Society of The Song Dynasty - Justice and Law

Justice and Law

Further information: Traditional Chinese law and Bao Qingtian

One of the duties of scholar-officials was hearing judicial cases in court. However, the magistrates and prefects of the Song period were expected to know more than just the written laws. They were expected to promote morality in society, to punish the wicked, and carefully recognize in their sentences which party in a court case was truly at fault. It was often the most serious cases that came before the court; most people desired to settle legal quarrels privately, since court preparations were expensive. In ancient China, the accused in court were not viewed as fully innocent until proven otherwise, while even the accuser was viewed with suspicion by the judge. The accused were immediately put in filthy jails and nourished only by the efforts of friends and relatives. Yet the accuser also had to pay a price: in order to have their case heard, Gernet states that they had to provide an offering to the judge as "a matter of decorum."

Gernet points out that disputes requiring arrest were mostly avoided or settled privately. Yet historian Patricia Ebrey states that legal cases in the Song period portrayed the courts as being overwhelmed with cases of neighbors and relatives suing each other over property rights. The Song Dynasty author and official Yuan Cai (1140–1190) repeatedly warned against this, and like other officials of his time also cautioned his readers about the rise of banditry in Southern Song society and a need to physically protect self and property.