International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2020

 

The types and characteristics of the lawsuits involving “rich people” in the Southern Song Dynasty: taking A Collection of Clear and Bright Verdicts by Famous Officials as research object

(Abstract)

 

ZHANG, Jinpeng and CHEN, Linling

 

     There are a number of lawsuits involving “rich people” (fu min) in A Collection of Clear and Bright Verdicts by Famous Officials (minggong shupan qingming ji), and they provide us with a good perspective to understand the negative image of “rich people”. The cases collected in the book can be classified into three types: 1) those that were held legally responsible by local officials for shirking taxes or corvee; 2) those involved in the conflicts due to divisions of properties inside and between families; 3) those that financial disputes were appealed to law. In terms of the numbers of cases included, the first type was the fewest, and local governments dealt with them rather mildly, which shows that the conflicts between the government and “rich people” were relatively relaxed. Most of the cases of the disputes within and between families were involved in divisions of properties, reflecting the family tensions generated after the “rich people’s” economic conditions improved. Neighbourhood litigation was the most common type of the cases involved “rich people”, which highlights the increasing economic and social conflicts among “rich people” and between “rich people” and commoners in the rural society in the Southern Song Dynasty. Local officials would put heavy punishments on “the despotic” (haoheng), which protected the interests of most “rich people” and created a social environment for the growth of the rich.