Chapter 33: Incomprehensible Judgment

  Tang Husao hastily smiled and said, "Nothing, just to greet Xiao Zhīyī and congratulate him. Oh, you two chat, I'll leave." After that, he nodded to both Wen Zhu Bo and Xiao Jia Ding, turned around and left.

  The chief clerk smiled and said: "He's here to congratulate you, isn't he? He has a lot of oil and water in this household, and he doesn't want to lose this fat job."

  Xiao Jiading thought to himself, no wonder this kid put on such a show of self-pity. It turned out that he was afraid that in front of the county magistrate, he would speak ill of him and get rid of his lucrative position, which would be a huge loss for him. It seems that being the county magistrate is indeed a position that many people envy and fear, and he must grasp it tightly.

  The county clerk said: "The county magistrate will come in a while, I'll tell you about your errand first."

  The doorman in charge of the signing house had opened the doors of several rooms and was sweeping the floor. The chief clerk took Xiao Jiading to see all the rooms, and the signing house of Kang County was the largest, with three openings. However, what they entered was not the main room in the middle, but a small study on the left side. Inside were placed pens, ink, paper, and inkstones, as well as many case files. A door screen blocked the small door connecting to the main house.

  As they entered, a young boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old was grinding ink in the small study. Seeing them come in, he hastily stood aside with his hands hanging down.

  "This is your office. Your daily work will mainly involve assisting the county magistrate in handling cases and other tasks assigned by him. The county has many and varied affairs, but the financial matters are mostly handled by the treasury department. County Magistrate Kang is well-versed in finance and documentation, so you may not have to deal with these matters much. However, he is not familiar with criminal law, so you will be mainly responsible for assisting him in this area. All criminal cases must be reported to the county magistrate for final decision, but first, they must be reported to you. You need to carefully review the case files and handling opinions submitted by the penal department, and provide your own handling opinions, which should be reasonable and based on legal grounds, so that County Magistrate Kang can make a decision. If necessary, you can summon the clerk in charge of the penal department for questioning or review relevant documents. I have already arranged for a young servant to follow your instructions."

  The chief clerk beckoned the little book boy to come over and introduced him, "This is County Magistrate Xiao's attendant, Xiao Ding. From now on, you will follow him and listen to his instructions." --- Xiao Ding, he is called Wen Yan, arranged as your book boy, helping you with message transmission, ink grinding, water pouring and so on. He has a rough understanding of literature and can handle some document-related tasks if necessary.

  "Good!"

  From the small study room to the inside, it is the main house, very spacious. In the middle of the largest room, there is a wooden platform with a thick woolen blanket, a desk and a sitting couch. On the long desk, there are the four treasures of the study, as well as various official documents. Behind, there is a screen in the shape of a fan, with one very wide panel in the middle, painted with cranes and red suns. In front of the spacious empty space on both sides, two rows of low sitting couches are neatly arranged, seemingly for people reporting things to sit on.

  The main room inside is on the right side, it's a resting room, decorated very luxuriously, presumably where the county magistrate rests temporarily after work.

  Just then, a loud voice was heard from outside: "The master has arrived!"

  The Wen Zhongbo hastily replied to Xiao Jia Ding: "The magistrate of Kang County has arrived!"

  Two people hurried out of the inner room. Standing at the door, they saw a thin old man walking in slowly with measured steps.

  Wen Zhongbo and Xiao Jiading both bowed their heads in salute.

  The old man did not return the courtesy. After entering, he saw Xiao Jia Ding and stopped in his tracks, sizing him up from head to toe. A faint smile appeared on his normally expressionless face.

  Xiao Zhifu hastily introduced: "Xiao Zhiren, this is the county magistrate of our county, Kang Ruxu. County Magistrate Kang, this is Xiao Jiatian, the bookkeeper recommended by Tang Sima."

  Kang Ruxue nodded and smiled at Xiao Jiading, saying: "There are many things here, especially the case, I don't understand it, you have to work hard."

  Xiao Jiading hastily bowed and said: "Your subordinate will definitely work hard with all his might to assist the great master."

  "Hmm! Tang Sima thinks very highly of your penal code, so he recommended you to me. I completely trust Tang Sima's judgment. You definitely won't disappoint me."

  Xiao Jiading smiled humbly and gratefully in his heart for Tang Dalang, although he was not polite to him at first, but he could put aside past grievances and strongly recommend himself, this kindness should be remembered forever.

  After Wen Zhongbo left, County Magistrate Kang chatted with Xiao Jiading for a few more sentences, asking about his living arrangements and other things. Then he sat down behind the desk to start working, while Xiao Jiading returned to his own study and sat down on the couch.

  There were several stacks of judgments sent by the prison on the table, all of which had not been processed yet. Xiao Jiading was in no hurry to review them, and he asked Shu Tongwen: "You also have the surname Wen, same as Wen Zhu Bo, what a coincidence."

  Wen Yan smiled with a few points of pride: "The Wen Zhushi is my uncle."

  "Ah?" Xiao Jiading looked at him for a few moments, Wen Zhubu's relative was arranged beside the county magistrate, which could be understood as Wen Zhubu's eyes and ears. Such an arrangement, it is not known whether it was from Wen Zhubu or Kang County Magistrate.

  He said to Wen Yan: "Bring me the verdict signed by the magistrate of Kang County and let me take a look."

  Before starting to process the document, he had to feel the situation first, and after figuring it out, he would take action. After all, this was an ancient government office over a thousand years ago, where the public, procuratorate, trial, and law enforcement were integrated, so the office procedures must be different from those in modern society. Many things can't be learned from books, they need to be figured out first. The best way is to see how others do it.

  Wen Yan said: "Those on the right side of the desk are the ones that the county magistrate has already approved, but haven't had a chance to send to the prison yet. I was just about to send them over."

  "Then I won't rush, let me take a look and learn first."

  He picked it up and took a look, these several judgments were the draft judgments of the Criminal Department after reporting to the County Magistrate for approval, and the County Magistrate agreed with the opinions of the Criminal Department and reported them to the County Magistrate for approval. That is, they were effective judgments that had already been signed but not yet delivered for execution.

  He read the first one and felt a headache coming on. The verdict was as follows:

  Liu San stole money to buy clothes for his father. His father said, "The county head is like this." He ordered Liu San to go to the county head. Liu San went and told the county head everything his father had said. The county head gave the clothes to Liu San's father as a gift. The owner of the money reported to the county head that he was lenient with thieves.

  You exhaustively respect your parents, live up to their expectations, and forever bestow happiness on them - it is difficult to surpass this virtue. But Liu San was not good, and his actions were motivated by a desire for praise. Even if one raises animals for sacrifice but does not show benevolence, who can call him filial? If one steals from others but claims to be loyal, who can believe him?

  Only those who are honest and upright can be called county heads. They drink from the ice-filled cup of politics and spread refreshing winds to establish customs. By using their authority to warn against evil, they observe mistakes and know what is benevolent. They will not indulge in the joy of giving clothes as a reward for good behavior but instead will investigate the crime of stealing money.

  Although it is difficult to punish evil sons with lenient laws, and although some people may be hard to reform, they can still be guided by reason. It seems that following the right path is more important than adapting to changing circumstances. The owner of the money spoke lightly, but his words were truly those of one who indulges thieves; the county head governed well and was victorious over cruelty.

  As for me, what fault have I committed? You should not be angry with your son.

  This draft judgment is written very simply, without citing any relevant evidence or legal provisions. The whole article is just a commentary, and it cites many allusions and famous quotes, some of which are quite obscure and unfamiliar to him, so he can't understand it at all.

  He studied the history of legal systems and knew that during the Tang Dynasty, judgments were written in a style called "骈体文" (piāntǐwén), which was highly ornate and emphasized the use of allusions. Almost every sentence contained an allusion, with a focus on elegant and classical language, as well as parallelism. However, this style limited the ability to provide detailed descriptions of the case itself, the determination of facts, analysis of evidence, and interpretation of laws. As a result, judgments were beautifully written but failed to grasp the key points, making it unclear why certain decisions were made, and even failing to fully describe the circumstances of the case.

  This approach soon showed its serious shortcomings, so by the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty, there emerged a new style of judgment writing that emphasized analysis of facts and laws rather than literary form and parallelism, with language as straightforward and easy to understand as possible. By the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, especially in the Song Dynasty, the use of parallel prose in judgment writing was completely abandoned in favor of this new style.

  It is still in the transitional period from early Tang to mid-Tang, and there have been signs of such reforms. Xiao Jiading decided to advance this reform himself, taking the lead in changing this approach. In handling cases, not writing articles, everything should be based on the principle of clarifying the facts of the case, accurately determining the crime and punishment.

  Xiao Jiading did not rush to present his ideas to the county magistrate, he wanted to concentrate on some issues and put them forward together, so he continued to review the draft judgment.

  One of them was a civil tort, two villagers' cattle were grazing in the wild when they started fighting, and as a result, the cow used its horns to kill the horse. The owner of the horse asked for compensation for the loss of the selling price of the horse. The owner of the cow said that it was a private fight between the cow and the horse, he was not present at the time and did not know about it, nor did he intentionally let the cow go to collide with the horse, so he disagreed with the compensation.

  The verdict of the signed judgment by the county magistrate is to let the owner of the horse sell the horse meat first, then deduct the money from selling the horse meat, and the difference between the sale price of the horse and the deducted amount shall be compensated by the owner of the cow. This is what is referred to as "reduction in price", or reduced loss.

  Xiao Jiading immediately discovered that this effective case judgment was clearly wrong according to Tang Dynasty law!

  Of course, this judgment is fully compliant with the provisions of tort law if placed in modern times, because the civil code stipulates that animals causing losses to people are a type of no-fault liability, and even if the animal's owner is not at fault, they must still compensate for the other party's losses. This loss is limited to direct losses. However, when placed in the Tang Dynasty, this judgment would be incorrect. The "Yonghui Code" has explicit provisions: "If a dog kills or injures another person's livestock, the dog owner pays the reduced price. If other animals fight and kill each other, they pay half of the reduced price." In other words, if an animal from one household attacks an animal from another household, causing death or injury, it must fully compensate for the actual loss, excluding the remaining value, also known as "reduced price". However, if two households' animals fight and cause death or injury to one of them, they only need to pay half of the loss. This is very different from modern civil law.