从法制的视角看罢黜刘贺事件

On Liu He’s Dethronement from the Legal Perspective

刘贺被罢黜通常被理解为宫廷政变和权谋,但霍光推动汉朝群臣通过严肃的程序,公开、和平地罢黜皇帝刘贺事件具有一定的法制特色,它触及汉代人对皇帝意志与法律关系的不同理解。汉代存在两种针锋相对的意见:一派以文帝廷尉张释之为代表,认为皇权需要尊重既有法律;另一派以武帝廷尉杜周为代表,认为皇帝意志就是法律,不需理会既有法律。但武帝本人曾表态需要尊重既有法律。这种尊重法律的看法契合汉初黄老、法家、儒家对君主私欲的警惕,使得群臣能够以“乱汉制度”为由,公开、和平地罢黜刘贺。

Liu He’s dethronement was usually understood as a palace coup and power plot,but Huo Guang prompted the officials of the Han Court through a serious process to openly and peacefully dethrone Emperor Liu He,which had certain legal characteristics:it involved in how the Han people understood the relationship between the emperor’s will and the law.In the Han Dynasty,there were two quite opposing views:one was represented by Zhang Shizhi,a high-ranking minister of the Emperor Wendi of Han,who believed that both the imperial power and the existing laws should be respected;the other was represented by Du Zhou,a high-ranking minister of the Emperor Wudi of Han,who believed that the emperor’s will was the law regardless of the existing laws.But the Emperor Wudi of Han himself ever said that the existing law needed to be respected.This view of respecting the law was consistent with the vigilance of Huang Lao,legalists and Confucians against the private desires of the monarch in the early Han Dynasty,having enabled the court officials to dethrone Liu He openly and peacefully on the grounds of“chaos of the Han System”.