Great Ming Code
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The Great Ming Code is a legal code of the Ming dynasty. It is a detailed system of laws created at the direction of the dynasty’s founder, the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, in the late 14th century, as part of broader social and political reforms. The Great Ming Code replaced the Yuan Code and upon the fall of Ming in 1644 was replaced in turn by the Great Qing Code, which borrowed heavily from it. Portions of the Great Ming Code were adopted into the legal systems of Joseon dynasty Korea, Edo period Japan, and Lê dynasty Vietnam.
Background
The Great Ming Code was the third legal code compiled under the Hongwu Emperor.
According to the History of Ming, the development of the Ming Code began in 1365, around the time that Zhu Yuanzhang captured Wuchang. In 1367, as the future emperor began to call himself the King of Wu, he ordered his Left Grand Councilor, Li Shanchang, to oversee and begin compiling the Code. It was completed at the end of that year, establishing 145 regulations and 285 laws. In addition, the commentary on the Code was distributed to the provinces, and local laws that contradicted the Code were abolished or revised.
In the winter of 1373, the emperor ordered Liu Yiqian, the Minister of Justice, to revise the Code, and this was completed the following year. A third revision was officially promulgated as the "Great Ming Code" in 1397. From this point on, decisions made by each judicial department were based on the Great Ming Code.
The Great Ming Code was implemented throughout the Ming Dynasty with few revisions. However, during the middle of the Ming Dynasty, during the reign of the Wanli Emperor, some revisions were made, and the Minister of Justice, Shu Hua, created annotations and ensured consistency between the articles.
Content
The Great Ming Code consisted of 30 volumes and one volume of frequently occurring cases, making a total of 460 articles.
The Great Ming Code was divided into six codes: the Code of Civil Servants (two volumes), the Code of Households (seven volumes), the Code of Rites (two volumes), the Code of Military Personnel (five volumes), the Code of Criminal Law (eleven volumes), and the Code of Works (two volumes). This division follows the structure of the Yuan Code, and differs considerably from the Tang Code.
Offenses were classified into ten categories of crime (treason, high treason, rebellion, evil rebellion, lawlessness, great disrespect, lack of filial piety, lack of harmony, lack of righteousness, and civil war). Punishments were classified into five categories (flogging, caning, imprisonment, exile, and death). The treatment of those with a certain rank in the eight councils (council of elders, council of elders, council of elders, council of elders, council of elders, council of elders, council of elders) was also defined.
Compared to earlier codes, the punishments for minor crimes were made lighter, and those for serious crimes were made heavier. Minor crimes included things such as farmers protesting against landowners. Serious crimes included acts that led to civil unrest, such as treason and high treason. A new article was added to the law, "formation of treacherous cliques", and if a parent was found guilty, the crime became more serious. In addition, "socializing with bureaucrats in a private capacity" and "asking a minister to implement debt forgiveness" were also considered particularly serious crimes.
Punishments were based on the Tang Code, and the five punishments of flogging, caning, imprisonment, exile and death were considered "regular punishments". For crimes not specified in the law (miscellaneous crimes), beheading, strangulation, transportation for forced labor, military service, branding and tattooing, tattooing and branding, redemption by debate, slow torture to death, public display of the severed head of a criminal, and dismemberment of the body of a criminal were imposed. Some of the punishments were already in place, while others were newly created under the Ming Code.
In addition, the Code contains provisions relating to gangsterism. Although there were also provisions relating to markets in previous codes of laws, this was the first time that provisions relating to merchant associations, or gangs, had been introduced, and it can be said that this reflects changes in Chinese social and economic conditions.
Legacy
In China, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, the Qing Dynasty replaced the Great Ming Code with the Great Qing Code (largely based on the Great Ming Code).
In the Joseon dynasty of Korea, the criminal provisions of the Great Ming Code were adapted for Korea by Taejo of Joseon. The version used was The Great Ming Code Directly Explicated, which contained the 1389 version of the Great Ming Code with added commentaries. A surviving exemplar is preserved as a state-designated heritage item in the National Palace Museum of Korea.[1]
In Japan during the Edo period, research was carried out on the Great Ming Code in order to reform the legal system of the preceding Sengoku period, which had been influenced by the Bakuhan feudal system. Representative works in this field include Takase Tadaatsu's Interpretation and Translation of the Great Ming Code and Substatutes and Ogyu Hokkei's Ming Code: Kyōho Edition.[2]
In Vietnam under the Lê dynasty, the Lê Code's 722 articles included 17 articles influenced by the Great Ming Code, although a larger number were influenced by the Tang Code.[3]
Further reading
- Jiang, Yonglin (2012). The Great Ming Code / Da Ming lu. Asian Law Series. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295804002.
References
- https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18477/NRF003_2012_v15n1_73.pdf
- https://www.netjournals.org/pdf/NJSS/2017/4/17-019.pdf
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/41645486
- ^ "보물 대명률 (大明律)" [Daemyeongnyul (The Great Ming Code)] (in Korean). Cultural Heritage Administration. Retrieved 2024-11-08.
- ^ Ōba, Osamu (1987). "Edo Period Studies on T'ang, Ming, and Ch'ing Law". In McKnight, Brian E. (ed.). Law and the State in Traditional East Asia: Six Studies on the Sources of East Asian Law. Asian Studies at Hawaii. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 132–148. ISBN 0-8248-0838-X.
- ^ Taylor, K. W. (March 1988). "The Lê Code: Law in Traditional Vietnam, a Comparative Sino-Vietnamese Legal Study with Historical-Juridical Analysis and Annotations by Nguyen Ngoc Huy, Ta Van Tai". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 19 (1). Cambridge University Press: 166. JSTOR 20071003.