In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 356: Legalism and Confucianism
  Just when the whole of Dahua was busy forming the Senate and electing members, and the three provinces of Jiangnan were carrying out vigorous land reforms, another edict made Jiangnan, especially Jiangdong Province, boiling again.

The edict announced that in the future, Dahua will successively implement the method of governing the country by combining Legalism and Confucianism, and each province will implement decentralized governance. It will be implemented in Jiangdong Province in February next year.

The government offices at all levels were renamed as the Provincial Government Yuan, the Government Government Yuan, the State Government Yuan, the County Government Yuan, and the Central Government Affairs Council, a total of four levels. From now on, they will be in charge of all government and civil affairs in Dahua, with administrative power, part of the law enforcement power, and criminal prosecution power.

The courts and the Metropolitan Procuratorate will also establish subordinate courts and Metropolitan Procuratorate at the lower, middle and higher levels in each province, prefecture and county.

The courts will directly dispatch judges from the General Court to take charge of judicial jurisdiction in various places.

From now on, all criminal offenses and civil disputes in various places must be adjudicated in public trials by the courts in accordance with relevant legal provisions.

No individual or other official government, including the emperor, has the right to directly convict others. In addition, active military personnel are not subject to court trials and convictions, and are tried by military courts under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Governor's Office.

The Metropolitan Procuratorate also directly dispatches prosecutors from the General Procuratorate to supervise the administration of justice in various places.

From now on, as long as relevant legal procedures and legal provisions are violated by the political Yuan at all levels or the courts, no matter which law is violated, the Procuratorate will have the right to investigate.

Although the Senate also has the power to supervise, it mainly supervises corruption and bribery of officials and corruption of personal ethics, while the Metropolitan Procuratorate supervises judicial fairness, mainly targeting various departments with authority rather than individuals.

Whether it is the combination of Legalism and Confucianism or the separation of powers, the literati and officials in Jiangnan are familiar with it and can accept it.

After all, since ancient times, although the country has been governed by Confucianism, everyone knows that benevolence, justice and morality alone are not enough, and must be supplemented by the rule of law. Therefore, all dynasties have always been cloaked in Confucianism and implemented the rule of law.

It's just that Confucianism was in the front and law was in the back. But now the emperor actually put the law in the front and Confucianism in the back. This makes people have to think deeply.

The local division of power has also existed since ancient times. In the past, there was a division of civil and military power.

The Ming Dynasty went a step further and established three divisions in each province: the Chief Envoy Division, the Command Envoy Division, and the Inspection Envoy Division.

The chief envoys are in charge of civil affairs, the general envoys are in charge of military affairs, and the envoys are in charge of justice and prisons. However, in fact, the rights of the three departments are not clearly defined. Today's Dahua is only making further progress on the original basis.

It clarified the respective rights of the Government Affairs Council, the courts, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and used administrative law and procedural law to regulate and restrict the powers of each department.

Almost all scholar-bureaucrats strongly supported the decentralization of power among the three academies, which also extended to the county-level government.

Obviously they are not stupid, and they also know the huge benefits of this kind of decentralization. At least they no longer have to worry about the kind of county magistrate who wipes out the family and raids the house and the prefect.

After all, if you offended the county magistrate in the past and had no backers at home, you would basically be a piece of meat on the chopping board. But now that power is concentrated in the hands of three people, plus the Supervision Bureau, it is undoubtedly much safer.

Along with the edict arrived in Jiangdong, in addition to a large number of judges and prosecutors, there were also various legal books.

Lin Rui had already asked the inner court to print tens of thousands of volumes of codes such as civil law, criminal law, commercial law, and procedural law. In addition to allocating some to the yamen at all levels, the excess was sold in the imperial store.

The prices are not high, ranging from three to five taels of silver each. Reprinting or tampering with these codes is prohibited. Anyone who dares to secretly print or tamper with them is a serious crime.

A total of [-] volumes of various codes were snapped up by literati and gentry from all over Jiangdong in almost three days, and they then stayed up late at night to read them.

Obviously everyone wants to know the contents of these codes as soon as possible, after all, it is related to everyone's interests and safety.

Ordinary people and people in the market do not have the ability to buy or read, so they can only watch the fun.

“I see, this is administrative law.”

"This is nothing unusual. It is similar to the manual prepared by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty when he appointed officials, but it is more complete and detailed."

"Not bad."

In a brothel in Nanjing, more than a dozen scholars gathered around an administrative code they had just grabbed to study it.

Obviously everyone was most interested in administrative law, but after studying it for a while, everyone suddenly realized that it was just that.     “No!”

But one of them shook his head and turned to the last page: "My dear friends, this administrative code is not comparable to the official manual of the year. Please take a look at this last article!"

"This…"

Everyone was in an uproar after reading it, because the last article clearly stipulates that any level of government that is not stipulated in the administrative law must not go beyond it, otherwise it will be ultra vires and illegal.

"It's just smoke and mirrors! How easy is it for officials all over the world and governments at all levels to really do this?"

"Yes, the Holy Spirit's idea is indeed good, but it's a pity that it is too..."

A scholar sighed, but the following words were not spoken, but everyone understood what he meant.

They all nodded and were not very optimistic about this administrative law.

After all, this administrative law is like a cage, not only tightly restricting the rights of officials, but also tightly locking the power of governments at all levels.

What concerns this kind of right is that it may be possible to lock it in a short period of time, but it will definitely not last long.

At the same time, in the Meixiang Building next door, Dong Xiaowan and others also snapped up a complete set of codes.

Li Xiangjun held the last page of the procedural code and said with his mouth wide open in disbelief: "You can actually ask someone to come to court to help defend you. Isn't this lawyer Song Shi's lawyer?
  And as long as you pass the exam, a lawyer qualification certificate will be issued, and anyone can take the exam...

In this way, as long as I memorize the Civil Code, the Criminal Code and the Procedural Code, wouldn't I be able to make a living by helping people defend themselves in court? "

"What, is there such a thing?" Everyone immediately gathered around.

"that is true!"

Everyone was amazed after reading it, and many people were moved.

After all, they had no other means of making a living apart from working as entertainers. They looked down on ordinary people to find someone to marry, and they were not willing to be concubines, so they had to choose to stay and continue performing arts.

But most famous prostitutes have long been tired of living like this, so being able to make a living by defending people in court is a way out.

And everyone naturally feels that once you obtain the lawyer qualification certificate, it is also a kind of identity protection.

"Sisters, from today on, I will thank guests behind closed doors." Li Xiangjun took a deep breath and said.

"Sister Xiangjun, do you really want to study these codes? Then take the lawyer qualification certificate and help people defend people in court in the future?" Dong Xiaowan asked hesitantly.

These people's defense is more publicity than being a congressman, making people laugh.

"Ok!"

Li Xiangjun nodded decisively.

Just when everyone was thinking about buying a set of codes and studying them, a maid hurried in.

"Miss, I heard that the results have been released, and Miss Dong is still the first, with ten thousand more letters of recommendation than the second place. Now there is a sensation in the whole city of Nanjing, and everyone is rushing to the gate of the palace."

"Let's go, let's go too..."

(End of this chapter)