论清代刑案诸证一致的证据标准——以同治四年郑庆年案为例

Coherence of Evidence as a Standard of Proof in Criminal Justice in the Qing Dynasty

清同治四年郑庆年斗杀人案,地方档案和中央档案的对比显示出地方官员们建构案件事实的过程,从初审时众说纷纭,经过逐步改造和剪裁,变为刑科题本中众口一词、高度一致的证据格局。与该案相印证,其他传世文献同样展现了当时刑案处理中以诸证一致为突出特点的证据标准。该项要求看似不合常理,却是当时中央书面复核的监管方式、地方官庞大权力和苛重职责共同作用的产物,其深层背景是集权式科层制司法权力结构。这展现出司法中微观技术规范与政制上宏大结构体系之间的紧密关联。

Through the study of Zheng Qingnian Case-a homicide case in the 4 th year of Emperor Tongzhi’s Reign in the Qing Dynasty(1865), this article sheds new lights on the process of fact-constructing by local officials during that period of time through the comparison of archive records preserved by local and central administrations. By manipulating the proofs and pruning the facts, the officials managed to turn the evidence that carried conflicting voices at the first trial into a version with perfect consistency, as is shown in the Imperial Memorial of Penal Section. In corroboration with this case, other sources also indicate the requirements of proof sufficiency in the criminal justice at that time, particularly the high demands on the coherence of proofs. This seemingly absurd standard was the result of a series of mechanisms, such as dossier review by central government and super-powerful local officials under strict supervision. Seen against its judicial institutional settings of hierarchical centralization, the case study illustrates the inherent causality between judicial technical requirements and grand political structural institutions.