clan uncle."
Guo Xing answered honestly.
Mr. Gongfang is Guo Xi. Guo Jia is a seven-court captain, and his status in the legal profession is comparable to that of the Yuan family of Runan and the Yang family of Hongnong.
Nowadays, due to the great changes in the late Han Dynasty, many children of aristocratic families have defected to the Ming Dynasty. As Qingzhou is now a prosperous power, naturally many families have come to defect to it.
There are many members of the Guo family in the legal community in Qingzhou, including two doctors with the surname Guo in the current law school. One of them is also the Zuo dean of the state college and serves as Wu Gong's deputy. It is not uncommon for juniors of the Guo family to study in the law school.
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"Um."
Chen Mu nodded appreciatively and said: "You just said it very well. The law is a process of constant change. Sticking to the rules will only bring disaster to the dynasty. Being too strict will cause casualties to the people. Being too lax will cause the people to act recklessly.
, so a degree must be taken to measure changes, neither too tight nor too loose. This is the fundamental meaning of the existence of law."
"But the palace chief just said that Mr. Zhang's sentence was not good. So what does the palace chief think should be the sentence?"
Someone asked.
Chen Mu thought for a while and said: "Then it depends on how much the jade ring is worth. If the value is too high, it will naturally be treated as a felony. But in Qingzhou today, the death penalty for theft has been abolished, and the maximum is permanent imprisonment. A jade ring is not worth it.
No matter how expensive it is, just judge it according to the high value, and fifteen years is enough."
"But that is Gaozu's jade ring."
The man was not convinced.
Chen Mu shook his head and said: "It is precisely because it is Gaozu Yuhuan that he was sentenced to fifteen years, otherwise it would have been just a few months. Everyone must remember that Qingzhou's laws must be people-oriented, and benevolence, righteousness, and morality must be embedded in the law.
Let the law become ruthless and devoid of any human touch. Although people who insult their parents and kill people can no longer be exempted from punishment, they still receive light sentences because there is human touch in the law."
"But what if the emperor insists on the death penalty for abandoning the market? Does the legal authority have to override the emperor?"
Someone asked and made shocking remarks.
Ying Shao's expression froze. This was always a question that the law school wanted to avoid.
In such a society where imperial power is paramount, what if the emperor suddenly kills people for no reason?
According to the law, killing someone is definitely a death penalty, but would anyone dare to ask the emperor to die?
Dare, that is asking for death.
I dare not, the emperor tramples on the law wantonly, does the law still have the value and meaning of its existence?
For a while, the scene fell into an extremely quiet situation.
Only the person who asked this question stood proudly, unmoved at all.
Chen Mu looked at the man with interest. He knew this man. He was Wu Gong's son, named Wu Zhang. He didn't expect that at such a young age, he really had the courage of a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers.
"The emperor also makes mistakes sometimes."
Chen Mu said softly: "Just as Emperor Wen wanted to sentence the person who stole the jade ring to the crime of genocide, and Zhang Shizhi argued hard with reason, we, as the makers of the law, must have the courage to point out the emperor's mistakes and cannot be afraid of those who are outside the law.
As for power, whether the emperor listens to it or not, that is his business. We just have to do what we should do as people of the law. Do you understand?"
"Understood."
Everyone answered in unison. Thinking of Zhang Shizhi's strong arguments in front of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty and being proud as a legal scholar, everyone felt proud and inspiring.
"Let's go back to the jade ring theft case."
Chen Mu added: "I just said that people are more important than objects, so in the sentencing process, we must consider clearly whether living things are more important or dead things. No matter how precious a jade ring is, how can it be worth it?
Human life? That’s why I feel that the death penalty cannot be imposed. The Han people should be a humane nation and cannot become a ruthless nation that only knows cruelty. Do you know this?"
Many students looked at each other. After a moment, they all raised their hands and said, "I sincerely follow the instructions of the palace chief."
"Well, you are all future judges and law makers. I hope that one day, you will be able to formulate more perfect laws and a more complete system. Only in this way can we ensure the order of the world and allow everyone to act in accordance with the law. No more
There are illegal crimes occurring.”
Seeing that everyone was so convinced, Chen Mu nodded with satisfaction.
The sentencing in the Han Dynasty was really harsh. For stealing two taels of gold and abandoning the market, the two taels of gold was just a general value. The actual value was only 1,250 five-baht coins. Based on the inflation at that time, in places other than Qingzhou, it might be punishable.
It takes 1,000 yuan to buy a stone of corn, which is equivalent to stealing more than 20 kilograms of rice, and you will be sentenced to death. It is indeed cruel.
Therefore, Qingzhou's laws have been relaxed a lot, including the abolition of the death penalty for the crime of theft. However, although the death penalty has been abolished, heavy penalties will still be imposed if the amount of theft is huge or if something of relatively high value is stolen.
It's just a Han Dynasty jade ring. Because of the large number of unearthed, even in later generations, it was a bad street. No one cared about it for a few hundred yuan. It was even cheaper at that time. You can buy several pairs for tens of dollars on the streets of Linzi. Therefore, the fifteen-year sentence is still
Considering that it was a jade ring enshrined in front of Liu Bang's temple, it had special significance. Otherwise, it would have been an ordinary theft at most and he would be released after a few months of imprisonment.
In fact, in Qingzhou, except for "heinous" felonies, other extremely harsh death sentences are abolished as much as possible. Because the more prisoners there are, the worse the situation is. Qingzhou lacks labor force. The prisoners go to open up wasteland and farm fields. You only need to ensure that they are fed.
It is also a good thing to hand everything over to the state.
Therefore, fewer people should be killed. For example, once the death penalty for theft, which has the largest number of death row prisoners, is abolished, there will immediately be many more prisoners who would have died because of theft. These people serve Qingzhou for free. They can save a life without committing a crime, and the government will also gain
It’s the best of both worlds.
From this point of view, law occasionally has to serve policy.
After all, rules are dead and people are alive. If you make some changes, hello, me, everyone, why not?