中晚唐時代「杖殺之刑」試析——以德宗建中三年以降為核心

本文旨在探討，唐德宗建中三年（782）八月二十七日以前、以後，唐代死刑發展變遷的過程，並以司法實例為主，檢驗自建中三年八月二十七日敕節文以「決重杖法」取代斬、絞等死刑後，此一敕節文落實程度。
綜合本文所引自唐德宗建中三年八月二十七日以降，直到唐亡前夕，凡73件司法實例來考察，原始判決應處以「杖殺」之刑者（含決殺、決重杖一頓處死、決痛杖一頓處死）並符合建中三年八月二十七日敕節文規範之案例合計共有42件，占所有杖殺之刑的62.69％，超過六成，其比例高得驚人；並顯示出唐代後期對於「死刑」的處分，有著很大的比重是以「杖殺之刑」來執行，是為唐代後期「死刑」變化最重要的表徵。

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of the death penalty in the Tang Dynasty before and after August 27, the third year of the Jianzhong reign of the Tang Clan (782), and to examine the extent to which the royal edict of August 27, the third year of the Jianzhong reign, replacing the death penalty of execution by decapitation and garrote with the ''decisive and heavy cane'' has been implemented, using the example of a guest of justice as the basis.
From the 73 judicial cases cited in this article since the 27th day of the 8th month of the 3rd year of the reign of Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty until the eve of the death of the Tang Dynasty, the total number of cases in which the original verdict was to impose the punishment of ''death by caning'' (including death by decapitation, death by one stroke of a cane, and death by one stroke of a cane for pain) and which complied with the regulations set forth in the Royal Decree of 27th day of the 8th month of the 3rd year of the reign of Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty was 41 in number, which accounted for 62.69% of the total number of cases in which the punishment of ''death by caning'' was to be carried out, exceeding 60% of all the cases, and this ratio is astonishingly high. This is an astonishingly high percentage, and shows that a large proportion of the punishment for ''death penalty'' in the late Tang Dynasty was carried out with the ''caning'', which is the most important symptom of the changes in the ''death penalty'' in the late Tang Dynasty.