In the "Qing Historical Manuscript" volume 352 and biography 139 "Jiang Sheng, Jin Guangyi, Zu Zhiwang, Han Wei [fēng]", there is a petition case in Han Sheng's biography, and I will talk about it today, so that you can see the handling of a single case in the Manchu Dynasty.

This case was rehabilitated in the fourth year of Daoguang (1824 AD), less than 50 years after the founding of the United States (48 years, the United States was founded in 1776), exactly 190 years ago (2014).

Since we talked about "rehabilitation" in the previous article, then this case must have been an "unjust, false and wrongly decided case".

It is said that at the beginning, there was a county citizen in Yuci County, Shanxi Province under the rule of the Qing court, and this person was named Yan Sihu. This Yan Sihu should not be a good person. When Yan Sihu was committing crimes, he raped a woman named Zhao Ergu. After the case, Zhao Ergu's side sued Yan Sihu.

At that time, Lu Xiling, the county governor of Yuci, received bribes from Yan Sihu's side in the process of trying the case. Therefore, the magistrate forced Zhao Ergu to admit that this case was not a rape case, but a "rape and rape". It is to ask people to admit that the two parties have a relationship voluntarily, and this behavior, to put it mildly, is the so-called "bad morals", and if it is serious, it is just "fornication". The reason for this is that the punishment for rape is much lower than that for rape, so that the criminals who pay bribes can be excused. However, the result of this is very unfavorable to the injured party, first, the injured party's grievances cannot be appealed, and second, it is difficult to preserve the victim's reputation. The persecution of the magistrate during the interrogation directly led to the serious consequence, that is, Zhao Ergu was so angry that she committed suicide to prove her innocence.

After the victim committed suicide, her relatives predicted that the situation of the local lawsuit was not good, so they carried out "Beijing control". The so-called "Beijing Control" is today's "petition in Beijing". The specific process of "petitioning" is not described in detail in the history books. Guess, this petition was not encircled and intercepted, and there was no brutal suppression. As a result of the petition, the "Qing court" took over the case, and moreover, it sent the governor to personally interrogate the case.

From today's point of view, the governor should be regarded as a provincial and ministerial-level official, some of whom are from the second grade, and some are from the second grade. This senior official sent by the Qing court personally interrogated, but did not find out why, and the case was still concluded with "adultery".

The case did not end there, and after learning of the incident, Liang Zhongjing, who was in charge of supervision officials, impeached a number of officials who had flaws in the handling of the case. After a detailed examination by the Criminal Department, it was found that the case was indeed rape, not rape, and that the real circumstances of bribery, bribery, entrustment, rumors, favoritism, indulgence, and protection of subordinate officials that occurred during the trial of the two cases were clearly ascertained. The final result is:

The rapist Yan Sihu was beheaded;

The victim Zhao Ergu gave a watch;

Governor Qiu Shutang, according to the inspector Lu Yuanwei and the officials of the prefecture and county, those who should be demoted, those who should be dismissed, those who should be exiled, and those who should be confiscated to the army and garrison.

The emperor issued an edict to commend the officials of the Criminal Department for handling cases impartially, and Shen Xue defended himself.

Liang Zhongjing also gave him the rank of fourth because of his participation in seeking truth from facts.

In fact, this is a seemingly simple but very complicated case, in which there are rapes, bribery, bribery, coerced confessions, favoritism, "petitioning in Beijing", mutual supervision by officials, and accusations at higher levels. However, the end result is still satisfactory. This at least shows that the Qing court still has its own laws and systems.