desire to cause harm are many, and the way of virtue has been destroyed. . . It would seem as if here is given a description of the state of affairs as desired by Shang Yang. For, as we have seen,1 the reform which came before all others was the organization of the people into groups of five or ten men, who were mutually responsible for each other, and were obliged to denounce each other's crimes; at the same time the old patriarchal family-system was broken up. In the Life this measure is not mentioned in any relation with the abolition of the ching system, but it fits in very well with that reform. The oldest testimony, from which Ssu-ma Ch'ien may have drawn for his account of this measure, is Han Fei-tzu, who twice mentions this law. "Kung-sun Yang in ruling Ch'in, established the system of denunciation of crime in which (for the non-denunciation) one was punished as if one had committed the crime oneself; he organized groups of ten and five men who were all held equally responsible for each other's crimes." 3 The Book is not so explicit. In the apparently old par. 19 it is said that "in battle five men were organized together into a squad; if one of them was killed the other four were beheaded", but this is a military measure which cannot have been applied in every-day life. In par. 184 it is also said that: "by the order in the ranks they should be organized into bands of five." But in the same paragraph 5 it is stated: 2 Chap. 4, par. 13, p. 21, and chap. 17, par. 43, p. 13. This last paragraph is admitted to be genuine even by the very critical Hu Shih. 3 pp. 295-6 ⚫ p. 287. 5 p. 291. "All should control one another by means of the law and correct one another by means of mandates," and in par. 24 we read 1: "In a condition of complete good government, husband and wife and friends cannot abandon each other's evil, cover up wrong doing and not cause harm to relatives, nor can the men from the people mutually conceal each other from their superiors and government servants." These two paragraphs cannot, however, be considered as belonging to the old part of the work.2 In par. 2, which is older, it is said that relations should be involved in the 4 punishment, and the expression used might just as well mean that those of the same group should be involved in the punishment. In par. 5 it is clearly said 5: "If they make it their habit to denounce all crimes, then the people make the judgments in their own minds, and if, when the ruler gives his orders, the people know how to respond, so that the means for enforcing the law are really manufactured in the families and merely applied by the officials, then the judgments over affairs rest with the family. Therefore, in the case of one, who attains supremacy, judgments with regard to punishments and rewards rest with the people's own minds, and those with regard to the application of the means for enforcing the law, rest with the family." So not the officials of even quite small administrative units of ten or five hamlets should decide people's merits and demerits, but the latter should themselves do so.6 Rewards and punishments should be so definite and clear that everybody should know at once the consequences of his own or of his neighbour's actions. 1 p. 321. 3 p. 179. Cf. also par. 17, p. 279. Par. 5, p. 213. Now these punishments are meant to be deterrent in the highest degree. "Punish severely the light crimes," such was the law of Kung-sun Yang, says Han Fei-tzŭ in his important 30th paragraph,1 and in the explanatory part of that same section it goes on: "If small offences do not arise, big crimes will not come and thus people will commit no crimes and disorder will not arise." In the oldest sections of the Book we find this phrase repeated ad nauseam, and it is stated again and again that the result will be that punishment will be no longer necessary as nobody will dare to commit the slightest offence. The same phraseology recurs also in Kuan-tzů 2: "If one desires the people to be correct, it is necessary to prohibit small offences, for big offences originate from small ones. If small offences are not prohibited, it is impossible to obtain that big offences shall not harm the state." 3 The Life says that even the omission to denounce a culprit was punished by being cut in two, and for concealing a culprit one received the same punishment as he who surrendered to the enemy. The Ch'ien-han-shu adds to this that Shang 4 Wang used the punishments of branding on the top of the head, extracting the ribs, and boiling in a cauldron. In the Biography of the Shih-chi it is asserted that Shang Yang did not hesitate to punish the crown-prince himself; the account in the Chan-kuo-ts'ê states 6 even more clearly that "the punishments did not spare the strong and great ". 1 Admitted as genuine. In this section a number of brief sententious phrases are first given, and are afterwards explained. 2 Chap. i, par. 3, p. 15. 3 We shall discuss these ideas further in Chap. III. Chap. xxiii, p. 7b. 5 Cf. p. 16. 6 Cf. p. 31. Not less curious than his system of punishments was the system of rewards which Shang Yang is reputed to have initiated. The Life tells us 1 that "those who had military merit all received titles from the ruler according to a hierarchic ladder", and "whosoever should denounce a culprit would receive the same reward as he who decapitated an enemy The Book also says that "in the case of one who attains supremacy rewards are bestowed on the denouncement of villainy, so that minor sins do not escape unnoticed ".2 In Han Fei-tzu we receive a little additional information on this point. He mentions as one of Shang Yang's measures: "to reward the denunciation of crime" 3 and writes also "The law of the Lord of Shang said: 'He who cuts off one, head is given one degree in rank, and those who desire to become an official obtain an office worth 50 piculs. He who cuts off two heads, is given two degrees in rank, and those who desire to become officials are given an office worth 100 piculs.'" We are fortunately somewhat informed about this curious hierarchy of henchmen and denunciators. It was, in fact, the beginning of an institution which has been perpetuated throughout the course of Chinese history down to modern times, viz., that an officer, apart from the real office which he fills, holds a nominal rank which is purely honorary. As Chavannes remarks, these ranks were not unlike the chin of the former Russian administration. The hierarchy numbered 18 degrees, and when Ch'in Shih-huang-ti had destroyed feudalism in the whole country, two new degrees 1 pp. 14, 15. Chap. iv, par. 14, p. 26. 5 Mém. Hist., ii, p. 527. 2 Par. 7, p. 231. P. 15. were added to these, which were given to former feudal lords who had become high dignitaries. The Ch'ien-han-shu 1 gives a summary of the organization as it existed during the early Han, and as it had been taken over from the Ch'in dynasty. The 18 degrees which concern us here are the following: (1) kung-shih A ; i.e. in distinction from ordinary shih "patrician", they receive the honorary appellation of kung "official". (2) shang-tsao ; i.e. the Emperor, shang, had made, tsao, the decree by which they received this title. (3) tsan-niao; lit. "horse with a silken harness", which those who had this title were entitled to mount, as in modern times purple or yellow bridles were conferred by the Emperor. (4) pu-keng; the holders of this rank were free from keng, police-duties. (5) ta-fu; the holders of a simple rank of ta-fu, Grand Officer. (8) kung-ch'eng A; the holders of this rank were entitled to mount, ch'eng, an official, kung, carriage. (9) wu-ta-fu; Grand Officers of the 5th degree. (10) tso-shu-chang; the "left head of the multitude". (11) yu-shu-chang; the " multitude "2 1 Chap. xix, p. 96. "right head of the 2 Perhaps shu-chang should be rendered by "head or chief of the shutzu", for which cf. p. 9, note 2. It is curious that the left is here lower than the right. |