贞观六年唐太宗纵囚事再议

Reconsidering the Return of Prisoners into Prison after Temporary Releases in the Sixth Year of Zhenguan Reign of the Emperor Tang Taizong

贞观六年(632)年末,唐太宗在录囚之际,命死囚近三百人暂且归家。翌年秋末,归家之囚依照约定悉数至狱,于是太宗下诏予以赦免。白居易将唐太宗贞观纵囚之举视为太宗的德政,在《七德舞》诗中大加赞赏[1]。欧阳修则作《纵囚论》予以贬斥,认为太宗所为是沽名钓誉之举[2]。虽然欧阳修的看法对后世产生了巨大的影响,但其主要是基于史实的合理性及道德价值观进行的逻辑推演,带有浓厚的主观色彩,从而忽略了太宗行事背后丰富鲜活的历史场景。

As the virtue of the Tang Dynasty was tu orthodox(土德),the date of the Lari Festival(腊日节)was calculated by taking the third chen day(辰日)after the W inter Solstice Festival.According to this caleulation method,the date of this year's Lari Festival was the day of December Bingchen(丙辰),so Emperor Taizong’s December Xinwei(辛未)release of prisoners had nothing to do with the Lari Festival.After checking the time,the day when Taizong released the prisoners happened to be his birthday,and the following year,before pardoning these prisoners,a devastating flood occurred in a large area of Shandong and Henan.The fact that Emperor Taizong released the prisoners on his own birthday demonstrated the emperor’s benevolence and also implied the ambition to accumulate good governance in order to achieve the feast of Zen.In the seventh year of Zhenguan reign,Emperor Taizong pardoned the death row prisoners who had kept their word,which was in line with the usual practice of emperors pardoning prisoners for natural disasters since the Han and Wei Dynasties as well as of a positive effect on improving prison administration,easing social conflicts and stabilizing order after the disaster.