End of March, Luoyang.
Cao Rui leaned on the recliner in the study, frowning as he listened to the report from the Minister of the Central Secretariat Sun Zi.
"Master Zhong and Situ Wang are arguing?"
"Your Majesty, that's right," Sun Zi replied. "After learning about Master Zhong's proposal to revise the law, Minister Wang wrote a letter to Master Zhong, refuting his proposal to restore corporal punishment. He published the letter in public and sent it to the Imperial Academy for discussion."
"How could these two people quarrel over the revision of laws? And they were sent to the Imperial Academy? Why didn't we see them arguing about so many important military and national affairs before?" Cao Rui was puzzled for a moment.
"This is the first time I know that Situ Wang is so tough. It really opens my eyes." Cao Rui shook his head.
"Your Majesty, actually, Master Zhong and Minister Wang had different opinions and confronted each other over the issue of corporal punishment in the law more than ten years ago," Sun Zi explained.
"More than ten years ago... since it is related to the law, it is always right to ask the court judge." Cao Rui ordered: "How about this, Sun Zhongshu, call the court judge Gao Rou to me. I want to ask him personally about the whole story. And let Master Wei come here as well."
"As you command, I'll take my leave." Sun Zi bowed and slowly walked out of the study.
Your Majesty asked Gao Rou to come here, and he must have asked him to consult about the law. But if you asked Wei Zhen to come as well, I'm afraid he still had to let Wei Zhen watch from the side, just in case Gao Rou said something wrong or misleading.
Be really careful.
About an hour later, the Chief Justice Gao Rou hurriedly walked into the study from outside.
Gao Rou bowed and said, "I pay my respects to Your Majesty. I am late for some reason. Please forgive me."
"The Supreme Court is not far from the palace. What delayed the Supreme Court? Why does it take an hour to go back and forth?" Cao Rui asked with a little curiosity.
"This..." Gao Rou looked around and saw Wei Zhen and Xin Pi sitting on his left and right. He paused for a few moments before speaking.
"Your Majesty, Xun Hong is dead. He committed suicide in prison."
"Xun Hong... is he the former official of the King of Yongqiu?" Cao Rui asked.
"Your Majesty, it was this person." Gao Rou explained, "Ever since Xun Ya died in prison, Xun Hong has been worried. I did not torture him in the imperial prison. It was Xun Hong who committed suicide."
Gao Rou still felt a little uncomfortable when she said this, after all, Wei Zhen was sitting next to her.
As early as the beginning of February, when His Majesty was still on a southern tour and had not returned to Luoyang, Wei Zhen had imprisoned Gao Rou for a day in order to put the Xun family members in prison.
But after His Majesty returned to Luoyang, he did not even ask Gao Rou about this matter, as if nothing had happened. Gao Rou then realized that Wei Zhen might have acted with His Majesty's tacit approval, or that His Majesty had no intention of restraining Wei Zhen.
Now the matter of the Xun family is mentioned again... I wonder what Your Majesty will say?
Cao Rui nodded: "He committed suicide, right? I know about it. I will discuss this matter with the Minister of Justice later."
"Tingwei, please sit down first. I summoned you today to ask about the previous debate on corporal punishment in Wei."
"Corporal punishment?" Gao Rou's face, which was already serious, frowned again. Gao Rou had a special feature in his appearance, his eyebrows were quite long, and the ends of his eyebrows trembled when he frowned.
"Your Majesty, I am a court judge and I do know about this matter. However, the controversy over corporal punishment has been going on for a long time." Gao Rou said carefully, "I don't know what your majesty wants to ask?"
"It's been a long time? Then tell me briefly." Cao Rui said: "I am free today, so it's okay to listen to the law."
"As you wish." Gao Rou was silent for a moment, then began to explain.
"Your Majesty, corporal punishment has existed since ancient times. To put it briefly, it includes tattooing, cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, and castration."
"I know about castration." Cao Rui said thoughtfully, "Sima Qian, the historian who wrote the Records of the Grand Historian, was castrated by Emperor Wu of Han, right?"
Gao Rou said, "Your Majesty is absolutely right. Since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, until the time of Emperor Wen of Han, corporal punishment was basically abolished."
"Basically abolished?" Cao Rui wondered, "When it comes to criminal law, it's either abolished or not. What does basically abolished mean?"
Gao Rou had understood by now that the emperor in front of him knew almost nothing about the matter: "I will briefly explain. There were many corporal punishments before Emperor Wen of Han, such as tattooing and cutting off the nose. I will not go into these easy-to-understand ones."
"Let me first explain to Your Majesty the two punishments of cutting off the left toe and cutting off the right toe."
Cao Rui frowned and asked, "Cut off the toes?"
"That's right." Gao Rou said, "Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty abolished corporal punishment and changed the punishment of cutting off the left toe to 500 lashes of whipping and the punishment of cutting off the right toe to public execution."
Cao Rui asked: "They are both cutting off toes, why is it that cutting off the left toe is punished by whipping, while cutting off the right toe is punishable by death?"
Gao Rou replied: "Your Majesty, corporal punishment in ancient times was actually a lighter punishment than the death penalty. If someone committed a serious crime, they would be executed directly. If the crime was not serious enough to warrant the death penalty, but the person still deserved punishment, they would be punished with corporal punishment."
"For the first time, the punishment should be to cut off the left toe. If a person who has committed a crime before and has had his left toe cut off commits a crime again, he will be punished by cutting off his right toe."
"Therefore, cutting off the left toe is a lighter crime, while cutting off the right toe is a heavier crime."
Cao Rui nodded helplessly: "Since Emperor Wen of Han abolished corporal punishment, why did his grandson Emperor Wu of Han sentence Sima Qian to castration?"
Gao Rou said, "This is what I want to say. Although Emperor Wen abolished corporal punishment, castration was not abolished until nearly a hundred years later." "And in the early years of the Zhongping and Jian'an periods, due to the chaos in the country, bandits emerged in large numbers, and criminals were rampant. Therefore, some people in the court discussed reinstating corporal punishment as a deterrent."
“This is also the first time that corporal punishment has been discussed.”
"The first discussion?" Cao Rui keenly grasped the key point: "How many times did you discuss it in total?"
"Your Majesty, there were four times in total." Gao Rou counted, "The first time was from the end of Zhongping to the beginning of Jian'an, the second time was the 13th year of Jian'an, the third time was the 18th year of Jian'an, and the fourth time was the 3rd year of Huangchu."
"So now it's the fifth time." Cao Rui sneered: "Let me continue your sentence. The fifth time was in the first year of Taihe."
Gao Rou was a little confused for a moment. From this morning till now, Gao Rou had been sorting out cases and dealing with the aftermath in the imperial prison. He had no idea that Wang Lang, the prime minister, and Zhong Yao, the grand tutor, had quarreled.
Gao Rou bowed and asked, "I have one question that I don't understand. What did Your Majesty mean by the fifth time?"
Cao Rui glanced at Xin Pi who was sitting next to him and raised his chin slightly to indicate, and Xin Pi tactfully explained.
Xin Pi said, "The court judge may not know that these two days, Master Zhong wrote a letter suggesting the reinstatement of corporal punishment, while Minister Wang wrote a letter saying that he did not recommend it. This morning, Minister Wang made public the letter he wrote to Master Zhong refuting corporal punishment."
Gao Rou didn't seem surprised either: "If it was Master Zhong and Situ Wang, that would be normal."
Before Cao Rui could ask, Gao Rou explained: "Your Majesty, Master Zhong and Minister Wang have argued about this issue twice, in the 18th year of Jian'an and the 3rd year of Huangchu."
"Taifu Zhong has always believed that since Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty abolished corporal punishment, many criminals who should have been convicted have been sentenced to death. Today's country has a lot of work to do and the population is smaller than in previous generations, so we should cherish the population."
"But Wang Situ has always believed that corporal punishment is too shocking to the people and is harmful to their morals. Moreover, there are provisions in the law to reduce punishment, so it is not appropriate to restore corporal punishment."
Cao Rui stretched and slowly stood up from his chair: "I roughly understand."
"Teacher Zhong said that too many people are being killed now, so it would be better to use corporal punishment and kill fewer people."
"Wang Situ said that there were already clauses to reduce the punishment, so there was no need to add more. Besides, cutting off noses, genitals, and toes are too horrific and will scare the people."
"Mr. Gao, is this the case?" Cao Rui said, staring into the eyes of Chief Justice Gao Rou.
Gao Rou bowed and replied, "Your Majesty is wise and enlightened."
Cao Rui asked thoughtfully: "It is common sense for the three ministers to discuss these issues. Gao Qing is the Minister of Justice. Do you think corporal punishment should be restored?"
Gao Rou said without hesitation: "I think so."
Cao Rui nodded and said, "I understand. Does Mr. Gao know about the West Pavilion and the East Pavilion?"
"I have a rough idea of it." Gao Rou said.
"Well, the court judge will ask the general, the military commander, and the chancellor for me." Cao Rui waved at Zhong Yu in the corner and said, "Take the court judge to the West and East Pavilions."
"I obey your order." Although Gao Rou was a little confused as to why he, a court judge, had to go and ask, he still followed Zhong Yu out.
As Gao Rou walked out of the door, Wei Zhen saw Gao Rou's back as he walked away, and then he said to the emperor, "I have something to explain to your majesty."
"Master Wei, please speak." Cao Rui nodded.
Wei Zhen said: "Your Majesty, since the founding of the Wei Kingdom, there have been three Dali."
"Teacher Zhong was the first, Situ Wang was the second, and Tingwei Gao was the third. During the Huangchu period, when Dali was changed to Tingwei, Tingwei Gao also changed from Dali to Tingwei."
Cao Rui said thoughtfully: "Zhong Yao agrees, Wang Lang disagrees, and Gao Rou agrees?"
"That's right." Wei Zhen said.
Cao Rui sneered: "Are you still talking about corporal punishment? Sit down for a while and wait for the court judge to come back."
Wei Zhen nodded in agreement.
What Cao Rui didn't say was that the three successors had two different opinions. Isn't this a political struggle? I must ask about it later.
Wei Zhen and Xin Pi sat in the chairs in silence, Wei Zhen closed his eyes and Xin Pi lowered his head, neither of them knew what they were thinking.
Cao Rui sat down at the desk and began to flip through the memorial he was going to read today.
After reading a few meaningless articles, a memorial signed by Huang Quan, the governor of Yuzhou, caught Cao Rui's attention.
Cao Rui opened Huang Quan's memorial, looked at it for a few seconds, shook his head slightly, and then put it down.
At this time, Zhong Yu and Gao Rou had both returned.
"What do you mean?" Cao Rui looked up and asked.
"Your Majesty," Gao Rou replied, "The general has no objection. The Minister of Defense Dong does not agree to restore corporal punishment, but the Minister of Works Sima agrees." (End of this chapter)
