Zhao Bing was shocked and became more and more fascinated. Even Wang De urged him to rest several times but failed to let him go. He only took a few bites in the dinner, and then immersed himself in it again. It was not until late at night that he rubbed his eyes and put down the book, sighing: "What can I do?"

After reading the book for a day, it did not mean that Zhao Bing had become a legal expert, but had a basic understanding of the judicial system of the Song Dynasty. It was a matter for judicial personnel to memorize the laws and regulations. He had no need to be proficient at all. He only needed to understand the legislative principles, the judicial system, the trial procedures and the supervision system.

Zhao Bing discovered that the Song Dynasty had or once established a professional and full-time judicial officer team. At the provincial level, there were generally three courts: the establishment of the provincial court, the provincial court and the provincial court. In some large states, the provincial court has divided the left and right courts, that is, there are five courts. Of course, some small states merged the provincial court and the provincial court and established only one court.

Each court has several judges called "Records and Joining the Army", "Records and Joining the Army", "Secretary Managers and Joining the Army", and "Judicial Joining the Army". The chief prosecutors and judges in charge of the department are also judicial work. Registers and managers and joining the army, and joining the army are all full-time judges. Except for judicial trials, no other dispatches are allowed. Even if they are sent from the court, they can be rejected, that is, "even if the court orders are selected, they must not be bad", so as to ensure professionalism.

The judicial judges of the Song Dynasty, which surprised Zhao Bing, were very professional. Before they were appointed, they had to pass the judicial examination like modern times. This judicial examination was called "test judges" by the Song people. They were chaired by Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice. The two departments supervised each other to prevent cheating and were supervised by the Censorate. The "test judges" were held once or twice a year, and the examination settings were extremely detailed: each time, each time, five of which were judged by case and one for legal theory.

Case judgments must state a convincing legal basis. When cited legal provisions, if there is any doubt in the case, they must be marked on the test paper. The examiner scores each time. The test scores must be excellent, and there are no mistakes in the judgment of the felony case to be considered qualified. Zhao Bing must admit that the system of judicial examinations is already very strict even compared with modern times and has been prepared in detail.

In the case handling procedures, the power of investigation and interrogation in the Song Dynasty was separated. Song legislation stipulated that "all patrols and arrest thieves, and those who are arrested by thieves shall not be tortured first, and they shall be sent to the prefectures to which they belong." It is no different from modern times.

The criminal investigation agency of the Song Dynasty was the inspection department affiliated to the prefecture and road yamen, and the county yamen, and the county yamen, which were collectively called the "cuser yamen", which was equivalent to today's police station. Its duties were to arrest, hunt down criminal suspects, collect evidence of crime, preside over judicial inspections, etc. Therefore, according to the judicial system of the Song Dynasty, the investigation department could not participate in the investigation, nor could it be convicted of the suspect.

After the case enters the trial procedure of the state government, a judge first examines the facts, called "response". The surveyor will examine the criminal facts clearly based on the witness's testimony, evidence, forensic examination, and the suspect's confession, so that reasonable doubts can be eliminated. As for what law the prisoner violated and what punishment should be sentenced according to the law, he does not need to worry about it. After the defendant puts a secret, there is no matter what the surveyor is. But if the interrogation is wrong, he will be responsible.

After this procedure is completed, the second procedure will be entered. Another judge who does not need to avoid suspicion will review the case with the defendant, ask whether the defendant's confession is true and whether there is any injustice. This procedure is called "record and questioning". If the defendant calls for justice, the previous trial procedure will be overturned and the court must be retried. This is called "reconciliation and investigation". If the defendant does not call for justice, then enter the next procedure.

The case file is handed over to another independent judge, who will check whether there are any doubts in the file. If there are doubts, it will be returned to retrial; if there are no doubts, he will detect the legal provisions of the suspect based on the criminal facts recorded in the file. This is called "prosecution and court". The investigation and prosecution and court cannot be the same judge. This is the unique "judgment division" system in the Song Dynasty, which can form checks and balances of power and prevent abuse of power.

After the prosecution and court, the case is handed over to a judgment committee. The judgment committee is responsible for drafting the judgment and submitting it to all judges of the committee for discussion. If there is no objection to the judgment, it will be signed collectively. If a wrong case is found in the future, all the judges who signed will be held accountable. This is called "a commoner inmates" and judges who object to the judgment can refuse to sign or attach their own different opinions. This is called "a complaint". If it is confirmed in the future that the judgment is indeed wrong, the judge who "a complaint" can be exempted from accountability.

The judgment must be signed by all judges before it can enter the next procedure: the chief judge (i.e. the prefect, the prefect) sent to the court for a formal judgment. After the chief judge determines the judgment, he also needs to read the verdict to the defendant and ask whether he is satisfied. At this time, if the defendant says he is dissatisfied with the verdict and has an injustice, the procedure of "reversal investigation" will be automatically initiated - the original judge will all avoid it, and the higher court will organize a new court review and go through all the previous procedures again. In principle, the defendant in the criminal case has three opportunities to "reversal investigation".

If the defendant expresses obeying the law after hearing the sentence, then the entire case comes to an end and submits it to the Central Circuit Court (Prison Division) for review. If the circuit court finds doubts, the case will be reviewed. If no doubts are found, the judgment can be executed. However, if it is a death sentence and the case is questionable, it must be submitted to the Central Regulations for review.

The modern judicial system emphasizes avoidance, and the judiciary in the Song Dynasty also particularly emphasized avoidance of personal dislikes. In all aspects of judicial trials, a very strict and thorough avoidance system was set up. If a court accepted a lawsuit, the first thing it was to do before the trial was to approve the judge. All those who had relatives, teachers and students, superiors and subordinates, hatred relationships, or had once recommended relationships must declare avoidance on their own.

What if there is a judge who avoids responsibility and does not declare it? The person who has reported or accused it. Needless to say, this is naturally to prevent the judge's judgment from being affected by personal relationships and personal emotions, and to falsely help the private and private revenge. In fact, it can also avoid human tragedies such as beheading the nephew. If Bao Zheng's nephew is sued for the court because of corruption and abuse of power, then Bao Zheng must first propose evasion and will never be able to interrogate the case in person.

Not only are judges who have personal suspicion related to the litigant need to be avoided, but during the trial of the case, the three judges responsible for prosecuting, questioning, and prosecutors cannot have personal suspicion, otherwise they must also be avoided. Moreover, the law strictly prohibits prosecutors. The reporters and prosecutors meet with the prosecutors before the case is closed to discuss the case, otherwise they will be "eighty-stopped each".

If it is a case of review, if the review judge has a personal relationship with the original judge, it also needs to be avoided; the punishment for judges who conceal the obligation to avoid refusal is very severe. Even judges with superiors and subordinates must be avoided - that is, judges with personal relationships cannot become superiors and subordinates. Such a judicial avoidance system can be said to be so strict that it is beyond the limit.

After the fourth update, Zhao Bing closed the book and sighed that the criminal judicial procedures in the Song Dynasty were so complex and rigorous that they were the best in all dynasties. Even today, they would feel that they were too "cumbersome". Compared with the modern judicial separation system of investigation, trial and supervision, there were only fewer procuratorial and judicial institutions, but it did not mean that there was no one. Instead, this power was executed by the superior judge.

Zhao Bing thought about Lao Bao in modern film and television dramas. If he were really in the Song Dynasty, he would definitely not survive for three episodes. He was obviously a role model who took the lead in undermining the judicial system, and he did not show his original appearance.

Gongsun Ce in "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" is actually probably created by artists in the Qing Dynasty based on the image of a famous criminal master at that time. There was no such figure as Gongsun Ce in the Northern Song Dynasty, and there was no so-called "superior" in the prefectures of the Song Dynasty. The master was the product of the development of the administrative shogun government system to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, also known as "superior friends". The Song Dynasty was precisely the only dynasty in history that did not have an administrative shogun government (the military and political shogun government is still retained).

In order to infinitely raise Bao Gong's tall and comprehensive image of law enforcement, later generations also created a Bao Gong who killed his relatives for justice and was inhumane in the Peking Opera "Chisang Town" and "Beheading Bao Mian": Bao Gong's nephew Bao Mian was the magistrate of Xiaoshan County. He was reported for corruption and abuse of power. Bao Zheng, who was ordered to go on a patrol, personally tried the case. After finding out the truth, he ordered his nephew to behead him.

If Bao Zheng was a judge with great power, he would combine investigation, accusation, trial and execution into four powers, and to make a case like the "Bao Gong Opera" performed, there would be no doubt that it would be a serious violation of judicial procedures and would have been impeached and removed from office by the censor. Even if he did have a nephew committing a crime, it would not be Bao Zheng's turn to destroy his relatives for justice.

What Zhao Bing sighed was not as tall and bright as Bao Zheng said, but it was a pity that the highly developed judicial system and the historical direction of judicial professionalism created by the Song people were not inherited by the later dynasties. The judicial system of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties returned to a very simple and rough state. They abolished the Dali Temple, abolished the legal studies, abolished the criminal law examination, and abolished the system of Jujudicial division and different investigation. At the prefecture level in the Ming Dynasty, there was only one assistant litigation prison for proclaiming officials, while in the Qing Dynasty, there was no even proclaiming officials, and the judicial system of prefectures and counties was completely managed by the chief executive.

Therefore, Zhao Bing speculated that the "Bao Gong Opera" that appeared in large quantities after the fall of the Song Dynasty actually had nothing to do with the judicial system of the Song Dynasty, and actually obscured the developed judicial civilization of the Song Dynasty. At most, it could only reflect some of the judicial concepts and practices of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. It was not that literati used the "Bao Gong Opera" to criticize the traditional judicial model, but that they had no idea about the complex judicial program design of the Song Dynasty, and could only fabricate the process of Bao Gong trial based on their self-righteous imagination.

What Zhao Bing felt embarrassed was that he still had to show off his skills and wanted to be the pioneer of the current judicial system reform and create a new era. Fortunately, it was still the initial discussion stage and there was no big joke. So what he mainly did now was to restore and inherit, cultivate a qualified judicial team, and improve the system...
Chapter completed!