Chapter 1091: Reform of the Laws

Xue Shao said, "Most of the scholar-farmers come from the collateral branches of these powerful clans. They farm on one side and study on the other. If one person's crime brings punishment down on many innocents, won't that chill their hearts? If such cases pile up, I'm afraid the scholars of the realm will accuse Your Majesty of using cruel and excessive laws."

Xue Shao's proposal was to execute only the ringleaders, confiscate all their family property and turn it over to the public, and after investigating the rest, release anyone found unconnected to the case, showing leniency to their families as well.

"Either exile them, or bar three generations from the imperial examinations and officialdom," Xue Shao said. "Losing their property and being barred from the examinations for three generations strikes a heavy blow against their descendants. I believe this method is more of a deterrent than simply executing three entire clans, and because it targets only the ringleaders, it will not only dispel the viciousness among the people but also win their support."

Pan Yun: "Have you raised this with Your Majesty?"

"I submitted a memorial, but the Cabinet sent it back. Grand Secretary Yu said that, given the times, harsh laws should be used to punish and warn others by example. You know Your Majesty has always valued Grand Secretary Yu."

Xue Shao understood that Yu Qian wanted to use harsh laws to curb corruption, but he did not agree.

"Fighting corruption cannot rely on harshness alone; severity and leniency must complement each other."

Pan Yun: "Strike at what they care about most?"

Cruel officials may be twisted, but corrupt officials generally share one trait: they want their descendants to carry on their glory and remain rich and powerful for generations.

The single provision barring three generations from office is a strategy that cuts to the heart; its punishment is no lighter than beheading.

Pan Yun was persuaded by his argument and asked, "Do you want me to speak up for you?"

Xue Shao chuckled lightly: "If Your Majesty inquires, I ask the National Preceptor to put in a few kind words on my behalf. Saving a life earns boundless merit, especially since among them are many who were innocently implicated."

Pan Yun nodded.

Great Ming's law of joint punishment is extremely harsh. Take her father as an example: if her father alone committed a crime, all three of his children would be exiled along with him.

That would be forgivable—after all, they are one family, raised by her father, so being implicated makes some sense.

But those distant relatives, whom one might see only once a year at New Year, what crime have they committed?

And then there are the neighbors…

Oh, in Great Ming's law of joint punishment, a considerable number of crimes carry the rule that if one household commits a crime, ten households are punished together. This is the Baojia system.

Ten households make a jia, ten jia make a bao.

This has caused a split among the populace: on one side, neighbors inform on each other, even frame one another, with no trust or mutual aid among them;

on the other, neighbors conceal one another out of kinship—as long as one person breaks the law, everyone helps hide it, even banding together to resist the government office.

And regardless of which it is, power ultimately concentrates in the hands of the jia-heads and bao-heads, who are mostly local landlords and gentry. They use this to arbitrarily assign labor service, tilt the tax burden, and even extort the common people.

Otherwise, how did the forty million people hidden on the Ministry of Revenue's yellow registers simply vanish?

Great Ming has plenty more areas that need reform.

Pan Yun and Xue Shao exchanged a glance; both knew that reform could not be rushed, for once one grew impatient, things could easily go wrong.

After the imperial court's reforms of the imperial clan, the military, and official administration, Xue Shao once again submitted a memorial requesting reform of the laws.

Among them, he expressed opposition to the law of joint punishment for certain minor offenses.

Such as joint punishment for theft, evading labor service or taxes, and embezzlement.