清代司法视角下家谱证据的价值局限性——以《平平言》中“张氏坟冢”案为例进行分析

The Value Limitation of Genealogy Evidence from the Judicial Perspective of Qing Dynasty——A Case Study of“Zhang’s Tomb”in Pingpingyan

清代律文中对案件审理的结论部分始终坚持必须要有完备的证据支撑作为其是否符合礼法制度下“推鞫得情,处断平允”社会效果的重要评定标准。这也由此决定了承审官员不论是出于“法官责任制”下的审转追责压力,还是对个人日后仕途履历、能力评定的现实考虑,通常会选择以“审慎”之态度对可能影响主观决断的诸多证据要素进行必要的“辨伪”处理。特别是对部分所涉年代较为久远,无相对第三方可供旁证参照的民事矛盾纠纷,尤为需要对案中人所提供的各种主观性证明材料进行反复地查核分析,以期尽可能发现其诉求中的纰漏错讹之处并进而做出较为公正的司法裁断。其中清代“张氏坟冢”一案的审理过程表明了官员在面对家谱内容的证据功用时会具体选择从哪些方面进行“合理怀疑”,并在此基础上实现对涉事人合法权益的有效维护。

The conclusion of the case trial in the law of the Qing Dynasty always insisted that there must be complete evidence support as an important evaluation criteria for the social effect of“Respecting the facts,disposing of justice”under the etiquette system.This also determined that the officials usually chose“prudent”attitude to deal with many elements of evidence that may affect the subjective decision,whether for the pressure of transferring the trial to accountability under the“judge responsibility system”,or for the realistic consideration of personal career and ability evaluation in future.Especially for some of the civil conflicts and disputes involving a long time and no relative third party for reference,in order to find the mistakes in their claims as far as possible,and then make a more fair judicial judgment,it was particularly necessary to repeatedly check and analyze the various subjective proof materials provided by the people in the case.The trial process of the case“Zhang's tomb”in the Qing Dynasty showed that when officials faced the evidence function of the genealogy content,they would specifically choose certain aspects to“reasonably doubt”,and on this basis,the effective maintenance of legal rights and interests of the person involved can be achieved.