摘要
筆者近幾年來持續進行中古中國地獄審判的研究，發表若干論文，也累積一點心得與想法。其中，筆者一方面強調地獄審判有助王化；另一方面則強調它們往往反映現實。由於受到唐代史料的侷限，我們對於唐代司法制度的很多細節，瞭解相當有限。地獄審判提供了一些珍貴的訊息，並且可以明確透過正史文獻，證明其中有許多反映現實的書寫。現存唐代筆記小說中，地獄審判書寫事涉及「收賄」現象的資料不少。古人常講「閻王好見，小鬼難纏」，恐怕也是指「收賄現象」。筆者試著透過這些「收賄」書寫的地獄審判素材，探索唐代司法實務上的「收賄」現象。唐代法律對於官員貪瀆、收受賄賂，有嚴厲法律規範。甚至透過地獄審判對「枉法取財」的陰懲，希望能達到警戒官員的效果。即便如此，事實上仍不可能因此完全斷絕官員貪瀆的行為。是以無論是俗世官場或地獄幽冥世界，「賄賂」行為仍到處可見；透過「行賄」試圖影響司法判決的事實，依然存在於各種記錄中。但不能因此而認為「地獄審判」無助於王化；就如同不能因為有人違法，就認為法律沒有預防犯罪的效果，道理是一樣的。
Recently, I have been doing research on hell trial in the middle ancient China History. Furthermore, I have obtained several opinions and already published some periodicals. On one hand I stress that the judgment in the hell would enhance the domination influence; on the other I also stress that the judgment in the hell would reflect the real life. Due to hedge about the documents of T'ang Dynasty, we can not totally understand the judicial systems in T'ang dynasty. However, the hell trial materials provide some valuable messages, in that these documents could demonstrate the reality and reflect the fact. In existence, the sketchbooks of T'ang have lots of hell trial writings on the phenomenon of“bribes”on judicial. The Chinese proverb says,“Easy to see Yama(King of Hell), difficult to deal with ghosts,”it probably also means“bribes phenomenon.”I try to use the material,“bribe”writings of hell trials, to research the phenomenon of“bribe”on judicial practice of the T'ang Dynasty.
關鍵詞
唐代、法制史、地獄審判、收賄現象
T'ang Dynasty、Legal History、Hell Trial、Bribes Phenomenon
