Happy Village has long had a finished glasses frame, which is the same as those glasses in Yufu, made of gold, and after testing the lenses, you can immediately install them on the glasses, and after that, this thing has become Wei Zheng's daily necessities, Han Shaowen directly helped him make three spare glasses.

Taking advantage of the return trip before dark, Wei Zheng chatted with Sun Xiangfu about the Ministry of Law in the cabin.

"In Zhengming's old article, the first article requires that the laws and regulations must be written and published in vulgar vernacular, why is this?"

"Who's the law for, think about it?"

"Run over the people!"

"So, do the people understand classical Chinese?"

Wei Zheng immediately understood when he heard this, writing laws and regulations in the form of classical Chinese, let alone looking at it, even if you read it to the people according to the book, they may not understand it, and the people don't understand your law, so how can they abide by your law, so this request seems unreasonable, but in fact, it is very reasonable.

This is the same reason as Sun Xiangfu's request that all the easy-to-understand folk songs be included in the programs performed by the workers' plague, and the singing is too profound, too literary and artistic, and the workers and peasants who can't read big characters can't understand it at all.

Sun Xiangfu introduced Wei Zheng to the perspective of the common people from the first article, so what was written later was much easier for him to understand.

As they said in their Q&A just now, the law is mainly used to govern the common people, and the law is not so easy for the real officials and elites to govern them.

However, social conflicts often arise between the powerful and ordinary people, so after that, Sun Xiangfu set a tone for the law of the Tang Dynasty, that is, all punishments are biased towards protecting the disadvantaged.

In addition, for many small mistakes, ordinary people, can be less punished, or even exempt from punishment, such as picking up a brick in the imperial tomb, will be betrayed to death or exile, there will be no more in the future, in addition to because the ignorant is not guilty, the economic loss caused by the wrongdoer is also one of the important bases for defining the size of the crime.

There are also previous laws such as etiquette and filial piety, which must be reversed.

Most of the common people have not read books, nor have they seen much of the world, it is normal to not understand etiquette, if you convict them according to this, it will be endless, once the people have any conflict with the elite class, just in terms of etiquette, the elite class can buckle countless big hats for the common people, so that he can become unreasonable.

The aspect of filial piety is more common.

The younger generation, when being scolded by the elders, was wronged, and said that during this period it will be judged as unfilial, and the court will punish the unfilial people very strictly, ranging from dozens of boards to exile or even death.

Moreover, the so-called elders do not have to be their parents, as long as they are in the clan with the same surname, those with high seniority are considered elders, and those with different surnames can also be regarded as elders when they reach a certain age.

This kind of law is the breeding ground of patriarchal law and village law, so that the family elders and clan elders control the descendants excessively, so that the imperial court's control over the people is greatly weakened, and it should be revoked.

However, Wei Zheng can understand the aspect of etiquette, but he can't understand the aspect of filial piety, he believes that people do not stand without filial piety, and the outline of society is to take filial piety first, if it is denied, the whole society will be in chaos.

After Sun Xiangfu pointed out this problem, he made an analogy, "There is a young man, his father is a gambler, and he takes all the money in the family to gamble, this young man, working hard to earn money, is not enough for his father to go to the casino to lose, but also to take his own life to fill the gambling debts owed by his father, according to the current law of the Tang Dynasty, this young man can only obey his father, then, the family will be ruined."

There was a young girl whose parents wanted to marry an old man in his fifties or sixties for the sake of money, or for clinging to the powerful······"

"Stop, stop, the situation you said is only a minority, if because of this small number of circumstances, it is not right to shake the foundation of Datang to govern the country with filial piety."

Wei Zheng naturally also knew that these situations mentioned by Sun Xiangfu must exist in society, and there are quite a few, but compared with normal families that pay attention to filial piety and filial piety to their fathers and sons, they must be in the minority, and they cannot be denied because of a few circumstances.

"I've never said to deny filial piety, but I think it's a virtue that people strongly promote, not a law.

The law should be erected on the correct core values of a red line that no one can cross, the father is not the right to gamble, the children can have the right to object, the parents' orders, the life is wrong, the children have the right to object, or even refuse, so that the world can be more reasonable, less blind obedience. ”

"Let the world have more truth and less blind obedience······"

Wei Zheng repeatedly silently recited the words of Sun Xiangfu, and he seemed to have a clear understanding in his heart.

The current public security situation in Datang has been countless times better than that of the previous dynasty, but now it is not just the time to pursue good, but the time to pursue better, and to correct more unreasonable situations in society is what we need to do in the future.

Sun Xiangfu's meaning is very simple, filial piety and the law should be two different things, and filial piety is regarded as the root of the law, so Lao Tzu asked his son to rebel, and his son also committed a crime and did not break the law, which is not right.

The decision of parents is not necessarily right, children can choose to listen to what is right and reject what is wrong, and for the right and wrong of a thing, the law should make a clear definition, which is what the Ministry of Law should do about the essence.

After reading the first few articles, Wei Zheng felt that he was under a lot of pressure, and he didn't know where Sun Xiangfu got so many ideas, but these ideas, when broken down, are so reasonable, but if you really want to change them, I am afraid that it will be very difficult, because this somewhat subverts the general social cognition of this period.

The next one is something that Wei Zheng often does, but never dares to say.

'The prince is guilty of the same crime as the common people. ’

In the feudal era, in fact, this could not be done at all, first of all, you had to admit that the imperial power was above all else, otherwise it would be equivalent to rebellion.

Therefore, Sun Xiangfu only dared to say that 'the prince broke the law and committed the same crime as the common people', instead of saying 'the Son of Heaven broke the law and committed the same crime as the common people', which is equivalent to excluding the emperor himself from the law, but he has a certain binding ability for the king who is lower than him.

But even if it is a 'prince', who dares to demand or dispose of him by the law?

If even people at the level of the prince are really governed by the law, then the Ministry of Justice will become the sworn enemy of the noble class and the prince and the princess, and the officials of the entire Ministry of Justice system will become lonely ministers, which requires great determination and perseverance.

For the matter of legislation that is not decided for a while, Wei Zheng chose to put it on hold very wisely, what to do, he can also find the emperor to make a decision, if the emperor wants them to become orphans, they have no choice.

After that, Wei Zheng raised his own questions about the construction of the yamen under the Ministry of Law and the management system.

Sun Xiangfu suggested that the Ministry of Justice set up the local yamen as the province, prefecture, county, and three levels, and uniformly named the courts, and the collection of evidence, arrests, and the supervision of prisoners were all done by the Criminal Department. Trial, conviction and sentencing must be pronounced in court by judges at all levels of courts.

In addition, the plaintiff, the defendant, and any party dissatisfied with the judgment are allowed to appeal to the court at the next higher level, and the government can directly file a lawsuit as the plaintiff for the current crime or the destruction of public utilities, and no appeal is allowed.

The Yamen of the Ministry of Justice in Chang'an will become the highest court in the country and has the right of final arbitration, this series of settings, Wei Zheng thinks it is very reasonable, he just thinks that in this way, the court of the county government in the past will be returned to the judge to sit in the court.

"In this way, it is reasonable, the county order, should not sit in the yamen and drink tea and think about Qingfu, as a magistrate, how to manage the place? He should go to the fields to see more of the needs of the people, urge production, and go to various yamen and departments to inspect, supervise, and urge the staff to work seriously. ”

"In this case, won't our Ministry of Justice have to manage thousands of officials in the future?"

"That's why, in this imperial examination, the success rate of the Ming Law Department will be so high!"

In this regard, Wei Zheng is also speechless, he has read the examination papers of the Ming Law Department, which are basically choices, judgments, questions and answers and analysis questions, which may not require a high level of education, but if you want to get a high score, you must have a rational and fair heart.

As for how to judge the case, when the time comes, it will be necessary to have a series of amendments to the law, as well as training and adaptation, before it can have the possibility of practical operation, and this process is not short.

Then there is the jury system.

Wei Zheng didn't understand why the judge didn't invite people from multiple social and professional classes to serve as juries in the process of hearing the case, and when sentencing, he had to respect the opinions of the jury. Wouldn't it be better to judge according to the law?

"Wei Shangshu, everyone's profession is different, the class is different, and the angle of looking at the problem is also different, the jurisprudence is nothing more than human feelings, and the role of the jury is to let the judge see the human feelings more clearly, they cannot change the nature of a case itself, but after discussion from different angles, it can give the judge more reasonable suggestions in sentencing according to the human feelings in the society."

"Alright! This article is also reasonable, but your last suggestion is to let the Ministry of Justice supervise all the ministries of the imperial court and implement various regulations in accordance with the law, doesn't this mean that the Ministry of Justice has the power to manage all the imperial court departments? If you weren't from a peasant family, the old man would have suspected that you were going to revive the Legalist family. ”

"This, at present, is just a statement, just like the previous Taiwanese officials, who can play on the illegal affairs of all officials, for example, the officials of the household department, whether they collect taxes according to the tax rate set by the imperial court, and they overcollect taxes without authorization, shouldn't the Ministry of Justice care? Did the officials of the Ministry of War pay the salaries and pensions of the first two soldiers in accordance with the rules formulated by the imperial court, and they deducted the soldiers' salaries and pensions, shouldn't the Ministry of Justice take care of it? Officials of the Ministry of Finance, corrupt money and grain of the country, officials of the Ministry of Commerce, should the Ministry of Justice take care of the merchants' demand for food and cards? ······"

Sun Xiangfu wanted to continue to speak, but he was stopped by Wei Zheng, and he now understood Sun Xiangfu's concept of the Ministry of Law, which is a department that manages all society and even the order of the imperial court, and also uses a more efficient and direct model, no longer taking everything to the court to fight like before, but directly collecting evidence, investigating, hearing, and adjudicating.

For such power, Wei Zheng is both excited and worried.

For, once carried out in accordance with these rules, his rights will be independent of all the courtiers, even greater than the prime minister.

But putting aside the issue of authority, it will make all the production and life in society orderly, and it is a very beneficial thing to society, but this thing will touch the interests of too many people and put him on the matter of right and wrong, endlessly.