Which code of the Western Zhou Dynasty did Mingde s punishment come from

Mingde's prudent punishment comes from "Shangshu Kanghe": "But it is Pixian Kaowen King, Kemingde is prudently punished." It is worth noting that although the Western Zhou Dynasty already had the original concept of law, there was no such thing as a code, and the earliest written code in China appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period of Zheng State.

The Western Zhou Dynasty's legal thought of "Mingde and Prudent Punishment" was mainly influenced by Zhou Gong's new concept of the Mandate of Heaven, advocating the rule of virtue, respecting heaven and protecting the people, and was embodied in the legal thought of "Mingde and Prudent Punishment" with self-restraint and the implementation of rule by virtue as the center, and the practice of "Mingde and prudent punishment" based on respecting heaven, worshipping ancestors, and protecting the people.

Influence: Influenced by the legal idea of "Mingde and prudent punishment", the Western Zhou Dynasty advocated "virtue and punishment supplementary" and "ritual punishment combined"; In the criminal legal system, the application of criminal punishment is the basic principle, and criminal punishment is used prudently and is not practiced; The litigation trial system has also been developed, with a relatively complete litigation mechanism and process, and a relatively fair trial system has been implemented.

The Western Zhou Dynasty took "Mingde and Prudent Punishment", "Kissing" and "Respect" as the guiding ideology. On this basis, a series of principles for the application of criminal penalties have been formulated:

1.The principle of caring for the elderly and the young. The age of criminal responsibility is defined as the age of 8 years old and 80 years of age.

2.The principle of distinguishing between intent and negligence, habitual offender and incidental offender. It is of progressive significance in the history of criminal law as the standard for conviction and sentencing.

3.The principle of proportionality of punishment and crime. Conviction according to law, the punishment of the crime is commensurate, and it is necessary to act with great caution in accordance with the law, which is the embodiment of the idea of "clear virtue and prudent punishment."

4.The principle of leniency and forgiveness of all doubts. It is required that the facts of the case be verified clearly and that the judgment be based on evidence.

5.The principle of "punishment and heirs" is not related to the crime. It is required that the punishment will not be connected and will not be sitting.

6.The principle of double punishment for the same crime. The most basic principle of the slavery law of the Western Zhou Dynasty conforms to the requirements of the patriarchal hierarchy and is the concrete embodiment of "punishment is not a doctor". This principle has had a profound impact from slavery to feudal society.

7.The principle of the world is light and the world is important. It advocates the flexible use of punishment, which varies from time to time, that is, the so-called "new criminal country, use light code; Criminal Pingguo, with the Chinese Codex; Punish the country and use heavy codes. ”

8.The principle of justifiable defence. Homicide committed in self-defense is not punishable as homicide.

The Western Zhou Dynasty's idea of "Mingde and prudent punishment".

In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Zhou and Zhou Gong Ji Dan saw that the foundation of political power was rooted in the people's will to a considerable extent, so they gave a reinterpretation of the theocratic idea of the Mandate of Heaven. In view of the Yin people's immorality and the penal system, he put forward the legislative and judicial policy of "Mingde and prudent punishment", advocated the use of both morality and punishment, and opposed full-time punishment and killing.

"Prudential punishment is mainly aimed at legislators and magistrates. "Mingde" is to require the king of Zhou and the nobles to pay attention to the cultivation of their own virtues, only good virtues can be worthy of the mandate of heaven, get the blessing of heaven, and keep the community; "Prudent punishment" means that when applying punishment, one should act prudently and avoid indiscriminate killing, which may lead to immorality. "Prudent punishment" is the need of "Mingde", and it is also an important content.

Based on the purpose of "prudent punishment", Qin Youxin's criminal law thought in the Western Zhou Dynasty has made great progress. The specific manifestations are as follows: (1) Conduct a specific analysis of the beginning of the crime and treat it differently.

The subjective causes of the crime are distinguished between intentional and negligent, and the offender is distinguished between occasional offenders and recidivists, such as intentional offenses ("non-confessions") and recidivists ("only the end"), even if the crime is minor, the punishment is also heavy; If it is a negligence ("眚") or an occasional offense ("non-final"), even if it is a serious crime, it can be reduced to narrow the scope of the attack. (2) In response to Yin Shang's "sinners are clans", inherit King Wen of Zhou's idea of "sinners are not sinners", oppose clan punishment, and advocate that crimes should be stopped. Emphasizing that "fathers and sons and brothers are not related to each other".

3) Oppose "indiscriminate punishment of innocence and killing of innocents" and oppose the indiscriminate application of punishment. These ideas are rare even in the history of world criminal law. Unfortunately, it was not carried out consistently.

In the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, the essence of "Mingde and prudent punishment" was to put forward the idea of "punishment in punishment" while attaching importance to morality. In "Mu Guiming", the king demanded that the priests (i.e., judicial officers) must be punished in a neutral manner, "not punished", and not to attract "chaos" because of "more abuse of the common people". Due to the complex contradictions in the Western Zhou society after King Xuan of Zhou, it was difficult to return, and the idea of "Mingde and prudent punishment" failed to restore the declining situation.

The wavering of the Western Zhou theocratic ideology led to the fact that theocracy no longer continued to be the sole basis for ruling the legitimacy of the Confession. The idea of "matching heaven with virtue" has shifted the legitimacy of the rule to the "virtue" of the ruler. "Virtue" has become the medium through which the ruler receives the favor of the "Mandate of Heaven", so that the ruler's "virtue" has become one of the pillars of political retention.

The so-called "virtue", in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the main content was "to protect the people". Thus, the responsibility to Heaven in the past is transformed into a responsibility to the people, "the Son of Heaven is responsible to God, and the people are the people who are actually responsible for it." "Virtue and prudent punishment" is exactly the principle that rulers should implement from beginning to end in cultivating virtue and protecting the people.

The idea of "Mingde and prudent punishment" made China's political and legal thought an indiscriminate use of the idea of "morality and punishment and punishment" in later generations.

Because it is necessary to cage the hearts of the people, the ten stars of the Shang Dynasty are strict punishment and strict laws, so the laws of the Western Zhou Dynasty are based on leniency and benevolence, and they are compared with the laws of the Shang Dynasty.

One of the legislative guiding ideologies of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The so-called Mingde is to advocate virtue and respect virtue, which is the guiding ideology and guarantee of prudent punishment. The so-called prudent punishment means that the punishment is moderate, and the punishment is not indiscriminately punished, and the innocent is not killed indiscriminately.

As a part of traditional Confucian thought, the idea of "Mingde and prudent punishment" does not meet the needs of the development of modern society and should be discarded. However, we should not completely deny it, but should see its positive value, and at the same time, many effective measures for governing the country are also worthy of our summary and reference.

First, we should attach importance to the moral cultivation of state functionaries.

Second, we should attach importance to the important role of civic moral education.

Third, the rule of virtue must be supplemented by the legal system, and the rule of virtue is not a panacea, and "prudent punishment by virtue" is the best interpretation of both "virtue and punishment".