汉代阴德观的建构及其在司法领域的展开

The Construction of Merit Concept in the Han Dynasty and Its Development in the Judicial Field

阴德观是汉代司法官在决狱中所热衷秉持的司法理念,它主张公平决狱(主要表现为慎刑慎杀)可积阴德,从而获取福报。它以善恶报应为其思想内核,并建构出一套自恰的解释逻辑。阴德观在汉代因东海于公积极践行、其子于定国位至三公而进入司法领域,广受推崇和效法。它重塑了汉代司法理念,也可视为司法官吏群体对自我行为进行调控和约束的一种手段,有助于纠正西汉中期以来盛行的酷吏滥刑滥杀之弊,缓解由此造成的社会危机。但阴德观也导致司法官将自身利益与司法审判发生关联,造成司法"功利化",甚至妨碍司法公正。

The concept of Merit was the judicial idea that judicial officials in the Han Dynasty were keen to uphold in their trials, which claimed that fair trial could accumulate merit and obtain blessing. This concept took retribution for good and evil as its ideological core and constructed a set of self-consistency explanatory logic. The concept of Merit was widely advocated and emulated due to the active practices of Yu Gong and his son Yu Dingguo in the Han Dynasty. It reshaped the judicial idea of the Han Dynasty, which could be regarded as a means by which the group of judicial officials controlled and restrained self-behavior,and was helpful to correct the merciless officials’ abuse of penalty that prevailed since the mid-Western Han Dynasty and ease the social crisis. However, the concept of Merit caused the judicial officials to associate their own interests with the judicial trial, and even perverted the course of justice.