“遇邪”与清代假命案的形成与处理——以《巴县档案》为中心的讨论

“Encountering the Evil” and the Formation and Settlement of the Fake Homicide Cases in Qing Dynasty:Focusing on the Archives of Ba County(巴县)

有清一代,凡最终确定并不构成关系人犯罪的命案称为假命案。在对假命案的处理过程中,涉案人及州县官员均有借用“遇邪”之类理据来促成案件和解的行为。虽然百姓以死者“遇邪”为由和解命案的背后多隐含金钱因素的推动,但知县为了顺利结案,对于这一结果往往乐见其成,甚至在审案过程中还存在一些主动引导涉案人确认死者遇邪身亡之举。然而,由于朝廷以儒家思想规范社会,总体上不容妖邪鬼怪之说,州县在上呈详文中又往往隐去“遇邪”的死因记录,以致档案记载的司法状况多呈混乱。在当时社会环境下,此类司法实践存在一定的合理性,但同时也必须看到,这种司法实践会造成案情中许多对社会生活史和法制史研究有重要意义的真实细节的遗失。

During Qing dynasty,any murder case in which the related person was eventually proved innocent was called “fake homicide case”.In the process of dealing with the fake homicide case,both the person involved in the case and the state and county officials were usually found to use “encountering the evil” and other justifications to reach reconciliation.Although there existed many hidden financial factors behind the people's use of the deceased's “encountering the evil” as the reason to reconcile the murder case,the magistrate of a county were usually glad to accept the result too so as to settle the lawsuit successfully,and even in the process of the trial,they actively guided the people concerned to confirm this solution.However,because the court regulated the society by Confucianism and generally did not allow the saying of evil spirits and ghosts,the cause of the death records of “encountering the evil” were often concealed in the detailed documents of the counties,resulting in the confusion of the judicial conditions recorded in the archives.The authors argue that under the social environment at that time,this kind of judicial practice has a certain historical rationality,but at the same time,it must be noted that this kind of judicial practice would cause the losses of many real details that are important for the study of social life history and legal history.