The criminal liability of mental patients in ancient criminal law
The mental disorders mentioned in modern medicine and forensic psychiatry are called mental illnesses, including psychotic and non-psychotic mental disorders. Ancient medicine was not developed enough. Although there was some understanding of mental illness, there was still a lack of understanding of non-psychotic mental disorders. In line with this, ancient criminal law also mainly paid attention to the criminal liability of mental patients.
Legislation and practice in ancient China. On the one hand, ancient Chinese criminal law contains provisions that exempt mental patients from punishment or give lenient punishment if their behavior objectively violates the criminal law.
As early as the 11th century BC, there are records of mental illness in the ancient book "Shang Shu Wei Zi", and in many ancient books such as "Historical Records", there are records of mental patients being exempted from punishment.
From a legislative point of view, during the period of slavery, there was a law of three pardons in the "Book of Rites of the Zhou Dynasty, Qiu Gong, Sici". The first pardon was for the young and weak, the second pardon was for the old, and the third pardon was for the stupid. . What is "stupid"? Zheng Xuan annotated: "Stupid, born crazy, and comatose in childhood." It is generally considered to be equivalent to what modern people call congenital idiots or mentally ill people.
"Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Chen Zhongzhuan" records: "Zhongzou is crazy and easy to kill, so he has to lose weight and implement everything."
In "Tang Code", there is a list of treatment for disabled diseases, A seriously ill person violates the criminal law's provisions on penalty reduction.
The "Tang Code Commentary" explains: The provisions of the "Tang Code" on the reduction of punishment due to serious illness are inherited and consistent with the provisions on "stupidity" in the Zhou Dynasty's Three Amnesties Law.
The forty-two killing articles in the "Yuan Dian Zhang" stipulate that those who are mentally ill, that is, those who fight to kill due to mental illness, should be treated leniently;
"Yuan Shi" "Criminal Law Chronicles" records that those who madly beat and injured people to the point of death were exempted from guilt and were required to burn and bury them.
The criminal laws of the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties all inherited the provisions of the Tang Code regarding the reduction and exemption of penalties for those who were disabled or seriously ill. Some treatises clearly point out that it is generally believed that the invalid diseases and serious diseases in these feudal criminal laws include mental diseases such as dementia and madness.
In short, ancient Chinese legislation already included provisions for reducing or even exempting mental patients from penalties for their harmful behaviors. In judicial practice, there are indeed cases where the harmful behavior of mentally ill patients has been reduced or reduced from punishment. For example, on the night of November 24, the 6th year of the Yuan Dynasty, a man named Kang Liuzhu suffered from heart disease and beat Mr. Qiao to death with a stick. He also injured 5 people. As a result, he was not ordered to pay for his life, but was only ordered to compensate the family of the deceased for burning and burying the money. That is 50 taels of silver for funeral expenses. Some people even pretend to be mentally ill to avoid murder. For example, Sun Ming, a famous military strategist during the Warring States Period, pretended to be mad to save his life and later get revenge.
On the other hand, ancient Chinese criminal law, especially its judicial practice, still punishes or even denies leniency to mentally ill patients for harmful behaviors that objectively violate criminal laws. Some legislators or judicial officials hold criminally accountable for the so-called harmful behaviors of mentally ill patients just like ordinary people, adopting the so-called attitude that "crazy people cannot avoid the disasters of human laws." For example, according to the records cited in the "Taiping Yulan" on the decision of Tingwei, during the Han Dynasty, Zhang Da, the governor of Hanoi, was mad and killed his mother and brother. He was sentenced to death at that time and had to bow his head in public. When he was granted amnesty, he was considered If he is not pardoned, he is still sentenced to death with his head in front of the public. In the Literary Prison of the Qing Dynasty, even during the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong dynasties of the "enlightened and prosperous age", there were a series of cases of indiscriminate and harsh punishments on mentally ill patients who had lost the ability to take responsibility. For example, in the 16th year of Qianlong's reign (1751), when the emperor issued an order to sentence the madman Wang Zhaoji who presented poems, although he knew that he was a "sick and insane person" and was sure that the poems were "acted by a madman", he still believed that it was inappropriate. "Restored under the shining sun", the edict was immediately "killed with a stick" in the busy city; in the 26th year of Qianlong (1761), Wang Ji, a ballad writer in Chengxian County, Gansu Province, "suffered from madness" and "acted reversely" In the Yuan Dynasty, he threw word stickers into the sedan chair of Shaanxi academician Zhong Lanzhi. Although the "numerous negative words" in the word stickers were proved to be "actually caused by illness and confusion cannot be controlled", he was still sentenced to the death penalty of hanging his head late and having his relatives implicated. sit.
In addition, according to literature records, among those who fell into literary prison and were severely punished were Liu Yuhou, Chai Shijin, Ding Wenbin, and Yang Huaizhen who were mentally ill at that time. , Lin Zhigong, Qi Guohua, Xu Ding, Wang Dafan, Liang Sanchuan, Zhao Wenyan, Feng Qiyan and more than ten cases.
In the Appendix of the Articles on Manslaughter and Manslaughter in the "Qing Code·Criminal Code", although there is content on deferred judgment and imprisonment for those who kill 2 or more people due to madness, there is also a sentence of suspended prison sentence for those who kill 2 or more people due to madness. , whoever kills his relatives, elders and ordinary people shall be severely punished by execution.