唐代笔记所载灵异案件反映的法律文化

唐代笔记记录了许多与灵异相关的犯罪行为,涉及对个人财产利益、人身安全、亲属关系乃至社会秩序、政权稳定的侵害,为唐律以及诏敕所禁。无论是加害者还是受害人,广涉达官显贵、士农工商等阶层。受害人或选择忍气吞声,或付诸自力救济,或寻求仲裁调解,或诉请依法审判,司法途径从来都不是、也绝不可能是解决问题的唯一方式。一旦进入司法程序,虽然官员群体也身处笃信灵异的氛围之中,但不乏能够依法审断之人,他们会搜求证据来验证当事人关于灵异的说法是否可信,又因为客观证据很难证明行为发生时的主观心态,所以他们也不会将误信灵异作为减免刑罚的依据。更加重要的是,由于灵异与妖邪的界限并不分明,为了防止“惑众”进而危害统治,官员往往还会主动出击,严惩灵异现象的制造者,“邪不胜正”的观念是他们恃以免除心理恐惧的精神资源之一。然而,令人沮丧的是,无论是立法、司法,还是某些灵异现象的制造,其原初的目的都是劝善诫恶,但最终的结果却往往事与愿违,或开启冤狱制造、诬告胁迫之门,或提供了可资效仿的犯罪方法,或径直沦为作奸犯科的手段。

Biji(miscellaneous notes),produced in the Tang Dynasty,recorded many supernatural cases involving crimes prohibited by the Tanglv(Tang Code)and zhaochi(edicts),such as violating private property,personal safety and kinship,disrupting social order,and endangering political stability.Both perpetrators and victims of such crimes came from all fields and classes in society.The victims might choose to swallow insult and humiliation silently,implement self-remedy,seek mediation,or appeal for a trial by law,and access to justice was never the only way to solve the problem.Once entering into the justice process,although the officials dealing with such cases were also affected by an atmosphere of firm belief in the supernatural,many of them could nevertheless judge the case by law.They would search for evidence to verify whether the parties’statements about the supernatural were credible.Since it was hard for objective evidence to prove the subjective attitude of behavior,they would not regard misunderstandings of the supernatural as grounds of sentence reduction.More importantly,since the boundary between the supernatural and evil was fuzzy,officials would often actively and severely punish the creators of the supernatural who might delude the masses and harm the ruling power.They believed that good would always triumph over evil,which might help them overcome fears.However,it’s frustrating that the original purpose of the creation of some supernatural phenomena and the relevant legislation and judicial system was to encourage virtue and punish evil,but the results were often counterproductive.They either led to miscarriages of justice and false accusations,provided crime methods that could be imitated,or became the means of committing crimes directly.