"Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty: Treatise on Criminal Law" Annotations

Author: Wang Weikai
Publisher:
Publishing Date: April 1, 2005
Features: Among the Twenty-Four Histories, the official compilation of the Ming History took a long time, lasting decades. The Qing historian Zhao Yi praised the Ming History in Notes on the Twenty-Four Histories, Volume 31, saying: "Among the recent histories, apart from the Five Dynasties History by Ouyang Xiu, the Liao History is brief, the Song History is verbose, and the Yuan History is slapdash. Only the Jin History is elegant in writing and concise in narration, somewhat commendable. Yet none compare to the perfection of the Ming History. Since the Kangxi era, it took over sixty years from the recruitment of scholars in the 17th year of the Kangxi reign to its submission in the early Qianlong era. Such a long duration and depth of effort in compiling history have never been seen before." "Because it was compiled during the Kangxi era, close to the preceding dynasty, its compilers had firsthand knowledge, and thus the details of historical events were often accurately preserved." Specifically, the Ming History·Crime Law consists of three volumes, documenting the formulation, evolution, and implementation of Ming-era laws, the rules and procedures for handling cases, the eunuch and guard system, and more. It is one of the most common and authoritative sources for understanding the legal system of the Ming dynasty. However, due to various constraints, the Crime Law also contains some issues: (1) Anachronisms: For example, "In the second year of the Chenghua era, the eunuch was ordered to execute the bandit Song Quan" (page 2341) was actually in the twelfth year of the Chenghua era; (2) Historical inaccuracies: For example, "(During the Zhengde era) the censors Chai Wenxiang and Wang Cheng were executed for minor crimes" (page 2332). This event actually occurred in the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong era, not the Zhengde era, and had nothing to do with Liu Jin; (3) Disordered narration: For example, "In the forty-fourth year, it was not held. The next year, it was delayed by two months, and the order was not issued. It rained heavily, and many prisoners fell ill in the prison. The censors submitted three memorials, complaining about the delay in the summer review, the failure of the court review, and the lack of judges for imperial cases." (page 2309). In reality, the correct order should be: "In the forty-fourth year, it was not held. The next year, it was delayed by two months, and the order was not issued. It rained heavily, and many prisoners fell ill in the prison. The censors submitted three memorials, complaining about the delay in the summer review, the failure of the court review, and the lack of judges for imperial cases." Moreover, the memorials were submitted by the censor, not the officials, but by He Zongyan, the left assistant director of the Ministry of Rites. (4) Errors in the recording of legal provisions: For example, "For those who commit crimes a second time after serving a sentence of exile or transportation, the exiled person shall be detained in the place of their original match, according to the law for retaining laborers and musicians, and shall be punished with one hundred lashes and three years of detention." (page 2282). In reality, the detention should be four years, not three. According to the Great Ming Code·General Provisions, the article "Exile or Transportation Reoffending" states: "For those who commit crimes after serving a sentence of exile or transportation, the heavier punishment shall be applied. For those who reoffend after serving a sentence of exile or transportation, the law shall be applied again. For those who reoffend after serving multiple exiles, they shall be punished with one hundred lashes and three years of detention in the place of their original match. If they reoffend after serving a sentence of exile, they shall be punished according to the number of lashes they received and the duration of their exile, and the total detention shall not exceed four years." All of these issues have created obstacles and misguidance for our understanding and research on the legal system of the Ming dynasty. To address this, the renowned Ming historian and academic predecessor Huang Yunmei wrote the book Annotations on the Ming History, providing detailed explanations of the Crime Law. This undoubtedly constitutes pioneering work. As a younger scholar, I, without pretense, have drawn upon some of Huang’s achievements while conducting specialized research on the Crime Law of the Ming History. For the sake of clarity, this is noted here, and specific references are not listed in the text. This book attempts to adopt traditional research methods to examine and annotate the Crime Law of the Ming History from the following aspects: (1) Investigating its historical sources, striving to identify the origins of the text or provide clues to its sources; (2) Supplementing historical facts, using relevant materials to fill in unclear statements in the text; (3) Correcting errors, pointing out inaccuracies in the text when proven by original sources and providing correct explanations. If sufficient evidence is not yet available, relevant original materials will be attached for reference. This book’s examination is based on the 1974 edition of the Ming History published by Zhonghua Book Company, and all quoted original texts are based on this edition. This book organizes its examination around the Crime Law, following its original order and examining each point separately. After each quoted text, the corresponding page number in the original is marked with an Arabic numeral in parentheses. Regardless of the original punctuation, each quoted text ends with a period. For ease of reference, this book proposes subheadings for each volume based on the content of the Crime Law. For example, under the Crime Law, Volume 1 of the Ming History, the subheadings include "General Discussion," "Codification of Laws," and "Pardons." The text of this book uses simplified characters, following the General Table of Simplified Characters compiled by the Chinese Language Commission in 1964. Variant characters are standardized according to the Table for the Rectification of Variant Characters jointly issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Language Commission on December 12, 1995. However, personal names, place names, and some specialized terms remain in their original form.