Ancient China Court Room Politics

In any civilization, civil laws are the rudimentary foundation necessary to regulate a
population. Ancient China is no different; its laws were highly developed and administrations
were incredibly robust since the first Dynasty known as Xia. As the ebb of time passes, the
prevailing political philosophy of those in leadership changes as well. Focusing in on court room
politics in Southern Song and Qing dynasty, the magistrates had a large degree of freedom in
applying the available legal codes for deciding court cases.
In ancient China, court rooms followed a mix of both the inquisitorial and adversarial
system. In an inquisitorial system, government officials are responsible for uncovering evidences
and discovering the truth between the plaintiff and defendants modern day France practices
this. On the flipside, there is the adversarial system, which the United States currently has in
place. In the adversarial system, the defendants and plaintiffs are responsible for gathering the
evidences themselves, often through private lawyers and investigators. Interestingly, in the
reading Manslaughter over an outhouse there was a strong degree of government intervention
to uncover the truth starting at the local level. For example, magistrate Wang himself personally
rode along with a few followers to visit the wardens station where the corpse was inspected
(Anhui 94). Multiple constables such as Wang Fa and Yao Ran were involved in reporting the
case. Local warden Rui Fan was also interrogated as well even though he was a government
official (Anhui 95). The district government dominated the course of investigation; the plaintiffs
and defendants did not play much of a role other than stating their side of the story. It is highly
doubtful that the plaintiffs and defendants were required to pay for any of the administrative and
service cost, especially since they were country bumpkins (Anhui 92) presumably with meager
income. However, in the case of When Heirs Have Already Been Installed, They Ought Not To

Be displaced, the author mentioned a Confucius scholar Yang Jui who initiated this court case.
Not much other information was provided, but presumably he advised the paternal Uncle the
plaintiffwho wanted to change the heirs of his brother (Heir 227). In this case, the plaintiffs
and defendants were much more economically well off than the parties in the Manslaughter
Over an Outhouse case. The article mentioned that each of the brothers have his own
inheritance, and that the uncle was able to afford a concubine and have two sons with her are all
signals of their wealth (Heir 226). From those readings, we can infer that the ancient Chinese
government was responsible for gathering the evidences, interrogating each parties and
uncovering the truth. At the same time, the wealthy had the space to inquire service and
suggestions from third parties, such as in the case of the Confucius scholar; however, the power
is still heavily dominated by the magistrate, who has the final decision. This legal system is a fair
reflection of Confucius values where the governments role is to guide the people toward
righteousness through education services. Heavy interventions from the district government in
court allowed fairer representation for common people and avoid asymmetric power which is
often a problem found in a pure adversarial system.
Magistrates in the Qing Dynasty had complete control over the application of legal codes.
In the Man Slaughter Over an Outhouse, there was a tedious administrative process and a
system of check of balances to ensure that the judge reached a fair decision. This can be seen in
the multiple levels of legal hierarchy that the case underwent. First through the constables, then
the local warden Wang, after to the district Magistrate, and then to the central government in
Beijing and then back to the three judicial offices. Its important to note that the magistrate was
not the sole determining agent of the outcome of this case. During the review in Beijing the
emperor deemed the sentence for Rui Meisheng too harsh and urged the magistrate to revisit his

decision for a lighter one. Another example is the administrative burden the magistrate went
through for the final approval to apprehend Rui Jiu, the memorandum was past back and forth
along different channels for judicial review before the final permission from the prefecture
(Anhui 93). These examples show a process of review, ensuring that the magistrate is not
arbitrary executing vigilante justice in absence of law. However, in the two cases of Lan
Dingyuans Case book, magistrate Lan seemed to be the sole entity who had the power to drive
the development and eventually the results of the court cases. There is a sharp contract between
the amount of administrative procedures the two magistrates followed. The absence of inputs
from other government officials such as the constables, wardens and upper level reviews are
striking for magistrate Lan. In the case of The Mountain King, Magistrate Lan used spiritual
superstitions to coerce Chen Agong into divulging the truth (CC 294). Magistrate Lans decision
to use this tactic created a large margin of error since there were not many substantial evidences
that Chen Agong was guilty other than the dialogue between them and his own hunch. This was a
serendipitous case where his hunch was correct, but what if he was not? The lack of input from
other court officials certainly did not help with minimizing the room for error. Comparing the
Magistrate Wang and Lan, there is a clear difference in how they apply the available legal codes.
In the case of Magistrate Wang, he interrogated many individuals and diligently followed the
administrative processes creating a broader and less biased development of the case. Both
magistrates were on duty during the early Qing dynasty, so we know that the availability of legal
codes existed since Magistrate Wang utilized them. The most convincing reason why Magistrate
Lan didnt follow the same procedures comes down to personal preferences of the individual
Magistrate. In the case of Magistrate Lan, he most likely found his own judgment sufficient and
correct to end the case, neglecting the need for further parties to get involved. Additionally, in the

case of the depraved religious sects, his act of having Lin and Hu Aqiu to be scorned and beaten
to death by the common people is completely different than the practice of magistrate Wang (CC
296). Magistrate Lan then took upon himself to destroy the evidential list of those involved
(CC 296) and grant them leniency are all behaviors that testifies to his belief that his own
executive decisions are sufficient to rightfully resolve the case. The different behaviors of the
two Magistrates can be best explained by looking at the nature of the legal hierarchy itself. Since
a Magistrate is charge of a county and is the only representative of the central government, there
is no one directly above to assess his decisions unless a magistrate chooses to seek counsel. The
availability of legal codes and administrative resources are there for Magistrates to use, but it
comes down to personal preference of whether or not they are to be used.
The shift in the content of the civil service exam exam after the Southern Song dynasty
greatly influenced the political philosophy of the officials employed by the government. During
the Song dynasty, the contents were narrowed down to neo-Confucius ideologies, which were
more rational and secular, rejecting superstitions and mystical elements of Buddhism and
Taoism. A strong proponent of this was Fan Zhongyan, he advocated for the reform of the civil
service exam arguing that economic and administrative knowledge are more useful than stylistic
elegance of Confucius literatures. The empire saw a greater need for skilled administrators In
the case of the wicked uncle, the author was from the Song dynasty when Confucius values still
seem at the epitome of morality. This is clearly shown he asserted the suggestion for the heirs to
pay respect to their grandparents to show their gratefulness and repent for their sins (Heir 226).
The degree of intervention went beyond the dissention of heir rights in court to how the
defendants should their lives outside of court as well. Additionally, the author made heavy
emphasis that the uncles sons were born from a concubine, not only conspicuously in the title

but throughout the article as well. This shows that the focus is more on each parties lifestyle and
morality as opposed to the isolated incident of changing heirs. Compared to the time in Qing
dynasty, the magistrates were less influenced by their Confucius values when judging the court
case. The meticulous administrative process magistrate wang carried out left little room for value
judgments. In the case of magistrate Lan, his hubris was the main cause of him making executive
decisions as opposed to seeking counsel to avoid margins of error. These phenomena can be best
explained by the shift in the content of the civil examination. The type of filters implemented by
the exams effectively selects people who cares about efficient administration as opposed to pure
Confucius values.
Succinctly, Chinese court rooms were quite effective but absolutely not perfect. It did
fulfill the role of regulating the empires populace through enforcement of civil laws and
representation of people from all classes. The nature of the court room, personal preferences of
individual magistrates and the shift in the civil examinations all serves to explain the behavior
and value judgments of the judges in the cases above.