The excavation of the"Morality-Penalty"thought in The Penalties of Marquis Lü
According to the preface to The Book of History,the main theme of The Penalties of Marquis Lü is that the Marquis of Lü explained the penalty of atonement of the Xia Dynasty to King Mu.However,there are no traces or records of the Xia Dynasty in this entire chapter,and what is recorded is the general lineage of society from tyranny to penalties and the morality-penalties since Chi You,the people of Miao,and Bo-yi,which is said to be the judicial history of Pre-Qin Period narrated by the people of the Zhou dynasty.This chapter can also be entitled Marquis Lü's Expounding on Penalties,with its former part focusing on the origins of the penalty and disclosing the falsity of the morality-penalty by the people of Miao,and its latter part discussing how to construct the true morality-penalty,including the origin,the doctrine,the structure,the value,and other original issues of morality,as well as operational practices such as trial procedures,leniency in doubtful cases and the rules to be followed by those who administer the punishment.It can be clearly seen that at the theoretical and institutional levels,the thought system of morality-penalty had been established in Zhou dynasty,and the deep meaning of the chapter is to install a"sight"for the penalty,so that it can accurately eliminate evil.That is why the morality is repeatedly discussed,while the application of penalties is not elaborated.The morality-penalty as described in The Penalties of Marquis Lü is not merely a simple combination of Confucian morality and Legalist penalties,but"the Morality Penalty,"the same as"the Penalty of Goodness"stated in the same chapter.There are penalties in all countries,but placing the"morality"before the"penalty"and emphasizing that penalties must be applied under the guidance of morality is a unique characteristic in traditional Chinese judicial culture.
the Morality PenaltyThe Penalties of the Marquis of Lüillustrating the virtuepenalizing prudentlythe judicial history
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