In the spring of the sixth year of Lu Zhaogong (BC536), Zichan cast Zheng Guo's "Criminal Law" on a tripod for the first time, and placed the tripod on the square in front of the temple for the Chinese people to read and study.

Since the enactment of the Zhou Rites by the Duke of Zhou, the Zhou Rites have been regarded as the constitution and the Bible by the Zhou royal family and the vassal states, and each country has formulated its own criminal laws on this basis.

At that time, there was a saying that "if you can't be courteous to a doctor, you can't punish a doctor", but it didn't mean that you can't punish a doctor (otherwise no doctor would be executed or exiled), but that the doctor's behavior should be regulated by the "Zhou Li", and the behavior of the common people should be regulated by the "Punishment Book". "Rites" and "punishments" are unique products of a blood-based society.

However, the criminal laws established by the vassal states were not made public. The common people did not understand the content of the criminal law, and they were afraid that they would be severely punished after violating the law, so they had to behave honestly and follow the rules. This produced the effect that the monarch hoped for, "the punishment is unknowable, and the power is unpredictable"; However, at the same time, there were incidents in which judicial officials wantonly fabricated and tampered with criminal laws to arbitrarily adjudicate cases.

With the increasing frequency of land development and annexation, population mobility has gradually become huge, and the social relations of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty have gradually evolved from the kinship system to the geographical system. Once upon a time, the natives of a city were either brothers or uncles; Nowadays, people come from all over the world, speak different accents, have different customs, and follow different codes of conduct. What some people take for granted becomes a crime in the eyes of others, and people quarrel over it, and even bloody fights take place.

As a result, the Zhou rites and criminal laws formulated on the basis of the "family world" and the kinship system gradually could not adapt to the rule and management of the emerging society, and the people from all sides urgently needed uniform behavioral permits and taboos.

As a representative of the new landlord class, Zichan belonged to the radical reformist faction. Since he became the consul of Zheng Guo, he has issued many out-of-the-ordinary executive orders. The people first cursed him, and then they tasted the sweetness and began to praise him; Faced with the new decree again, he began to curse him again.

The most wicked curse of the child was in the autumn of the previous year. At that time, the birth of the child increased the military endowment of the people, and the people cursed him, saying, "His father died in the road, and he became a scorpion tail to poison the people; Where did he put the country? The child does not die, and Zheng Guo is restless! ”

The master advised him to withdraw or change the decree and to pay attention to his own safety. When Zichan learned about it, he said, "What are you afraid of? 'Profit and life. And I have heard that the good man cannot change his decision because he has made it, so he can succeed. The will of the people cannot be indulged, and the decrees cannot be changed. The poem says: 'If you are not ashamed of propriety and righteousness, how can you be compassionate to others? I'm not going to change. ”

Zikuan saw that the persuasion was ineffective, so he had to sigh and withdraw, and he said to Ran Ming: "Zichan didn't understand what I meant at all, his original intention was good, but his thinking was too radical and too advanced; Don't talk about Chinese people, even ordinary doctors can't understand it. Besides, now that there are people everywhere who are doing things indiscriminately, how can the Chinese people endure handing over radical decrees to those crooked-mouthed officials who can even pronounce "Dawu" with a lewd taste?

Ran Ming couldn't help but shake his head and said, "I didn't have any good taste." The consequences of the draconian decrees issued by the children will cause the doctors to be greedy; With greed, the consequences can certainly be imagined. And among the princes surnamed Ji, it should be Cai, Cao, and Teng who should perish first! The evil law persecuts people and violates the etiquette of the week. The country should be the first to perish, right? Zheng Guo perished before the defense of the country, and the decree was forced to be followed. Decrees are made not in accordance with the law, but according to the wishes of the heart; The people have their own hearts, who will maintain the office? ”

After the execution was announced, the onlookers surrounded it for several days. The public office has had mixed reactions both inside and out. What is certain, however, was that the book was violently attacked by the conservative lord class, but the people of insight among the people of the country strongly welcomed it.

A few days later, the Chinese people lost interest in the penal book, but a young man held a bamboo slip and pen and ink, meticulously copied the penal book and devoted himself to research. This young man is the originator of Huaxia lawyer - Deng Xi.

Uncle Xiang wrote a sharply worded letter to Zichan after hearing about Zheng Guo's incident, in which he said: "I was full of expectations for my master, but now I have changed my mind. The first king considered the severity of the crime to make decisions, and never relied on the criminal law, fearing that the people would have the heart to argue. Even so, it is not forbidden to fight for the heart, so it is necessary to prevent it with righteousness, correct it with government decrees, regulate it with weekly etiquette, restrain it with credit, teach it with benevolence, establish a hundred officials to persuade them to obey, and severely punish those who dare to commit crimes.

But the kings, fearing that the above methods would not work, taught with loyalty, encouraged good deeds with rewards, and cultivated the professional skills of the people so that they might be able to excel. It is necessary to use the power of the people with moderate decrees, to take the people's demands seriously, to show majesty in the face of the people, and to be resolute and decisive in punishing those who have committed crimes. Then they had to seek the rulers of the sages, the wise doctors, the faithful governors, and the benevolent teachers, so that the people could obey the decrees and not start a rebellion.

"Once people understand the law, they will be snub to those in power, and look for loopholes in it to compete for personal interests, and the basis of the defense is precisely the content of the criminal book! If the greedy succeed and taste the sweetness, they will spare no effort to create disputes, and then the office will be surrounded by countless greedy people!

"In ancient times, there was a turmoil in Xia and "Yu Punishment", a "Tang Punishment" in Shang turmoil, and "Nine Punishments" in Zhou; The formulation of the three types of criminal laws was made by people in previous lives. The monarch's doctor kept its contents secret, and only looked for a basis for punishing the criminals.

"Now that the master is in charge of Zheng Guo, most of the decrees issued by the people are criticized by the people, and now he has published the criminal book to cause disputes among the people, isn't it too difficult to use this method to secure the country and the people? "Poetry" says: "The virtue of the king of ritual punishment is the Quartet." And he said, "King Wen of ceremonial punishment, all nations are the blessings." 'What else do you need to do with this?'

"As soon as the people learned of the dispute, they would abandon the Zhou rites and look for evidence in the torture book, and every word engraved by the Master on the torture book would cause a dispute, and prison chaos would prevail, and bribery would be rampant. When the master dies, Zheng Guo will also go into decline, right? I have heard: 'When the kingdom is about to die, there will be many systems) (Tacitus also said: "The day when the rivers of the country are dying, it is the time when the laws are plentiful.'" ”）。’ It's Zheng Guo! ”

The reason why the author refers to Shu Xiang as "the last Jin man" is because he belongs to the ultra-conservative faction who upholds the power of the monarchy and opposes change, and the same representative figures as him are Yan Ying of Qi State, Shusun Leopard and Shusun Wu of Lu State, and Lexi of Song State. But whether conservatives recognize that society is changing dramatically or not, that the old system is no longer adaptable to the new situation, they still remain complacent and refuse to change. As a result, just twenty-three years later, Zhao Cheng's son, Zhao Ying, became the second person in history to publish a written law. Shu Xiang became a stumbling block and a thorn in the side of the development and growth of the emerging landlord class in China, so when he died, his family was quickly wiped out.

Zichan finished reading the letter with mixed feelings, and wrote a reply with mixed feelings. He had no intention of arguing with Shu Xiang, because the two represented very different worldviews, and he couldn't convince Shu Xiang just as Shu Xiang couldn't convince him.

The reply was brief and firm: "As the master said in his letter, I have no talent and cannot keep children and grandchildren, but I have to make a decision in order to save the country. Since I cannot follow the Master's teachings, I dare not forget His kindness. ”

In May, Svenbeau watched the sky at night and saw the Great Mars (Antares) appear on the horizon. He said: "There was a fire; Zheng Guo is going to have a fire, right? Before the Great Mars came out, it used fire to cast the torture tripod, and the content of the contention was made public, so what are you waiting for if there is no fire? ”

As a result, on June 7, a major fire broke out in Xinzheng.