唐宋官当制度的发展与终结

作为一项正式的法律制度,官当制度经历一个逐步成型、发展成熟、突然消失的过程。它是古代官僚等级特权制度发展到一定阶段的产物。唐代国力强盛、政治开明,立法追求理想的制度之美,官当制度日益定型;宋代政治稳定、经济繁荣,立法执法追求宽和,官当制度发展成熟;南宋时期,法律规范的修订已经透露出统治者对官当制度的不满;元朝以后,官当制度突然消失,但以官抵罪的情况仍盛行不衰。官当制度的发展演变,是以优待士大夫为前提、逐步加重惩治犯罪官员的过程,它使官员能够利用职务抵消法律惩罚,造成官员与平民、官员与官员之间不平等。官当制度走向终结,使周密细致的法律被摒弃,扩大统治者任意执法的空间,这是古代法律制度的倒退,也是中国古代宗法制度强化过程中符合逻辑的结果。

Development and Termination of the System of Compensating Crime with Rank in the Tang and Song Dynasties

As a regular law,the system of compensating the crime with rank experienced a process of beginning,development and sudden disappearance,which was the product of the ancient bureaucratic privilege when it reached a particular stage.It was formed in the Tang Dynasty when the state was powerful,politically enlightened and striving for ideal system of laws.It became more mature in the Song Dynasty when the country was stable,prosperous and striving for moderateness in laws.The amending of laws in the Southern Song Dynasty showed the governors were dissatisfied with such a system and it suddenly ceased to be in the Yuan Dynasty but the compensation of crimes with rank were still prevalent.The evolvement of the system was a process from giving favor to scholar bureaucrats to gradually punishing them more seriously.The compensation of crimes with ran resulted in the inequality among officials or between officials and the laymen.The ending of the system rejected the traditional meticulous laws and enlarged the liberty of the execution of the laws for the governors.This is the retrogression of the ancient law system and the indispensable consequence of strengthening the ancient patriarchal clan system.