Chapter 15 Qin Law 2
[The second point is strict laws and severe punishments.]

After Shang Yang, the Legalist school in Qin State developed greatly. It can be said that the Qin law was formulated and improved under the guidance of the legal theory of the Shang Yang school.

No matter how much we talk about the construction of Qin's legal system, we have never seen anything. However, Xunzi, a great figure in the late Warring States Period, did conduct on-site investigations and wrote comments. It was probably in the late period of King Zhaoxiang of Qin.

In Xunzi's "Strong State", Xunzi gave great affirmation to the Qin State's mountain and river terrain, folk customs, social atmosphere and official atmosphere, as well as the success of Qin State's legal system construction, but at the same time he also pointed out its shortcomings.

After the Qin Dynasty, historical books strongly criticized the harsh laws of Qin, but the discovery of the Yunmeng Qin bamboo slips represents a new stage in the study of Qin history.

Xunzi smiled, it seems that his teachings are still circulating.

[The Yunmeng Qin Law states that if officials fail to fulfill their duties, not only will they be punished, but their superiors will also be indirectly responsible.]
[At that time, the Qin State rarely had the phenomenon of officials protecting each other and bending the law for personal gain.]
[The Qin laws were too specific and detailed. Sometimes being too specific and strict is not good.]
[Yes, collective punishment is the thing I cannot accept the most. Who can know whether their neighbors or relatives have violated the law?]
A certain commoner in the Qin Dynasty slapped his thigh and said: "I can't accept it either."

[Let us look at some of the laws of the Qin Dynasty from the perspective of the famous "Chen Sheng and Wu Guang Uprising" in history.

It is recorded in "Records of the Grand Historian: The Biography of Chen She" that in the first year of the reign of Qin II, the Lu Zuo was conscripted for garrison service. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were the garrison leaders. It rained heavily, and they had to take different routes. However, Qin law stipulated that "those who miss the deadline shall be beheaded."

This directly led to the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty, followed by the demise of the Qin Dynasty.

So what is the truth? 】

[Kings, princes, generals, and ministers, are they of different species?]
[Great Declaration of Rebellion!]
People before the Han Dynasty were mesmerized by these eight short words.

Princes and generals, I would rather be kind!
The people of Qian raised their hands and stopped. Yes, are they born inferior?
Because of Qin's system of awarding titles based on military merit, those nobles had long lost their former glory and were angry but incompetent.

But most of the nobles of the six countries before unification were living a life of drunkenness and dreams, and they showed ridicule when they heard this.

Of course, kings, princes, generals and ministers are born aristocrats, and the untouchables will always be untouchables.

But the hands tightly grasping the wine glasses revealed their hidden fears.

The First Emperor Ying Zheng was not at peace either.

The Zhao family of the Ying surname used to raise horses for the Zhou royal family. The vast territory we have today is the result of the hard work of every generation of Qin kings.

But the peasant uprising was different for Qin after all. You have to know that Qin law has always pursued a policy of keeping the people ignorant. There is an indescribable sense of complexity when a group that has never been taken seriously rises up one day.

Also, Qin law is not so cruel. Failure to meet a deadline due to heavy rain does not necessarily mean beheading.

Li Si, who formulated and improved the Qin laws, was very sure of this.

[The Qin Dynasty bamboo slips from Yunmeng Shuihudi contain this article:
If anyone delays in enlisting corvée labor for the imperial court, he will be punished with the second grade of punishment.

If you are late for three to five days, you will be reprimanded; if you are late for six to ten days, you will be fined one shield; if you are late for more than ten days, you will be fined one armor.

If construction cannot start due to rain, the levy can be exempted. 】

[Fortunately, there are new bamboo slips to prove it, otherwise the black material would have been firmly established.]
[The owner of this tomb was named Xi. He joined the army three times and served as Lingshi, Yushi, and Yushi successively. He died in office. He was not buried with any valuables, but only more than a thousand bamboo slips, which should be his work notes.]
[Xi really loves work! He wants to work even after he dies!]
[Ying Zheng himself was a scroll master who reviewed 200 kilograms of bamboo slips every day, so his subordinates should all be scroll masters.]
[I am not worthy of it. I don’t want to curl up. I just want to lie down.]
The Qin Dynasty official named "Xi" was stunned. He had participated in three military campaigns and was now a prison historian. He indeed loved his job and had thought of burying the bamboo slips with him after his death. It seemed that it was very likely that Tianmu was talking about him.

A little happy and a little complicated.

He was happy that his buried bamboo slips allowed the Qin laws to reappear thousands of years later, exonerating him of some bad things.

What’s complicated is that his tomb was dug up, which is really hard for an ancient man to accept.

Ying Zheng ordered: "Go and find out which official this 'Xi' is from, and reward him handsomely." As for the later generations teasing him as the "King of Scrolls", although I don't quite understand it, it should mean that he was serious in reviewing memorials.

[However, we must note that the Qin laws at this time were still from the Qin Shihuang period.

After Qin II Hu Hai came to power, based on his series of actions, we can boldly speculate that he may have changed the laws to become more stringent and ruthless. 】

[It's entirely possible. I wouldn't be surprised by anything that little jerk Hu Hai does.]
[Hu Hai and Yang Guang are the most incompetent and vicious second generation.]
[Hu Hai is a ruthless man who killed all his brothers and sisters. How can we expect him to be kind to the people and soldiers?]

Brothers and sisters who were killed: ...? ? ?
Ying Zheng gave Hu Hai, who was lying on the ground, a hard kick in the heart.

He had always thought that the "annihilation of the entire family" mentioned earlier only meant killing some of his brothers, but he did not expect that even his daughters did not survive.

Killing brothers is understandable, after all, they have the ability to seize the throne, but killing sisters who pose no threat is completely cruel and perverted.

Fusu was horrified. Because he was older, he had watched his younger brothers and sisters grow up. The thought of those lively, bright, or weak sisters dying at the hands of Hu Hai in the future made him feel suffocated with pain.

The princesses all changed their expressions. They thought Hu Hai was going too far. They had to go to their father for help.

Several older princesses looked at each other and rushed to the Xianyang Palace angrily.

[In addition to this, there are also some laws in Qin law regarding the relationship between husband and wife.

The Qin law provided very severe punishment for infidelity between spouses. Men had the right to punish unfaithful wives, and women also had the right to punish unfaithful husbands.

"My husband sent me a pig, so I am not guilty of killing him."

It means that if a husband hangs out with someone else's family, his wife is not guilty of killing him.

Oh, by the way, a boar is a boar that is kept at someone else's home for breeding.

Vivid, specific, and reasonable. 】

[Stud pig?!]
[Hahaha, I support this point. Nowadays, cheating is rampant, haha.]
[Don’t say it, this was great two thousand years ago, but now it’s so speechless.]
Many "breeding pig" men blushed, not because of shame, but because of anger.

[Similarly, domestic violence will also be sentenced.

If a husband violently beats his wife, he will have his beard shaved.

Of course, shaving beards seems normal now, but people in the Qin Dynasty attached great importance to beards. Those without beards were either eunuchs or prisoners.

In the Qin Dynasty, people who had their beards shaved were not considered normal. 】

[Equivalent to "social death."]
[Qin law also protects women's private property.]

If the husband commits a crime and his wife reports him, the wife will not be implicated, and the husband's property will be confiscated, but the wife's personal property will be retained.

The host mentioned earlier that there was a woman who had an affair with a man while keeping vigil for her husband, and was reported to the authorities by her mother-in-law. The authorities were concerned about whether the woman was unfilial to her in-laws, not whether she was unfaithful to her husband.

In the end, the woman was found not guilty, because the marriage relationship automatically ends when one of the spouses dies, which does not constitute unfilial behavior.

[The earlier the dynasties, the better the status of women actually was. The decline of women’s status probably occurred at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.]
[Men are incompetent and can only seek a sense of superiority by oppressing women.]
[Yes, it should have gradually decreased after the Jingkang Incident. Liu E of the Northern Song Dynasty was a singer and a second marriage, but she still became the queen and the queen mother, and she did a good job.]
(End of this chapter)