慎刑与严刑:中国传统刑罚的双重性格及其原因

Prudent Penalty Together with Severe Penalty: On the Contradictory Characters of Traditional Chinese Criminal Penalty System

中国传统刑罚制度存在着相互矛盾的双重性格 ,即慎刑与严刑的对立并存 ,而制度层面的矛盾无疑来源于思想理论层面的矛盾。应该说 ,儒家思想和法家学说分别是这两种法制现象的理论源泉 ,但在儒家思想占据统治地位以来 ,特别是儒家法律思想成为中国封建社会法制指导思想之后 ,恰恰是儒家的教化观和伦理价值的绝对化使儒家对法家的严刑主张的吸收成为必要 ,从而使这两种看似互相矛盾的制度和现象能够长期共存于中国古代法制中而并行不悖 ,最终形成了中国传统刑罚的双重性格。

This thesis holds that the traditional Chinese criminal penalty system was characterized in two ways: prudent exertion of penalty and severe punishment, which appeared contradictory. These two characteristics were based respectively on Confucianism and Legalism in pre-Qin period. This thesis tries to prove that it is Confucianism that decided the co-existence of the two characteristics. Specifically, the Educationalism and extreme value of Confucianism made it necessary to absorb the theory of merciless punishment from Legalism, and thus shaped the above-mentioned puzzling phenomenon in traditional Chinese criminal penalty system.