《二年律令‧具律》中貴冑及有爵者的減刑

Sentence Commutations for Nobility as Recorded in “Ju Lu” in Laws and Decrees of the Second Year

《具律》簡八二至八五，談的是貴冑和有爵者的減刑律文。其中除了皇親貴冑，具有上造以上爵位者，也同樣享有刑為城旦，而減為耐為鬼薪白粲的減刑優惠。本文即將探討幾個問題：首先「上造」在爵位中究竟歸第幾等？是否可依據舊有文獻及出土文物而證實。第二，簡八五載呂宣王享有等同於帝王的待遇，這樣越格的律文，呈現了什麼樣的歷史背景。第三，賜爵制度在當代具有何歷史意義，其與減刑優惠搭配，是否能呈現皇恩浩大的果效。第四，減刑內容的選定，是否能使減刑的恩惠達到最高。第五，有爵位之妻，也能享有等同優惠，這是漢律有別於秦律的特色。然什麼樣的情況，妻子不得享有夫爵。第六，漢律調秦律，一律依法定年齡而施以刑罰。使律法精神更得彰顯，律法的判處也較趨合理性。

The document entitled “Ju Lu, ” found on Strips 82 to 85, discusses laws regarding sentence commutations for nobility. For relatives of the emperor or descendents of nobility, and for those who had attained the noble rank of shangzao or higher, who were sentenced to 4 years of manual labor (re)building city walls, their punishments could be reduced to either collecting wood for the imperial temple or picking out top-quality rice to be used in sacrificial offerings.
This paper will discuss the following issues: 1) What level of nobility is shangzao classified as? Can this be proven by existing manuscripts and recently unearthed artifacts? 2) Strip 85 records that King Lu Xuan received treatment equal to that of the emperor. What kind of historical background does this kind of unusual law reflect? 3) What kind of historical meaning did the system of conferring titles of nobility have at that time? Does this, along with the commutation of sentences, prove the positive effect of imperial favor? 4) Can the selection of sentence commutation allow the favor of commuting the sentence achieve its maximum effect? 5) The wives of those who had noble status enjoyed the same type of preferential treatment. This is a difference between Han law and that of its Qin predecessor. Are there any situations in which the wife would not benefit from the husband's noble status? 6) Han law was based on Qin law. Yet, for those laws regarding punishments, modifications were made in which punishments were to be meted out based on a person's age. This proved to make the spirit of the law that much more apparent and the punishments delineated that much more reasonable.