The Evidence of the Dead Body. On Moral Consciousness and Legal Practice in the Qing China
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Keywords

Late Imperial China Qing Dynasty Case History Crime and Punishment Dead Body Forensic Body Examination Criminal Investigation Legal Practice Law and Fiction

How to Cite

Sarakaeva, A. (2022). The Evidence of the Dead Body. On Moral Consciousness and Legal Practice in the Qing China. Corpus Mundi, 3(2), 81-99. https://doi.org/10.46539/cmj.v3i2.72

Abstract

The article is a case history study. Basing on a well-documented criminal case of 1809, the author explores such issues as corruption in the ranks of Chinese officials; effectiveness of severe punishments for crime prevention; the methods criminal offences were committed and investigated in the Qing empire, and the level of public awareness of these methods; principles of sentencing; and the issue of crime and punishment in the mass consciousness of the Chinese in the late 17th and early 19th centuries. Special attention is paid to a remarkable phenomenon of fictionalizing of a real incident in witness reports, i.e. the introduction of popular moral, didactic and religious motifs widely known in the folklore and literature of that time.

https://doi.org/10.46539/cmj.v3i2.72
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