During the reign of Empress Wu Zetian of the Former Tang Dynasty, Xu Shuang, the father of Xu Yuanqing, a native of Xiabi, Tongzhou, was killed by Zhao Shiyun, a lieutenant of Xiabi County.

Xu Yuanqing changed his surname and changed his name and acted as a servant in the post station.

Zhao Shiyun happened to live in this inn, and Xu Yuanqing killed his father's revenge and then surrendered.

Regarding this case, many people in the court believed that Xu Yuanqing's revenge for his father was a filial piety and strong act, and his sins should be pardoned.

The same was true for Empress Wu Zetian at that time.

Chen Zi'ang, who was the right-hand man at the time, wrote a letter to the "Revenge Agreement", and he believed that according to the law, he would be executed if he committed suicide without authorization.

Later, more than a hundred years later, Liu Zongyuan had different opinions on this. In order to refute Chen Zi'ang's proposal, he wrote "Refutation of Revenge".

A battle with Chen Zi'ang against Qin Qiong was fought against Guan Gong.

This debate is a typical example of the dispute between etiquette and law in history.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, a woman named Zhao E was beaten to death by Li Shou, a bully from Jiuquan County.

Zhao E's three brothers all wanted to take revenge, but Li Shou was very cautious.

Soon the three brothers died of a plague at the same time.

When Li Shou heard that all the male members of the Zhao family had died, he was very happy and had a big banquet for guests, thinking that only one weak woman in Zhao was left, which was not worth worrying.

Zhao E was so sad and angry that she bought a knife, sharpened the knife at home every day, preparing for revenge.

One day, Zhao E saw Li Shou and chopped him up on the spot. After cutting off Li Shou's head, she went to the county to surrender.

As a result of the handling of the Han Dynasty, which ruled the world with filial piety, Emperor Ling of Han personally issued an order to pardon Zhao E, and named Zhao E as a filial daughter, a savage daughter to show praise.

However, Xu Yuanqing of the Tang Dynasty was finally cut off by Chen Zi'ang, who had no ancient people in front of him and no visitors behind him.

Even Empress Wu Zetian was forced by Chen Zi'ang's policy and could not issue an order to forgive Xu Yuanqing.

These two cases represent the progress of the legal system from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, but when it came to the Song Dynasty, it became a troublesome again.

Zhou Sanwei stood up and said: "When Dong Cheng's mother, Liu, was holding up the window on the second floor, the fork rod fell down and hit a bully from the Qinglong Gang - Qin Wu."

"The bully Qin Wu had an argument with Dong Cheng's mother Liu. Then, in anger, Qin Wu broke into Dong Cheng's house while the night was dark and killed Dong Cheng's mother Liu."

"This case happened in the sixth year of Xuanhe. It was the trial of Kaifeng Young Yin Yanying. Later, when the Jin people besieged the city, Yan Ying fled south, and there was no news after that."

Zhao Huan nodded. This was all two years ago. Now the young master of Kaifeng Prefecture is Li Ruoshui.

"Yin Li, have you ever brought the files of this case?" Zhao Huan asked.

Li Ruoshui stood up and said, "I have investigated the matter of Qin Wu again. At that time, Qin Wu bribed Yan Ying and arrested a small minion and then settled the case."

"In other words, it was Qin Wu who instructed and killed Dong Cheng's mother Liu?" Zhao Huan asked.

Li Ruoshui nodded and said, "The person involved in the case has been detained, and all the people from the Qinglong Gang have been taken away by Dazai Li. If you dare to call him Long in Bianjing, are they crazy?"

Zhou Sanwei had already made it clear enough to see the old things and continued: "Some time ago, the commercial tax reform was reorganized. Dong Cheng had a pancake stall at home, so he handed the tax to tax inspection. This was originally in line with national laws."

"But Qin Wu became accustomed to being arrogant and blessings, so he collected the tax money from Dong Cheng again."

"Dong Cheng's old hatred has not yet settled, and the new hatred has arisen again. At that time, Dong Cheng hid his sword in his sleeve and found the melon stall where Qin Wu was. Dong Cheng angered Qin Wu in a few words on the grounds that the melon was not ripe."

"Dong Cheng stabbed seven times in total, and each of them was a fatal wound. Dong Cheng, who killed Qin Wu, sat upright in front of the stall, waiting for the arrest of the constable."

This is the case that made Zhou Sanwei extremely troubled. It was very clear and simple. According to convention, it was natural to avenge his parents in the Song Dynasty.

Although this kind of thing is inevitable in "Song Zhengtong", killing people to pay for their lives, the specific judicial operation level often leads to the blood relatives and avengers.

Li Gang stood up and said, "Official family, Dong Cheng could have divided this matter into two parts. The first part is that the Qin army had the essence of killing Dong Cheng's mother. The second part is that Dong Cheng had a new conflict with the Qin army in order to respond to the commercial tax reform."

"King Xiang once said that the king and his ministers are all imprisoned, and fathers and sons are imprisoned, so there is no superior or inferiority, and there is no danger to his parents."

"So I beg the officials to issue an order to pardon Dong Cheng's crimes."

"I'm going to discuss it," the ministers said at the same time.

In addition to the deposed King Kang, the entire court also reached a surprising agreement on the revenge of Dong Cheng.

At this time, Zhao Huan, who was sitting on the dragon throne, looked at the ministers in the court silently without saying a word.

Wednesday sighed, this is the difficulty.

According to Song Dynasty, if the murderer pays his life, Dong Cheng must be sentenced to death.

Moreover, Dong Cheng made a crime for the sake of commercial tax reform and took the name of revenge for his parents. No matter how he looked at his sins, his sins could be forgiven.

As long as Zhao Huan issued an edict, he could pardon his sins, but this edict could not be requested for a long time.

"What did Dong Cheng say by himself?" Zhao Huan did not return to Li Gang's question head-on, but asked elsewhere.

Zhou Sanwei thought for a while and said, "Resentment is caused by death, the people are clear, and the crime is punished. The common sense of the king, how dare you live in vain to public law?"

[Historical Translation Machine: My mother died unjustly, and the people knew very well, but if she committed a crime, she should deal with it impartially. This is the biggest truth in the world. How dare you live a secretly and cause the national law to be destroyed?]

Zhao Huan sat upright on the dragon throne and looked at the court officials. This was the Song Dynasty. He always felt that the Song Dynasty was reversing history in the path of national law.

"How should Zhou Shaoqing think the judgment should be made?" Zhao Huan asked.

Originally, Xing Zhuo was responsible for the trial of Dali Temple and the Criminal Department was responsible for the investigation. Now the judgment should be made by Zhou Wu.

"According to the system, Dong Cheng's crime should be punished, and the crime cannot be forgiven." Zhou Sanwei said, but he immediately said: "But I think his crime can be forgiven! It is in the name of great righteousness."

Zhao Huan asked, "Tell me the reason to forgive him."

"If you examine the correctness and straightness, and seek the primitiveness, then the use of punishment and etiquette will be different. What?"

"If Dong Cheng's mother did not fall into a public crime, the Qin army would be punished by her personal grudges, and torture the officials and torture them to the innocent. The provincial governor did not know the crime, the criminal officials did not know the questions, the superiors and subordinates were deceived and refused to hear the news."

"Dong Chengneng regards the great shame of wearing heaven and the etiquette as a politeness, and is determined to overcome his enemies' chests, and he will defeat himself and die without regrets. This is to keep the etiquette and perform righteousness."

"The deacon should be ashamed and be too exhausted to thank him, so why should he punish him?" [Note 1]

Zhao Huan shook his head. Zhou Sanwei, like Li Gang, believed that Dong Cheng was not guilty. Not to mention that Dong Cheng was guilty, the Song Dynasty also wanted to thank him.

Zhao Huan suddenly thought of a saying: Confucianism uses etiquette to disrupt the law, and chivalrous uses force to violate the ban.
Chapter completed!