My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 613 Where is it expensive?

Those who attain the rank of prince or king will have the privilege of not being publicly punished for rebellion.

Meanwhile, commoners with titles like First-Class Duke or Second-Class Upper Class might have their hands chopped off for stealing something, or their heads chopped off for evading taxes!
If you then say "the prince is subject to the same laws as the commoner," it sounds a bit like you're trying to fool people like three-year-olds.

At first glance, this seems very unfair.

People of different ranks were punished differently and with different degrees of severity for committing the same crime. This was an obvious injustice, and it was no longer even an act!
However, in fact, this process is the fairest and most just of our time.

From a legal perspective, while the punishment for a prince who breaks the law will not be the same as that for a commoner, the point of 'conviction' can be loosely stated as: a prince who breaks the law is subject to the same punishment as a commoner.

What do you mean?
for example.

A prince—for example, a son of the King of Yan or the King of Zhao—committed murder;

After the case was exposed, it was eventually transferred to the Chang'an Court of Justice, which is now the Dali Prefecture.

Subsequently, the Dali government would, based on the most fundamental law of the Han Dynasty—that murderers must die—sentence the prince who had committed the murder to death.

At the same time, a commoner who commits murder will also be sentenced to death by the local county government, and the case will be reported to the Chang'an Dali sub-government for approval of the death sentence.

Both are capital offenses, and in essence, they can be understood as meaning that princes are subject to the same laws as commoners.

The difference is that ordinary people who are sentenced to death have no choice but to accept their fate.

Unless one is lucky enough to be granted a general amnesty, they can only endure their time in prison until autumn, and then eat their last meal before departing on their final journey.

In contrast, although the prince also committed murder and was exempted from the death penalty, it was ultimately almost impossible for that death sentence to be carried out.

Because the laws of the Han Dynasty clearly stipulate that all Han citizens, regardless of rank, who commit crimes can pay their punishment with gold or noble titles.

In other words, one could avoid punishment by paying a fine or having their title stripped.

The main reason for doing this was to distinguish it from the "tyrannical Qin" and "cruel Qin laws" that often involved collective punishment, and to let the world understand that the Han Dynasty was by no means another tyrannical Qin!
Ordinary people don't understand the law and may accidentally break it. The Han dynasty would never be like the tyrannical Qin dynasty, which would execute people at every turn. Instead, it would give them a chance to make amends.

Therefore, this is fair.

The fairness lies in the fact that gold and noble titles can be used to atone for crimes, which is written in black and white in the legal provisions.

If a prince breaks the law, he can pay off his crime with money or his title; the common people can do the same.

As for your point about the lower classes having no money and using titles to atone for crimes, they can only blame themselves.

It's not reasonable to say that in order to make the common people have money and titles to atone for their crimes, the Chang'an court would endlessly give money and titles to everyone in the world, right?
Fairness can only ever be relatively fair; there is never any such thing as absolute fairness.

It is already quite fair that this legal provision, which allows for the exchange of gold and noble titles for crimes, is written down in black and white so that the whole world knows about it, instead of hiding it or operating it in secret behind the scenes.

In fact, the people of the Han Dynasty today also recognize the fairness of this legal logic.

Because in the eyes of ordinary people, this is not a privilege tied to the powerful and noble, or judged based on bloodline or lineage, but a legitimate legal provision that treats everyone equally.

With enough hard work and good luck, and by acquiring a certain amount of money or a noble title, even a former peasant could one day commit a crime without being punished, only needing to pay a fine or burn their noble title to escape punishment!
Just like thousands of years later, the successful candidates in the imperial examination system could be exempted from agricultural taxes, and the common people did not feel that this was unfair or that the burden of the country was being placed on the farmers.
Instead, they would feel: that's how it should be;

The scholar who passed the imperial examination has studied diligently for years and finally passed the exam; he deserves such preferential treatment!

Then, everyone contributed what they needed to contribute, and everyone supported their children's education; everything was so harmonious.

why?
—Because the sage who passed the imperial examination was most likely once a poor, penniless scholar!
The preferential treatment that the successful candidates receive today will also be enjoyed by their own sons and nephews who pass the imperial examinations in the future!

This kind of system, where "no matter who you are or what your family background is, as long as you meet a certain standard, you can enjoy a certain treatment," is already the kind of fairness that ordinary people in China perceive.

Just like in later generations, a score of over 600 on the college entrance exam can get you into Tsinghua or Peking University—no one thinks it's unfair, they just feel they didn't work hard enough and didn't get that score.

But as long as I get that score, I can get into Tsinghua or Peking University, and I will not be treated differently because of my poor background—that's already very fair.

Similarly, in the Han Dynasty, as long as one could pay a fine or possess a noble title to offset a crime, one could be exempted from punishment. From the perspective of the common people, this was also fair.

The common people would only say: It's a pity I have no money and no title;

But they won't say: This rule is damn well made for the powerful and wealthy!
Even if that is indeed the case...

Moreover, the logic behind this regulation is quite reasonable.

Before Emperor Taizong Xiaowen donated grain and titles, a Han dynasty title meant that the person or their ancestor had made contributions to the Han dynasty.

And these are genuine military achievements!
The higher the rank, the more it proves that the person or their ancestor made outstanding contributions to the Han people.

So, when the descendants of such a meritorious official make a mistake because of some minor issues, can the Han dynasty really exterminate them and handle the matter impartially?

Obviously not.

Even out of consideration for that meritorious official who had served the Han dynasty, his descendants should be given certain preferential treatment—at least a certain degree of exemption from punishment.

Even if this is to reward meritorious officials, it is also to inspire the people of the world: go all out, seize every opportunity, and become meritorious officials of the Han Dynasty!
As long as you become a meritorious official of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty will never treat you unfairly, nor will it treat your descendants!
Of course;
To prevent these disdainful descendants from becoming increasingly reckless in their disregard for the law because they believe they will not be punished, such leniency and preferential treatment should ideally be limited to a single instance—or even limited to one instance, to be discarded once used.

After this logical deduction, using a noble title to atone for a crime is undoubtedly very reasonable.

— Using a noble title to offset a crime is equivalent to a descendant of a meritorious official using the honor of their ancestors to exchange for a chance to avoid punishment or death after committing a crime!
After being punished, the title is lost, which means that this opportunity is only given once and is gone once it is used up.

Does it feel somewhat familiar?

For thousands of years afterward, other feudal dynasties used the same trick with their "immunity certificates" and "iron-clad decrees"...

The idea of ​​a person being exempted from death a few times, or their descendants being exempted from death a few times—isn't that the same logic as the Han dynasty's practice of using a noble title to atone for a crime?
Unlike later dynasties, which openly declared the privileges granted to meritorious officials as "golden tokens of immunity from death" and "iron certificates of merit," the Han dynasty took a slightly roundabout approach, referring to it as "offsetting crimes with noble titles."

In this way, the emperor's actions of not recognizing the "golden token of immunity from death" or "iron certificate of merit" that undermined the credibility of the emperor could be disguised as: the title was not high enough, or the crime was too serious and the title was not enough to offset the crime.

Furthermore, by using noble titles to offset crimes, the descendants of meritorious officials were made to have reservations and exercise restraint. This is easy to understand.

The "golden token of immunity from death" and the "iron certificate of pardon" were used to absolve oneself of punishment when something happened.

Once the tokens are used up, although the death-exemption tokens and iron certificates will be taken back, the noble status will still be retained.
This turned things like pardons and imperial edicts into criminal quotas that descendants of meritorious officials would "lose out if they didn't use."

Descendants of meritorious officials may inevitably have strange thoughts such as, "If they didn't commit a capital offense, wouldn't their pardons and imperial edicts be wasted?"

But using a noble title to atone for a crime is different.

—If a descendant of a meritorious official commits a crime, he may be spared punishment by using his noble title to offset the crime, thus saving his life. However, he will lose his title and his noble status will be gone forever.

This is not simply about relying on the reputation of one's ancestors to buy oneself a chance to atone for one's sins—it is about using the reputation of one's ancestors, the honor of one's family, plus the noble status and respectable life of the entire family to exchange for a chance to live.

Therefore, when faced with the choice of whether or not to commit a crime, the descendants of meritorious officials inevitably have to carefully consider whether it is worth it.

Under this logic, the Han Dynasty even developed a bizarre trend that later generations could not understand: "nobles who committed crimes would commit suicide to preserve their dignity without waiting for trial."

why?
Because if they were to be judged, their ancestors would lose all face, and the family's honor would be tarnished.
In the end, the punishment was nothing more than paying off the crime with a noble title, demoting the entire family to commoners, and then being completely exploited by their enemies.

Rather than that, it's better to be sensible and end your own life before the emperor gets angry and the law brings down punishment.

With death comes the debt, and the guilty have committed suicide, the case is naturally resolved, and the family, title, and even the face of the ancestors and the glory of the clan are preserved.

Therefore, it can be said that in the Han Dynasty today, the practice of using noble titles to offset crimes was rarely seen among the aristocratic class.

Compared to paying for a crime with a noble title and sacrificing the entire family's fortunes to save their own lives, nobles preferred to preserve their dignity and retain their family's title and noble status.

After all, titles and noble status can be passed down from generation to generation, leaving endless wealth for future generations.

Compared to the blessings bestowed upon their descendants, the mere thought of their own lives was clearly insufficient to shake the spirits of the ancient Chinese people.

This has led to an incredibly bizarre situation that has become a reality in the Han Dynasty today.

—When people from the lower classes commit crimes, they hope to offset their crimes with noble titles, but they do not have enough noble titles to offset their crimes;

The noble titles were enough for them to pay for their crimes with their titles, but they were also unwilling to do so, preferring to commit suicide rather than let their titles go unpunished so that their families could retain them.

Those willing to atone for their crimes had no noble titles, while those with noble titles were unwilling to use them to atone for their crimes;

Therefore, even though the Han dynasty allowed the use of noble titles to offset crimes, from the beginning of the Han dynasty until the reign of Emperor Taizong, there were very few cases of people being exempted from criminal punishment by using noble titles.

The turning point came during the reign of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, when the system of paying tribute in grain and donating titles was introduced.

The common people who were willing, even eager, to possess titles and thus use them to atone for their crimes when necessary, finally had a way to obtain titles besides risking their lives on the battlefield.

—If a title is earned through the arduous struggle on the battlefield, even the lowest-ranking people might not be willing to use it to atone for their crimes!

But things bought with money are a different story.

Money can be earned back!

You only have one life!
Furthermore, what serious crime could the simple and honest Chinese people, especially those at the bottom of society who toil in the fields, possibly commit?
The titles used to atone for crimes were nothing more than second-level Shangzao and third-level Zanniao, a matter of a few hundred shi of grain, not worth risking one's life to preserve.

Crucially, before Emperor Taizong began donating grain and titles, obtaining a noble title was almost exclusively achieved through meritorious service on the battlefield.

The limited channels for obtaining titles, the difficulty in acquiring them, and the high risks involved make titles extremely scarce and valuable.

However, after Emperor Taizong donated grain and titles, the titles became worthless.

Again.

Throughout history, things that can be bought with money are not considered precious or scarce.

Unless it's exorbitantly priced, or subject to purchase restrictions or identity limitations, anything that anyone can buy with money is just commonplace.

Just imagine;
During the reigns of Emperor Gaozu, Emperor Hui, and Empress Lü, a second-level superior title required one to fight on the battlefield and behead a second-level enemy to obtain it.

In other words, a second-class superior title is worth two lives!
However, after Emperor Taizong Xiaowen donated grain and titles, the second-level superior official only needed 600 shi of grain!
Admittedly, even if you work hard all year, you will only earn about three hundred bushels of millet. A second-class superior title requires the total output of your entire family for two years.

But the total output over two years is still a bit cheaper than risking your life on the battlefield and cutting off two enemy heads, right?

At least there's no risk, right?

Once on the battlefield, you might kill two enemy soldiers, or the enemy might use your head as a stepping stone to advance their own careers.

However, with the donation of grain and titles, you can obtain the title of Second-Class Upper Rank without any risk, simply by saving money and grain.

Isn't this 'cheap'?

For businessmen, it goes without saying.

Four thousand bushels of millet can be exchanged for the title of a ninth-rank official!
The total cost was only a little over 100,000 yuan!

However, before Emperor Taizong donated grain and titles, it was necessary to accumulate at least twenty enemy heads to obtain the rank of the ninth-grade official.

If you are ruthless and willing to invest, you only need to spend 12,000 shi of millet to obtain the 18th level Grand Chancellor!
What does it mean to be a Grand Master of the Eighteenth Rank?
Before the founding of the country, the veterans who followed Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang in his campaigns to conquer Qin and Chu, such as Zhou Bo and Fan Kuai, were already the eighteenth-rank Grand Generals before being enfeoffed as marquises!

Under the existing twenty-level military merit nobility system of the Han Dynasty, the next step after the eighteenth-level Grand Master of the Palace is the hereditary title of the nineteenth-level Marquis of Guannei.

The next step is to become a Marquis!

How can an 18th-level Grand Master who can be bought with money, even if it costs hundreds of thousands of coins, be considered 'expensive'?

(End of this chapter)